kiwifaulkner

Thanks Cobber. I'll drop the bloke a query through the ether and assess the response. Maybe you hit the nail on the head - organising shipping is all too difficult for them. That said, buying TF parts from other vendors in the UK has been an absolute breeze and I have found the usual culprits to be very helpful indeed.

We get a bunch of stuff from Blighty so can organise carriage from this end - maybe that will help. In any case, if they give the impression that they are doing me a favour taking my money then its swivel time - I'll simply go elsewhere.

Cheers

Kiwi

Kia ora to you MG aficionados out there from the Far North of this lovely land where the men are real and the sheep are fast on their hoofs.

Long story short, I'd like some advice, but I'll give you a bit of background first.

The wife owns a 2003 MG TF 160 which she purchased when we were living in Blighty, and brought it 'downunder' when we moved. It lives in the garage and she pampers it and only takes it out at weekends. I drive a brute's ute full of fish guts, outboard motors, aeroplane parts, bags of cement etc etc.

Alas I am not much of a car enthusiast however my part of the deal is to wield spanners and swear at the machine when things need fixing. So far, it's been pretty straightforward, and I've only had to replace brake units, ball joints, clutch master/slave, brake servo etc etc.

But then it happened - a failed WOF (NZ equivalent of MOT) due to a binding handbrake cable. I know it was the cable as I had recently stripped the calliper to repair some binding (then wife told me to replace both units with new - arrrgh!).

The nightmare that is handbrake cable replacement. To get at the bulkhead where the cables pass into the cabin I tried to drop the front of the rear subframe, Four little bolts that had not been touched since 2003. Guess what - two of the bolts were much shorter than the other two!



Jobs that I have been avoiding - cam belt(s) change. Being a beer-drinking steak-eating Kiwi bloke for many years, I don't have the physique of an Olympic gymnast. Quite the opposite. I like space to move around in at the glacial pace at which I work and a cam belt(s) change on this little monster for me is akin to having to redecorate the living room with a long stick through the front door key hole.

Sparing you the gory detail, I now have the vehicle canted on blocks in the garage with the rear subframe out. So I'll take the opportunity to tackle the cam belts and do a bit of preventative maintenance.



The wife rocks up to see her dismantled pride-and-joy and suggests that a shiny new stainless exhaust would look cool and make the thing sound more like a sports car than a sewing machine. She glanced at the rear shocks and decided that the car didn't ride as well as it could because said items weren't pretty enough. Sod it, its only work, right?

To the point (finally). I know that this road has been trodden many times here, although from what I have seen much of the material is a decade or so old. Could the enthusiasts amongst you relay your recent experiences with after market stainless exhausts and suspension units that are available to Johnny Punter in 2022? I am cognisant of the fact that these items are quite personal choices, but the wife can't race out to a local MG meet to check out her options - hers is probably the only example of type in the Far North. I have seen Satur's website but read that doing business with this company can be haphazard - or have I misread?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

Kiwi