Well there was a little time to look at this as I was off work a little early and had done my chores of mowing the lawn since we'll be off the KC for the All British Car & Cycle show up there this weekend.

My initial thought to just switch the over riders around worked like a charm. Not sure if the over riders are designed as left and or right or whether they are meant to be interchangeable but either way just switching them around worked quite nicely. Managed to get everything bolted up and tighten up and may are they shiny! I did give them a polish along with the headlight and flasher surrounds. It does look nice - wonderful to have to chrome to exercise my bottle of chrome cleaner on.

Well that's it until Monday - back to bolt up the dash and maybe try and do the cockpit rail which is supposed to be a PITA but since there's no seats etc. maybe it'll be a little easier to get to.

So very little time for work tonight so I decided I'd remove the front bumper and try and put the rechromed bumper and overriders on.

I got on quite well but one of the new overriders has the bolt chromed into it and it's a bit shorter than those that came off the car. Everything was going pretty good until the last bolt/overrider which isn't lining up too well. I think it may be that the bumper is a little off combined with the bolt having no movement and with it welded and or chromed into a fixed position.

Anyway, I did get it through with a nut on and then I ran out of time. Will have to see if I can tighten things up and get them aligned & pulled into place by just tightening the nuts etc. Probably won't get to this until Monday now

So tonight was the night – time to tackle the dash wiring and dash reinstall. I’ve got to say that I really wasn’t looking forward to this. Despite the helpful advice received from the forum on the “best approach” http://www.mgexperience.net/phorum/read.php?1,427337 there’s something about this part that just bothered me. Somehow it would be easier, I thought, if I had some help or at least someone to bounce stuff off as I went. Still no options for that tonight, so knowing I was probably going to get frustrated I went for it – slowly.

I have tried the grommets on the top dash posts and think that will work. I also managed to get some more of the 2825 part number bulbs form AutoZone the other night as these are 5W and I decided with would be best to have the same bulbs in all 5 main gauges http://www.mgexperience.net/phorum/read.php?1,427337.

So I start with getting the wires onto the dimmer switch and tackle that piece from above. The wires were already on the heater blower from my first attempt at this. Having done that I remembered to actually switch the bulbs over before I got too far and forgot to change them! I then took the gauges out as suggested and got the dash pushed back into place. It came off once or twice (various things I forgot) but seems to fit OK. Not sure that the grommets are all fully engaged but that’ll keep – back to the gauges.

I work my way through the temp, fuel and speedo gauges. Not too bad but I started testing bulbs and functions as I went. I didn’t keep track of which color wire was on which side of each respective gauge and the wiring diagram didn’t seem to be specific. There is an arrow on the wiring diagram which may be trying to tell you the orientation of the gauge but I’m not sure. Anyway, I started testing as I went and the blower fan worked, temp gauge gave me a reading but nothing from the fuel gauge. Tried putting in some gas, changed wires around on the gauge and then finally moved the wire on the side of the tank. I didn’t get a reading but putting the wire on the side of the tank on the other connector must have been a ground and made the gauge move all the way over to full so I am guess that the gauge is OK and the problem is at the tank sending unit end (or whatever it’s called).

Lesson 1 Don’t forget to connect the oil gauge back up before you run the engine to get the temp gauge to work. If you do oil comes out the pipe that should be connected to the oil gauge! Doh! Don’t forget this point – ask me how I know this!

I also found the oil pressure gauge pretty tough to connect up through the gauge holes. Not sure why but you have to get a precise angle to get the nut on straight and tighten it fully. Don’t force it early though – if it won’t start threading easily by hand it’s not on right and you’ll cross the treads – caution here advised.

I then moved on to the speedo and this was the hardest so far. Had to get my left hand up on the one side with no room and that temp control mechanism really gets in the way! Also managed to get the trip reset cord stuck in the steering column housing and had to pull and redo the putting in of the speedo.

Last came the tach. That really wasn't too bad as it was pretty easily accessed from underneath. Since I have no seats or interior in the car is quite easy to lay on your back and work up under the dash. Another test and the tach is working as well.

Final tests were all the bulbs. All the lights were working (light switch wired correctly) and all the gauges' bulbs work. The dimmer also works although when it’s full in one direction the gauge lights are off – move it a fraction and they are full brightness and twisting further dims them. This seems to be the opposite of my 77 but for now I don’t care – they work and on full bright they seem pretty reasonable.

I also tested the high beam indicator and the turn signals/indicators as well and everything seems to be working fine! Yeah, really feeling quite chuffed now – by Jove I think I’ve done it!

Still some work to do. Must get the fresh air vent hoses lined up/hooked into the dash vents and then get some lower bolts and maybe the 2 end upper bolts on the dash. Still, big step forward tonight and although I’m going to the KC All British Show this weekend – maybe Monday I can get some more done and even start on the sounded deadening and carpet install stuff.

