Beck TD, Part 47: Back on the Road!

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 process is to buy a known-good engine, hose off the worst of the dirt, and stick it in. That takes about a weekend. I did it the hard, satisfying way: clean and paint all parts, repair and upgrade the parts that make sense, and put it back together with a lot of care. Check out the before picture (taken with the engine in the back of Joe Lazenby's pickup) with the after - quite a difference!

Beck TD, Part 46: The Grand Re-wiring!

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 of Part 45, which was a detailed, involved exploration of  converting from generator to alternator power, I posted this photo:

Beck TD, Part 45: Alternator Conversions

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 MG group. He also has a Volvo-powered TD, and his day job as a maintenance supervisor for an asphalt paving company has given him a deep respect and concern for reliability. Just imagine a broken truck, with the full load of asphalt hardening in the truck, and you'll get the idea...

Jake and I agreed to jointly write a procedure to convert from the ancient generator technology to a modern alternator, specific to the world of MG cars with Volvo engines. This is one of those collaborations that has only become possible with the Internet, because Jake lives in sight of the Pacific Ocean, and I live a couple of hours from the Atlantic! There's a lot to consider, and much of it is pretty technical. So.... my first caution is, don't start until you understand every step and implication of the process! Here's a photo collage of both conversions, Jake's to the left, and mine to the right:

While they look similar, they are actually rather different in ways that will be explored below. Let's start with all the decisions you need to make:

Beck TD, Part 44: Trimming the Ram's Horns

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't feel guilty for running one - it makes Beck TD look more "vintage," and I've only driven the car about 200 miles in almost two years. As the accountants say, that mileage is "not material" in terms of cleaning up the air. I think the official name of the part is "Road Tube" but Ram's Horn is a common name among enthusiasts due to its shape.

Beck TD, Part 43: Joe's Amazing Tool

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 Volvo parts and complete cars. It was from Joe that I recently bought a replacement B18 engine and M40 transmission for Beck TD. In the course of three recent visits, Joe asked me to create a special tool for him. It's a special sleeve that aligns the rear main seal housing perfectly concentric to the rear of the crankshaft. He sent this picture of one owned by a friend:

Being kind of dumb and optimistic about my abilities, I said, "Sure, I can make that." Of course, I didn't consider that my hobby-grade machine tools were not even capable of doing the job, nor were my skills up to snuff. Fortunately, I know Phil Oles...

Beck TD, Part 42: A Flat Flywheel

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 the two I had, but neither was that good, and when Joe Lazenby told me the reasonable price of a new clutch, I decided it was well worth it.

Any time you add a new clutch, you should have the flywheel resurfaced to give a clean, flat surface. After researching a few local options, I decided to try Reardon Machine Shop, just a few blocks from my house in the city of Lancaster. The result looks great!

Pat Reardon is a third-generation machinist. His grandfather started an automotive machine shop in Lancaster in 1916, just down the street from my house. He now has a single-man operation on North Concord Street in Lancaster.

Beck TD, Part 41 - Bearing Woes

When you work on a really old car, especially a highly modified one like Beck TD, you are constantly dealing with decisions and work practices of "prior meatheads." I say that with full awareness that I'm the "current meathead" because I can do dumb stuff too! But this one was unexpected and unwelcome!

John's Power Steering Pump

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-60's. A couple of weeks ago, it finally returned to Bob's shop with a show-quality paint job by Horsepower Enterprises in Lancaster.

Beck TD, Part 40 - Blocking the Heater

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 swap. Yesterday, I visited Joe Lazenby to check out the Volvo B18 engine I'm buying to "temporarily" replace my current one, which recent posts proved needs major work. As we stood evaluating the running engine, I asked about the plumbing for the heater.

Beck TD, Part 39 - Full Throttle

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 compression and heavy oil consumption. What we found wasn't pretty - severe damage to the cylinder walls. The engine will have to come out for rebuilding.

However, there was another problem I uncovered while rebuilding the carbs, and I wanted to get straightened out before removing the engine. I had discovered that my throttle was only opening around a quarter of the way! I sent these two photos with captions to the Volvo Engined MG internet group to ask for opinions:

Beck TD, Part 38 - Carburetor Rebuild

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 had Beck running, the engine has run extremely rich, with stinky, eye-watering exhaust and various running problems. Even with the carburetors adjusted to their most lean setting, the rich mixture and bad running continued.

