If you have found your way to this blog via the Internet or the article in Classic Motorsports magazine about the Beck's Brewery MG TD, ...

 Over the past eight years, I've done a TON of work on Beck TD, with over 90 separate blog posts to prove it. It has long been clear tha...

 For the last 7 years or so, Beck TD has suffered along with a "temporary" exhaust system I cobbled together just to get it on the...

Beck TD has been running poorly lately. Quite a disappointment, because it had been running beautifully, and my recent work installing a new...

 It's so common, it even has a name: the "Death Wobble." It's that vibration that sets in at a certain speed in old cars. ...

A couple of months ago, Part 85 of this blog told the long and convoluted story of installing a new, custom radiator in Beck TD from a manu...

 After the recent radiator work ( Part 85 ), I asked Troy Nace to help me get Beck's body panels aligned. I had already figured out that...

 One of the consistent threads of Beck TD's 7-year story in my shop has been "messing with the cooling system." In the early d...

 Converting to... what? PCV is a very old acronym for one of the earliest attempts at controlling the emissions from auto engines. It stands...

 This is another one of those crazy projects where I spent a lot of time and effort making something I could easily buy. What can I say? I j...

 If you aren't the sort to regularly make your own screw threads, you might not be aware that the cutting tool used to do that is called...

 I've wanted to do something about my top radiator hose for years, ever since Beck TD came to the Grant Street Garage. The mechanic that...

 This was an interesting bit of garage science today. About a year ago, I replaced the water temperature gauge in Beck TD's dashboard be...

 MG TDs didn't come from the factory with an alternator to recharge the battery. In 1952, an old generator was good enough. In fact, it ...

 It has been rather quiet around the Grant Street Garage for several months. My last blog post was in April, 2022. In May, I had very succe...

 In the last two posts, I detailed special tools I made to help with a big project on Beck TD: replacing the head and cam. That's all do...

 In my last post , I described how I duplicated a special Volvo puller for removing a cam gear. As the disassembly and refresh of Beck's...

 Beck TD has been a real joy this summer and fall, as evidenced by the lack of blog posts. Mary Ellen and I put nearly 1000 miles on Beck, c...

 When you've been driving 50 years and more, you develop a certain set of reflexes, covering all aspects of vehicle operations. For me, ...

 Many of my readers are involved in my "real" life and know that just last Wednesday, I retired from Lancaster Church of the Breth...

 Here in the US we've always called it the "emergency brake" or "parking brake," but in 1950's Great Britain it ...

 I have continued to mess with the new steering wheel introduced in Part 73 , to good effect. The T-series MGs were unusual for the day in t...

 Ever since I bought Beck, I've wanted to replace the steering wheel, because the original wheel was in bad shape. The spokes were loose...

 It is an absolute mystery why I had to create this blog post! I have recruited experts from coast to coast, and they are as befuddled as I ...

Back in Part 68 , I detailed some work that allowed me to use a digital speedometer with a speed sensor, allowing me to experiment with diff...

 Back in 2018, Part 34 reported how Cor Engelen and Troy Nace helped me convert Beck from the stock 5.125 rear gear to a much more highway-...

 When Beck TD came to live at the Grant Street Garage, the brake and clutch plumbing worked, but was definitely in need of some attention. T...

 Beck TD has had an interesting variety of instruments in the dash since it came to live at the Grant Street Garage in July, 2017. When Beck...

 Part of the charm of these old British cars is that there is wood involved. The popular imagination has decided that they have wooden frame...

 I just checked, and my last blog post was over 3 months ago! Blame Covid-19... November and December are always busy for a church musician,...

When I was working on the Volvo M41 overdrive transmission as documented in the Beck TD blog posts (Parts 51 through 57 ), I had need of a...

 Work has been kind of crazy-making lately (blame Covid-19), so I wanted to make best use of a rare full day in the shop today, plus a coupl...

 Well, this is yet another complex and time-consuming fabrication project to save a few bucks. My lovely wife enjoys an occasional cruise in...

My maternal grandmother's name was Evie, pronounced "EH-vee." The latest addition to our automotive stable is named Evie also,...

At the end of Part 64 , after fixing a bad rattle in the muffler, I noted there was one more annoying noise - a "jingle" when movi...

This is a rarity, a blog post without photos. It's because I am not willing to show you my welding, especially on sheet metal! But I did...

The readership of this blog contains both serious mechanic-types, and "casual" readers - friends who just want to see what I'm...

Beck TD has a pair of SU carburetors, and like all carburetors, each one has a choke mechanism to help the car start when cold. For the firs...

Part 60 was all about replacing the wooden rail to which Beck TD's convertible top attaches, and once that was successfully completed, ...

Honestly, when I'm doing something geeky for Beck TD, sometimes the hardest part is deciding the blog post's title. I finally settle...

I'm writing this on April 14th, 2020 - almost exactly a month into the COVID-19 quarantine. It was Friday, March 13 when we decided to c...

There is a thing called Segal's Law which states, "A man with one watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sur...

Way back in December of 2017, Part 14 of this saga told of my efforts to repair several problems with Beck's "suicide" doors ...

Fair warning... if you are looking for expert advice on how a beginner can create a welding table, move along - nothing for you here. This ...

After my recent post about my attempt to understand how my M41 overdrive does its work, I was ready to reassemble. I used a lot of new part...

