Hey - did you know if you click on the title of a thread it will take you to the first unread post since you last visited that thread?
but were afraid to ask: 
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Pretty Please - add it to our Events forum(s) and add to the calendar! >> 
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I have a '72 "B" and mine doesn't have one but I thought I would welcome you to the forum anyway. You will enjoy.
Happy motoring,
Bob
Happy motoring,
Bob
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that peice of card board is called a mud shield and it is to keep dirt and mud and anything else from the road off the engine. many have deteeriorated over the years. i still have mine and i look at it eveytime i open the hood and waith as it slowly falls apart. they make plastic replacements now i think but it doesnt do much of anything.
I've already been reading and using lots of the info available here on the forum for the last couple of weeks so I figured it was time to jump in and ask a typically dumb newbie question and share a little humor. Longer ago than I can remember (35yr ago?) in college in Chicago I had a '60 MGA, then a '60 Bug-eyed Sprite. Marriage, family, business, yadda-yadda -time finally to actually get one again. Having watched the market out of the corner of my eye for the last five years I could see them moving out of my level of financial ability very soon. I wanted something that was drivable (doesn't everyone?), to enjoy while slowly restoring. So after looking locally at a couple trashed-out death-traps for 2-3,000 I found one on E-bay -300mi away- and took a chance. I took a train and cash and exchanged same in a dark garage on a rainy night for title and keys to a '79 MG that badly needed a top (the seller had said the top was in shreds) but otherwise sounded pretty good and didn't look too bad. In the Pacific NW you know it's going to be raining in Feb. so I had enough clothes, duct tape and new wiper blades and after a brief check of vitals, in spite of the spongey brake pedal (they worked but you had to pump them a couple times)I headed for home the next morning with my fingers crossed duely observing all the rituals required to appease the gods of machinery. With the rain pouring down, of course the more duct tape I put on the more crap there was to be flapping in the breeze. After what seemed like a long time I looked at the odometer and calculated I'd only gone 29mi -thought it must be broke- and then realized how wet and cold I was going to be. I know a lot of people who passed me that day thought I was crazy but I also know a lot of people thought -'Put a new top on that little car and you'd have something'. The last 50mi the sun actually came out and I put the top down -figured I couldn't get any colder- and drove along the coast. It was almost spiritual. So the new top is on order, brakes are being fixed and all the endless other little things being prioritized. Of all the miriad things to do and ask about, to get started could someone enlighten me on the issue of the cardboard in front of the engine in the bottom of the engine compartment. I realize many cars are running without it since I can find no replacement anywhere. Can it simply be eliminated and what was its original function - aerodynamics or engine protection from road dirt? Thanks for all the help and info and I look forward to being a part of the forum. -TM
Sherlock
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Great story! And good luck with your new MG...
Reminds me of a story from two years ago. I was at a car show in Ontario and around mid-afternoon a very dusty Jaguar XK120 roadster drove in. I found out later that it belonged to well-known Ontario restorer John Pritchard - www.hallville.com - and chatted with him for a short time. He had just taken the fully restored car out of 10 year storage a couple of days before the show. Busy running an active restoration shop he said he didn't have the time to dust it off before coming down
Here's the fun part of the story... without even double-checking the mechanicals he just got in and drove down to the show (about a 2 hour drive), he told me that the brakes were a little "fun" on the drive down. Then after only being there for a couple of hours he was off back to home in his dusty Jaguar, and I assume he made it back safely as I've never heard anything.
Reminds me of a story from two years ago. I was at a car show in Ontario and around mid-afternoon a very dusty Jaguar XK120 roadster drove in. I found out later that it belonged to well-known Ontario restorer John Pritchard - www.hallville.com - and chatted with him for a short time. He had just taken the fully restored car out of 10 year storage a couple of days before the show. Busy running an active restoration shop he said he didn't have the time to dust it off before coming down
See some pics @:
https://www.users.qwest.net/~tmmatheis/images
https://www.users.qwest.net/~tmmatheis/images
Bret
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Great pics Tim, & welcome to the forum.
Regarding the mudguard; they are available through both Victoria British and Moss Motors catalogs. They are made out of fiberboard and cost about $30 ea. VB also sells one made out of ABS that looks kind’a nice but they are almost double the cost.
It’s a guess but given the cost and the “debatable” usefulness of this item, most folks probably wouldn’t bother to replace it.
However I damaged my mudguard (& my radiator) a short time back and couldn’t see reinstalling the new rad and keep the old guard (w/duct tape). So I went ahead & replaced it too. More of an aesthetics choice really, as I don’t take my 78B out in the wet stuff that much.
Regarding the mudguard; they are available through both Victoria British and Moss Motors catalogs. They are made out of fiberboard and cost about $30 ea. VB also sells one made out of ABS that looks kind’a nice but they are almost double the cost.
It’s a guess but given the cost and the “debatable” usefulness of this item, most folks probably wouldn’t bother to replace it.
However I damaged my mudguard (& my radiator) a short time back and couldn’t see reinstalling the new rad and keep the old guard (w/duct tape). So I went ahead & replaced it too. More of an aesthetics choice really, as I don’t take my 78B out in the wet stuff that much.
Ah, yes, cardboard under the hood. One of BL's dumber choices, and they sent both Triumphs and MGs out there with parts that disintegrate the first time you hit a puddle. On my Triumph I remade the cardboard fan shround in aluminum, since it does serve a purpose. On an MG, that mudgaurd aint' nuthin' but ballast.