The MGF Register Forums

Fitted my roll hoops I got of fleebay £159.00

Awesome find Whicko.

Today i stripped more bits of the F im beaking and fitted the black controls onto the black background control panel on my TF. Fitted the black hardtop with the black headling to the TF too. The batcave TF is taking shape

Changed the water temperature gauge sender - what a faff getting to that!

Then went for a spin with a big grin on my face as the needle sat steadily just just below half way...rather than not moving!

Went to buy a new one s reg 1998 vvc in nightfire red . Had lots of work done to it ie head gasket( multi layer one ) brakes etc suspension done all new . Picking it up next Saturday .

Returned a part to local motor factors and enjoyed a nice early sunday morning drive

Filled it with wine!! :p

Party time.....

Not today but last Friday had to have "Blue 33" in a garage to have the outlet coolant hose replaced as it decided that on the drive down last Tuesday morn in the wee hours to swell up and start weeping/spraying coolant about. Noticed a smell of coolant when I stopped for breakfast near Gatwick at 06:45. So some investigating was done and this hose was identified as the culprit so a new one ordered from the Land Rover/Jaguar dealers in Crawley (Harwoods) and was fitted by a local ripp off ............................................ sorry garage on Friday £96 to fit a darned hose ....................................... but was almost 200 miles from home with no spares and no tools.

Galling thing is that in the garage at home there is a spare hose and 10 litres of OAT concentrate

Took the old exhaust off the Abingdon this morning, it has been on since new untouched so all the nuts were siezed solid, managed to get the manifold nuts undone with a big breaking bar, snapped one and the others came loose eventually with quite a bit of effort.
The bolts holding the catalyst were never going to come undone so I didnt even try,The exhaust came off the rubber mountings OK once I had snapped the studs on the drivers side. Then took a hacksaw and cut though the down pipe and it fell off very easily. Got to get the manifold off next and will attempt that this afternoon. No point trying to get the cat off so I have a nearly new one and all new bolts etc.

I finally got the manifold off, more difficault than I thought it would be, the heat shield fixings are very hard to get to and on the drivers side seem a centimetre longer than they need to be, so laborious to wind out, thank heavens for ratchet combination spanners.I will probably cut them down a bit before I replace them. All the manifold to head nuts came out of the head with the studs.
Other difficault part was getting the O2 sensor wiring loom plug out as you cant get two hands on it. I noticed while underneath there is a weep of antifreeze which has crystalized down the back of the block, it appears to coming from the bunch of hoses above the gearbox, also the temperature guage sensor seems more accessible with the exhaust and heatshields out of the way, so tomorrow I will investigate the leak and fit a new sensor as my temperature gauge is intemittent.
The O2 sensor wont come out of the old manifold so I will get a new one.

Today I have fitted a new temperature gauge sensor, with the exhaust manifold and heat shield out of the way it was a 2 minute job.
Trial fitted the exhaust together with the cat and front pipe, all seems to fit ok. Amazing how easy it all is with new stuff after stuggling with rusty old parts. I have only pinched the nuts up as I can only align it all up when I have the exhaust manifold back in place but I am waiting for a new o2 sensor.

The studs come out due to the factory nuts are crimped so they don't vibrate undone. I fitted new ones to my VV when I fitted the exhaust which is whe I found this out.

Argh, I’m almost about to shout four-letter-words in CAPITALS around here, but then I still try to pretend I’m a decent, well educated guy.

This afternoon, with one appointment still to go and 20 miles away from home, my wiper motor finally decided to meet its maker in the vast nirvana of electric appliances. OF COURSE this happens on a rainy day, and INEVITABLY the last job ends at 6 pm when it’s dark and the rush hour traffic is paving its way through a thunderstorm.

I finally decided to slacken the drivers side wiper arm by pulling it upwards, so the nut came loose. The last 10-ish miles I drove with the drivers side window halfway down, trying to clean a roughly CD sized area in the tp right windscreen corner. My right forearm and hand were soaking wet and freezing when I came home.

The good thing is, I had an emergency spare motor in the shed. On the downside, I didn’t have the key to the shed with me. So I had to wait ’til SWMBO came home from work (10.30 pm) and the take her car to pick up parts and tools. I have now spent about 45 minutes on the drive in the cold, dark and drizzle to replace the bl**dy motor; it works, but is quite noisy as well. As I said, an emergency spare.

Another part for the Stoneleigh shopping list.

Scuttle panel is still off, will fit that when there’s more light tomorrow morning. Sunrise 8.30, first appointment at 10, should work.

I’m now enjoying a hot bowl of soup and a glass of the red Italian stuff.

I'm ashamed to admit that the car hasn't yet done 2000 miles since the last MOT last February.

With this in mind and my New Year Resolution (about 60-odd posts above!), I'd taken advantage of the sunshine last weekend and had the TF out for a couple of trips we had to make, and had then used it since for work and other stuff during this week.

So today, as the sun was shining, I though I'd get it washed and cleaned before putting it away, as I need the Audi for work over the next few days.

I'd literally just finished leathering it off and I thought I felt rain in the air. Cleared up the cleaning stuff and changed out of my car-washing clothes, by which time it was chucking it down. Drove two miles to the lock up where it lives and the rain had turned to sleet and was rapidly turning to snow.

Had to put it away wet - which I hate doing

Never mind, it will be out again in a week for this years MOT.....

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Had a run out in "penny" this morn, roof down, cold but the looks i got, as though i was mad, made it worth it. Plus picked up new roof with hrw screen to fit later to her. While the roof is off it will be cleaned and then watetproofed before fitting.

Camiel456 wrote:Filled it with wine!! :p

That's nicely loaded for MGFIM then, see you when you arrive

Been out route testing MGFIM all weekend, Pearl is now white not black. Pressure washer comes out tomorrow to get the salt off her.

Adrian, the problem is that all the cartons seem to be go to Pete and Lin, so we have to find some other stuff.

Hmm, we'll have to look into this, that's not fair

Took our tf gingerly today for a m.o.t. stood like a expectant farther, waited for the bad news to come when he came in with his paper work only to be told its a pass, very happy chaps .