At the end of Part 2 of this overdrive saga, when I had just gotten the transmission working (minus the overdrive unit), I promised I would...

When I rebuilt the SU HS6 carbs in Beck, I followed the online procedure published by Tom Bryant, who has rebuilt hundreds of sets. It worke...

In Part 1 of this saga, I unveiled a "what if" project - a Volvo M41 overdrive transmission that was locked up, with a broken shi...

I've been enjoying this project to rebuild an antique Volvo M41 transmission - it has been quite the learning experience. The M41 is an ...

In my last post ( link ) I detailed the creation of a "very specific jack" to use with my new ER32 Spin Indexer ( link ). Its miss...

I recently posted about an addition to the machine shop equipment at the Grant Street Garage: an ER32 Spin Indexer ( link ). In response to ...

Here's the second post in a row about extraordinary efforts to try to save a part that is basically junk! The photo below shows two swit...

Wow, if you even made it past the title of this geeky machinist post, you must be pretty interested in machine work! A spin indexer is a use...

In Part 51  of the Beck TD saga, I told about the start of a big experiment: rebuilding a locked-up, rusty M41 overdrive transmission. That ...

It was back in 2016 when I received a used Sherline lathe for Christmas. Click here for the post announcing that addition to the shop. Here...

In Part 48 and Part 49 , I detailed the successful rebuild of the Volvo M40 transmission in Beck TD. It was so interesting, I decided I wan...

At the end of Part 49 , in which I successfully completed a transmission rebuild, I mentioned that I could only test-drive Beck's new tr...

"I'll always remember my first transmission rebuild..." said no romantic songwriter ever. But I suspect it's true, for the...

I've undertaken a big project, one that has intimidated me forever: rebuilding a transmission. When I installed the new-to-me Volvo B18 ...

Rob Siegel is an automotive writer that goes by the self-chosen appellation "The Hack Mechanic," and he is a funny guy as well as ...

Great news! After nearly four months of serious effort for a total engine replacement, Beck TD is back on the road. The easy way to do that ...

O Lord, the MG faithful are going to throw me out over this one! Oh, wait... they already did, because Beck TD is Volvo-powered. At the end ...

I'd like to introduce you to Jake Roulstone, my co-author for this post! Jake is a deeply knowledgeable guy I met via the Volvo Engined ...

The Ram's Horn is an engine part in early Volvos - it vents oil fumes to the atmosphere, in those pre-emissions-controls times. I don...

Everyone who has anything to do with old Volvos knows who Joe Lazenby is. He owns Susquehanna Spares, and he has a big collection of vintage...

As part of the ongoing engine swap for Beck TD, I decided to include a new clutch. I had originally planned to reuse the better clutch of th...

When you work on a really old car, especially a highly modified one like Beck TD, you are constantly dealing with decisions and work practic...

John Zimmerman, along with his son Bob, is in the home stretch of a long restoration of his Buick Riviera, which he has owned since the mid-...

Now that I got my throttle linkage sorted in Part 39 , I am continuing to work on tasks I want to accomplish before and during an engine swa...

At the end of Part 38 , I concluded with this photo, showing how Troy Nace and I had removed Beck's head to see why the engine had low c...

The past few weeks have brought a rather intense project to the fore, and one that has not had the resolution I hoped! For as long as I have...

This blog hasn't been very active lately, but not because I haven't been! We are almost finished with a pretty big remodel of our of...

Fair warning: this post is to document a specific procedure for members of Make717. Regular subscribers don't need to feel guilty for sk...

See if you can create the narrative just by looking at the pictures!

Back in Part 32 , I told the tale of how I installed a "temporary" Auto Meter tachometer to replace Beck's non-working unit. N...

I needed this: a square hole in the end of a brass rod. It's for a project on Beck TD which will be described in another post. Th...

You got the pun in the title, didn't you? Pointless? Beck TD no longer has ignition points! Cor Engelen, on a recent visit, told me of...

After a couple of very involved projects with correspondingly involved blog posts, it's a relief to do something easy for a change! In f...

If I'm at Part 34 of Beck's saga, I've reported a lot of work, but today's work was perhaps the most obscure work I've t...

Big news - after a year of discussion, planning, gathering parts, rebuilding parts, fabricating parts and installation, Beck TD has front di...

For such a basic sports car, in 1952 the MG TD came with a very elegant set of gauges in front of the driver. The speedometer and tachometer...

In 1952, the MG TD left the factory with exactly two indicator lamps on the dashboard, one green (for gas level) and one red (a charging ind...

I am so grateful to my friends at Lancaster Mitsubishi for putting up with my crusty old MG. Even though they are obviously a new car deale...

My good friend, Father Glenn Miller, is currently serving at St. John's Episcopal Church in Lancaster. He came to me recently with an in...

Yes, of course, everyone reading this blog knows I'm not talking about a hat when I say, "bonnet." That's the British term...

It occurs to me that the title might sound like I'm wandering around telling lies, but it's not that type of fabrication! Just about...

Beck TD and I have had our first year anniversary! It was just a year ago that I first met the members of the LANCO MG Club, at the Rotary C...

Way back in 1995, I spent a weekend at Zuckermann Harpsichords in Stonington, Connecticut, at a seminar on building their harpsichord kits. ...

From the very first day that I saw Beck, I knew there was an "elephant in the room." Even though Beck TD is astonishingly rust-fre...