Magnette V8

I know there are a couple of beautifully done Magnette V8s around the world, and just wondering why no mention on this forum?

Is this forum anti a Retro Classic, or is it just that there are no owner/posters as yet?

The MGCC Auckland is very keen to see my project finished, yet another classic club is totally disgusted - even though the car was destined for the scrapheap, as it had a seized engine, seized brakes, suspension components that snapped with one light turn of a spanner, ripped and badly faded upholstery, not to mention terminal rot in both sills and all points south.

We are pretty easygoing here. If you check the previous posts you will find a Magnette with a 427 big block in the UK and a French Z with a Rover 215.
Welcome aboard! Now how about some pics of your car?

Cheers,
Rich
Blown 1955 ZA

Just goes to show that what you see may not be what you get! Looked surprisingly good from some angles and it was only after dip stripping that many of the horrors were exposed.

Oh dear.....

And much later, a purpose built front suspension that is probably far too sophisticated and cost far too much, but at least if I manage to source a 5 litre TVR engine at a later date...

Ray, we have been following your progress across here and have been waiting on your finishing it. I thought you were putting a Rover/Leyland V8 in it.

Better put a link in to your site as the magazine site is not updated and the archives of your progress are not available.

Are you still trying to rewire it with trailer wire or are going for the better quality stuff?

Is this your car?

http://www.tops.co.nz/CARS/monza8/

I'm sure that if I cleaned the rust off my front suspension that is what mine would look like... Wow! Nice brakes, too. What's the upright and where did those a-arms come from?
Mark

Yup, that is the correct link above... The Rover/MGB V8 is now running. Yeeha!

The trailer wire was only to link the dashboard to the boot easily, all the remainder is generally genuine ex-Mini/Rover Lucas (BSI) colours where possible.

Front suspension is a real bitza! Top and bottom arms are locally designed and fabricated (though the initial design needed modifying...).

We sourced a BMW rack with the intention of fitting power steering, but wheeling the car around the garage, I don't think it needs it, as the engine sits back, almost totally behind the front axle line so we have just looped the hose.

Brake balance valve fitted too.

From memory, hubs are Australian Mk 3 Cortina (?) and front discs are (Australian) Ford Falcon. Note that I don't do the fabricating or safety critical features. I have done the woodwork, electrics and currently, fibreglass panels for a centre hinged bonnet, boot lid, sills front wings/fenders plus bumpers.

Rear end is MGB with relocated shock absorbers and a fabricated Panhard rod - couldn't afford a 4 link rear end and that would have compromised other aspects of the rear end. Peugot 406 discs at the rear. I had a large stainless petrol tank made up to fit in the original location that comes a lot higher than the original, so the fuel filler has been moved to just behind the rear screen and covered with an XJ6 Jaguar flip cap and a flap that also incorporates a hi-stop brake light. Rear parking sensors as I don't think I can see much out of the rear...

MG Montego steering column, wheel and column switches, and the Montego wiper motor and delay unit. There was a story and a half...

Pair of Racetech bucket seats and will be fitted with race harnesses. Basic roll cage.

Fully replaced dashboard with 100% burr walnut veneer, front with a matching walnut lower centre console containing fresh air vents and a CD system hidden behind a walnut veneered flap. Not yet sorted the top but will probably be padded black vinyl.

MGB speedo and tacho converted to V8, plus Smiths oil pressure, behind the wheel, fuel gauge, oil temperature, water temperature and voltmeter in the centre, with several warning lights and switches.

Ex Toyota pull type electric fan, with manual override switch and newly built radiator using the original radiator sides.

Fused everything! (40 fuses?)

Just one electric fuel pump fitted at the moment but provision for an extra pump including relay and wiring, with each pump switched independantly. Widened spare wheel well to accomodate the 15" wheels with 205/60 Dunlop tyres.

New door panels incorporating cubby holes and front speakers, with a padded arm rest instead of those aweful cord door pulls.

More later no doubt....

Taken just a couple of months ago... The numbering conventions for all my pics are year first (reduced to 3 digits) underscore, month,day sequence in that day. It makes it very easy to track progress from the pics.

You'll notice the original heater blower but that had to be modified to give some clearance from the SU carbs. A pipe was ducted through the interior to a mini heater radiator mounted in the cavity at the rear of the left wing/fender, then back to demist the screen. I opted to not worry about an interior heater as such, as the climate here rarely demands one and I guess that there will be a bit of heat coming in from the engine.

Basic roll cage? Looks more like an integrated cage and front clip support. The way the new front suspension is triangulated into the frame looks a little more than "basic." Nice work!!!

