Holidays and unseasonably warm weather gave the boy and I the opportunity to make some progress on this.
Starting with the exterior lighting as most of it wasn't working at all, or was working weirdly. Turns out those ugly fog lamps the PO installed in the upper grille were wired them into the factory parking light circuit - which at 20A wasn't built to run two big high-intensity fogs, plus the rest of the system. So it was popping fuses, and his 'fix' was to attempt to power some of the other lamps off of other circuits (and MGB only has 4 primary circuits, and 2 secondary). Disconnecting the fogs (which I intended to junk anyway) solved the fuse popping issue, then it was just a matter of figuring out how everything was suppose to be wired. Fortunately, I have the 77+ MGB tail lamp wiring diagram burned into my memory, so only took maybe an hour to sort everything.
The only lighting not working now is the turn signals, but the hazards work fine, so I suspect it's an issue with the turn signal switch itself - or the wiring associate with it. Problem for another day...
Since the weather was cooperating we started pulling off wheels, sanding them down, and repainting them the correct silver & black two-tone. I've done the MGB 'Rostyle' wheels a few times before and I've had the most success just spraying the whole rim silver, and then hand-painting the black sections with a soft brush. I use Tremclad which holds up well, doesn't require primer, and has excellent self-leveling properties, which is great if you're brushing it on.
Trim rings that came with the car were mis-matched, so I dug through my stash and was able to put together a complete set of 'chrome' finished units - as oppose to the factory aluminum.
With the wheels off I got a chance to do a proper inspection under the car and things look pretty good....aside from the rocker rust, which I knew about, the rest of the car is really solid; wheel wells, cross members, etc. Front suspension checks out OK, and someone has clearly replaced all of the rubber brake and clutch hydraulic hoses very recently, which saves me a lot of work.
Also pulled the 3 wiper arms off, painted them, and had Firm Jr install new blades - just for BP
Doubt we'll get many more suitable days to do much more work on it till the Spring, but at least we got a couple big jobs knocked down.
Couple before and after shots of the rims.....Ignore the tires, they're mismatched junk, I've got a new set on order.....Nice thing about tiny little 14" units, is that tires are super cheap.
