Happy New Year 2023!

Time to reflect and look forward. 2022 started with the family in Corona quarantine and almost ended the same way. After a trip to Plymouth for the master graduation celebration of my oldest daughter – my kids all caught Covid-19 for another time. My wife and I both have the fourth vaccination and were lucky this time. Just before Xmas we all tested negative which was quite a relief.

As expected, my job change in 2022 resulted in much less time spent in the garage this year. Slowly, I am adopting to the different work culture and procedures. For 2023 I hope to find more energy to get into the garage in the evenings again after a long day of work. The 2022 goal of having a painted rolling MGB GT chassis was not achieved. Getting one of the shells to the body shop is a top priority this year. I hope that Stephan – the owner of the place – will keep his word that the work will start in a few weeks. A tough question coming up in February is what will happen with the second shell. A bunch of ideas ranging from a new heritage shell to learning to weld it myself is in the back of my head…. we will see

While being in the UK I also did a quick stop at Frontline Developments to pick up a few parts for Mildred & Molly – the MGB GT projects. A few pictures for inspiration are also below. Among the parts is an uprated front anti roll sway bar. It is intended for Molly – but I want to test it on Maggie (my 67 MGB GT) first – ideally on the Cuxland Classic Rallye in April. Like Maggie I will go with a Costello front suspension on Molly.

After Christmas I had time to fix a small issue with the exhaust on my son’s Saab 900 Turbo (Saabeth). Although I ordered rubber exhaust hangers for the Saab – the ones that arrived did not fit. So, I had to cut them out and it seems to hold for now. As soon as the MGB shell is out of the garage, I will need to do some other repairs on the Saab. A few suspension bushings are cracked and don’t look too good. Looks like the May and June agenda is also clear.

Talking about suspensions: After repairing and replacing the left front wheel bearing on Miffi (The Mini Cooper), the right side also started to make an awful noise. This time I was more fortunate – the swivel hub itself was OK, but the outer bearing I put in back in 2019 was already toast. These were the inexpensive GHK1140MS non-genuine bearings from MiniSpares – the same supplied by Mr Kischka a few weeks ago. Timken bearings cost four times more, but this is what I will get next time.

After the quick bearing change (took about an hour), I cleaned up my workbench swept the floor in the garage and started to write down a lengthy list of open tasks for the next few weeks. There are many things I still need to do on Moggi (C6622 – The Morgan) – even though it is in a drivable condition now. This will certainly be a focus on Q1 – along with preparation for “a MGCC SchrauberSeminar” – focusing on basic car electric stuff. Like the last couple of years January is a good time to spend evenings with a wiring harness – more on this soon.