General MG Early Midget horn push on Personal wood rim steering wheel...

[Joe Reed]

For 16 years I've been looking at the cheap looking plastic center button on my Personal steering wheel, and lusting after MUCH nicer looking ones on the early MGBs. I thought about trying to adapt one of those, but they're simply too large in diameter. So....after a little research, it seemed that using the very early MG Midget horn push just might work. I bought one from LBCarCo and figured I'd find a way to make it work. It helps that I don't need the horn push to work, since that's on a column stalk on the '78 MGB - I just needed it to fit the recess in the steering wheel hub, stay in place, and cover the hole.

In case anyone else wants to try this on an aftermarket wheel, here are the dimensions of the Midget part. The outside diameter of the part is about 59.7mm. The part that goes down into the hub is about 49.35mm wide and 20mm deep. The depth wasn't a problem for me, but the diameter of the hole in the center of my hub is about 54.7mm. I wrapped strips of duct tape around the Midget part until it was a nice, snug press fit into my hub. The Midget part did have a small point at the top to index the part in place on the Midget wheel. I just ground it flush before taping.

Here's the before and after...

 

[Mickey Richaud]

Looks great, Joe! Who says old guys aren't creative?

On my Victor TF build (yes, I still have it, and, no, haven't gotten very far), I wanted to replicate the turn signal indicators on the '68-'71 MGBs. I bought a set of Dorman dash lights, a red, blue, and two green, and was going to use them, but then took a close look and it seemed that if the silver part with the cut-out arrow could be removed from the MGB light it might fit over the green lens of the Dorman lights. Was able to remove them from the B lights and they fit perfectly! All it took was a couple of dabs of JB-Weld to hold them in place. Here's the dash - you may be able to enlarge it on your screen and see them, top center:

 

[Joe Reed]

That dash looks nice. Can't wait to see the entire car!

 

[Mickey Richaud]

That dash looks nice. Can't wait to see the entire car!

You and me both! Looks pretty forlorn at the moment. Saving up for the paint job; engine is at the machine shop (still...); and there's really not much I can do with it at the moment. One of these days....