By basic, I meant that the rear seat is still usable as there is no diagonal other than across the central hoop, and no side intrusion bars.

We also made the transmission tunnel removable for obvious reasons, and quite by chance, when I was looking for some reflective insulation I had a bit of luck. I work in the sewn products trades, and one of my clients manufactures reflective metal foil suits for fire fighters. This is relatively thin cloth - probably wool, with the foil bonded to it.

A simple financial transaction (I reduced my bill...) saw me with a metre of this stuff, and by attaching it to the octagonal transmission tunnel with contact glue and rivets, I'm hopeful that the heat from the exhaust pipes will be reflected. It seems OK so far...

One of my other business interests is manufacturing racesuits (we supply the NZ A1GP team for example) and we retail NZ made Racetech seats, so I got the seat manufacturer to send up the seat covers, and we embroidered them with the MG logo, plus MON ZA8 - which just happens to be the personalised number plates I have paid for.

Just a bit more...

The doors have been modified just enough to make room for a door pocket (the inner is not fitted here) and the door will house a speaker. Note that to save on the new veneer (I was a bit tight...) I inlaid a contrast at the front peak!

The door pull doubles as an arm rest. The lower panel was done in black vinyl as I know that I tend to kick the door panels! The upper is in a silver vinyl and the dividing strip is in grey veneer with a red top edge. Sounds a bit over the top, but the colours I use throughout are silver, black and red. It looks better than it sounds...

Grandson number one has grown a bit, so now, the third seat is behind the passenger as I am tall and there was insufficient room behind me to make a usable seat. The CD changer now sits hidden under the hinged 'dummy' seat base where the grandson is currently sitting...

Shows the cage interior detail.

Go Kiwi ex Matamata

Another V8 Magnette!

Mine can be found on www.enigmaracing.co.uk
Please excuse the website, it's my first attempt at web stuff and will be redone professionaly shortly.
For a more up to date build up have a look at...
http://noskooljustcool.proboards49.com/index.cgi?board=showusyours&action=display&thread=181&page=1

It's a shame you're the other side of the world, it would have been great to see them side by side.

Ian

Great work! I assume there'll be a bit of padding on that cage so your kids won't be denting the tubing with their foreheads on a quick stop? :) My wife would want to sit in the back so she could hold the "Oh S*#^" handle.

Hi Ian, Magnette - Dragnette!!!! Will try and catch up when I get to the UK...

Hi Jeff. Yes, bars will be padded and a full harness belt fitted to the rear all being well, though that depends how I mount the front passenger belt of course. Driver's belt will be fixed to the reinforced rear parcel shelf - or that aptly named bar.

More pics...

I now have two spare original Magnette instrument panels... Adding a rev counter and the original ergonomics, meant that I had to start from scratch. Rev counter and speedo plus oil pressure gauge and warning lights for oil and indicators are now all visible through the Montego steering wheel. I hate it in the MGB having the gauges obscured when hands are on the wheel. When even the boss's Aston Martin I drove a few years ago suffered from a similar problem, I found it was frustrating and unneccessary...

A new dash top was made to the original design and the top binnacle extended to suit the extra space required. My woodworking skills aren't in the same class as others on this site and this dash top will be covered in padded black vinyl - leather doesn't survive well in the vicious NZ sun...

The second pic shows the shape of the transmission tunnel and the lower console hiding the modern radio behind its hinged panel. The lower panel also houses a proper battery kill switch (as opposed to a battery isolation switch that doesn't kill the engine!) and also two fresh air vents that will be linked and then go up to the original fresh air intake box. The logic was that you can get fresh air in via the window so fresh air to the interior should go to the centre of the car.

The upper centre console is now a self contained unit - almost, with a 10 way fuse board on the left, and mountings for 5 relays on the right. Obviously, there are a few plug and socket connection for the other wiring, but the unit can be released from the car quickly. Almost all components have their own fuses as being brought up on a Mini with only two fuses and even the Marcos only had three, is cheapskate design. I like each unit fused separately so that faults are easily identified and one component failure doesn't knock out others.

Tip: vaccuum cleaner repair shops may well have many lengths of plastic hose in two diameters that are just the right size for the original demister... I made a voluntary donation as they were almost happy for me to take them away. The two different sizes mean that you can join them together too.

Great work, but that photo must be a mirror image? You have all the good stuff on the wrong side. :)

Nah! This is the original side - its you guys who made them change things over! Reverse your image and you'll magically see a potential local version.

My wife hates riding in the Marcos as it is so low and she doesn't really like to be driven fast either, so grandson number one will probably be in the front and my lovely wife will be cringing in the back, holding grimly to the bar.

