If you have been following this blog, you know that I bought a serious project car last winter. When I say “serious”, I mean a project car that was not only incomplete, but in rusty and rotten condition. However, it is a 1954 MG TF Midget “1500” car, of which, only 2,700 or so were imported into the US of A. When I saw the car advertised on Craigslist in the Chico, CA area, I did not hesitate to call the owner and make the deal right then and there. Sight unseen, is not the usual method of buying a car, but this one was rare and a model I had coveted since the early days of my obsession with automobiles.
I took my retired British car mechanic friend, Doug Jackson, along for the ride to pick up the car in Oroville, CA. I wish I had a photo of his face when he saw the car! I know he thought I was crazy for buying it and a number of bricks shy of a load for thinking I could make a running, driving vehicle from a thing in such a distressed and repellant state. I, on the other hand, had no illusions of what I would find, but still could not mask my disappointment at realizing that this rolling wreck was sporting a heavily bastardized MG TD radiator shell, that, in no way, would pass as correct. It was an unfunny joke, created by a very heavy handed, talentless lout with a hacksaw and a brazing torch. I could see what had been attempted, but the result was a monstrosity on the level created by Herr Doktor Franken-Shteen!
New grille shells are virtually non-existent as are used units. Fortunately, I have since purchased a very nice used one from another MG T-series car freak in British Columbia.
So, here we are about 5 months later and I am posting an update to the resurrection, or rather redirection of purpose for the TF/B. I completely stripped the car down to it’s frame and laboriously scraped all the paint off that covered the coat of rust it was intended to hide. Around the same time, William Shaw of Corte Madera British and European offered me a 1979 MGB Roadster as a donor car for the suspension, drive train and engine. I got it cheap, so I was not too disappointed to find the engine in need of a full rebuild. Converting the TF to MGB suspension was fairly straight forward with only the need to cut and rethread the tie rods. Adapting the rear differential, however, required cutting the spring perches off the tube axle and having them welded back on at about 1/2″ out board of their original position. Mounting the transmission required cutting the original TF mounting out of the frame, cutting down and welding the B crossmember and creating some mounting plates on the underside of the TF frame.
I have written about all the above on the MG Experience web forum site, so I only touch briefly on those subjects in the embedded video here.
Kenzmyth Productions 
Very well & professionally done—especially liked your mat board tranny tunnel..great job explaining how it was done.
Looks great Ken. Wondered what you had been up to. I see the address for your new studio/shop so I’ll have to bring my new classic Mini Clubman 1000 by some day!