The MGA With An Attitude
MGA Guru Is GOING MOBILE - (June 1 - June 15, 2019)
Saturday June 1, 2019:
Today we had in mind to have "Cars & Coffee" with British Motoring Club of Northern Colorado at Gib's Bagels in Fort Collins, CO. We have been trying to meet with this club since 2015, so far no luck, and today would prove to be the same. We were hanging out here one extra day to make the breakfast meeting. Their web site lists this event to be every Saturday morning (almost), whenever they are not doing something else. No phone number anywhere on the web site, but there were some email links. We had sent email to the club President, but it bounced with the error message "Recipient address rejected: User unknown in virtual alias table". I think that means mail forwarding was not properly set up, or the address being forwarded to does not exist. When we could not contact the club, we decided to just show up for the 9-am scheduled breakfast.
 We were there at quarter to 9, but no one else. We waited to quarter past 9, still no one else. As we were about to
leave, one guy with a Jaguar E-Type rolled in, also somewhat perplexed that there was no one else there. He guessed that there was some kind of rally, and they were supposed to meet here at 9-am before departure, but that didn't happen either. When the Jaguar was off for home we headed for WiFi to check the club web site again.
We found a listing of some kind of car show on the same date, and followed the link. "Registration table on Mountain adjacent to Neilson's Auto Repair", but we can't find that shop anywhere on the internet, and didn't know where "Mountain" might be. Then, "the designated BMCNC club area (at the old Lyric Movie Theatre just west of the Melting Pot)". Found the Lyric a mile farther north than expected, while Melting Pot is mile south of the theater close to E Mountain Ave. Now thinking maybe "old Lyric" is not the same place as "Lyric theater", and can not find any internet reference to old Lyric. Then "8-am breakfast at the Silver Grill". Finally found that on Walnut St, a few blocks from Melting Pot. By this time we had not only missed breakfast, but also the whole car show. With all the frustration, and no way to contact the club, it is hard not to conclude that the BMCNC is an old boy's club with a secret code, and visitors are not welcome. Hate when that happens. Someone should post a phone number, or at least make sure there is some functional way to contact someone in the club.
Killed the rest of the day with grunt work and planning.
Sunday June 2, 2019:
Moved a little farther east, sitting in Ft Morgan, Colorado today, mostly killing time waiting for a week day.
Monday June 3, 2019:
Ah, something to do on a week day. We dropped in to visit Quality Plating in Yuma, CO. Had a BBS message a couple days earlier from someone in Texas who just received delivery of some chrome parts from this shop. We almost skipped it due to being out of the way and killing a day. The guy in green was diligently working on restoration of some pot metal parts. After cleaning, solder fill all the pits you can find and polish smooth, then copper plate and go back to looking for more pits. It often requires a few cycles before it's smooth enough to nickle and chrome plate to look like new. View of the rear side of the part gives an idea of the corrosion and pitting they had to deal with.
There was a pair of die cast pot metal headlight trim rings corroded with hole through, not sure there was enough metal left to save them, but he was working it. Thr flying bird hood ornament was thicker and heavier, doing better for patching the pits, almost finished repair and nearly ready for nickle/chrome plating. Then we got to visit the plating room. This is like bonus day when they get to put the repaired parts in the tank and they come out chrome plated and ready for final polishing. Like body painting, most of the quality is in the prep work.
Heading more east, we have definitely fallen out of the Rocky Mountains. No more 6,000 to 10,000 feet and cool, now below 4,000 and above 80dF in full sun. Only one day, and I already miss the mountains. Half way across southern Nebraska by mid afternoon, lots of cattle here, meaning also lots of corn and hay fields, and some oil production as well. Time for late lunch in Holdrege, NE with WiFi and re-routing again. In the evening headed east again, stopped briefly in York, NE, then a bit farther east late night. Appointments in Lincoln NE tomorrow.
Tuesday June 4, 2019:
We began the day looking for Economy & Performance Auto Service in Lincoln, NE. We had two addresses. The first turned out to be bicycle shop, and was the location of E&P eighteen years earlier. The second stop was their most recent location, but we have to report it has been a victim of urban renewal. The shop ceased operations in October 2018 when when the building was sold to a developer to convert to to condominiums.
