Mgf donor car: building an MG Allegro VVC!

[edk83]

Well I have been busy moving house, it's taken a week to get sorted. Lad helping managed to knock my vvc engine off the pallet onto the floor doh.

It landed on the vvc end and broke the cam casing. To be honest these arn't that heavy so I think it will be ok. It killed the end of the brown temp sender and broke the casing on the vvc end. Turned the engine over and its seems ok. Should be easy to just take the vvc cams off and swap out the covers.




The ally has gone a bit crusty with it being sat in a shed for a year.



On a better note I have a new man cave with a proper space to work!

[Rob Bell]

Seriously envious of that man cave! Wow!

[edk83]

Thanks mate, the new house is pretty cool too. Plus there is another single garage whick my 200 vi is dumped in.

Polished up abit of the ally engine with brasso and it comes up nice. Also ordered the vvc casings I need.

For the front suspension I'm planning on using Protechs and getting the correct springs when I know the corner weights.

These arrived just before I moved with top spring mounts for 2.25" Springs.



Just got to work out how they need to be built up with the bushes now!

This is the order I'm thinking, with the extra nut that goes on top of the spacer tube missing in the pic as they are on the stock tf shocks I have. Not sure if the spring washer is needed or not the stock setup doesnt seem to have it. There will be a rather large spring pushing it all together anyway!

[edk83]

My center console thing arrived from Wiz bang fabs



Just got a lot of cutting and mashing to do now. I have also realised that with the gauges being straight in I wont be able to read them as they are lcd and you need to be looking more or less straight at them! Ordered a bit of 51mm silicone so I can make some angled surrounds for them.



Also copied someones idea to notch the tubes for the roll cage, getting my new place setup managed to pickup an old bench drill for £17 abnd a shiney new vice, ordered a few metal cutting hole saws.

[Mykel]

Seriously envious of that man cave! Wow!

If it were yours, Rob, it wouldn’t look like that.

More like mine, I’m afraid.

[edk83]

Soon gets smaller once you get a car in there.

This place came with a single garage for storing donor cars too! Needed something like this really though, working from a garden shed and car tent was a pain, plus now I can be out with the kids when its sunny and working on car when its raining equals saved marrige.

[Rob Bell]

Seriously envious of that man cave! Wow!

If it were yours, Rob, it wouldn’t look like that.

More like mine, I’m afraid.

So true!

[Rob Bell]

Ed, I think you've seen the same YouTube video that I've seen on how to notch tube?

[idrawcad]

Used to see that on Scrapheap Challenge

[edk83]

No lol, someone on retrorides suggested it, however I'll have a look on YouTube.

[Rob Bell]

[edk83]

Seems like a proven method then, just a bit slow!

I have been off work this last week laid down as torn ligaments in my back and had a trapped nerve. I can only be up and about for about 30min getting so annoyed!
Problem is I have been rather bored with just the internet for company, have now put deposits on two zr160's lol
Looks like I will be going mems3 then, must remember to keep back an mgf alternator bracket

[edk83]

Just watched that video and ordered 2 more hole saws each 3mm bigger than the tube, should have watched it before lol.

Zr #1 turned up last night !

[Rob Bell]

Crumbs - you need both cars?

Hope the back gets better soon Ed!

[edk83]

Bought the first one as a runner with a new mot, bit tatty here and there but only 70k and head gasket been done so was going to be a breaker/donor engine.

I paid him a deposit then saw the second one about an hour later, a runner but no mot and knackered brakes, flat tyres - going to view it and sort out transport on Saturday.

Got that nice and cheap so plan is to swap over a few bits to make the runner nicer / sell the rest of the panels and trim and park in the garage to later pull the engine for the Allegro, would be nice to keep the donor engine runable right up until its needed.

I think I'm going to find the wiring much easier on the Allegro if I have another running car next to it, after that so say when the mot runs out on the better zr its just a spare engine!

I'd rather have something Jap as a family daily but I'll put up with the zr until I'm done with it.

Makes perfect sense to me but the wife doesn't quite get it lol, the pair of them will only owe me £600 and I'll have a full set of spares for my daily.
Should recoupe some of that breaking them as well, not as much as mgf's mind they are little gold mines.

[edk83]

Well the Allegro is still at a friends but I'm fully stocked on donor cars lol


Decided to go for a mems3 160 setup instead

Added a touch of comfort to the mancave, will have to get the wife to come in and hoover lol



Also I have been measuring a metro gti rear anti roll bar, its so close that I have to get one and see if we can make up some mounts.

[edk83]

Metro Gti rear arb offered up, have ordered the brackets that go on the drums, going to use adjustable rose joints and weld mounts onto the bottom of the boot floor with some more steel. Hoping to mod the rear beam to take the coilovers too, after the cage is done, might be a while lol

[Rob Bell]

That appears to fit suspiciously well Ed!

[edk83]

Its so close its crazy lol, might have to rejig the rear exhaust hanger, got the mounts the do on the drums and they'll fit.
Rubber bump stops will have to go but the tvr shocks I plan to use have good stops on.
Them stupid rear straps could go too as the bar will do their job.

[Rob Bell]

So, this begs an interesting question: does the Metro share a lot of Allegro DNA? Same manufacturer, yes, but the fact that so many Metro GTi parts are fitting surprisingly well makes me wonder whether the two cars are much closer than hitherto known?