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MG TD TF 1500 - 53 MGTD please help

I'm hoping someone can be of help. I just got a 1953 MGTD which has been stored for 15 years. It was in pretty good shape at that time. I am new to this and looking forward to restoring. I know this is a lot to ask so any help would be much appreciated. The car has the old oil, gas, water,(what there is of it)and battery . Two of the wheels seemed to be rusted to the break shoes. Any suggestions with what to do will be appreciated. Thanks Curt
Curtis Parnell

Join a T series club. The Vintage MG Club of So Cal is in your area.

http://www.vintagemg.com/
Chris Couper

Regarding the frozen wheels. This is probably caused by corrosion of the brake drums and the deterioration of the brake lining which welds the two into one piece. i have gone through that. The first thing to do is to take off the hub cap and peer into the adjustment hole in the drum. If you are very lucky you might see the adjusting screw inside. If so, take a big screw driver and try to crank the shoe away from the drum. If you are lucky this may work. (This should have been done when the car was stored to prevent the problem you are now having.) Since the above will probably not work, go to a tool rental place and rent a drum puller. Jack up the wheel, remove the hub nut after determining whether left- or right-hand thread, remove the lug nuts and install the hub puller. Crank it a few turns and you should hear a pop which is all the corrosion breaking loose. Turn the wheel to show the adjusting screw and back it off a few turns. This will allow the wheels to turn so that the car can be moved. Don't try to drive it because the breaks are ruined. The drums will be seriously pitted and may not be restorable. The linings are also probably shot. Good luck. Dave G.
D. Geissinger

Curt,

I'm going through this with a '53 MkII. It was a barn car that was stored since 1968. I bought it in May, and have been working on it daily since then. I expect to have it on the road this week. Feel free to Email me with any questions. Also, try the archives on this board-- they are excellent. When I get stuck, I try the archives on this bbs (excellent!), check my manuals (indispensible), call friends in a local club, or post questions on this board. I also joined the NEMGT, since they have a locally affiliated club that holds tech sessions. They also have two good books, Horst Schach's, and a MGT restoration guide (the best carb tuning instruction I've read are in this book).

Almost everything on the car can be brought back, except wear parts. It has been very satisfying watching my car go from a filthy car that didn't run to something quite nice. Not concours, but a solid driver.

Best of luck,

Ira Spector
spectors4@msn.com
Ira Spector

With regard to the frozen brake shoes. If the back brakes are the frozen ones the problem is probably due to the previous owner parking the car for years with the hand brake on. The hand brake operates through a secondary piston in the rear brake cylinder and, since it is steel and the cylinder is aluminum, corrosion will almost certainly have locked the piston solid in the cylinder. As pointed out earlier the brake shoes will have also rusted themseves onto the drums. I have found this situation very difficult to fix. I have never been completely stumped but the fix I have used is not elegant. Put the puller on the brake drum and tighten it down, then apply plenty of uniform heat to the brake drum from an oxy-acetelane torch. Hopefully this will expand the drum enough so that it breaks free from the shoes. I have also found moderate tapping with a hammer on the hot drum helps in "shocking" the drum loose. Of course, if you are lucky enough to get at the adjuster (I never have been!) then your problems are solved.
Regards, Hugh
Hugh Pite

Don't tear it down or it will never be finished. Do a rolling resto. Do brakes etc then paint and all the last thing.
Ellis Carlton

OK, now tell us all how you guys are continuing to find these cars in barns??? I find it just incomprehensible that guys are still stumbling across T types stored away in bvarns for 30 years, and boy, would I like to find one of those!!!

Jeff
Jeff Brown

Jeff,

Well, here's the story as I understsnd it. In 1968, the previous owner of my car parked the car in his barn after a nice winter ride.(The car had new bias ply SNOW tires on the rear; they still had the sipe nubs on them, but are dry rotted.) He died sometime later that winter. His wife could not part with the car, so it sat for 33 years. The wife then goes into a nursing home, and her son sells the car to a dealer/collector. Having done business with him before, he sells the car to me. When I first saw it, they were (gasp) pressure washing it! I had it trucked via flatbed to my mechanic, who does the stuff that I can't. I then drive it home on the dry rotted, squealing tires, and start my part of the work. My neighbors thought it was brown (its BRG), it was that filthy. Many hours, towels and sessions with rubbing compound, as well as 0000 steel wool and Dupont No.7 chrome cleaner, a pretty good loking TD appears.It still has 1968 license plates on it.
Ira Spector

This thread was discussed between 06/08/2001 and 11/08/2001

MG TD TF 1500 index

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