Then we stopped at Road & Track Motors Service in Lincoln, NE. We found a locked door, but some lights and some cars inside. A fellow in the Upholstery shop next door told us the gent who owns R&T is elderly (maybe 80) and doesn't come in much any more. We tried a phone call but got no answer (and no messaging available). While the shop is still there, be advised that it may be generally dysfunctional.
We stopped to visit Mr. Sports Car in Papillion, NE. The owner John Martin was temporarily grounded with broken ribs at time of our visit, but otherwise he still likes working on vintage cars.
The Cobra kit is his personal toy, apparently earning him substantial money on racing bets (maybe never been beaten in a street race). The TR3 has a long history dating back to when it was new and racing on an air base. John has recently been refurbishing that car, and it is now ready to go home to its current owner.
From Mr. Sports Car (above) we got a referral to another shop that was not previously on our list, Sports Car Garage in Omaha, NE, so we hauled tail over there for a look. While most of the business is from BMW and Porsche, there were a Jaguar and a Triumph in the shop as well. I didn't quite figure out the big Healey in front, maybe his daily driver car. There were a number of toys outside begging for attention, but perhaps not very high priority.
We checked with Daul Auto Service, NAPA Auto Care (previously Grid Auto Service). They're still there, but no longer servicing vintage British cars. Bummer.
Having some overdue business, we make a quick stop at a NAPA parts store to pick up oil filters, then over to Walmart to pick up some 20W50 oil. And we lucked out and got Walmart to do the oil change (killing three hours in the process).
With the day pretty well gone, we ran for cool cover at a WiFI spot to get these photos and notes processed. Then back to one of our old tricks. Late night we ran two hours north before stopping for the night. Warm summer evening, clear visibility, and enjoying lots of heat lightning all around. When's the last time you heard that term?
Wednesday June 5, 2019:
Another 45 minutes north this morning to Sioux Falls, South Dakota before breakfast. Just got the car parked when someone hit the tail of the trailer with a pick up truck while driving by. Bump, bump, scrape, bump.
It moved the trailer a couple feet sideways, and the jerk just kept going. He then pulled out in front of another car in the street nearly causing a collision, and still kept going, not very fast but wandering around in the street, possibly somewhat impaired. No significant damage to the trailer. That RR corner of the trailer lid looks just like it did before it was hit (not the first time).
After a late breakfast we were off to visit Classic Import Repair in Sioux Falls, SD. Visitor entrance and office are in the backset left wing, along with show space filled with mostly German cars. The larger forward building is the work space. If you look closely you may see a Mini up high in the third picture. They do work on vintage British cars, but by appointment only, as there is a three month backlog of work in the shop.
By prior plan we immediately turned around and headed back south, another three hour drive back to the Omaha area. Navigator chose the Iowa side of the river this time, thinking the interstate would be a bit quicker (even though longer distance), and no stopping in the little towns. Apparently the GPS doesn't understand interstate
highways closed due to flooding, so we ended up doing maybe 40 miles extra along with at least half hour more driving time, and a few unexpected local highways and 15 miles of gravel road including a few miles of "minimal maintenance" road with mud and ruts.
Eventually we got to visit Terry Worwick Restorations in rural Eagle, NE, about 20 miles east of Lincoln.
The shop is impressive for a young guy with a helper. The Sprite was in for minor repairs, waiting for pickup. The big Healey is a full restoration sitting an a new frame from Australia. The Lotus Europa upstairs belongs to his son (currently 15 years old). The Porsche 356 in the paint booth is another ground up restoration, about to get primered. Lots of pictures on the walls up front of trophy winning cars that came out of this shop. This one will be here for a long time to come.
