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):