For anybody out there following my progress, the replacement exhaust
manifold I was to get from the 79 spitfire turned out to be cracked, so I
didn't end up getting it. I had another kind offer (thanks to Jim Strohm)
for a 72 manifold, but I've decided to try and use the original manifold,
and just epoxy the cracked piece back on. Thanks to my father and his drill
press, I managed to get the old studs drilled out of the manifold and new
threads tapped in. More correctly, HE managed to do the drilling and
tapping, since he (who claims not to be interested in working on my cars)
wouldn't let me anywhere near it as soon as he got his hands on it :-)
I'm going to sandblast the manifold this weekend, and coat it with a
"high-temp coating" I got from The Eastwood Company (Anybody have any
experience with this stuff?). The new gaskets/hardware should be in middle
of next week, along with my suspension rebuild kit. If I'm lucky, she'll be
drivable by next Sunday so I can take her to see the MG's at the MG show in
Brookline. I know better than to hope to make a deadline though...
Jeremy DuBois
Programmer/System Administrator
Thermalogic Corporation
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