HOW TO COPE WITH HEAT AND HUMIDITY WHEN DRIVING YOUR MGB

Hey, I don't have the answer but I bet many of you do. Yesterday, in between rain storms, I took the car out and, to be quite honest, it was miserable with the heat and humidity so high. I figure there must be at least a thousand years of MG driving time on the MGB Experience and I'm sure many of you have those "little secrets" to stay cool when it's to hot for top down and way to miserable for top up driving. How about sharing? I'm looking forward to hearing how you handle it. I really enjoying learning from you folks. Thanks now.

PS: Yes, I didn't make it home in time and did get wet! Cooled me off though.

You just answered your question, Naomi. Wait for a rain shower. Works every time. Without air conditioning, the only practical solution I know is to drive your B up to the top of the nearest mountain, preferably one with lots of large trees for shade. Locally, for me, High Knob National Recreation Area, near Norton(Wise County), Virginia, is such an ideal drive.

Only a couple of things help:

-- Get a soft top with a zip-out rear window. The flow-through ventilation helps a lot, especially on the highway, of course, and leaving the top up keeps the sun off, so you're much cooler.

-- Put heat-shield insulation under the carpet, to cut down on the ambient heat from the exhaust, tranny tunnel and firewall as much as possible. Plug any and all holes in the firewall. (New grommets and plugs.)

-- Keep the sun off your head, wear a hat. If you're out driving for a distance, stow a small cooler with ice in it. Keep a couple of bandanas cold and wet in the cooler; wrap 'em around your neck or forehead, changing them out with they get warm.

-- Replenish those fluids! (Keep bottled water in that same small cooler. Use the pull-out "squirt" caps, so you can shoot the water into your mouth or on top of your head while driving.)

-- Keep moving! If you get stuck in traffic with the top down, be prepared with a small umbrella. Put it up to give yourself some shade if you don't get an opportunity to put the top up. (We got stuck in traffic a couple of times on the way to St. Louis. I saw other B drivers put up their umbrellas while they were stopped; the next opportunity, I got mine out of the trunk. It makes a big difference to get that sun off you when you're not moving!)

Get a B/GT with A/C for the hot days and a roadster for the nice days! I'll be putting A/C in the 74 roadster I doing for my wife.

Ok Naomi here goes. Build Micky Mouse air conditioner.

Sorry, for interuption.

-1 styrofoam cooler (cheap one)
Cut 2 holes 3" from top on long side about 2 - 3" in diameter
Cut 1 hole 3 - 4" from top on short side about 3" in diameter

-Attach flex tubing 2 - 3' long to openings on long side (duct tape)

-Attach small blower motor to opening on short side (attached with
screws and/or more duct tape)

-Wire to hot wire or cig lighter

-Set on rear parcel shelf

-Fill cooler with ice (be sure that you check fluid accumulation in cooler)

-Flex tubing to hot area of your choice

-Apply electricity

-Cooler has multi cooling functions, see prior notes.

I hate to admit it, Naomi, but I usually wimp out and just drive my "rational" car under those circumstances! I like the Mickey Mouse air conditioner idea that Gene put forth. You could even find a way to fashion a drain from the bottom of the cooler through the battery cover on the rear shelf to carry away melted water. AL Bradley

In addition to whats been mentioned, I look for shady routes with the least traffic. One of my ways home from work goes through the Cleveland MetroParks ( the "Emerald Necklace" so called, which is also the name of our local MG club) that is very shady. The speed limit is only 30 mph, but on a 90 degree day there is a considerable temperature difference. Same with tree lined side streets in city driving.

That's when I drive my Miata! You oughta check into buying one! Sorry...I couldn't resist....:-)

You could fill the fresh air intake with ice cubes. That would cool that blast of air that you get through the dash vents....ok, "blast" is a little but of a stretch....

Right now, my heater hoses are disconnected from the heater box. I suppose I could pump crushed ice into the core and turn on the heater fan. At least my feet would be cool for a little while....

Don't listen to these guys Naomi. They've got it all backwards. You have to start in the Spring and condition yourself to the elements as the elements slowly heat up. You can't condition the MG roadster. It is what it is. You are the adaptable factor in this equation. For a modest fee, I'll be glad to take you on as an apprentice landscaper. We have a wonderful training program that gives you an incredible appreciation for the slightest wisp of fresh air. A drive in a roadster at 25+ mph will seem like Maine in the Fall. Our GT fees are slightly higher.

aim your windshield washers high. Get too hot squirt yourself

What You could do is make a cool suit. They have a cooler with ice and water in it. There's a plastic tube coming out of the cooler with a small pump installed in the line. The tube runs up to a vest and is roughted through it, and back to the cooler. You install a switch to turn it on and off.

There ain't nobody out there got an aftermarket air conditioning system in their MGB, nobody wants one, and they haven't been invented yet? Wow, do ya recon I'm going through the "change". Probably shouldn't have asked that!!

Oh yea there out there. I have better than half a dozen, that customers asked me to remove, piled up on a shelf in my WH. For one thing,more so on the 65HP RB's, they are like riding the brakes when you turn them on. For anothe they never did preform worth a flip.

Naomi,
There's plenty of aftermarket systems out there. I even posted a link a while back of one on ebay
<http://www.mgbexperience.com/phorum/read.php?f=1&i=94186&t=94186>

Many people replace the York compressor with a modern Sanden unit. There's also a guy in Kansas that makes a kit. Do a search for A/C, or air conditioner to see what comes up. It was posted about a year ago.

The problem is the drain it puts on the vehicles. Although that's because most people are running with the old, inefficient, York compressors. So they remove it from their car and suffer.

I know a local guy that runs a Sanden compressor in his MGA coupe. His "shtick" is to drive up to a meet, wearing ear muffs and gloves, in the middle of August!

Robert is putting one in his car (BGT).

Tom, there has got to be a better way. Don't you think it is an invention waiting to happen? By the way, what do you want for a complete unit to fit my MG? Right now I'd give up that horse power to be comfortable. Ya can email me at home with total cost incuding shipping a complete unit to the house and I'll "make" the hubby install it!

take the footwell carpets out fill with ice!

every cars been rained (hell ive driven throuh hail) w/o a top on and they survive, whats 2$ worth of ice on your feet

put emery cloth on your shoes/pedals tho.. or you'll drive through a farmers market :-\

Hot AND humid?
Never had that here... Sounds like midwest weather.
I suggest you plan your drive in between DQ's. At every DQ, have another treat. (I prefer Blizzards.) Drive at least 50 miles per hour.

Reading this has given me a great idea - the DPO didn't put the little clips onto the air intake grille for the heater - it just sits in there, so it is VERY easy to lift out! How about a wire basket, filled with ice and dropped into the opening. The drain in there should get rid of the ice melt and I would have cold air through the vents and the footwell "flap"! Once we have the move completed I'm going to try it!

Hey Naomi, is the bumper pull still on when you have the A/C running? LOL

I knew a man once who had an MGA, well, since MGAs had plywood floors, he just put a big block of ice in the floorboard and let it drain through a hole in the plywood.

The zip down rear window is really cool. Except that the rear sliding bar used to create tension will loosen up on the highway and come forward. Then the top flaps a bunch. Probably many easy ways to keep that from hapenning.

The only thing nobody has mentioned, but maybe don't need to, is turn your little triangle windows all the way around so that the incoming air blows directly on you. Those little vent windows are really your only tool. Use them.