Thank you for saving a Maestro. Sadly lost my MG Maestro . Got rear ended on the M40 in the 90s. Just had the car serviced brakes worked fine. These are good cars.
My dad had an 83 Maestro L 1600 when I was growing up - it had an automatic choke that caused major problems if you tried to restart the car when it was hot (it would re-engage the choke and flood). He hated it and it was a rot-box, but he got the Perkins 2 litre diesel Maestro afterwards and loved it - still talks about it to this day, long after he's given up driving
This should be a good series Will. I have a soft spot for BL cars - shouldn't have, we all know what they're really like - but I've driven many company Metros, Maestros and Montegos when they were new or fairly new and found them a good drive, but a few years down the line......... When you do the brakes, bear in mind the servo - this could be underperforming, what with age and sitting for so long. If you're checking tightness of fasteners, crack them loose to break the bond before applying correct torque. One other thing - it would be interesting/amusing to see the extent of corrosion on the donor vehicle. Happy spannering!
WillThePlank as I live and breathe. Stumbled across this by accident and thought I recognised you, I used to watch you 15 or more years ago. Great content, keep it up.
Old school tricks my grandad used to do with gasket use kitchen lino works a treat with everything to warped thermostat housing and inlet manifold etc etc trust me it works very good
Hi Will I'm happy to see you making progress on the Maestro, I can happily say that I have been the proud owner of two Maestros one was a MG 1600 with the electronic dashboard and speaking computer, and I did below the engine up🤯 on it. Please check your CV joint gaiters as the rubber will be very dry and possibly cracked and no one wants to hear that terrible noise coming from your front wheels when you go round corners. I am looking forward to more videos 😊
any of us old school guys n girls remember the air filter casing having a winter and summer setting where the air filter casing was moved left or right over the exhaust manifold during winter and vice versa.
She sounds pretty sweet. It really amazes me that it appears to be In pretty good shape. These cars used to have major rust and rust bubbles on sills and arches within 8 yrs or so. Look forward to your progress.
Tell me about it, mine was completely rotten at 7, I reluctantly had numerous welding jobs done to get it through its next two MOTs before finally giving up on it.
@@tomgoode4858 My mate got an MG Turbo Maestro back in the early 90s and it was only 3 years old. It had minor rust coming through on two of the arches and sills. 30k it had done. It also had a slight wack on passenger side quarter panel. He got it very cheap due to this. His dad had a friend who owned a car restoration place that did mostly high end sport and luxury cars. It's rumoured his dad's friend owed him big time. They stripped it down and put on a new quarter panel on and sanded off the rust and undersealed the floor and resprayed it. Cos it was metallic, it was their choice to do a complete outer respray as its very hard to get the finish right with just spraying up 1 panel and they did not want bad press. It looked brand new and was a very nippy car he had it 5 yrs, then he moved up north. Last I heard 8 yrs ago, he still had it. His dad always insisted he kept his cars in a garage at night as he did to slow down corrosion. The maestro in the above looks tidy and its ancient and was left in a barn, so it goes to show, it does help to keep em covered up. Ford's Austins / Rovers and vauxhall of that era were absolute rust buckets.
@@richhughes7450 all cars corrode if neglected,i drove fords alll threw the 90s and never had corrosion issues on my sierras and granadas.fantastic cars,however i will say cavaliers rear arches rotted terribly.this maestro seems very tidy as these and montegos allso rotted for england if neglected.look forward to more videos even tho i arnt a fan of them.its good to see rare cars protected.you cant go wrong with waxoil products.
I always had a soft spot for these. I had a 1987 1.3L 4 speed and a 1988 1.6 Mayfair which was a very nice, luxurious car with a very sweet engine. I was pretty sure that both of these had automatic chokes.
Well done for saving this piece of history. I’ve rescued and restored two allegros, the predecessor to the maestro. Parts are the problem as you said, some things just made of unobtanium. Got another subscriber, looking forward to the next instalment.
