So here we were about to go on Gary's Run for the first time and I got to thinking about where to put maps and guidebooks etc. I did not want to spend the dollars for the available side ones that go in the foot wells so scratched my head and came up with this idea.

I went and bought an acrylic wall mounted file folder from the local office supply store, under $15 and was going to mount it in the foot well but decided that it would be in the way for getting in and out for both the driver side and passenger side.

I was going to take it back but realised that as I was in the B when I picked it up I had just stashed it behind the drivers seat and found that it held stuff neatly and it was easy to reach around and drop things in or pick things out.

AH HA!!!!

so I took some vinyl material that was very close to the colour of the interior panels and glued this to the outside and then used some lengths of chrome car door edge trim to dres the top. This was then just screwed to panel behind the seat and it works just great.

Voila some place to hold those maps etc.

I have been having issues with my speedo over the last 3 years and despite replacing and rebuilding everything I was down to the fact the gear in the gearbox must be stripped. Well as I am going to convert to a V6 in the fall it just is not worth the time or effort to do anything about it.

So I thought lets go with the GPS speedo from Speedhut, that way it does not matter what I do to the car the speedo will report the correct speed.

Nobody seems to have put one in a 73 as the hole is not big enough and I even read that they will not fit, (read that after I ordered the speedo mind you) Any way I measured up and I felt that the 3 3/8th speedo size would work with a bit of work to enlarge the hole.

Well I decided yes lets go for it and I went ahead and ordered both the speedo and matching Tach (again the new engine will mean I will need it anyway) and I spent the extra dollars to have MGB stenciled on the gauges.

Only took me maybe a hour total to remove the old gauge, enlarge the hole and install the GPS speedo. Works really well and it sure looks good, will look forward to getting the Tach in and ordereing matching fuel and temo gauges as well.

I really like the look and it works just great, several display settings can be used, such as clock, trip, direction etc, I have the clock showing as it is nice to have a clock so I know the time as well.

Looking forward to getting all the other gauges in for sure.

So I have been lurking around the engine swap forum asking a few questions and thinking about a V6 swap, originally I was going to look at the 2004 Malibu 3400 engine, find a gearbox and get the conversionm parts yaddda yadda yadda. Well looking at pricing that was definately doable but also looked at the other option which is the complete engine and gearbox out of a 94/95 Firebird or Camaro. Fat chance I would find a good one though or so I thought.

Well what do you know but I found a 95 Firebird 3.4l being parted out and the guy was willing to let me have the complete engine gearbox, including all wiring ancillaries and ECM for only $250.00, only kicker was it had not run for over a year. Well went to see it and thought everything looked good, only 140km on the engine and every thing there so decided to go for it. He agreed to take it out of the car and deliver for total of $300.00.

Even better he called me the next day to say that he connected the battery turned her over and it fired into life, no smoke and drove it into the workshop to get get cracking on it. BONUS.

Got it today and its sitting on a pallet in the garage, now to look at what else I need etc.

We are having many days of rain here over the winter months so I have not had the chance to take the B for a drive very much, so I thought lets do a few small jobs.
#1 on the list was the wipers that always seem a little sluggish, although I have not had to use them at all yet I wanted them to be working 100%.
So I followed a guide that was on this site and set to. Getting the motor off was very simple, undo the Acorn nut, two bolts on the saddle clamp and it was out.
Over to the bench and took the cover off and dismantled all that could be taken apart.
Well there was not as much grease in there as I thought there would be or that I have seen from other members but still it was the thick axle type and even turning the inner wheel by fingers was difficult.
A good clean up all round including the armature and I was ready to start reassembly.
Using white lithium grease and sparingly the inner wheel was far easier to turn and it all went back together easily.
I also cleaned off the cable that turns the wiper heads greased that with white lithium grease as well and was then ready to install. A quick 180 degree turn on the wiper heads first and the cable was fed back in fully. simple re bolt up and it was ready to test.

Wow definately better running now, just need to be brave and take it out in the rain and really test it.......maybe not.

So there we were the wife and I out for a nice drive when I noticed that when applying the brakes every thing seemed OK however if I kept the pressure on the pedal started to go soft and down.

mmmm, here am I thinking do I have a leak etc or did my brake master cylinder suddenly decide to go out.

Checked fluid etc and definately no loss so suspected the Master Cylinder, as I need to get an out of province inspection done soon decided lets just put a new one on.

After a bit of fiddling I got the old one out and the new in, had my wife sit in the car and bled everything thoroughly.

WOW, what a rock hard pedal with hardly any travel, the best I have ever seen even on new cars.

Maybe come the winter I will get a new Clutch master and slave, flexible pipes etc and uppdate that as well.

After waiting for what seemed a long time my new seat covers in Honey Tan finally arrived, I had already put in the new interior kit and new carpet so I was looking forward to completing the seats.

A bit tricky to do and I may not have done the absolute bbest job but I am happy with the outcome, now to get them in the car.

OK so now I need to get the new top on the car, not looking forward to that one.