One question, how to get back up to I-80 without the mud, then a longer way around for 30 miles, and we're still 20 miles short of Omaha, NE and/or Council Bluffs, Iowa. After a fuel stop we ducked into cool WiFi for late lunch and called ahead to put off a late evening appointment so you get these photos and notes tonight instead of tomorrow. Late night plans for driving 90 minutes east went slightly sour when I-80 going east across the river was closed (funny because we just ran I-80 going west across the river). So we detoured north and east on US-6 through the middle of Omaha, crossing the river on US-6 and continuing on until it rejoined I-80 in Iowa. Another 70 miles on we had enough and called it a night (about 1-am).
Thursday June 6, 2019:
Forty miles more this morning got us into town for breakfast. We had a 10-am appointment to visit Lon
Smallridge in West Des Moines, IA, and he had apparently notified a couple of friends. That would be Lou in the center. It was fun to chat for a bit until the friends had to leave. We had in mind a little work on Lon's MGA, but it was sent to Colorado for service work, so no fun there.
Our MGA had been running somewhat poorly for a few days, and seemed to be getting worse. It would start on three cylinders in the morning, but ran fairly well on the open road, but then idle rough when we stopped for a traffic light. I was suspecting valves out of adjustment (or maybe a burned valve), as we hadn't checked valve lash for a long time. I did a compression test, finding 30-psi on #3 cylinder. So remove the valve cover and check rocker arm clearance, which was actually pretty good, foiling my theory that one valve might have zero clearance. Okay, bite the bullet and pull the head off for inspection. Set the head upside down and pour water into the combustion chambers, and nothing happened, no leaks to the intake or exhaust ports. Good news can quickly turn into bad news. If the head is okay the problem must be in the #3 cylinder. Yup, sure enough, we found a burned piston #3 with a visible small hole in the top at one edge.
Cylinder walls are all clean and shiny, and no noticeable ridge in the cylinder bores nearly 5 years and 177,000 miles since it was re-bored with new pistons. So quick on the phone and order a set of pistons and rings for next day air delivery. Heck of a way to end a day that began with a nice morning, but at least the fix is apparent, so get on with it. Park the MGA and trailer in the garage, and borrow a car for a day. Recon I need to go shopping for a cylinder hone and ring compressor. Back to WiFi to do something useful while we wait for parts delivery.
Friday June 7, 2019:
Good luck this morning the new pistons were delivered around 9:30am while I was at a parts store picking up a cylinder hone and a piston ring compressor. So we were on the job early with hopes to get 'er done in one day. Lon has this nice little two post hoist that he stores out of the way when not needed. Five bolts in the floor on each side, and plug in two hydraulic hoses and a line cord, and up it goes. With short head room in his garage, lift is limited to about four feet, which is enough to sit on a short roll-about seat and not whack my head too much. We soon drained and removed the sump and oil pump and popped the pistons out.
Yes, the #3 piston had seen better days. Once we got past the apparent small hole in the top edge, damage in the first two ring grooves was more apparent.
One pinch bolt and the wrist pin comes out. East to attach the new pistons, and not long to install the new rings. Maybe Lon never had his hands inside an engine, so I think he was having fun. We carefully place rags over the crankshaft to catch the fluid and swarf when honing the cylinders.
We removed the head studs and cleaned the top of the block. That's the new cylinder hone on the left of the first picture below. It seemed appropriate to start honing #3 cylinder first, figuring that would be the worst if anything was particularly bad. No problem here, as the bore cleaned up easily. Whatever small ridge may have been at top of bore disappeared in the first few seconds of honing. Very shallow scuff marks at the stop point of the top piston ring persisted for maybe three minutes of honing until the full bore was clean with even buff finish. Surprised at how easy that was, the other bores cleaned out just as quick. Wipe the deck and bores with solvent on a rag. Then wrap a rag around the hone, soak it with lacquer thinner, and use that to swab out the bores with slow speed of the power drill. Couple more clean rags with more solvent, and it was pretty again. Remove rags from crankshaft and wipe it down underneath. Not long to get the new pistons in, big ends buttoned up, oil pump and sump reinstalled, and the head bolts back in place, and a pizza break worked in there somewhere.