If any of you guys are thinking of heading to NZ, there is a new race track being built south of Auckland and we'll have a trackside apartment unit (normally rented out), so running hot laps/track rides is on the cards. Track opens June 1st 2009 all being well. Google Hampton Downs Motorsport Park

Pic has an original wheel (reversed) just for moving around the garage. Note Panhard rod, shock absorber location onto MGB axle and Peugot 406 discs. Nissan Skyline alloy brake calipers all round (with the word "Nissan" ground off!).

Did you run into any issues fitting the B axle? How did the width work out and was it corrected by switching to dic brakes?

B-racer Wrote:

As far as I can remember, there was a small 10mm spacer but I stand corrected. Maybe you can tell from the pics? I was charged a lot of money for the rear end before the brakes were fitted and before the Panhard rod, and not sure that I got value for money. At that time, I was in dispute with the original workshop as they had the bare shell car for a full year and only managed to put in 80 hours worth of work...

Work shop number two only mounted the shocks after modifying the mounts and re-hanging the springs etc.

Workshop 3 did most of the work and he did just about all the fabricating, including the 4-2-1 exhaust system, but without tail pipe and muffler.

The purpose designed front end didn't work (even I know that if you have a solid triangle, making adjustments is all but impossible)! Farnie had to cut, and put a half lap joint in, as can be seen from pic two...

What I wonder is if they didn't have to narrow the differential housing and shorten the axles to fit the Magnette. I haven't measured the difference, but I've heard the MGB axle is a few inches wider than the Magnette. Do you know your total width from the disc mounting face to face (where the wheel makes contact when installed)?

The MGB rear end was definitely NOT narrowed. That much I do know. Wheel offset was all checked very early on and both ends were built so as to not require any flare at all on the wheel arches.

Wheels are Australasian manufactured 'Performance Wheels' and I did have issues with the first set, that ended up going to the small claims court, but that is another story. I do have two sets of wheels and tyres, so the MGB is doing the road tests at the moment, albeit on 15" wheels.

Looking at the car from the rear, I am sure that either the axle isn't dead centre or the repaired rear wings are slightly out! Mind you, my MGB doesn't look identical either, and the Marcos is known to be about 10mm out in the bodyshell. Good old British eyecrometer, eh!

You can now see the large capacity stainless steel fuel tank (and no, I have no idea of the capacity as yet, as I haven't either filled it or calculated). The hole cut in the rear was for the fuel filler (Farnie modified the filler from the top of an old Mini fuel tank), but quite frankly, it looked terrible, so I have since recessed the filler and made a hinged cover that also incorporates the hi-stop rear brake light.

The box arrangement you see on the boot floor to the right of the widened spare wheel well, has a battery box to the left and to the right of the divider are the fuel pump(s). I have built a removable wooden tool box that holds the jack, wheel brace, a set of screwdrivers, foot pump etc., to the same height, so the boot floor will be uncluttered.

We manufactured a tow bar, utilising the original bumper brackets and Farnie managed to bend the bar to follow the contours of the rear. I took a fibreglass skin off the original bumper, and then modified it to totally hide the towbar. The rear bumper incorporates the parking sensors and at $70 (NZ), is a cheap fitting.

I am still debating how to finish the apertures that originally contained the trafficators and I am contemplating using square LED repeater lights, but am torn between using, one, three together or three spaced out. Maybe just the one will be sufficiently subtle...

I suppose reading all the tripe I have written, I realise that restoring to 100% original is never going to be my thing, so making these changes, subtle or otherwise, can only add to my enjoyment of the completed car. I hope the real purists will forgive me, and accept that much of what I have done is still in the true spirit of MG and has saved this car from the crusher. All I have to do now is finish all the jobs I have started... Every time I write a 'to do' list, it seems longer than the one before. Is this normal?

That briefly covers the car but if anyone wants to pose a query or needs a pic, please post. One day, I'll publish my version of a wiring diagram, in Excel....

Your to-do list sounds like mine.
They are endless things, only outdone by the "Parts to Buy" list.

Glad you are posting, please keep us up to date on your progress!

Cheers,
Rich

This 'box' in the cavity at the rear of the left front wing/fender, contains the heater matrix from a Mini, which is much smaller than the Magnette item - and more readily available in many parts of the world. I got the idea from another Magnette owner who's car has quite a long local history, being fitted with a hot head and a 1950cc engine. When I get around to scanning the negatives of his car racing, I'll post them in the in the old Magnette Racing Pics thread.

Cute project.

I like prodifying saloons. One of my killer plans, alas. never fulfilled, was a Triumph Mayflower with full TR4 hotted up running gear and brakes.

