I remind myself that this blog is primarily intended (solely intended?) to record the restoration of my MGB GT. As such I should stop worrying about lack of progress, and instead record what I have been doing lately and focus on that. This is what I have been up to.

Despite some clear instructions from the old man regarding setting the timing with the second hand distributor, I havent yet got any life out of the engine. To be honest, on my last attempt I wasnt sure I had the timing quite right and it was a bit of a half-hearted attempt. Also, the oil leaked from the oil cooler to oil filter union again despite me adding the washer so something is not right there. The old man things there should be two washers at this union but that’s not what the book says, so not sure. All I do know is that when turn the engine over, it leaks at this union so something is not right. With lockdown beginning to ease, I might get my mate Mark to take a look as he lives just down the road.

On a recent half day on the MG I got fiddling with the doors and the vexed issue of the door glass. I have been struggling to get this to align and to get the regulator to operate correctly. I can get the window in the door and to go up and down but not fully down or up. On my last go at this, I loosened the rear window channel and found that as this had simply been sprayed over in the pain shop, that when removed, there was rusty metal underneath. I removed the rear channels on both doors and used hammerite ‘straight to rust’ paint to seal over the messy metal. I then ordered two new channels from ebay, which have subsequently arrived and need to be fitted. They have new linings, are not rusty and I hope will assist with fixing the glass.

I also removed the quarterlights as I wasn’t happy with how these were fitted. I obtained a quote of around £400 to refurbish them both, which I thought was a bit steep, so I will order new rubbers seals and fit these myself. This will leave one rubber seal in not great condition (on the actual glass), but that will have to be an item for the running repairs/restoration list. I stripped the quarter light and removed the main rubber seals which were very cracked and in poor condition. A clean up and new rubbers will see these go back in better condition. Its also been interesting to strip these to understand how these go together.

I made an enquiry to a local trimming firm who couldn’t help with the roof lining, but recommended two other people, one who had already failed to respond to an enquiry and one who I have yet to contact. Something to progress as I want the roof lining done by a professional.

I also recently purchased new seat rails as the ones I had were incomplete. I am holding off fitting the carpets and hence the seats until I have got the headlining done and sorted more of the electrics so that it is all tucked away.

So I have not been idle, but just not that productive on the MG during this lockdown period. To my future self I say this: the 2020 lockdown was a weird period. Following initial concerns about my employment, work settled into a work from home routine, and actually in the last two months my team and I have exceeded previous business outputs to achieve some remarkable achievements, not without some personal impact in terms of stress and workload. We have however, maintained security of employment, something I am very grateful about. Furthermore, I have prioritised time with Helen and we made good use of the fine weather while it lasted. I have taken on the role of chair of our Church PCC and DCC, joined a house group which meets weekly for Bible study via Zoom, participated in Helen’s work quiz each Wednesday and caught up with people either in person via social distancing or online. We have cleared our loft, filling an 8 yard skip and selling around twenty items on Facebook and Ebay, raising about £300. We have moved our eldest daughter into a new flat in London. We have socially distance-visited our family. I have managed the Trigg fleet of cars with multiple trips to garages for the Cappuccino, loaning of my CRV to Helen’s sister Kate and cleaned and polished Helen’s Jazz. The first few weeks of lockdown were all about uncertaintly and the novelty. The latter period has been more of a test of resilience, and now we are working through the loosening restrictions and working out what that means.

So when I wonder why progress on the MGB has slowed, I will remind myself that I’ve been a bit busy.