Topic

My second MG bringing my current number of cars to four

2002 MG TF 160 in Le Mans Greens.




Bought from fellow T-Bar member Bugsy. (here was his post)

Initial impressions

The Good:

160 bhp Low mileage engine with new head gasket, dowels, water pump and ancillary belts.
New clutch pressure plate and thrust bearing.
Black leather seats and arm rest in very good condition.
Interior; carpets, center console, door cards, etc all in good condition.
4 Pot AP Racing calipers on the front.
Beautiful Green soft top in fantastic condition with a clear rear screen which looks like it has recently been changed.
Boot lid and bonnet in good condition.
11 Spoke 16" alloys, with three good tyres, one on limit. All wheels have some kerbing and need refurb.
Headlights, rear lights and side indicators all in perfect condition.


The Bad and The Ugly;

Recent MOT fail refusal sheet lists just five items
1 Nearside headlamp beam incorrect
2 Offside front suspension arm corroded and seriously weakened
3 Exhaust has a major leak (could just be flexi pipe - will check out tomorrow)
4 Nearside front suspension has excessive play in a upper wishbone bearing
5 Nearside front suspension component mounting prescribed area is excessively corroded.

There is a fault with the electric windows.

Bodywork; unfortunately this is where the car is let down most. It looks like someone has very amateurishly gone around the Le Mans Green car and tried touching it up with a spray can of British Racing Green There is a dent to the nearside front sill. There is slight damage to the front bumper as does one corner of the the rear bumper. The wheel arches need tidying up too. First impression is that although the body looks straight and is in reasonable condition, it will need a full respray (minus bonnet and bootlid) to bring it up to a standard I would want if I was going to keep it.


So which way should it go

1 - Repair the car and spray job ... have thought maybe a vinyl wrap would work out cheaper or even plastidip DIY job?

2 - Strip - sell Engine / gearbox complete with MEMS 3 ECU and loom. sell the softop, lights and other bits and bobs then weigh in the shell for scrap. Keeping the leather seats, carpets, alloys and AP Racing brakes and putting them on my F.

3 - Any suggestions people?

What would you do?

I will get a chance tomorrow to jack it up and take a good look at the underside, the MOT failure items and the rest of the car to be able to better assess my options.

Looks a bit nice to scrap
Would be nice project

Does look too nice to scrap it, as the BRG spray will be over the original clear coat it maybe worth trying to 'mop' it off, before committing to a respray

Good point Bryan

Will have a go tomorrow and see if I can see what was being covered up.

Have always preferred the shape of the F to the TF and I can't keep them both but I do like the colour combo of the Le Mans green with the Green soft top.

Agree with you on shape, I prefer the F curves, as far as the TF is concerned I would "Cut off" the overspray and make decision based on that, I assume it's the wishbones that need replacing, an easy enough diy job if you can drop the sub frame enough to get the bolts out, scraping seems extreme, I guess the parts value outweighs the market value but would make a good project for someone, unless your a mercenary and want to make some money from it. I guess I would try to save it and keep it at "diy" cost, if not offfer it as a project covering your own cost to now ( someone else may well strip it but your conscience is clear)

It would be a real shame to see a 160 being stripped and then sold for scrap, for what on the surface seem pretty minor things. I agree with the post above, if you can't afford the repairs yourself, then sell it and recoup however much you have had to outlay so far. I would be quite happy to take that car on as project, and i'm sure, i'm not the only one here who is thinking that after reading your post.

Scrap sounds good to me Paul I may need a few bits

Seriously though if the rust hasn't got hold of the bodywork and you want to keep the car I would look into the full respray.The rest of the problems can be fixed for next to no money, if the engine and running gear are fine it should be well worth while.I do agree about the F looking nicer but when I'm driving hard the 160 really does have a big advantage over a standard F.I think it all boils down to how much you want to keep the car to drive and how much you are willing to spend and if you can bear to part with your F.

Had the car a couple of weeks now.

When I checked the MOT failure points out this is what I found.....

1 Nearside headlamp beam incorrect ....

As the bumper also had a mark on it I wanted to be sure there was no front end damage so I removed the front bumper.










No sign of any damage

Check to bulb and .... it had been put in at an angle and was not seated properly. Reinstalled the bulb and the pattern looks ok.

2 Offside front suspension arm corroded and seriously weakened....



Yes a nicely corroded wishbone.

3 Exhaust has a major leak ....

The flexi pipe has had about 1kg of exhaust gum applied to it but it is shot through. The back box also has some corrosion but the flexi pipe leak is so bad it's hard to say if the back box is leaking.

4 Nearside front suspension has excessive play in a upper wishbone bearing...

Excessive .. you can say that again, I could move the whole wheel side to side by about 1cm

5 Nearside front suspension component mounting prescribed area is excessively corroded....




That hole is about 6cm long. The nearside sub frame resembles Swiss cheese, the area above this hole has about 5 holes in it.
(The previous owner, regarding the work needed to pass the MOT, did say "nearside front suspension component corroded all in all a couple of hours work to sort with wire brush and a tin of hammerite nothing major"

Wire brush and a tin of hammerite ... Rhymes with rollocks


I also removed the mud flaps to get a look at the damaged nearside sill



Not a lot of damage could easily be fixed.

Apart from the sub frame the rest of the body is quite clean, but the sprayed on British Racing Green really has spoiled the look of the body. I tried rubbing the BRG paint off with a cutting compound and an electric mop but got fed up with trying and went back in doors.

I felt no love for the car and thought I would try the 16 inch wheels on my F. The cleaned up quite well and the kerbing was not major, so I thought I could live with them for now, just to see what the F was like with 16's.

For my thoughts on this topic see my reply in this thread (click here).

Next the leather seats and arm rest in the TF looked so good I thought ... put them in the F... so in they went... and they look fantastic, photos to follow.

Despite having new disc and pads on the front of the F the brakes could still only be called 'satisfactory' in normal driving conditions. Satisfactory is not how I want to describe my brakes, especially when compared to my BMW or Alfa Romeo .... so off came the TF AP Racing 4 pots, bought new discs and pads and...



Result. I know feel confident driving the F knowing I can stop as fast as the next man. These brakes are sooo much better. No more 150kg leg press to stop the car in an emergency.

not looking too good for the TF 160. Where will the 160 bhp Low mileage engine with new head gasket, dowels, water pump, ancillary belts and it's gearbox with new clutch pressure plate and thrust bearing go?
The beautiful green hood is soooo nice.

Could it become a project? Still not sure what I'm going to do with it.

PQD44 wrote: wrote:

......
Next the leather seats and arm rest in the TF looked so good I thought ... put them in the F... so in they went... and they look fantastic, photos to follow......

.

As promised

Looking good Paul

Have you got a full set of TF mud flaps you wont be needing?

Yeah, looking good.

Bob wrote: wrote:

Looking good Paul

Have you got a full set of TF mud flaps you wont be needing?

Funny you should ask, Let me have a good look at them in the morning. They did have some British Racing Green overspray on them. If they clean up ok I'll give you a shout.