With your leaking gasket on the heater, could you try and make one, i think you can buy gasket material, do a search online there are plenty of manufactuers etc , chhers good work
yes we do want to see the oil change. Shows us the condition of the internals of the engine and gives us an idea of how it was treated. Just a quick show of the flow and the colour is fine :). We love to see all old fluids changed and see what bits are in it. Oil, fuel tank, brakes, carb float bowl, screenwash, coolant etc. Make your own coolant flange gasket. Just buy gasket paper (or ceral box if you really have to.
Hi Will, as far as rust protection, although it’s some years since I’ve been able to work on cars, I used to swear by Finnegans Waxoyl, on the underside and more importantly in the sills and box sections. 👍🙂
For underseal I would use lano guard fantastic stuff and very easy to put on I’ve done all the underside of my mx5 and they rot for a living hope that helps
Will the plank!! You came up on my suggestions and I was so happy to see it was you. I used to love the old Mac videos but my fave of yours was that old 7 series!
Good to see someone from ''the old life'' on TH-cam, That 7 series was such a pain for me because it was a family members car I was doing the work on and they were footing the bill, and then they pulled the plug due to cost, it got sold in the end and someone used the engine in a kit car...sad times. Safe to say this one is all under my control and will be finished :)
Good luck with the project. Only warning is when the car is finished is be prepared for a short trip to become a long trip. People will come up to you and say “We used to have one of those” or “My dad had one of those” etc etc. You’ll then get involved in a long interesting chat. I get it all the time on my scooter & motorcycle ☺️
I have been impressed with Lanoguard for under my JDM, didt want to cover any areas in bitumen based stuff ,so I could keep an eye on things ,and it leaves a nice clear ish finish, etc ,and it was really easy to apply.
Hi Will, my Dad had a white/grey H reg Maestro 1.3LX, so nice to see this video for memories of him. For rust & underbody treatment, I would suggest looking at Bilt Hamber products. They do a full range of treatment including a wax like underseal that can be purchased in a dark brown or even a clear version.
Had a 1989 G reg 1.3 in maroon. A bit under powered, slows down going up the hill on the motorway but so long as doing 90 by the time it got to the bottom of a hill tended to work out ok, overall although a bit weak, engine solid. Paintwork/ lacquer an issue, bonnet completely peeled. Heater array a big issue, leaked constantly into the passenger foot-well, even when not leaking it produced minimal heat, usual ice on the inside of windows etc. Drivers seat collapsed so watch out on bumpy farm tracks. Central locking on front passenger door was a little erratic to say the least and required manual intervention about 80% of the time, seemed to partly work but then needed a yank on the pop-up to fully unlock/lock. I had the car from 13K miles, we separated at around 80K by which time BLs build quality had caught us up. Having said all this, it was our first car and I loved it.
Hi Will, i can confirm to you that the 13" wheels you took off and the wheel trims it came with where the correct wheels for maestro clubmans of that age ( we had two maestros) the clubman we had (bought brand new also on a h reg) was identical to yours, and sported 13 inch wheels and those caps, and if memory serves me correctly the tyre size was 155/70/13. The later cars built after the original run had finished (post k reg) which im not as familiar with "ledbury" perhaps? they used up old stock and the wheels where different hence the larger wheels on your n reg car. Just so you know what it came with fitted are actually what it would've left the factory on. Good luck Regards, Daniel.
Having owned both regular and Ledbury flavour Maestros, the Ledbury 'box has a nicer change feel. The old four speed box has a rubbery-notchy change that's pretty normal. Shame your Ledbury was too far gone but at least it's getting to live on in this one. Good luck with the adventure, the biggest challenge these days is just finding some of the bits, they're a very easy car to work on as you'll know doubt find out the more you dig in.
think pretty much everything you've listed in terms of parts are on the donor car, even the heater gasket, granted it used but worth a punt putting it in
There must be a great deal of pleasure obtained in recommisioning such a car, and how lucky you are to have an almost identical parts car with a lot of new spare parts to remove. Good luck with this. I look forward to many videos of all the little jobs that will need doing. A friend bought two used low mileage Maestros, both running when stored about 15 years back, but sadly he never had the time or resources to do them up and take them to shows as planned. They are stored now safely in a new garage - maybe he keeps them now as investments, I don't know.
