Another new member hello from Somerset!
Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2022 7:47 pm
Hello all, just joined the forum after pestering Nigel for months as I've acquired quite a few Fs lately! Always been an MG fan alongside other British cars, had a 1967 Midget in the 1980s, got to drive a pre-production F in mid 1995 for a supplement in Classic Cars magazine and always wanted one since.
Picked up an early VVC in BRG locally in early 2020 that featured in the Classic & Sports Car Buying Guide that year, though I'm very slowly going through brushing, treating and Smoothriting all surface rust on the subframes before putting it back on the road as it's such an original example.
MGB GT 1975 early rubber bumper project joined the fleet later in 2020 (one lady owner from new but badly stored for 35 years...), then this year I've gone a bit mad buying up nice (or potentially nice) Fs...
First it was a nice basic 1996 1.8i non-power steering in Flame Red just like the pre-production car I drove back then - cheap buy with the clutch stuck open, not so cheap after Martin Smith had sorted that and some other details for me, but a lovely pure early car. It'll be getting a correct set of wheels shortly, so let me know if you need a set of TF wheels!
Then a silver late 2001 F Mk2 VVC popped up on BCA Auctions with lots of goodies on it - I bought it unseen but wasn't disappointed when it arrived and subsequently discovered the previous owner spent an absolute fortune on it. It went well but unfortunately had an odd rattle which was only noticeable in no-load situations, i.e. not accelerating, not decelerating - just seemed like something loose somewhere. Took it down to Martin Smith who said it sounded like a main bearing... I found that hard to believe as it seemed such an innocuous noise, but Martin stripped it and yes, main bearing, little end, damaged piston and bore. He's just rebuilt the engine for me. So again, not a cheap buy after all, but with all the mods a really superbly sorted car.
I seem to have reached a maximum number of pics for this post, so will continue on a second one!