I was aware that Beck has internal engine problems also, with very low compression and high oil consumption, but I was hoping to get one more driving season out of the engine before rebuilding. I decided to rebuild the carbs to see if the rich mixture could be cured. And that has had a nice side benefit - a new friend from far away!

EDC Silliness

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 office area at home, which involved work by me and Troy Nace, and also by the local firm Nice Work Lancaster. Our very un-square space caused them a lot of headaches as they laid the Pergo flooring. Eventually there will be built-in drawers and cabinets under the worktop on the left.

Make717: Milling a Square or Hex on Round Stock

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

MAKERS: the machine shop at Make717 has all you need to easily mill square or hexagonal shapes on round stock. This before-and-after photo shows what I mean:

Z-Axis Digital Readout - A Story in Pictures

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

Beck TD, Part 37 - A Temporary Speedometer

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

A Square Hole

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. The hole needed to be rather precisely 0.120 inches square, and the way you usually accomplish that is with a broach. That's a square tool that is pressed into a round hole to make it square.

Beck TD, Part 36 - Pointless!

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 his choice for an electronic replacement for the troublesome ignition points. Instead of the expensive Pertronix solution, he found a "small shop" solution at www.hot-spark.com. It was much less expensive, with perhaps some additional knowledge needed to make it work.

The tipping point for me came on this beautiful morning, when I captured this early-morning image of Beck TD. It seems bathed in light, doesn't it?

Beck TD, Part 35 - Fixing an Oil Leak

After a couple of very involved projects with correspondingly involved blog posts, it's a relief to do something easy for a change! In fact, so easy I almost didn't post it, but I wanted to document the part needed to fix an annoying leak, in case some of my other Volvo/MG buddies are having a similar problem.

After driving Beck TD for any distance, I always got a sizable oil drip under the car upon returning. For the longest time, I thought it was coming from the dipstick tube, caused by too much crankcase pressure due to bad piston ring sealing. But on a recent visit to the Grant St. Garage, Cor Engelen looked at it and said, "You know, there's a seal behind that vent tube, and it has gone bad. That's your leak!"

Beck TD, Part 34 - 3.9 Rear Gear

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 tried to describe. It involved removing the rear end from Beck, totally disassembling it, and replacing the gears and axles. A lot of work, and the reason was discussed way back in Part 4. In a nutshell, the rear gear ratio in Beck limited the reasonable top speed to about 55 MPH at around 3700 RPM. Running that much engine speed for any length of time in a 60-year-old engine is so noisy that it's the opposite of relaxing. I'm always imagining the internal engine parts coming adrift and creating new, unintended holes in the engine block.

Beck TD, Part 33 - Disc Brakes!

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

Beck TD, Part 32 - A Temporary Tachometer

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 had a complex shaped face, with domed glass instead of the more common flat glass. The tachometer even had an electric clock, and there are very few of those clocks working these days! Even though Beck's instruments have the patina of time, they still reflect that former glory:

Beck TD, Part 31 - Indicators

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 indicator for the electrical system). Back in Part 22, I detailed how I made a green indicator for the fuel level using some fancy LED indicators from Oznium. They look like this:

Beck TD, Part 30 - Unbending Beck

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 dealer, they also have a large used car lot, and have factory trained techs on the German cars that were my projects for so long. Somehow, they are also willing to work on Beck, even though it barely fits on their equipment!

So far, Beck TD has been on both the alignment rack, and now, the frame machine. The results were stunning! The photo on the left is from Part 26 when I got a front end alignment, and it shows the severe hit that the front cross member had sustained some time in the distant past. That resulted in a serious caster misalignment that I suspected was the cause of the steering having poor self-centering performance. Sorry about the dangling wire - that is now attached to the new driving lights.

The photo on the right is the result after Dave in the body shop put the muscle on Beck with the frame machine. That is waaaay better, and the first drive, even without a realignment, tells me we're on the right track for the tracking, so to speak.

St. John's Pulpit

My good friend, Father Glenn Miller, is currently serving at St. John's Episcopal Church in Lancaster. He came to me recently with an interesting problem concerning the church's historic pulpit:

While a stunning example of the woodworker's art, the desk of the pulpit was stuck in a previous century - it was too small to hold an 8-1/2 x 11" sheet of paper:

Beck TD, Part 29 - Hold My Bonnet, Please

Yes, of course, everyone reading this blog knows I'm not talking about a hat when I say, "bonnet." That's the British term for what we Yanks call the "hood," the part over the engine. At least in the old days, in Britain the "hood" was the convertible top. That makes sense, with its analogy to a hood on a jacket.