Great video nice to meet red Fred, my mate had a montego when he passed his test in mid 90s, was a right battle axe, I remember the starter motor failing several times apart from that it was OK especially when your 17 ha
I had an 83 maestro l...back in the 90s....the cooling fan switch went bad on me so i rigged a manual switch inside the car to trigger the fan....worked great for years until someone rear ended me on the motorway.... I miss that old car .
make your own gasket, cornflakes box and a bit of hematite goo does the job nicely...well it always has for me. Any stainless steel exhaust manufacturers nearby ? get a downpipe made up last forever
a nice stainless exhaust is for sure something I would want in the future, wake up the A series a little bit, my friend has a Morris Minor and it has that classic old carb car sound I want.
@@TattyOldCars messing about with manifold nuts stud clamps can be a nightmare,if you only get the downpipe it be worth it. Ps make sure engine mounts are good as you would not want to break the flexi section after fitting another downpipe
This is going to be an awesome series. Someone who is doing things right! That 1275 sounds pretty sweet considering how long it has been sitting for. This is a car with good bones. Well done 👍
Interested in watching the progress. Just a suggestion, it would be really interesting to have a video on the story behind it being a barn find and how you found it/ saved it. Photos and any video would be great to see 👍
Great video Will. Why not I don't think the cassette deck would be too hard to service. But why not mod the original with a Bluetooth module to keep the original look?
Problem with it mate is that it looks like the original mechanism has plastic cogs that fail and nobody makes them anymore sadly, a common one for Philips units, did think about that but I have quite a nice Pioneer one already,
@@TattyOldCars You can get 3D printed replacements. you wouldn't need the cassette mechanism to work to do a bluetooth mod though, just figure out where the head amp meets the preamp and wire a module in there. Tap the 12V off the motor line, and add a switch to short the tape detection switch.
I'm seriously impressed by condition of Maestro. And enjoy how passionate you are about it. You've got you're self another subscriber. Good luck with it 👍
I'm curious as to how the roof lining was removed in the previous video when you had the first start lol I suspect you may be trying to pull the wool over our eyes
Scrap it and buy electric car lol, my sister had same car given to her from uncle so easy to work on ran forever. Got myself a M G Montego a few years later lovely car but terrible torque steer and daft metric tyres fun car though , keep up the great content love seeing older cars looked after top man new sub here.
Sometimes at the start of a project it’s good to sit down and go through everything that needs doing. The point of Todays video is to do exactly that, involve the audience with the plans and ask for opinions! Plus you got to see it driving for the first time which is always a milestone. The following videos Will be work and not chat so feel free to check back then :)
Thank you for saving a Maestro. Sadly lost my MG Maestro . Got rear ended on the M40 in the 90s. Just had the car serviced brakes worked fine. These are good cars.
My dad had an 83 Maestro L 1600 when I was growing up - it had an automatic choke that caused major problems if you tried to restart the car when it was hot (it would re-engage the choke and flood). He hated it and it was a rot-box, but he got the Perkins 2 litre diesel Maestro afterwards and loved it - still talks about it to this day, long after he's given up driving
This should be a good series Will. I have a soft spot for BL cars - shouldn't have, we all know what they're really like - but I've driven many company Metros, Maestros and Montegos when they were new or fairly new and found them a good drive, but a few years down the line......... When you do the brakes, bear in mind the servo - this could be underperforming, what with age and sitting for so long. If you're checking tightness of fasteners, crack them loose to break the bond before applying correct torque. One other thing - it would be interesting/amusing to see the extent of corrosion on the donor vehicle. Happy spannering!
WillThePlank as I live and breathe. Stumbled across this by accident and thought I recognised you, I used to watch you 15 or more years ago. Great content, keep it up.
