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MG TD TF 1500 - Restoration Started - no turning back

I have "officially" started restoration of TF7211. I'm gonna need a lot of guidance.

Classic MG Club (Orlando) members are going to show me how to pull quarter panels and replace some wood.

TF race car owners / drivers George and Nick Pardee are building my engine. No unsurmountable engine problems discovered on tear down and initial inspection yesterday. My current plan is to keep it pretty much stock, but George may tweak it a little.

Be prepared, I'll be asking a ton of questions on this BBS.

Lonnie Cook
TF7211



LM Cook


Lonnie,

Best of luck with your restoration.

Jim
James Neel

Keep us in the loop how things are going.

Looking forward to following the progress.

Frank

TF1414
Frank Cronin

Put in the MGB Anti sway bar while the front end is all exposed!!! It's easy now, much harder later.
The archives here will tell you how.
Ed
efh Haskell

Ya cant go wrong with George and Nick Pardee working on the engine build !

Steve
SPW Wincze

You may want to read this.

https://classicmotorsports.com/articles/9-common-restoration-mistakes/?utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=9+Common+Restoration+Mistakes&utm_campaign=CMSDaily

Joe
JWP Policastro

Good luck. You may be beyond my only recommendation for restoring cars. Always do the major body work with the car fully assembled.

If you have to repair a panel/wing, then do the body work, put it back on and continue. Once the whole car looks good assembled, then take it apart to finish it.
Christopher Couper

Good luck on your restoration. It will be most satisfying when it is completed.
I hope you keep the steel wheels as original. So many have converted to wire wheels that I expect disc wheels are in the minority, and thus appealing.
Cheers, Byron.
JB Warwick

Good luck, Lonnie...
Gene Gillam

Welcome to the 2018 restorers club. A number of us made the jump to redoing our TD's in 2017/2018.

Ask away, I am
Bruce Cunha

Likewise from me Lonnie. The mention of a restorer's club Bruce, whose focus is clearly on the restoration of the cars, rather than 'social activities', really gets my juices flowing. I'm very keen to liaise with hands on T Type restorers here in Oz who are primarily interested in garage and tech days and the free exchange of both knowledge, time and parts. Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

Lonnie, welcome to the asylum! The inmates are generally a happy bunch - even if we can’t remember the difference between a 5/16W and 3/8BSF spanner, or where we left it.
Peter, I echo your sentiments. For those who don’t know, Peter organises a great tech day in Sydney each year and I am looking forward to the day when I can drive TF 2071 the odd 1000km from Brisbane to another one.
Chris
C I Twidle

here the link to the base for any restoration:
http://www.mg-cars.org.uk/mgtd/index.html
and the best :http://www.dbraun99.com/mgtd15470/

Jac
JS Jac

Hi Jac. I have to disagree with you about your use of the term 'the best'. Dave's Brauns's site is well worth a look, especially as a record of one man's journey, but in terms of accuracy in relation to originality, it falls short of the first site that you mention. It suffers from the same issues as both Horst and Green in that as new and more accurate information comes to light, with 'fixed' publications/restoration records, there is no mechanism to correct inaccuracy. Chris Couper is quick to correct errors and update his site http://www.mg-cars.org.uk/mgtd/index.html which makes it the 'go to' site for accurate restoration and hence is easily my pick as the restoration bible. Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

Hi everyone,

Thanks for your encouragement. I am following old posts on the BBS, Chris's and Dave's websites plus others. Malcolm G. and Horst S. are by my side. Bag-and-tag, store in totes.

I was dumbstruck with the thought of pulling my first nail to remove the quarter panels. Thank goodness, a club member came to my house and showed me what to do. He and I removed the passenger rear QP. I removed the drivers rear QP today. Not as hard as it sounds! Looks like I need to replace more wood than I first thought. I think the main beams on each side are usable. Hope to leave it on the frame to replace the wood and refit the panels, before removing the tub to paint.

Ed - George Pardee showed me the sway bar on his TF race car. He mounts it through holes for the TF horns, so it is completely reversible. Don't know if I'll put one on or not.

Thanks for letting me join the 2018 Restorer's Club.

Lonnie
TF7211
LM Cook

If you check some of my posts, you will find that there really is no actual definitive record of what an original TD is.

We have documented at a number of items that were production changes or differences that are not listed in any of the reference books/web sites. This includes the tool box lid, the metal brace on the back of the inner dash, below the gauges, the stamped numbers on the differential,

We even have significant questions on things like what colors TD's were.
Bruce Cunha

This thread was discussed between 18/06/2018 and 23/06/2018

MG TD TF 1500 index

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