From there just grunt work to reinstall the head and rocker shaft assembly, temperature sensor, top radiator hose and install fresh coolant. Not in a big rush, we took the opportunity to clean up the messy inner wing, free up a
sticking jet on the rear carb, and reassemble a dashpot damper piston that had dropped its snap ring. Carbs installed, oil in the engine, fire it up, runs well. After warm up we did a valve adjustment and minor adjustment of the carbs. Expect to readjust idle speed again after the cylinder walls are smoothed out. Bonnet reinstalled (six thumb screws), clean up and pack up the tools, more chat, time flies when you're having fun, and it was nearly midnight when we pulled out. A day well spent, feeling good to have the problem fixed, remember "it's just maintenance". Maybe I shouldn't be too disappointed those pistons only lasted 178,790 miles, as that may be more than I ever got out of a set of pistons before.
Saturday June 8, 2019:
Having killed the day we were planning on shop hopping (Friday), now stuck in West Des Moines, Iowa for the week end. So after two days worth of email and BBS, I did what I was already planning on doing on Saturday, posted the CMGC June newsletter on the club web site.
Sunday June 9, 2019:
Catch up time, posting photos and notes from the Friday engine work, and laying plans to get shop hopping back up to speed in the next few days.
Monday June 10, 2019:
Back to shop hopping today, and we were going to put down a lot of miles. We began looking for A M Talbot Import Garage in Des Moines, IA, which turned out to be a new public library building (urban renewal at work).
Phone call turned up All Pro Service Center (NAPA AutoCare) on the given phone number. A web search turned up a second address for A M Talbot that is currently All Pro Service Center. They had no idea how long it had been since A M Talbot was gone, except it was a long time. All Pro Service Center does not service vintage British cars, so we have to write this one off the list.
We had a listing for British Motors, LTD in Des Moines, IA, with a note that it was permanently closed, but wanted to check into it a bit further. The owner retired and closed the shop in May 2015. The building has since been removed, nice grassy lot there now.
Then a run 35 miles north to visit Skunk River Restorations in Ames, IA. A first wondering about the size of the building, once inside it was noted to be fully stuffed. One step past the office had a MG TD on the lift, followed by a Jensen Interceptor in process.
We tripped past the Datsun Z-car and an early Jeep chassis. Shortly on there was the Jeep body behind the Mini, and pretty sure that's a Buick Grand National (GN1) in the paint booth.
After the racing Sprite on the dynamometer we strolled into the "warehouse" area. Those are not Matchbox toys on the shelves, those are real cars. How would you like to have this space problem?
The grey car that looks like a Lotus Elite is actually an Austin Healey Sebring Sprite. Beside it sat a bugeye Sprite rally car with full rally instrumentation on the dash. I wish I could remember the next car, thinking maybe Marcos (but likely wrong), maybe someone can tell me later. Reason for that picture is because it is a prime example of chrome color powder coated wire wheels, which is sort of specialty of this shop.
Along with service and repairs, they also have a substantial inventory of used parts here. The first pallet holds MGA rear axles and 1600 type gearboxes. Then lots of suspension parts, while the wood cartes contain a myriad of smaller parts. We found 4-wheel-drive corner with Land Rovers and Range Rovers sitting behind a row or Triumph GT6+. And very nice Austin Healey 100 kicking off a row of even more interesting cars. There were several Sunbeam Alpines, a Sunbeam Alpine Coupe, one Sunbeam Tiger, at least one vintage Aston Martin.
There was a neat little Anglia, which bugs me just a little with the chopped off roof line. Then the Lloyd with the (slow) 2-cylinder 4-stroke engine, and the Berkeley with the slightly less slow 2-cylinder 2-stroke engine. By that time my shutter finger as getting tired, and I have omitted more than half the pictures, but I'm sure you can find more cars of your own interest in the backgrounds.
In a moment of inspiration I asked a question, and soon had in hand a good used distributor (nicely tested) that may be the replacement for the ancient worn out one in my car. Good fun here, but it was time to move on.