Old school tricks my grandad used to do with gasket use kitchen lino works a treat with everything to warped thermostat housing and inlet manifold etc etc trust me it works very good
Hi Will
I'm happy to see you making progress on the Maestro, I can happily say that I have been the proud owner of two Maestros one was a MG 1600 with the electronic dashboard and speaking computer, and I did below the engine up🤯 on it.
Please check your CV joint gaiters as the rubber will be very dry and possibly cracked and no one wants to hear that terrible noise coming from your front wheels when you go round corners.
I am looking forward to more videos 😊
any of us old school guys n girls remember the air filter casing having a winter and summer setting where the air filter casing was moved left or right over the exhaust manifold during winter and vice versa.
She sounds pretty sweet. It really amazes me that it appears to be In pretty good shape. These cars used to have major rust and rust bubbles on sills and arches within 8 yrs or so. Look forward to your progress.
Tell me about it, mine was completely rotten at 7, I reluctantly had numerous welding jobs done to get it through its next two MOTs before finally giving up on it.
@@tomgoode4858 My mate got an MG Turbo Maestro back in the early 90s and it was only 3 years old. It had minor rust coming through on two of the arches and sills. 30k it had done. It also had a slight wack on passenger side quarter panel. He got it very cheap due to this. His dad had a friend who owned a car restoration place that did mostly high end sport and luxury cars. It's rumoured his dad's friend owed him big time. They stripped it down and put on a new quarter panel on and sanded off the rust and undersealed the floor and resprayed it. Cos it was metallic, it was their choice to do a complete outer respray as its very hard to get the finish right with just spraying up 1 panel and they did not want bad press. It looked brand new and was a very nippy car he had it 5 yrs, then he moved up north. Last I heard 8 yrs ago, he still had it. His dad always insisted he kept his cars in a garage at night as he did to slow down corrosion. The maestro in the above looks tidy and its ancient and was left in a barn, so it goes to show, it does help to keep em covered up. Ford's Austins / Rovers and vauxhall of that era were absolute rust buckets.
@@richhughes7450 all cars corrode if neglected,i drove fords alll threw the 90s and never had corrosion issues on my sierras and granadas.fantastic cars,however i will say cavaliers rear arches rotted terribly.this maestro seems very tidy as these and montegos allso rotted for england if neglected.look forward to more videos even tho i arnt a fan of them.its good to see rare cars protected.you cant go wrong with waxoil products.
I always had a soft spot for these. I had a 1987 1.3L 4 speed and a 1988 1.6 Mayfair which was a very nice, luxurious car with a very sweet engine. I was pretty sure that both of these had automatic chokes.
Buzzweld products are good ! I’ve used built hamber rust treatment then buzzweld rust encapsulator, buzzweld CIO and finally lanoguard.
Well done for saving this piece of history. I’ve rescued and restored two allegros, the predecessor to the maestro. Parts are the problem as you said, some things just made of unobtanium. Got another subscriber, looking forward to the next instalment.
Look forward to the next video,had a maestro work van on BT in the 80’s when they were new and I liked it.
With your leaking gasket on the heater, could you try and make one, i think you can buy gasket material, do a search online there are plenty of manufactuers etc , chhers good work
yes we do want to see the oil change. Shows us the condition of the internals of the engine and gives us an idea of how it was treated. Just a quick show of the flow and the colour is fine :). We love to see all old fluids changed and see what bits are in it. Oil, fuel tank, brakes, carb float bowl, screenwash, coolant etc. Make your own coolant flange gasket. Just buy gasket paper (or ceral box if you really have to.
Hi Will, as far as rust protection, although it’s some years since I’ve been able to work on cars, I used to swear by Finnegans Waxoyl, on the underside and more importantly in the sills and box sections. 👍🙂
For underseal I would use lano guard fantastic stuff and very easy to put on I’ve done all the underside of my mx5 and they rot for a living hope that helps
I have read good things about that stuff, it might be worth a look :)
I had a new one in the 80s, great memories! Thanks
make sure the metal heater pipes dont have any pin holes, my Metro pipes had rotted inside, had to cut them back & replace with rubber.