When I bought Beck, it was only running the top of the bonnet, with the sides open. To keep things from flying away, there was a leather strap - a traditional British way of doing:

Beck TD, Part 28 - Random Fabrications

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 my favorite workshop activity is fabricating small parts that make Beck TD better. Since this blog is also my work log, here are four recent such fabrications.

Beck TD, Part 27: The Driving Season

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 Club Wheels and Wings show at the Lancaster (PA) airport. That's when I first met Charlie Baldwin and Cor Engelen, saw their Volvo-powered TDs, and started the process that has led to a year of steady work, not a little expense, and a good bit of fun!

Beck has progressed to the point where it is driveable and safe, and I have celebrated by participating in a few car shows, beginning with the one-year-later version of the Wheels and Wings show at the airport. I even volunteered to be the point person in the club to recruit drivers and cars for the event. Ten cars signed up, but when the day came, there was a forecast for heavy rain.

Even though Beck doesn't have a top fitted (the roll bar is in the way), I stubbornly persisted and was at the meeting place at the appointed time:

An Amazing Coincidence (Zuckermann Harpsichord Visit)

Way back in 1995, I spent a weekend at Zuckermann Harpsichords in Stonington, Connecticut, at a seminar on building their harpsichord kits. I had already ordered their "French Single" kit, and wanted some expert instruction. It must have worked, because three years later I completed this:

It turned out to be a marvelous instrument, with a deep, rich bass and good tuning stability. Mary Ellen played it for several years in the Allegro Chamber Orchestra.

Beck TD, Part 26: Beck Gets an Alignment

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-free for a 66 year old car, and had solid woodwork and other fitments, there was one place where Beck had seen a hit. It was dead center in the front crossmember, and it was quite a hit:

Beck TD, Part 25: Improving the Interior

When Beck TD first came to live at the Grant St. Garage, the interior was definitely a mixed bag. The seats looked good, and there were reasonable door cards and panel trim in the rear. However, the floor was a different story: no carpet, bare plywood floors (that was correct - the car had plywood floors from the factory), and a balky shifter in a welded-up transmission tunnel:

Beck TD, Part 24: Remote Brake Fluid Reservoir

This is another one of those projects that has been proceeding in fits and starts for several months. In 1952, MG chose a really dumb method for maintaining the brake fluid. The master cylinder is under the floor, and you check the fluid level by removing the carpet, then a drop-in panel, then use a 13/16" wrench (same size as the spark plugs) to remove a threaded cap, and then somehow get your head under there with a bright light to check, and if needed, top up the fluid without spilling it in the interior of the car. Dumb!

Beck TD, Part 23: Prepping for Discs

From the very first day that I owned Beck TD, I have planned to convert it to disc brakes on the front wheels. Cor Engelen, a talented engineer who also owns a Volvo-powered TD, developed the modification using MGB parts, and several people on the Volvo Engined MGs group on Yahoo have made the conversion, including Charlie Baldwin, the group administrator. Of course, long-time readers of this blog will recognize those names as the guys, along with Troy Nace, who helped me get Beck home in the first place.

To begin the conversion, you must find a good-condition MGB front suspension, and after several false leads Charlie pointed me to a guy named Bob who was selling all his stock after having a decades-long career restoring MGBs. He was bringing his remaining stock to the Carlisle Import and Performance Show in May, 2018. I contacted Bob, and he had just what I needed. We agreed on a price of $100, and he brought it to Carlisle, and Troy and I picked it up in his pickup.

Beck TD, Part 22 - Gauging the Gas

In a recent post, I mentioned that I had the gas tank out in order to treat some surface rust, and also to replace the fuel level sender in the gas tank. In 1952, MG didn't want to waste a gauge on fuel level. Instead, there was a light that illuminated when the tank had about three gallons left. Of course, my 65-year-old sender was a mass of corrosion, and didn't work at all. The light in the dash didn't work either, and the wiring had been changed. A perfect trifecta of non-working-ness!

