The MGA With An Attitude
MGA Guru Is GOING MOBILE - (May 1 - May 15, 2025)

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Thursday - May 1, 2025:
Sitting in Covington Louisiana today, got an interesting call from MG Limited, home of Killer Beez Racing in Greenfield, Wisconsin. Normally they are specializing in MGB Only, but they just picked up a very early production MGA, chassis number 10108. Word is it has been off the road for years, a little rough, but a complete car with original Car No. plate, definitely restorable, and they are about to have at it. This will be good to have another very early MGA coming back to life.I will be keeping an eye on the progress, as it may lead to more tech information.

Friday - May 2, 2025:
Moved a little west to Hammond, LA, just sneaking up on Saturday's appointment farther west. Had a little on-line chat with someone who may be interested in making more bronze thrust washers for the Austin differential from 1953 Z-Magnette through all MGA and MGB and MGC, and maybe the RV8 as well, like these: RA-109A. The Salisbury tube-typev rear axle from 1interrested68 on (and all MGB-GT) is much different from earlier banjo style rear axle, but they do use the same thrust washers for the differential. Beginning 1968 the factory changed to phenolic thrust washers as a cost reduction, resulting in huge reduction of reliability and operating life of the rear axle. It is very desirable to have bronze washers as replacement parts for these applications, but the bronze parts are generally not available. The big problem is, bronze sheet stock is not available in 0.036-0.038 inch thickness, only 0.040" (1.0-mm). The alternative is to begin with cored bar stock 2-1/2" OD x 1-1/2" ID, chuck it in a lathe, and use a thin cut-off tool to slice off flat washers of appropriate thickness. Waste material would be about the same amount as cutting washers out of flat sheet, and material cost would be less than $1 per piece. I would like to be the first customer.

Saturday - May 3, 2025:
We headed over to Baton Rouge, Louisiana for breakfast with British Motoring Club New Orleans, Baton Rouge group. It has been ten years since we were participating in an all-club tour drive with thee folks. A few years ago we tried the breakfast meeting, twice. First time the restaurant was closed for Easter weekend, the the following week no one showed up. But we're persistent. This time we made some phone calls to arrange advance appointment, and here e are with a nice groip of friendly faces.

After breakfast, back to the car park for some tire kicking, and see who brought what for show and tell. I don't dare touch the black MGA as it has a 20 year old mirror finish paint job that still looks like new.

The quaint attraction today was the Leyland Mini with some neat patina. I think the Mini wore the Leyland badge from 1968 to 2000. As the party was breaking up we were ff to find a local WiFi spot for rest of the day. WiFi closed at 9-pm, so we headed east and north, landing at the Mississippi Welcome center on I-55. Been a fairly long day.


Sunday - May 4, 2025:
Sitting in Magnolia, Mississippi today, mostly relaxing and processing yesterday's photos and notes. Currently our only future appointment is for NAMGAR GT-50 in Traverse City, Michigan. That's still four weeks away, but for sure will will find plenty to do in the meantime. The license sticker on the trailer is now expired. It has been legally renewed, but the new sticker was mailed to Sandwich, Illinois. So we will casually wander along to visit oldest daughter where we can pick up the new sticker. I suppose we will spend time this afternoon considering what playgrounds and toys we can find along the way.