Will the plank!! You came up on my suggestions and I was so happy to see it was you. I used to love the old Mac videos but my fave of yours was that old 7 series!
Good to see someone from ''the old life'' on TH-cam, That 7 series was such a pain for me because it was a family members car I was doing the work on and they were footing the bill, and then they pulled the plug due to cost, it got sold in the end and someone used the engine in a kit car...sad times.
Safe to say this one is all under my control and will be finished :)
Good luck with the project. Only warning is when the car is finished is be prepared for a short trip to become a long trip. People will come up to you and say “We used to have one of those” or “My dad had one of those” etc etc. You’ll then get involved in a long interesting chat. I get it all the time on my scooter & motorcycle ☺️
Used diesel oil from a truck is excellent for undercoating ,get a garden sprayer with a wand on it to get into all the nucks and crannies..
I have been impressed with Lanoguard for under my JDM, didt want to cover any areas in bitumen based stuff ,so I could keep an eye on things ,and it leaves a nice clear ish finish, etc ,and it was really easy to apply.
Hi Will, my Dad had a white/grey H reg Maestro 1.3LX, so nice to see this video for memories of him. For rust & underbody treatment, I would suggest looking at Bilt Hamber products. They do a full range of treatment including a wax like underseal that can be purchased in a dark brown or even a clear version.
I completely agree, Bilt Hamber stuff is great.
I have subscribed because I really want to follow the rebuild of the Maestro, a car I always wanted but never had.
Good work, looking forward to see more work on the car, well worth saving.
Had a 1989 G reg 1.3 in maroon.
A bit under powered, slows down going up the hill on the motorway but so long as doing 90 by the time it got to the bottom of a hill tended to work out ok, overall although a bit weak, engine solid.
Paintwork/ lacquer an issue, bonnet completely peeled.
Heater array a big issue, leaked constantly into the passenger foot-well, even when not leaking it produced minimal heat, usual ice on the inside of windows etc.
Drivers seat collapsed so watch out on bumpy farm tracks.
Central locking on front passenger door was a little erratic to say the least and required manual intervention about 80% of the time, seemed to partly work but then needed a yank on the pop-up to fully unlock/lock.
I had the car from 13K miles, we separated at around 80K by which time BLs build quality had caught us up.
Having said all this, it was our first car and I loved it.
Hi Will, i can confirm to you that the 13" wheels you took off and the wheel trims it came with where the correct wheels for maestro clubmans of that age ( we had two maestros) the clubman we had (bought brand new also on a h reg) was identical to yours, and sported 13 inch wheels and those caps, and if memory serves me correctly the tyre size was 155/70/13.
The later cars built after the original run had finished (post k reg) which im not as familiar with "ledbury" perhaps? they used up old stock and the wheels where different hence the larger wheels on your n reg car.
Just so you know what it came with fitted are actually what it would've left the factory on. Good luck Regards, Daniel.
Having owned both regular and Ledbury flavour Maestros, the Ledbury 'box has a nicer change feel. The old four speed box has a rubbery-notchy change that's pretty normal. Shame your Ledbury was too far gone but at least it's getting to live on in this one. Good luck with the adventure, the biggest challenge these days is just finding some of the bits, they're a very easy car to work on as you'll know doubt find out the more you dig in.
Super clean really definitely worth the work and it’s also funny how there all red more than enough parts
think pretty much everything you've listed in terms of parts are on the donor car, even the heater gasket, granted it used but worth a punt putting it in
There must be a great deal of pleasure obtained in recommisioning such a car, and how lucky you are to have an almost identical parts car with a lot of new spare parts to remove. Good luck with this. I look forward to many videos of all the little jobs that will need doing. A friend bought two used low mileage Maestros, both running when stored about 15 years back, but sadly he never had the time or resources to do them up and take them to shows as planned. They are stored now safely in a new garage - maybe he keeps them now as investments, I don't know.
Great video nice to meet red Fred, my mate had a montego when he passed his test in mid 90s, was a right battle axe, I remember the starter motor failing several times apart from that it was OK especially when your 17 ha
I had an 83 maestro l...back in the 90s....the cooling fan switch went bad on me so i rigged a manual switch inside the car to trigger the fan....worked great for years until someone rear ended me on the motorway....
