Mk2 MG ZS TD - Return to Former Glory

[Enright]

Well if it's any consolation, that's what I thought about mine before it took me a month to beat it into submission!

[petet16]

lol, thanks.

Yours has been well worth the effort.

[Enright]

Thanks, I appreciate it.
I'd love to install ATC like you appear to have done - that gloss black facia looks good too. Did you do those mods yourself?

[petet16]

The ATC mod is a deception, the pics are of 2 different cars.

But yes I did both of them, and a third set to sell on ebay, but it went for a really low price so never bothered to do any more, I thought they might sell quite well as an alternative to the technical Grey that comes as standard.

[talkingcars]

I like lists....

IIRC and based on my own MGF, the map pockets are part of the cover which slides over the fram like a sock over a foot. I'd had my F for a year and only discovered the map pockets when I took the seats out to fit TF leather and alcantara which didn't have them.

My '51 ZS180 had map pocket backs which I transfered to my leather and alcantara mk2 ZS seats when I changed them, I think they were a victim of project drive. You may well find them on high spec R400 and R45's as well and I beleive the ZS/75 uses the same seat so they may give up some.

[Enright]

Fortunately I had some backboards with map pockets on already - the only problem was that the previous owner had been a bit heavy-handed when removing the boards from the seats, and had snapped too many of the lugs for them to stay in place. So based on your experiences I took up the suggestion of swapping the pockets over to some plain (but intact) boards.

Oddly my pockets attached to the boards in 2 completely different ways, even though from the outside they looked identical:
The first pocket had 5 little plastic stalks moulded to it that poked through circular holes in the board, then bolted to it from the inside.
The second one had 5 L-shaped lugs moulded to it that poked through slots and then slid and locked into place.

All that was required was marking out the position of the holes or slots, then using a soldering iron to melt through the boards in the right shape, and trim off the excess plastic with a knife. It took me a couple of hours to perfect, but the result was worth it. Not sure if the burn in the carpet from where I dropped the soldering iron on it was, but the missus hasn't spotted it yet...!

Another job bites the dust. Next please...

[talkingcars]

Nice one, pleased to have helped with the info.

[Enright]

I weakened. I'd said elsewhere that I was going to stick with hairpins, but on Friday I spotted some 11 spoked OEM Mk2 ZS wheels at a scrapyard. OK, one was smashed and the others were risky, but they only wanted ?95 for them, so how could I refuse when they're the last thing I need to get the car back to standard?

Since then they've been given a good clean and spun up on my hubs, and they seem to be alright. The tyres on them are just about legal, so I'm pretty chuffed. Just need to find one more to complete the set (then spend a small fortune on rubber)!

I've noticed something a bit odd though - my near-side rear wheel has a bit of play in it.
When you grab the top and bottom of the wheel and rock it, it moves by about 5mm, the same as if the wheel bearing needed tightening. But it doesn't. The whole trailing arm seems to rotate slightly. I bet it's an MOT failure, but how should I fix it? Should simply replacing the trailing arm bush cure it?

[Enright]

It's a while since I posted any pics, but this thread seems as good a place as any. These were taken during a visit to the Midland Railway Centre at Swanwick just last month - hence the rather "old industrial" background.

The car passed it's MoT a week later with just a few advisories, and is going really well. The next big thing will be to install all the ATC parts that I've now amassed (which would have been done already if I hadn't gone and lost the bloody wiring loom)! Hopefully when the dash comes out of George's next breaker I'll be able to pop over and buy what I need to connect it all up.

[stamford]

You've done a grand job, looks superb.