MGB LE Progress Thread
Hi everyone.
My name is Mike, I'm 23 and from the Isle of Man. I bought my MGB in March this year. It is in very good condition with only some minor TLC needed to bring her up to former glory. There are 44,000 genuine miles on the clock, this is verified with MOT certificates.
I will constantly update this thread when I start doing work on her. The main jobs are,
New carpet
Paint touch ups
Respray boot
Refurbish LE alloys
New door handles/locks
Refurbish dash
Clean up metal
New door mirrors
New roof
Black number plates - ordered
A really good clean/polish/detailing
A good service
As a winter project, my Dad and I plan on taking out the engine. Stripping it down, cleaning it up, a bit of tuning and a respray.
I am currently finishing my degree in Southampton. But I went home last Easter and got out in it a bit - Here are some photos 🙂
I have already changed the steering wheel. I did keep the original! I plan on keep this car as original as possible!
Hi Mike and thanks for starting this thread-it's always great to see what others are upto.
My L.E. has the same steering wheel-so much nicer but like you say its just a quick job to replace if necessary, like seats etc-mine are still very orange lol.
Is this your first MGB and if so were you specifically looking for an L.E.?
It's much nicer than that hideous huge rubber thing!
According the guy who owned it before me, the seats used to be orange (standard LE seat colour?). I prefer them black.
Yeah - it is my first MGB. It was my Dad who found it. We were actually looking for a Triumph Vitesse as a project car. But the one my Dad looked at was in awful condition. The guy selling it just happened to have the LE in his garage! It was too good a deal to let it go. Plus, as far as I am aware, it is the only LE on the island!
there was one GTLE that was exported to Ireland....
As long as it isn't on the IOM, I'm ok with that! lol
If I was to remove the boot rack, would it still be considered an original LE?
Only the American (Black) USLE came with the boot rack as standard plus yours is an after market item....not what was supplied by the factory back in the late 70's....
Ah, good. I'm not a big fan of the boot rack. Since my boot lid needs respraying, might be worth taking it off!
Hi Mike,
Wonder what your tyre size is, thay look a bit "fatter" as 185/70x14 ex factory also the rear looks a bit high, might be that rear springs are replaced with MGB-GT springs, same thing I did when I put a trailer hitch/tow bar on one of the B's.
Car looks nice and the seats (MGOC ?) are better in comfort as the ex-factory seats.
I thought the back end looks a bit high too. I think the tyres are 195, not sure of the profile though. There is/was a tow bar on there (I've half taken it off...) so it is possible the rear springs have been uprated at some point. I am unsure of where the seats are from. I thought that they had only been re-covered - I could be completely wrong though!
Although I bought it back in March, I only drove it for 3 weeks while I was back home at Easter. All receipts and what not have been kept, so I will look through them when I move home to try and find out about the springs and seats.
It might have GT springs on the car which have one extra leaf for the extra load of the GT.
Nice pics though