PO BOX
34-469, Birkenhead, Auckland 0746, NZ
1956 MG Magnette V8
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being sidetracked by paid work issues, race organisation and
more importantly, getting to grips with new software for
websites - and struggling, not much progress has been made
on this log of progress, website nor the car! A three month spell overseas and a few issues with the other car tended to slow matters too. So just a few photographs for the time being. MAY 2011 - before the trip away... (written October 2011) Working on the interior was at the stage where I needed to address one or two issues that had been on the back burner. First of these was the operation of the scuttle air intake. The original lever system was quite sophisticated but also cumbersome for what I now needed, but more importantly, the dashboard redesign meant the original system would have looked out of place. The original swivel plate as removed and replaced  by
a fixed panel, with a hole for a flexible pipe that was to
lead down to the lower centre console. This also mean that I
only needed one lever to operate the exterior flap for cool
air to either enter the car cabin or the heater/demister
(the radiator of which was boxed in under the rear of the
left front wing if you remember).For the more mechanically or engineering minded, my operating system may well appear crude but it works, with the operating handle terminating just inside the glove box! A simple length of threaded 5mm rod that was rescued from an old mitre hacksaw device proved ideal, with a 90 degree bend on the end and a slotted arrangement to lock it, using an off the shelf threaded knob. This all had to be completed and sorted before I could get the dash top finished. A new dash top had been made years ago (yes, years ago...) with sl  ots
for the demister vents. Once again, raiding my boxes of old
Mini bits unearthed the vents and the tops so securing these
to the dash was going to straightforward - until I realised
that the Magnette slots were longer than the Mini ones.
A clever use of a rivnut a s a stepped washer resolved that
one easily enough then the vents were painted black and the
top covered with a mix of vinyl and leather - the latter
courtesy of a dismantled leather easy chair for the
binnacle. Although I do own an industrial sewing
machine, I haven't managed to transport it home yet, so the
vinyl was folded and stapled over the leather. From a
discreet distance, it looks passable, though redoing the
total dash once the car is on the road hasn't been
discounted.
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PAGELINKS
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