Beck TD, Part 21: Safety Fast! (Belts and Bars)

Safety Fast! was the official MG car slogan from as early as the 1930's, and it was intended to invoke the safety of driving a nimble, agile car that could avoid danger by simply driving around it. Of course, our modern idea of safety as cruising in a heavy tank lined with airbags simply didn't exist. In 1952, Beck's birth year, even seatbelts were a thing of the future.

It has become a common modification to add seatbelts to older cars, and I wanted to add some to Beck TD. I found some plans in the excellent book The Complete MG TD Restoration Manual by Horst Schach. This tome is out of print, and goes for serious money on the used market. I just checked, and Amazon has one used volume, for $997! But that's a scalper's price. I paid $85 for mine, including shipping, on eBay. I made the brackets to Schach's specifications:

Beck TD, Part 20: Seeing and Being Seen

This is a long blog post about a months-long process - going through Beck TD from stem to stern, improving the lighting. Indeed, when I bought Beck, it really didn't even have headlights. They were taped up, racer-style, with sporty British flag caps (left photo):

Glenn's Wind Blocker

My buddy Glenn has a very nice car - an Audi A5 convertible. He bought it recently as a used, very good condition car. The top-down season is upon us, and he wanted to be able to use the wind blocker accessory that came with the car. Here's a stock photo from eBay showing what that looks like:

Unfortunately, his was broken. The upright portion rests on two rubber posts, and they were both broken off. However, he still had the pieces. He asked if I could fix it, and I said I'd try. It looked like it would be easy to drill through, insert screws, and stitch it back together.

Beck TD, Part 19: Today's Lesson, Learned by Doing

Today I learned that a sloppy M10-1.50 metric nut will also thread on a 3/8-16 UNC (American) bolt! I was trying to marry this turn signal unit:

to a piece of 3/8" diameter polished pipe I had lying around. The light was originally designed for a Harley, and is readily available on the web because it's such a popular modification for those bikes. And cheap! I got a set of two for less than $12 shipped, from Amazon Prime.

Saving Money in the Shop

In a recent post about Beck TD, I noted that some new equipment has arrived at the Grant St. Garage, including a large Index milling machine dating from the mid-50's. Here's another photo, just because I'm really proud of this acquisition. It's plenty big, standing 6' 8" tall - exactly a foot taller than I am. I have to use a ladder to reach the drawbar bolt on the top!

Any time you buy new gear, you quickly realize you need some supporting tools and fixtures.

Beck TD, Part 18: Getting Negative

Work has been slow on Beck TD for the past few weeks, because I was preoccupied with some heavy equipment that has made its way to the Grant St. Garage. On the same day, I got a mid-50's Index milling machine from the Facebook merchant Lamlor Brandt, and a 1947 Logan lathe from Phil Oles. Lamar, the Facebook merchant, had a skid loader that made it possible, if not easy, to move everything. Here are the two machines in place. Many thanks to the "muscle" who helped out: Kelly Williams, Phil Oles and Troy Nace! Of course, also a huge thanks to Lamar, who didn't stay around for the photo.

I did do a bit of work on Beck, and even drove it around on a 45 degree day (Fahrenheit), which was chilly but rewarding. I also made a "punch list" of tasks I want to accomplish by early June, and it's a great big list! I finished one of the tasks today: converting the electrical system to negative ground.

Beck TD, Part 17: A Speedometer That Actually Meters Speed

Here's a little side trip from the recent brake work - getting the speedometer to work. Beck TD came with a cable sheath, with no cable inside, that I presume was the original stock MG part. It would connect to the speedometer, but not the transmission. On the Volvo Engined MGs group on Yahoo, Charlie Baldwin posted that he had found a company in British Columbia, Vintage British Cables, that could make a custom cable to mate the Volvo transmission to the MG speedometer. Charlie ordered one, and I did too. Mine was 68.5" long to match the MG cable I had.

Of course, with Beck TD it's never straightforward - the connection point for the cable on the transmission was mangled, looking like this:

Beck TD, Part 16: Three Bushings (Better Brakes, Part 2)

This is the second of several posts about rebuilding Beck's brake system. In my last post (link) I noted that the Internet called replacing the pedal shaft bushings in the frame, "the worst job you will ever do on your T car".  I'm happy to say that I've now done it!

Beck TD, Part 15: Better Brakes, Part 1 of Several

When I blogged about my first drive of the Beck TD on this link, I wrote this: "The brakes right now are truly abysmal. I understand why former owner (and racer) Steve Fox told me that he sold the car because the brakes were so bad." Further investigation led me to understand that the wheel cylinder on the left front was seized, and the one on the right was leaking. After I freed the seized one, it started leaking too. Time to replace a bunch of stuff.