I also had a Riley 1.5 at the same time as I was developing my big bore Twin Cam engine, and was eying it thoughtfully, but we decided it was a lot easier to plop it into the TVR race car than to make a race car out of the Riley from scratch (accessibility was also much better in the space frame TVR).

Been awhile since I had a Maggot to play with but I seem to recall that there is quite a bit of room aft of the front of the engine if you don't mind a bit of work under the dash. Has anyone slotted in a straight 6 like the Supra motor? It wouldn't be easy to maintain, but it wouldn't be any worse than the last generation Camaros with the engine half under the windshield.

A project like that has its issues with foot space. There's already very little room for the pedals, so throwing in a big engine or bigger tranny, or setting it further back could really complicate things. As it is, I have to wear race shoes just to drive the car!

You know what they say about guys with big feet right? They need big shoes... :)

You are so right Jeff! I'm afraid that the one major issue of the design so far has been the pedals. Although I was advisd to get a Wilwood pedal box (and did so), Farnie ended up building a pedal box from scratch and the placement of the pedals will need addressing again. I'll worry about that more when I have the seat cushions in the race seat, rather than just the base.

The engine is nicely located and I was able to install an electric fan straight from a Toyota that was just the right size, and this is behind the radiator where it should be. It has made a neat installation (and is one of the few mechanical bits I did myself...). NZ imports a lot of cheap secondhand Japanese cars and there are several companies dealing with secondhand spare parts, so that was easy to source.

I am currently tidying up the front valance and have decided to slightly recess the oil cooler and form a small air scoop underneath. The radiator now sits on a totally self made panel (fibreglass) so as to preserve the original. I have created a lot of extra work for myself by electing to make so many fibreglass panels, but the joy of this is that the precious original panels can be retained, if only for taking off another skin later! It has nothing whatever to do with weight saving and performance, but by fixing the radiator grille, rather than having it raised with the bonnet, improves access so even though the original bonnet will look similar to the original, it will behave differently.

I get the impression that an electric fan is more efficiant pulling the air rather than blowing by some of the conversation. Is that correct and why is that so. If you put a shroud around it behind the radiater I can see an advantage. My aircon bloke supplied the fan for my condensor and I just assumed it would do the trick. What about one on the front and one on the back? Where I live it can get up to 35/40 degrees C in summer. Would appreciate some comment.

A puller fan doesn't block the radiator from cooling. A pusher can "hide" 20% of the radiator core from fresh air, plus wind speed can affect fan function.

Correct. An electric fan should only cut in when airflow is insufficient to keep the temperature down, and the puller fan allows the radiator to do its work first. Its rather pointless blanking it off (and some fans cover far more than 20% of the surface area).

You can't just use a pusher fan and reverse the polarity either, as apparently the fan blades need to be pitched correctly.

I still have to work out blanking the top side as the air has to be forced through the radiator and not around it. I wanted to use the original Magnette radiator, but it was too far gone and all that could be salvaged were the side plates - the remainder is brand new. Whether or not the radiator is large enough to cope remains to be seen! I have had the car up to temperature and the override switch for the fan works OK, but I am not sure whether or not the thermo switch is working. It is located in the bottom rear of the radiator.

The Toyota fan was $70 NZ (not sure what that is in US dollars at the moment - probably not a lot! Drat. Off to Disneyland [yet again] later in the year with two of the grandchildren, so hope it shifts more in our favour).

Trawling through a million pics, this shows the B rear end with B Rostyle wheels. Not sure whether or not the original brake drums were fitted at this point, so not sure if it helps the above queries. As above, definitely wasn't cut down - but it weighs a a heap more than the Magnette original!

Second pics shows the inner sill horrors... Just as an aside, the loose rust alone almost filled a domestic bucket and weighed 18lbs!

socram Wrote:

Progress has been a bit slow lately...

Sorry, I don't seem to be able to remove this pic, as I thought the first message hadn't uploaded! So, an extra pic... Had the inner wings and front valance and radiator support painted, so that I could fix those panels in place before finalising the construction of the fibreglass wings. Panel beater/painter also managed to the driver's door to close...

I had to modify the route of the oil cooler pipes to suit the lowered cooler and now both go through the home manufactured fibreglass radiator support. I also needed an extra 90 degree union - jeez, they are so expensive...

Car is only running on 7 cylinders so is booked in next week to investigate the reasons for that, as I suspect it is a bit more serious than I want to deal with and as the engine has only run for about ten minutes, it goes back to the engine builder...

Manufacturing the fibreglass takes a lot longer than I expected, especially as nothing is totally standard.