We had a two hour run a bit north and farther east to check on Alexander Racing Enterprises (a member of BMTA) in Jesup, IA. This place supplies performance and replacement parts and some street prep stuff for Triumphs. No one home here, so we made the call and left a message. Got a call back later (after we were lots farther east) noting that the shop location was 26 miles farther west in Cedar Falls, IA. We will have to see about getting back to visit there sometime later.
Then we were off for another two hour run more than 100 miles southeast visit a friend Larry Miller in Muscatine, IA. I always like to start by checking out the garage/workshop. He has an early 1959 MGA Twin Cam (1500 body style) on which he has been doing the full restoration himself, as time and budget allows. Two years ago he was planning on an engine rebuild, not done yet, still needing a set of pistons. Over time we have been getting tantalizing peeks at his personal touches, like the Sebring valance and custom brackets for driving lamps.
Smiling at the wiring harness with the correct cloth cover striping for the Twin Cam, and the Lucas Le Mans headlights (no idea where he found those). He has been doing a very nice job of detailing.
He has a Sebring style racing screen with the original factory style frame. The side brackets are shown here, very nice castings with the slightly greater rake angle, compared with the standard full height windscreen brackets. I will have to slip those photos into the tech pages for the factory racing screen. Then I got to scratch and sniff on the Twin Cam cylinder head, already reworked and ready to install, checking out the latest revision of the tappet buckets and custom porting work. Sorry we can't stay for dinner, tight schedule, gotta run.
We placed a call to Kirk's Auto Refitters in Davenport, IA, but Kirk was not up for a visit today, so we would skip that one again. Then 47 miles, one hour, up the Mississippi River (to the east), we stopped to visit Gary Spohn in LeClaire, IA. He has an 1962 MGA 1600-MK-II, which apparently doesn't need anything. We also had a brief meet and greet with his next door neighbor, who used to have LBCs in past years, but not at the moment.
We had a nice chat and took time for dinner at at a local bistro. Then as the day was fading we toddled off to a nearby WiFi spot to catch up with email and make a few phone calls. Late night travel took us across the river and 85 miles due east for our night stop just off of US-30 and I-39.
Tuesday June 11, 2019:
Good morning, and toddle along 15 miles south to our breakfast and WiFI stop near Mendota, IL in US-34. Having a few appointments today, we needed to head east around mid day. First top was a visit with older daughter in Sandwich, IL (my current official home address, not by coincidence). Had to pick up mail, and put the current license sticker on the trailer. We had time for lunch before needing to head out again. Next stop was just up the road in Plano, IL at the DMV to get my drivers license renewed (for the second time during this road trip).
Then heading east again we we soon into increasing traffic as we were approaching the Chicago Metropolitan western suburbs. We had an hour and a half to kill, then our evening appointment for Natter 'n' Noggin with Chicagoland MG Club at Anyway's Pub in Oakbrook Terrace, IL. For sure we surprised a few people, but there was something odd about the attendees. Six of us in all, and for all of us it was our first time for N'n'N at this location. The restaurant had no reservation, and none of the regular club members were there, so I had a feeling that club management might be falling down on the planning and promotion chores. But we had a good time anyway. Good way to end long day.
Wednesday June 12, 2019:
Made a couple of phone calls for planning, but only had one appointment this evening, so we got to relax and catch up with a few days worth of photos and notes along with email and BBS. Dropped in to attend the evening meeting with Vintage MG Car Club of Chicago at The Pizza Joint in Northlake, IL. About 20 people inside, no MGs there other than my MGA. Nice bunch with business in order, some cross over/cooperation with Chicagoland MG Club. After the meeting we headed north driving in some rain, landing just north of the IL/WI border for the night.
Thursday June 13, 2019:
Had a scheduled visit today with Ron Bissland in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Good story behind his early MGA 1500. It was purchased new by his uncle who was two weeks later killed while flying a military training flight over the English Channel. The car was then passed on to Ron's father who drove it some, but it was parked in 1971. When Ron's father passed the car (not running) would go to Ron's mother. It was then offered to Ron's oldest brother, but he had no interest in it. Then offered to Ron's second brother, who also had no interest in it. Finally in 2012 his mother wanted the car to go away, so Ron picked it up, took it home, and proceeded to restore it.