Moving the Furniture

Today's work: finishing up a multi-day project to clean up and rearrange, to make space for a big 1940's vintage Logan lathe that I'm buying from Phil Oles. Here's the new space, exactly the right size! There's even room for an additional cabinet or tool near the door.

Making a Round Thing Square

Well, actually, making a round thing rectangular. I had an idea for a way to mount hood straps on the Beck TD, but after making the first piece I decided to go a different direction. But the process of making one was instructive, and I thought someone might stumble upon this post and learn from my fumbling around. Here's the final result:

Beck TD, Part 14: A Slightly Less Suicidal Door

I've spent about 10 hours over the last three days correcting three separate problems with Beck's driver-side door, and have learned a ton about how it all works. I also learned why every web article I had read about adjusting those doors said it was a real pain! But I persevered, and had a lot of success. Here's the door after all the work:

I know it just looks like a door, but it's a lot better! Compare it with this, clipped from an older photo. You can see that the door didn't fit well at all, with an increasing gap from top to bottom.

Beck TD, Part 13: The Remote Shifter

Since Mark Harnitchek, the prior owner of the Beck TD, is an upright guy, he disclosed in our initial conversations that the shifter had a problem. It was difficult to find gears, and very balky. In addition, it was the "tractor style" shifter from the PV544 - hard to deal with.

Beck TD, Part 12: First Drive!

After several months of work, Beck TD has taken its first drive under my ownership! Cool!

There's even a brief video:

Beck TD, Part 11a: UPDATE on A Recalcitrant Brake

-In Part 11, I described a week's worth of work trying to discern why the reassembled brake drum was dragging on the driver's side. I included that post in a message to the Volvo-Engined MGs Group. I was surprised this morning by a 7:00 AM call from Cor Engelen, one of the group members who helped me get the car back home from Virginia. He had seen the post, and noticed this picture:

He said, "Those nuts should be on the back side! Those are special low profile bolts, and if you turn them around the hub will clear just fine."  Good to know!

I don't even feel bad about this, because I wasn't the one who made that mistake - the prior owner had already assembled the backing plates before the project stalled. In fact, I'm kind of glad it happened, because the Grant Street Garage gained a new press as part of the proceedings, and I learned a ton about using it, and about drum brakes in general.

So... both sides come back apart to fix that, and then we're really back on track!

Continue on to Part 12....

Beck TD, Part 11: A Recalcitrant Brake

Way back at the beginning of this saga in Part 1, I told how we cobbled together the front suspension just enough to push the Beck TD onto a trailer for its trip home from Virginia. Ever since, that loosely assembled suspension, with no brake shoes in the drums and nuts just finger tight, has waited for its turn. And it finally came!

The first order of business was to take everything apart. That was just straightforward mechanic work, but the brake drums were a trial. It turns out that MG designed the hub that holds the wheel bearing as an integral part of the drum. The internet was full of stories about how hard it is to get apart. Back in the day, MG dealers had a special tool, but those are long gone. I wound up creating a wooden extension that bolts to the brake drum and allows a modern two-jaw puller to be used:

Beck TD, Part 10: Coupling the Steering

When I installed the steering rack using custom hardware in Part 8, I didn't mention that it wasn't quite done. There's a part called the "pinion shaft flange" that isn't included on the new rack, and in fact, is not available for purchase due to the difficulty of manufacturing it. The flange looks like this - it's the one I removed from the old rack:

Beck TD, Part 9: It runs!

Well, when you have important news, start at the end: it runs! It runs! It runs!

Beck TD, Part 8: Getting Close!

In the last post, I described some custom nuts and washers for mounting the new steering rack and the front body pan. After posting, I did a bit of cleaning and painting, and started putting things back together. I quickly realized that I needed one more bit of lathe work to get the steering rack reinstalled - some heavy steel washers to use with the Grade 8 socket head cap screws I had chosen:

Beck TD, Part 7: Custom Stuff

Some days, you just don't feel like getting dirty. And some days, you just want to play with your home shop machinist stuff - the milling machine and lathe. I know you all have felt that from time to time.

Today was that day, and I had something specific in mind. In Part 6, I was grumbling about inaccessible nuts and bolts while digging my way down to the steering rack. I decided to do something about it.