So just some action tonight as I ended up in search of bulbs and screws/nuts for the rear license plate lamps. I wanted new screws because the originals were rusty and didn’t look good to go with the re-chromed bumpers and overriders and new overrider rubber inserts.

Bulbs & Dash Wiring
Well I did have some luck finding bulbs and they were the newer style as mentioned in my forum post. I found the Sylvania 914 style and also AutoZone 2835 oneswhich were 5W. The Sylvania’s weren’t noted with a W rating but I guess they must be 3W because the AZ ones are noticeably brighter. Only issue I had is there were only 2 of the AZ ones and I needed 5. Now I’ve seen the brightness difference though I may need to go back and look for some more of the AZ ones so the gauges are consistent.

I did also spend a lot of time sitting double checking the wires and what goes where in the dash. I’ve tried to group things logically that seem to go together and right now have it set with the brighter bulbs destined for the tach and speedo. Not sure whether I will change them all for 5w bulbs but probably now is the time rather than after the dash is back – ho hum.

I started to work with the dash and have it supported with just the first few wires attached. Not sure of the best approach to this so will post for some advice. Trying to decide whether to re-attach wires working from the top or whether its better for the dash to be back more and hook up wires from underneath.

Rear Bumper
Since I was getting a slight headache and not really feeling up to the dash I decided to put on the “new” re-chromed rear bumper. This was pretty straight forward but I did learn to put the overriders on twice. Once they were nicely installed but without the rubber insert. Realized after they were both on and everything polished that I couldn’t lock into place the rubber protector. Duh! So off the overriders came again while I affixed said rubber inserts and locked them into place.

I also discovered that the screws hold the license plate lamps in place are NOT the same length! The sample I took was the shorter bottom screwn/bolt. So although I have been able to secure them with the bottom screw on both sides the tops will have to wait for another trip to Sears Hardware and a browse down the loose nuts and bolts isle there. I am getting pretty well known in that section of the store now!

Well there’s tonight’s progress update. Still moving forward and boy does that new bumper look nice! Very pleased with that – something to really make use of my chrome polish on now.

So not as much to report for this weekend as I might have hoped really but we had a good rally today. Keep moving the small stuff along and have run into a glitch with the larger dash gauges bulbs – most annoying (see: http://www.mgexperience.net/phorum/read.php?1,426425).

I did get the dash worked on some more. I managed to fit back the vent controller using some bolts, washers and nuts and managed to tighten these by holder the bolt thread with pliers and so no need to poke a hole in the front of the dash. I also secured the heater control to the dash with some “Gorilla” glue. I was just a little loose with one of the rivets not being as tight as it should be. Took a couple of trips to Sears to get the right hardware but we made it in the end. I also stuck down a bit of the dash vinyl that was pulling away.

I also managed to get some grommets and plug hole fillers for various gaps and other items I found – I also filled a couple of bolt holes in the firewall as well.

Today I cleaned up and washed out the dash fresh air vents and the vent tubes acquired from Tony. The vents are installed (very easy) and the dash looks clean as far as the vents go. I ran into a halt with wiring up the dash and noted above.

In consolation for the dash bulb holders I got started and removed the rear bumper (also very easy) and so I can be ready to installed the newly re-chromed bumpers and over-riders this week and use my wire grommets to finish up the rear end a bit more.

Now that I realize I need to look ahead a bit more I’ve started to look at the sound deadening kit and carpet some more. Not sure I see any issues there other than figuring out what order to put bits in. Both the carpet and sound kits are cut to fit already so that should be good.

So just waiting on advance on the bulbs now – really annoying but I guess there’s other stuff I can plug away at.

Just a lot of small stuff tonight but still some progress. My stuff from Chris Roop also arrived today so that provided some more options.

So I finished off the driver door handle and with the grommet set got that working and bolted back up. Works pretty well – may not be perfect adjustment but it works! Then I addressed the wiper motor which seemed to be moving more than it should. I stuffed some extra rubber strip behind it (battery tie down left overs) and tighten everything up and that’s better but there’s still some movement – maybe there’s supposed to be?

I have put the MG logo on the boot and managed to drop one of the specila clips I got for it which disappeared – still it seems to be pretty secure now. Also put on the new accelerator return spring that arrived and eventually managed to figure out how to remove the center windshield rod as I have a new one as the original was rather rusty.

I also put in the gearbox fill hole grommet and tried the floor pan grommets but they were too small as I had guessed they might be. Oh well will leave them in place and have the sound deadening stuff keep them in place or just tape them down.

That was about it for tonight but then I am chuffed with my door handle, which I did first, so the rest is all bonus stuff really.