I miss that old car .
Good luck on the channel and on getting Fred back to the Glory.
Greetings from a new subscriber from South Africa, please don't scrap it, rather fix and drive it...
make your own gasket, cornflakes box and a bit of hematite goo does the job nicely...well it always has for me. Any stainless steel exhaust manufacturers nearby ? get a downpipe made up last forever
a nice stainless exhaust is for sure something I would want in the future, wake up the A series a little bit, my friend has a Morris Minor and it has that classic old carb car sound I want.
@@TattyOldCars messing about with manifold nuts stud clamps can be a nightmare,if you only get the downpipe it be worth it. Ps make sure engine mounts are good as you would not want to break the flexi section after fitting another downpipe
Hi Will, would be nice to see some video of when you flush out and fix the fuel tank / system. Thanks
Hi Charlie, that’s the plan! The entire fuel system saga will be documented :)
Another great video! Excited for the next one!
Good luck, it’ll be interesting watching your progress.
This is going to be an awesome series. Someone who is doing things right! That 1275 sounds pretty sweet considering how long it has been sitting for. This is a car with good bones. Well done 👍
Interested in watching the progress. Just a suggestion, it would be really interesting to have a video on the story behind it being a barn find and how you found it/ saved it. Photos and any video would be great to see 👍
Great video Will. Why not I don't think the cassette deck would be too hard to service. But why not mod the original with a Bluetooth module to keep the original look?
Problem with it mate is that it looks like the original mechanism has plastic cogs that fail and nobody makes them anymore sadly, a common one for Philips units, did think about that but I have quite a nice Pioneer one already,
@@TattyOldCars You can get 3D printed replacements. you wouldn't need the cassette mechanism to work to do a bluetooth mod though, just figure out where the head amp meets the preamp and wire a module in there. Tap the 12V off the motor line, and add a switch to short the tape detection switch.
I'm seriously impressed by condition of Maestro. And enjoy how passionate you are about it. You've got you're self another subscriber. Good luck with it 👍
Remember the stupid torsion bars snapping regular on 1 I had but was simple lol then my dad had a 1300 maestro van
What about timing belt or is it chain driven
I'm curious as to how the roof lining was removed in the previous video when you had the first start lol
I suspect you may be trying to pull the wool over our eyes
That was the other Maestro that didn’t have the roof lining in, not the one that’s the focus of these videos :)
Looks like a bit of fun, subscribed 😀
Hi will i have some austin wheel trims how do i find out about the size to see if ther of any use for you
Hi, do they have any part numbers on them?
su carbs the best ever.....i used to use a little tool called colour tune....a see through spark plug so you could get the fuel buring blue.....
I may invest in one of those for tuning the carb, I’ve heard good things about them!
Fantastic, I love the noise an A series makes the sound of my childhood. Are your plans to tune the A series or leave it stock?
Stock for now, tune in the future.
@@TattyOldCars I look forward next updates on Fred :)
Very nice and something different 👍
Great car, lovely guy too..
Thank you for the kind words, I hope to make this a pleasant place for all to enjoy from every walk of life :)
Brilliant pal x
Scrap it and buy electric car lol, my sister had same car given to her from uncle so easy to work on ran forever. Got myself a M G Montego a few years later lovely car but terrible torque steer and daft metric tyres fun car though , keep up the great content love seeing older cars looked after top man new sub here.
never use old fashioned under seal....it ruins any car.....it breaks down and cracks allowing water to be trapped modern products are better
Don't waste time giving recaps. Make them watch your old videos. You'll get more views and more subscribers.
but all u did was talk about doing thing,s and done nothing
Sometimes at the start of a project it’s good to sit down and go through everything that needs doing.
The point of Todays video is to do exactly that, involve the audience with the plans and ask for opinions!
Plus you got to see it driving for the first time which is always a milestone.
The following videos Will be work and not chat so feel free to check back then :)