Monday, May 3, 2010

Problematic MGF is (still) problematic

The days are long, the flowers are blooming, the skies are blue, and it's about that time of year where I start to turn the air blue. I made a conscious effort to avoid even opening a car's bonnet for any maintenance whatsoever in the winter months (which ended up with my coolant freezing - three times), which didn't happen. I'm not going to apologise for not updating as it's been SHITE.

I didn't make much progress through the winter, apart from aging further physically, and becoming more miserable, here's why:


  1. It was the coldest winter for decades
  2. It wouldn't stop snowing
  3. The snow quickly turned to three inch thick ice
  4. My new battery died in my Whizzkid
  5. My starter motor died in my Whizzkid
  6. My coolant froze three times (twice in Whizzkid, once in MGF)
  7. I got laughed at when I was walking to McDonalds for a coffee at 1am, and I slipped on ice. But I didn't just slip on the ice, I kicked my leg above my head, with a painfully loud 'shout', before crashing onto my arse.
  8. I had the worst car to drive in winter (Whizzkid).
The MGF wasn't driven much as I believe when the coolant froze, it cracked either head or block and it was followed with constant overheating, typical of the K-Series engine.

I'm going to skip the past four or so months as it was a complete mess when it comes to cars (more going backward than forwards), and since a few weeks ago I have made a stupendous amount of progress on the WK and MGF, which I will cover in the upcoming blogs.

  1. I cut the corrosion out of the WK (in the footwell) and welded new metal in,
  2. Changed the manual steering for PAS 'EPAS' (electronic) steering in the MGF,
  3. Changed the interior in MGF for red/black leather seats, and red/black steering wheel,
  4. Painted MGF's wheels black,
  5. Failed MGF on MOT
  6. Rebuilt calipers on MGF

I'll leave it there for now!