Beck TD, Part 6: Digging Deeper

After getting the radiator modified in Part 5, you would think that I would have put it in right away and finally started the engine. However, I realized that if I did that, I would have to take it all apart again in order to install the brand new steering rack that prior owner Mark gave me. Far better to dig deeper and replace that before putting the cooling system back together.

To do that, you first must detach the rack from the frame, and that was the first trial. Those nuts and bolts were seriously inaccessible. In this photo, I drew a circle around the back bolt head. No room to move a wrench to get it from below, although I did need to keep a wrench on it to keep it from turning. I guess the British hadn't invented captured nuts in 1952.

Beck TD, Part 5: Rectifying the Radiator

In Part 2 of this saga, I left things in a bit of a mess, and then teased you with two subsequent posts that didn't even mention the problem. To remind you, after assembling the engine side of the cooling system and installing the radiator, I was left with a significant mismatch in the outlets, and a clearance problem between cooling fan and the lower radiator outlet. Here's that photo again:

Beck TD, Part 4: Fun With RPM Numbers

Cor Engelen and I have been having a conversation off-list about rear gear ratios. I know the stock TD ratio of 5.125 to 1 is too low (numerically high) for our powerful Volvo engines. Charlie Baldwin and Joe Lazenby solved the problem with overdrive transmissions, but Cor went with a 3.9 to 1 ratio out of an MGA. He reported that it works well.

I found a nicely priced used rear end on eBay today, and after showing the auction to Cor and conferring with the seller that the rear was complete, I bought it. Just one more project in a mountain of projects, but that's why I bought this car, after all.

Beck TD, Part 3: History!

I have been doing some research on the Beck's Brewery TD, trying to figure out its history. While on vacation, I spent a lot of time on the web after returning to the hotel each night, trying to find something. I found no mention in the Internet record, but I did find an interesting link. I remembered that the car is wearing a sticker for the South Jersey region of the Sports Car Club of America, region 84.

Beck TD, Part 2: Taking Stock and Getting Started

I sure was excited after getting the Beck's Brewing MG TD (hereinafter called "Beck TD") into the Grant St. Garage in Part 1. The only small problem is that we left it pointing the wrong way! A couple of days later, John Zimmerman and Mark Forsha and I were having lunch, and I imposed on those guys to help me push the car back and forth to turn it around. Once done, I got it into the air:

Finger Treadle, Part 4

At the end of Part 3, I stated that I wanted to finish the Finger Treadle in time for a library demo on July 22nd. That's today, and I had it finished with time to spare! No more need to show you a photo from a magazine - here's mine, and I'm quite pleased at how it turned out:

I even made a brief video showing the treadle in action:

The Beck's Brewery MG TD, Part 1

Well, now I've done it. I went and bought a car even older than I am! It's a 1952 MG TD, converted to racing spec some decades ago. Part of that work was to install an engine and transmission from a period Volvo - a very common modification in the 60's and 70's that doubled the horsepower. Here's a photo sent by Mark, the prior owner, when it was all together:

Finger Treadle, Part 3

Man, this "simple" project seems like it's taking forever! Of course, it was probably designed to occupy, for example, a high school shop class for an entire semester, so it takes the time it takes. Just for consistency, here's the photo from the original plan one more time:

Finger Treadle, Part 2

In Part 1 of this series, I got started on a machinist's training project called a "finger treadle." Here's the picture again, from a 1991 issue of Projects in Metal,  to jog your memory:

Finger Treadle, Part 1

You know what a treadle is, right? It's usually foot-powered, and converts an up-and-down motion to a rotary motion. The classic example is a treadle sewing machine:

The Marquis de Lafayette

Mary Ellen and I have just returned from a little three-day trip to Cape May, NJ, and I'm going to take a departure from my regular blog subjects to do a little travelogue with lots of pictures. We hadn't been to Cape May in over 20 years, but remembered it fondly for its gentle beach atmosphere and the lovely Victorian homes everywhere in town.

Another thing I like about Cape May is that, although it is a "resort" destination, it doesn't have the draw of the nearby casino cities, and therefore has been ignored by the corporate chains. All of the beachfront hotels date from around the 50's and 60's, and we decided to return to one that was a faded gem even 20 years ago: the Marquis de Lafayette. This is a two-star hotel in modern ratings, but it is large, spacious, scrupulously clean, and right in the middle of things: