MGB GT V8 build. **SOLD**

[3xpendable]

Yes

[3xpendable]

Dad has been tinkering with the car while I am away, but seeing as I like to end posts on a good note I'll explain that after. Firstly though, I am completely fed up with buying expeinsive parts for this car that are supposed to fit and don't. is there NO pride in work anymore?? And why do people not kick up more of a stink when things aren't right? I HATE this "Oh yeah its **** but thats just they way they are" culture that seems to be rife.

Last time I was home as I outlined before, we tried fitting the manifolds after I wrapped them but the only once I could get on, the N/S was touching the chassis rail. I asked around and you can buy spacer plates for the engine mounts. So I bought 2 for each side and it was my intention to get a lot done to the car this weekend: Jack the motor up to get the O/S manifold on (its tight), put the spacer plates in, bolt up the manifolds, drop the motor then onto other jobs. But no:

We jacket the engine up, and mated the manifold up. Its tricky doing two bolts as they have to be pushed through their hole at an agnle given the proximity of the exhaust tube, But even once that was done, once you put 2 or 3 of the hardest bolts in, most of the others wouldnt line up. After struggling for an hour we took it off and tried mating it to a spare head I had on the bench. No way, no way in hell could you fit it. at least 3 of the 8 holes were nowhere near central if the others were lined up and it would have meant either tearing head threads or putting the manifold under extreme stress to make them line up. I'm sorry there was no way there were checked with a job properly. Given that I know a replacement set would be the same we modified them ourselves, making the holes slightly larger to give a bit more room the play with. We didnt get to fit them as we needed a HT drill bit, so dad is doing that this week.

I have contacted the company that supplied my exhaust manifolds (block hugger, stainless) because I realise they are just the supplier so won't name or badmouth them (unless they get silly) but I have asked for a contact at their supplier to ask how they make them and they they aren't doing it right. I work in engineering, Automotive to be exact and at the end of the day if you bought a part for your new Ford, Nissan whatever and you have to do 2 hours of work to modify it to fit then you wouldnt be happy and most likely they'd have to fit it for you. So when you pay £350 for Rover V8 manifolds its not unreasonable to expect them to fit a Rover V8.

I shall get off the soap box now, but I do not tolerate poor workmanship on something I pay a lot of money for, even if a lot of people do.

So onto brighter things, I got the valve train built up and fitted, so now I can get rocker cover bolts and fit them up. I've also ordered an Edelbrock intake manifold. Someone from another forum took a trip to the US and got one for me at cost so it was very cheap compared to buying new here.

Dad has also fabricated the rear valence exhaust lips. The original one has to be moved outward due to the tank being moved, and obviously a second one needs to be cut out on the other side. Instead of patching the original lip and making new, we decided to just extend it giving more of an 'oval' look which I actually really like and it was easier. It was centralised between the spring hangar and the fuel tank, so the 2.25" tailpipe should sit nicely in the centre.



Now thats done, dad can paint the rear wing, and valence again. I plan to take a week off injuly to get tucked into fitting the trims and interior along with other things.

[TerryG]

Poor quality after market parts are nothing new although frustrating. With my mog I tend to go for reconditioned original parts as I was completely fed up with rubbish quality chrome, light rings and hubcaps that were too small, 2 new radiators that leaked, brake cylinders with no seals in (I was poor that year and purchased pattern parts, I ended up buying seals for the old originals), a clutch that lasted 500 yards / 2 gear changes, carpet sets that were too wide on one side and too narrow on the other, handbrake cables with the ends poorly crimped so they came apart in a few weeks, flasher units that don't flash or flash too quickly, I could go on.
The problem is most parts seem to be made in China at the lowest possible price and even when parts are made in the UK, they are made by trained monkeys that don't care as long as they get paid at the end of the week.

Shout, moan, complain, get a refund and take your custom elsewhere. I have a reputation at work of making suppliers cry after I had a rep in a few years ago and I peeled so many strips off the bloke that he left before the end of the meeting. (photocopier salesman, he deserved it). If you have a loud voice, you get attention as the supplier won't want their other customers to hear you complaining.

[kevin]

I bought a new kick start lever for a Norton Commando i used to own (chrome had gone on the old one).
Fitted it, and on the first kick, the splines stripped on it, rendering it useless!! ended up having the old one rechromed

most (not all though) pattern stuff is poor quality in my experience

Kev

[kstrutt1]

And then of course all the rubber parts perish after a year(sometimes before the car is even on the road!), this seems to be the main issue with the pattern brake parts, I have stripped and measured a couple and the dimensions and surface finsish seem fine, the seals seem hopeless. The best advice I have is buy the parts from somewhere that fits them themselves, they don't want to spend hours fettling parts or have to replace them after a couple of weeks.

kevin

[Luxobarge]

I feel your pain, it's a very common issue, the quality of repro classic car parts is appalling, but it's very difficult to know what to do about it. Many are so bad that technically I guess you could sue them for supplying parts that are not fit for purpose, but personally I don't have the time, resources or energy to do so, and I suspect most others are the same.

If anyone has any bright ideas to help solve this is would be good to air them here?

I suppose one "background" thing we can do is to post on the forum suppliers of poor quality stuff, and similarly sources of good quality parts and let market forces play their part? How would we sit legally doing that?

Painful.

[suffolkpete]

I would hesitate to post bad reviews but perhaps we should post recommended suppliers. I suspect the worst culprits are some eBay suppliers and we can always give negative feedback. You have 90 days, so sit tight and see how your new purchase performs before giving feedback

[SirTainleyBarking]

I feel your pain, it's a very common issue, the quality of repro classic car parts is appalling, but it's very difficult to know what to do about it. Many are so bad that technically I guess you could sue them for supplying parts that are not fit for purpose, but personally I don't have the time, resources or energy to do so, and I suspect most others are the same.

If anyone has any bright ideas to help solve this is would be good to air them here?

I suppose one "background" thing we can do is to post on the forum suppliers of poor quality stuff, and similarly sources of good quality parts and let market forces play their part? How would we sit legally doing that?

Painful.

Trading standards. If the parts don't fit, the supplier cannot claim they are of merchantable quality or even fit for purpose. Like the "Lucas" so called distributor parts I've bought in the past. Fit for use? My flabby white bottom! - actually my rear end supplies more sparks and flames than those shonky peices of tat ever did

[3xpendable]

I spoke to the company yesterday, and they say they were 'very surprised' of the problem because they test fit all manifolds to heads before they are shipped out.

Don't jerk me off, I'm not stupid. There was no way those manifolds were test fitted to a head, sinple no. They could not have got the bolts on. Then the guy started trying to blame me, by saying:

"Did you put the bolts on in the correct order? We start from the middle out"

It doesn't matter which order, if you mate the manifold to the head and line up 4 or 3 holes, the others do not line up! No amount of bolt fitting ordering fixes that crap. Then I finally got him:

"Well are you using the right bolts? You should use the Hed hex cap ones"

"Yes, I'm using the bolts that I bought from you the same time I got the manifolds"

So they know the issue, I suspect nothing will happen but I doubt I'll be buying from them again even if they are cheaper.

[rich.]

name & shame them mate