Old guy, but new to the forum...

[scoutll]

Mine had some crankcase pressure and dripped from the vent tube at idle when I first got it. I solved that by putting a 3/8 inch fixture and hose in the fuel pump block off (it has an electric fuel pump) on the block. I put a small (2") air filter on the end of the hose and routed it upward, then down along side the radiator.
May sound silly, but it has sure worked. It went from a steady drip at idle when hot, to an occasional quarter size spot now (just marking it's territory). The gaskets and timing chain seals are good and don't leak (knock on wood). I think the valve seals are hard and leak a bit, because it puffs a little blue smoke when you first start it from cold, and when shifting and high rpm's. It has over 1000 miles on this oil change and has used or leaked less than 1/2 a quart, so I am not concerned. I have had a lot newer engines that did that.

As far as the fender mirrors go, they work surprisingly well and being that far forward, almost totally eliminate the dreaded rear quarter blind spot. The left mirror is an original lucas mirror, but the right is a convex VB or Moss repro that matches perfectly other than the lucas name. I do have the original old right hand mirror that was with the car when I bought it.

 

[texas_bugeye]

Wow I forgot how flat and open ND was... Why not Minot?
Freezen is the reason! Only the best go North.
Nice looking car love the color combo. Make sure you tuck her in for winter.

 

[scoutll]

You were here and escaped!!!!! We will send an apprehension team for you forthwith! Hmmmm. Mckinney, Texas, I think sometime in Feb would be the right time to head there.... Those pictures were taken out by Lake Darling.. That's the hilly part.

The car has her own stall in the garage and stays under the covers at all times except when we're playing...uh, I mean working.

 

[tony barnhill]

Yours heads back up after the axle, mine doesn't, ends up kinda low.
Yeah, Tony, what parts do I need to get the trim on proper? Not looking at the moment but I remember there were two different looking clips and I didn't know if you needed some of each or what.

Clips depend on which trim you use...Moss has the trim parts in the catalog...if you choose '63 chrome, but '63 clips....mine were the thinner of the 2 & pop riveted on...for the hood, there are several different clips depending on where on the hood the clip goes...again, the Moss catalog tells which you need & how many.

Don't forget that, to change it from an AH to MG, you need to change the VIN tags & the VIN number itself....I always check VIN tags when I buy a car & if there's anything wrong, I walk away!

Oh, here's my restored 1963:

& the original 1964 I just picked up....all its trim was replaced with stick-on stuff:

 

[scoutll]

jvandyke,

For the steering wheel center hub, I just bought a 5/8 inch metal "MG" lapel pin from ebay for 2.99. I cut the little pin off the back and glued it on the hub with silicon. It looks great to me and you would have to be pretty picky to notice it. The enameled metal looks more "period correct" than the little plastic sticker that was on there anyway.

 

[RickB]

Here's mine, I got the badge & horn push separately on Ebay then assembled it on my wheel. Came out looking great - my wife says it's one of the best parts of the car.

and

 

[tony barnhill]

On the aftermarket steering wheel, if there's a recessed place for the marque logo, tell me what its dimension in in mm's & I might be able to find one.

 

[scoutll]

Tony

The recessed circle on my wheel hub is 28 mm (about 1 1/8 inch).

 

[scoutll]

That is SHARP!! I love the wavy line logo. I would really like to find one of them for my grille plinth.

 

[jvandyke]

On the aftermarket steering wheel, if there's a recessed place for the marque logo, tell me what its dimension in in mm's & I might be able to find one.

Here's the hub.

The enamaled looking AH logo is about 1 1/16" or 27mm. Last few pictures here . Looks like the hubs on page 65 of VB Catelog but wheel is Moto-Lita

I thought about the label pin thing too. That could work.

I like the larger one here , if I could get the hardware off the back side. But I don't know about $20 to attempt to hack up an already slightly beat up piece just to experiment.

 

[jvandyke]

Rick, that is cool. I'll have to keep my eyes open for any cool looking MG logo. I could probably get the AH off and put a similar MG one in it's place or a bigger one right over top of it. Looks like mine is intended to be a horn button too but never hooked up, I'll have to try to get that working too (push button on dash currently, which can't be found quickly enough when needed). Most ebay ones lapel pin types look pretty tiny.

Just poked around Moto-Lita's site . My wheel looks like this but isn't, different number of rivets and I don't mine is that nice. Some sort of knock off. No, I'll not be spending $400 on a steering wheel, not and stay married anyway.

 

[texas_bugeye]

Lake Darling I spent many a weekend hauling monster walleye out of that lake there dont cha know. There's no way I'm going back.. unless its summer and the fish are bitting.
I can drive my sprite almost all year round down here.
And I dont have to shovel rain. Nice car dont drive until a good spring rain knocks all the salt from the roads.

 

[tony barnhill]

Tony

The recessed circle on my wheel hub is 28 mm (about 1 1/8 inch).

I can get either a 28mm or a 46mm horn push with emblem & probably can get just the 28mm MG emblem if I ask.

 

[scoutll]

Tony,

I would be interested in just the emblem if you can get one.

 

[jvandyke]

Me too. I found a receipt in the folder of stuff from the PO. Steering wheel purchased from Victoria British back in fall of '86. Part number 15-502. No price on it. Probably using the same horn push today as back then.
Found the one with the price, he paid $139.95 and $29.95 for the adapter hub. Prices have gone up a bit since then I guess.

 

[scoutll]

Yes, but you know, I think when you compare a 1986 dollar to today's dollar, you are probably getting a better price today.

 

[tony barnhill]

I've got 2 MG 46mm emblems in stock but no small ones...I'll make a call.

 

[jvandyke]

I went the lapel pin route. Looks pretty good. I think.

 

[scoutll]

Yes, it does. Will work great until you either find one or change wheels.

I went black and white for the black car. The red and white should go well with your's.

I posted some newer pictures of mine in the BCF calendar forum. Check them out and see what you think.

 

[jvandyke]

I can't find your pictures?
The red and white is a tad loud but on the red car it looks good. It's just large enough to cover the round recess for the original emblem yet fit inside the larger recess.
While we're sorta on the topic I'm wondering a bit how the horn push is supposed to work, I have one wire coming from the button so I guess the backplate is supposed to touch something metal in the column as a ground? Now that it's got a proper MG emblem I suppose I should try to get it to work. The one time I really wanted to blast my little horn last season (when some dumb cell phone impaired soccer mom decided she needed to pass me on my 25mph residential street) I of course hit this button despite knowing it wasn't hooked up, by the time my hand found the little PO added push button on the dash the moment was past.