Nearly finished now, just needing bumpers and convertible top installed, the engine ran but was a bit out of tune, which is where I came in. We did some adjustments on the carburetors, set ignition timing, checked mechanical and vacuum advance, and had it running well. We removed the grille and spent some time realigning the bonnet latch to work well.
Did some realignment on the boot lid to make that fit better, and rearranged the bellcrank and pull rods to pull rather than push to release.
We reinstalled the grille with the top bolts inverted with plastic sleeves installed so the top could be inserted and the unit fastened with bottom bolts only. That allows the grille to be removed from bottom bolts only in case the bonnet latch might ever get stuck or disabled.
End result was a nice test drive around the neighborhood, which would be the first time on the road in 48 years, jolly good fun. We had time for dinner at a local bistro in the evening and Ron's wife would join us there after work. After dinner back to the house where Ron got to take his wife for a spin around the block in the new MGA. She seemed to be anxious to see it running, and was tickled pink with the short cruise.
Had some idea me might find another friend or two in the Kenosha area in the morning, so we crashed at a local hotel late night, and begged for late check-out.
And a few days later, Ron sent these photos. Guess who will be driving it next?
Friday June 14, 2019:
Mid day check out time, and we didn't hear from anyone yet, so we headed a bit south. Didn't get very far, just across the line into Illinois before we stopped for a WiFi break. Thought we might be heading for the west edge of Chicago, but hadn't verified the appointment yet. Made a couple phone calls, arranged an appointment for Sunday in the western suburbs. Then got a phone call from a new friend in Kenosha, so turned around and headed back north.
We met Gary Kastelic in Kenosha WI for late lunch, like 2-pm. He has a nice 1500 with another good story. He found this one disassembled but with a rebuilt engine for a very good price, and spent a few years restoring it. We poked around the car some, and it didn't need much, just tweaked the fuel mixture a bit. Report was the steering was a bit vague, and a quick eyeball check found too much toe-in, so there was a short discussion on how to realign it. Then we were heading south again, ended up in Naperville for the night.
Saturday June 15, 2019:
Quick breakfast on the run, and we pulled into a small British car show in conjunction with The Scottish Festival & Highland Games in Itasca, IL. Been there, done that, had enough Scott-fests recently, so we just hung out around the Brit cars for a few hours. On a day threatening rain with small turn out, the MG clubs wanted to have more MGs than Jaguars, and almost succeeded. I spotted eight Jags before the E-type left at the first sign of rain. Six of the remaining Jags were 21st century cars, with the last one being perhaps 1995 XJ6. There were also one modern Aston Martin, and one Austin Healey 3000 (score one for vintage).
We also had eight MGs, one TD, one MGA, three MGB, one Midget, one MGC, and one RV8. Okay, call it a tie with the Jags. The Midget was regularly entertaining kids.
The TD was reporting limited speed running on the road, possibly fuel starvation, so we had a little entertainment of our own. Pulled the fuel hose off the rear carb and switched on to check fuel feed, which looked okay. Pulled the banjo bolts on the float covers to check the inlet screens, which also looked okay. So we removed the float covers and the floats, and extracted fuel from the float chambers to clean out a little "mud" from bottom of the float chambers. Also ran a wire through the horizontal hole feeding fuel from float chambers to the main jets. Couldn't hurt, but I wasn't convinced that we had actually fixed anything yet.
With no real sign of any fuel clog, we put it all back together and fired it up to see how it runs. Seemed to be running a little rich, so I began leaning out the fuel mixture a little at a time while reducing idle speed to keep it under 1000 rpm. We ended up giving it a half turn on the rear carburetor and nearly two turns on the front carb, after which it was running better and idling very nicely. It would need a test run to verify one way or the other, so we stopped there and let the car go home, hoping to hear back later is it was doing better.
Programmed time for the car display expired at 1-pm, someone handed out a few trophies, and most of the cars were leaving, so we did to. Off for a late lunch and some WiFi time.
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