(Another) Mk2 MG ZS180 Restoration
Discussion
In my endless quest to ruin my own life, that of my neighbours and p
s off the ever-suffering wife... I bought another MG ZS180! 
This car was from a good friend who was 'clearing out' his collection - while needing some TLC, she's a wonderfully pretty little thing and a great project to keep me busy over the summer.
Unfortunately I'm posting most of this 'after the fact' - I did mean to start a thread as alluded to in the Mk1's topic, alas time ran away with me (combined with plenty of issues elsewhere in the collection of battered wrecks) meaning I had to crack on with this when I could rather than allocating a week or two for the work in one go.
She's a very late (55-registered) Mk2 MG ZS180 in Firefrost - coming with such amazing technological innovations as 4 electric windows and a bodged-from-the-factory climate control system that was really only ever fit for the bin.
Anyone with a Mk2 having 'transistor pack' woes will be absolutely delighted to tell you how much of a faff these are, I'm sure!
Here's a few pictures - as I collected her, a bit of snow on the way home and safely back in sunny Southport alongside the Mk1.
From a quick going over, the work I could see that'd need doing includes:
- All brakes replaced (at least discs and pads, probably both rear calipers too)
- Underside corrosion cleaning up, repairing if needed and then coating thoroughly to protect in future
- Slightly rough running at idle, suspect coil packs or spark plugs
- Bearing noise from the cambelt area, not too loud (but oh, how I should have acted on this sooner... more on that later!)
- Climate control system not working, suspect the transistor pack (a common issue)
First of all, as with all my projects I start by dealing with the corrosion - best to get the basics right before cracking on with the 'lesser' issues.
The front jacking points are the worst area - they always look a hundred times worse than they are, however this was mainly the paint coating flaking off and a little surface corrosion underneath.
With a good wire wheel session and some careful application of Bilt Hamber Deox-Gel, the area was massively improved and ready for coating.
A quick coating of Electrox and several layers of Dynax-UB later we've got something a bit more presentable:
I didn't take too many pictures of this part - all rust pretty much looks the same...
Next up, I'll be tackling the brakes, rough running and the climate control system. More to follow!
s off the ever-suffering wife... I bought another MG ZS180! This car was from a good friend who was 'clearing out' his collection - while needing some TLC, she's a wonderfully pretty little thing and a great project to keep me busy over the summer.
Unfortunately I'm posting most of this 'after the fact' - I did mean to start a thread as alluded to in the Mk1's topic, alas time ran away with me (combined with plenty of issues elsewhere in the collection of battered wrecks) meaning I had to crack on with this when I could rather than allocating a week or two for the work in one go.
She's a very late (55-registered) Mk2 MG ZS180 in Firefrost - coming with such amazing technological innovations as 4 electric windows and a bodged-from-the-factory climate control system that was really only ever fit for the bin.
Anyone with a Mk2 having 'transistor pack' woes will be absolutely delighted to tell you how much of a faff these are, I'm sure!
Here's a few pictures - as I collected her, a bit of snow on the way home and safely back in sunny Southport alongside the Mk1.
From a quick going over, the work I could see that'd need doing includes:
- All brakes replaced (at least discs and pads, probably both rear calipers too)
- Underside corrosion cleaning up, repairing if needed and then coating thoroughly to protect in future
- Slightly rough running at idle, suspect coil packs or spark plugs
- Bearing noise from the cambelt area, not too loud (but oh, how I should have acted on this sooner... more on that later!)
- Climate control system not working, suspect the transistor pack (a common issue)
First of all, as with all my projects I start by dealing with the corrosion - best to get the basics right before cracking on with the 'lesser' issues.
The front jacking points are the worst area - they always look a hundred times worse than they are, however this was mainly the paint coating flaking off and a little surface corrosion underneath.
With a good wire wheel session and some careful application of Bilt Hamber Deox-Gel, the area was massively improved and ready for coating.
A quick coating of Electrox and several layers of Dynax-UB later we've got something a bit more presentable:
I didn't take too many pictures of this part - all rust pretty much looks the same...
Next up, I'll be tackling the brakes, rough running and the climate control system. More to follow!
shalmaneser said:
interested to learn how the climate control was bodged! These are cool cars always loved the vents on the wing.
They're brilliant cars - with the underpinnings of a 90s Honda Civic / Integra they were always going to be a fun little thing to chuck around. Even more so when MG got their hands on the suspension and firmed it up a little!
The climate control on these is a hodge-podge of the old Honda system which relies on 'manual' controls being combined with a few sensors and control flaps being put in some properly silly places - in addition a lot of the parts (transistor pack, cabin temperature sensor and exterior temperature sensor to name a few) are rather weak and prone to failure as they age.
It's not the end of the world; the business I founded has solutions for all of these failures so fixing them is easy here - just a pain if you're not 'in the know' and are trying to find a new transistor pack (impossible) rather than being able to pick one up 'off the shelf' for £30 like most other cars.
As the system was only fitted for a year of production, working 2nd hand spares are also frightfully hard to find.
When working, I have to give it credit though - it's rock-steady in terms of cabin comfort and the A/C system itself on these is usually very reliable with only condensers causing issues as they leak with age due to corrosion.
r1ch said:
You'll have to post some interior pics. I've always thought these were pretty cool, not that I know much about them. My neighbour had a mint low miles one in silver which looked excellent.
The interior in the Mk2 is rather lacking, unfortunately - apart from the 'rings' around the heater vents rather than the square vents of the Mk1 there wasn't much done to drag it from the 90s. 
The red heater rings are aftermarket (the original items are thin plastic, and incredibly fragile) and as you can see this picture was pre-cleaning too.
I really do prefer the interior of the Mk1, which has better quality plastic, better seats and lovely silver inserts on the door cards (stopped due to cost)
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