Series one Land Rover SWB

Just incase people reading this blog were getting fed up with reading about MGs, I thought Id better ad some pictures of other projects. This Series one Land rover arived recently, for a sympathetic restoration. Due to the meccano like nature of the vehicle, I had the bodywork removed before I remembered to take any pictures of how it looked when it arrived!
The Vehicle has been sat for a number of years, and the owner wants it usuable and presentable again, without it being overly restored.
It needs various welding to the bulkhead and chassis, the wiring needs replacing, and things like the brakes and suspension will need some attention. Once all the mechanicals are done, the plan is to paint the chassis and running gear, and then refitt the bodywork, and repaint the vehicle in its original bronze green colour.

Midget sprint and hillclimb car

News on my own Midget, the 1380 engine is now finished and fitted along with the new straight cut close ratio gearbox. This was all done within plenty of time for its rolling road appointment, more precisely, a week before... This meant spending several hours every evening driving the car up and down main roads at 3000rpm, trying to rack up 500+ miles to run everything in!
Luckily, I managed to do about 600 miles before it was due to be on the rollers, and the night before, I changed the running in oil and filter, and checked all the tappet clearances to make sure all was well.
As always, a rolling road session proved invaluable with a modified engine.
Encouragingly, going up several sizes on the chokes and main jets kept yielding more power, and a drop in air corrector size, and increase on the pump jets had everything running perfectly.

I use Interpro in Thornbury for my rolling road work. Dave Grithiths, the operator, is very knowledgeable, and their rolling road also measures the transmission loss - meaning some very accurate flywheel horse power figures can be calculated.
The final results? 107bhp at the flywheel (78 at the wheels) and 95lbsft of tourqe.
I'm extremely pleased with these figures, as the cylinder head is 100% my own work as is the assembly, and everything apart from the actual boring and grinding. Dave commented on how tractable the engine was, despite the very light bottom end, and fairly wild camshaft.
Since the rolling road, I've managed to put about 850 miles on the engine, of reasonably relaxed driving, and before the first sprint, I'll change the oil and filter again, this time using some high quality racing oil.

1968 MG midget build

The building of the 68 midget is well under way, with all the running gear, pipes, wiring, and fiddly bits now fitted. The 1330 engine is now finished and fitted, and before people email me to complain it's the wrong colour (you never know..) the customer wanted a red engine to match the car, so red it is!
The car is sat on new minilite wheels, and virtually all the components are are new or rebuilt, and even the new components have been treated to a good coat of paint.
Actually, since this picture was taken, more bits have been fitted back on, and it shouldnt be long before it's looking like a finished car.