MG Update

My 1979 MGB
Originally uploaded by slightlydope.

It's amazing what a good, solid push and the pop of a clutch can do for a 70's era car.

On Thursday, I decided that it was time to get the MGB home. The battery was completely dead and even a half hour charging session did nothing to help that. I put about two gallons of gas in the tank (which may or may not actually be empty as the gauge doesn't read anything) and gave it a swift push across the parking lot. A smooth release of the clutch in third gear roared it life almost immediately.

Sounds great and it was. Getting a car for free leads to all sorts of bad thoughts about how bad the situation really is. Needless to say, when it actually started and drove around the parking lot, I was pretty stoked.

So it starts. Great. How does it run? Not so great. Seems to be only firing on two cylinders (hoping a simple set of new plugs and wires will fix that) and it has a nice blue tinted puff of smoke that accompanies each take off from a stop. That one is most likely a piston ring, I guess. Either way, it ran well enough to drive it home with the top down for the 12 miles or so it took me to get it in the garage.

So far I have pulled the air intake set up and the carb off of it and intend to give them a quick once over before I put them back on. I also pulled out the center console and under dash console which were pretty much trashed. Then I pulled the drivers side carpet which led to a nice rusty surprise.

So rusty in fact, I was able to stick a screwdriver right through the floor board and see the ground. I guess that needs to be replaced. The good news is that seems to be the only MAJOR rust damage and that can be easily fixed.

I can't wait to get this thing running well and out on the road!

My 1979 MGB

My 1979 MGB
Originally uploaded by slightlydope.

I have a new toy. Someone donated a 1979 MGB roadster to the church as a write off at the end of the year. They finally dropped it off last week and an e-mail was sent out to see if anyone was interested in it. I put myself on the list of interested parties.

After a week of people looking at it and no one making an offer on it, our paster of administration asked me if I was still interested. And I was, as long as I didn't have to pay over $500 for it. I ended up paying a lot less than that when he gave it to me as long as I was willing to take it off his hands.

The battery is dead and it is out of gas so I don't even know if it runs. The guy who donated it said that it did but obviously I can't validate that claim until I can charge the battery and get some fuel in it.

I figure worst case, I can put a grand into it and get it running well and have a super fun, Arizona cruising car.

I love it.

Superbowl letdown

Rachel and I spent the last two months planning and preparing for a Superbowl party that was hosted at our house yesterday. I have now come to realize that there is no better way to have a semi-lame party than to tie it to a overhyped football game.

Not that the party was that lame, but the football game really kind of sucked the life out of it. Sure, it could have been the fact that the game itself was one of the most boring I have ever seen. Or that I really couldn't have cared less which team won. Something about getting together for a game that everyone then kind of feels obligated to watch in itself isn't that fun. Four hours of John Madden yapping in my ear, isn't that fun.

So, when did the fun start? After the game when Guitar Hero was busted out and the laughs began.

So what did I learn from this.

1. Parties need to be much more free flow.

2. Scheduling a party around a bloated game that no one cares about but everyone feels they should be watching isn't the best idea in the world.

3. Guitar Hero rocks and might be able to bring peace to the world if we can just figure out how to get the Palestinians and the Israelis together for some blazing head-to-head guitar battles.