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Spent some of the day building up the subframe

Good subframe that one - the towing eyes are usually battered to death, especially on an 'F' when the hydragas has depleted.

Ive removed the drivers side seat base cover to be repaired. To get a spare piece of alcantara for the repair I bought a spare headrest for £ 5 and unpicked the front facing. Looking forward to getting this back, reassembling the seat and driving the TF again.

First outing for 2024. Nice and sunny down here today, 18°C so just right for a spot of "roof-down" motoring. The car fired up first flick, as usual. (I keep it on a battery conditioner over the winter).

The roads were dry and they don't salt round here, so I had a nice little round robin of about 25 miles to get the car thoroughly warmed through and to burn off any condensation. Makes you realise what a lovely thing they are THE MGF. I paid £2K for mine in 2008 and it has been a little belter. More than paid for itself. Cushty. Mange tout Rodders.

Just got the cover for the drivers seat base back from the repairer. He kindly passed on a handful of hog rings and lent me his spare hog ring pliers which made refitting the cover a doddle.
The backrest is bolted on and now that the weather is better i'l refit the seat tonight and looking forward to a drive in the TF again.

I need counselling! I went out with the Mem'Sahib today in the 'F' to have lunch with some friends. During the meal it rained and I had to drive home in the wet... that's the first time I've got it wet in over 5 years!

I hope it hasn't caught a cold.

Ive ordered a cambelt, tensioner and water pump ready for changing sometime in the summer. I picked up some locking tools a while ago.

I'm just gearing up for a trip to Italy in the 'F', at the end of next month. Going via the French alps and then the tunnel of Frejus, then to Turin and north to lake Maggiore. It's about time it had a decent run out. Hasn't really been anywhere since before covid.

Update on my last post - trip to Italy has been postponed, but because of the weather. We were planning to go a week tomorrow but the local forecast is for heavy rain all the time we're there, which would have made the trip a bit pointless. We've put it off until a bit later. In the meantime I'm getting the F ready for its bi-annual contrôle technique. It has only done 1500 miles in the past two years so there's not much wrong with it, but the rear tyres are down to the depth indicators so I've ordered a new pair. It appears that the Toyo Proxes T1R has now been replaced with the TR1. The tread pattern is slightly different, so we'll see how they fare.

Finally I did a repair that could have been done over a decade or so back: I fitted a new cowl. By saying that I realize now it is a much more east job to do as inthepast. The replacemant cowl fitted very well without removint the whole of the dash. But unfortunately, weight of the replacement part is a couple of 100’s of gramms heavier as the original part. How am I to compensate this loss of agility.

I have to take the 'F' for its bi-annual French "Contrôle Technique" on Thursday and the weather forecast is looking like it's going to be stormy. I can't remember the last time I got the car wet, so I might need some counselling afterwards. In anticipation of a shower I have treated the car to a thorough waxing. The paint is still original, but after 27 years it needed a bit of renovation. I treated it to a full going-over with some T Cut colour restorer, using my orbital polishing wheel. I'm quite pleased with the finish - it has come out pretty well. It gleams now that much I have to put welding goggles on to look at it!

(apologies for the old bangers in the background)








You can almost see my face in it....

All that polishing must have been worth it. Controle Technique thist afternoon - passed, with not a single advisory. 116448 miles. Yes, I did get it wet.