The MGA With An Attitude
MGA Guru Is GOING MOBILE - (June 16 -June 30 2025)
Monday, June16, 2025:
Time for GOF Central 2025, hosted by Vintage MG Car Club of Chicago. 2-pm designated start tme (if you didn't arrive the day before), collecting cars and people at The DoubleTree Suites by Hilton Hotel and Conference Center Chicago - Downers Grove. No street address in the official GOF publications, had to look it up on the internet. Big place, drive around the building to find dead ends both ways, finally sneak between some cones to get into the back side of he car park, and park it somewhere near the other show cars, and start asking questions. Everyone else knows about as much as we do, nada, As it turned out, this layout was more convenient than I expected. The GOF registration desk was at the back door nearest the parking lot with the little cars, so we were soon picking up our registration packet. The hospitality suite, vendors hall, regalia table, silent auction, and conference rooms to be used for tech sessions were all within 100 feet of the starting point. Cool. We never did otherwise get any floor plan of the hotel, and I wasn't going to be the one to walk a mile to map it all out, so we just never went any farther inside. Grab a soda to cool down a little, and stroll around the vendor's hall. Good start, come back later.
Back outside with the camera to see who might be here on afternoon of the first day.
Space was reserved for first timer's cars right up front. Cool. I don't get to be a first timer very often, so go get the car and move it up front. Lots of first timers here. Programmed first timers car show from 4 to 6 pm. Found a few new friends.
Another pass around the lot as more cars have been arriving.
Come back a little later for an evening movie "Genevieve" 7_00 to 8:30 pm.
Tuesday, June17, 2025:
Beginning 9-am, we had a tech session with Steve Styers chatting about his first hand experiences in the early days of SCCA (Sports Car Club of America). Plenty of pictures and a slide show to go with it. Not may people still around who can tell us what was happening 75 years ago.
 Back outside to check o the John Twist Rolling Tech Session, without John Twist, as he was ill and not in attendance this week. Steve Skegg was standing in for him, doing a bang up job of tinkering with the vintage MGs and consoling (counseling) their owners.
One more lap around the vendors hall where I got hooked and bought a pair of Windtone horns for my MGA. There is some incentive to get them installed soon, so we don't have to haul them all over taking up space in the Magic Trailer.
Later in the evening, 5:350-7-pm or thereabouts, lots of us reconvened at Tom Raddatz' Garage in LaGrange Highlands, IL for MG Garage Block Party. Yes, we get here a lot on Wednesday nights for Wednesday Night Garage Club, but this is more special when all the vintage cars come out to play, but we do play the same games (fix the cars).
The blue MGA Coupe came in on a tow rope, having crapped out a little short of arrival. It turned out to have the starter motor pinion gear jammed into he flywheel ring gear so it couldn't turn over. When they tried push start it locked up and skidded the rear tires. Seen this before. Put it in 4th gear, brake off, and push it backward to free up the stater pinion. Then the starter would spin slowly but not engage, as the battery was down to 10.4 volts. Put the battery charger on it, and an hour later it was charged up enough to self-start. Add a bit of oil in one of the carburetor dashpots, give it a little tune-up, and it was good to drive on. If the starter jams again (an it will), they wll know what to do about it. Also make plans to R&R the engine to replace the badly worn ring gear.
Everyone was drooling over the 1931 MG D-Type, with plenty of time to chat about it. By dusk it was heading back to the hotel carrying three people and a dog. And a good time was had by all.
Wednesday, June18, 2025:
Change of plans and schedule. Weather forecast is serious about rain this afternoon, so the car show was rescheduled from Wednesday to Thursday, same time, same place. Must have been a good choice, as it was raining a lot today, so good time to hide inside and catch up on the photos and notes.
Thursday, June19, 2025:
Rain last night, and this morning a little, but all sun by mid morning. Going to be a good day for a car show. Y'all shuffle on over to James Farm in Warrenville, Illinois for 12-noon show start.
Lots of cars here, more than 50 show cars by my count. The Premier class had two MG 18/80 cars from the way back machine. One 1929 Sportsman Saloonette, and one 1930 MK-II open Tourer. Seems like they needed special permission to be admitted into the NA MMM Register, being not Midget, Magna nor Magnette.
There was a class for the S-Type cars, SA, SV, SW, 1936-1939. The green one is 1938 SA Tickford Drophead Foursome.
Two M-Type Midget boat tail roadsters, about 1931. A couple pictures of the D-Type.
An absolute darling MG PA or PB Airline Coupe.
Three 1934 MG PA, the first one running a crankshaft driven supercharger. Eye candy, and lots of pictures.
Half a dozen MG TC Midget, at least a dozen MG TD Midget, and a row of MG TF Midget, at least five..
How's his for variety, an MG YT open Tourer, and an MG YB Saloon.
I came to play with the MGA, four of those, two 1500 roadster, one 1600 Coupe, one 1600-MK-II roadster.
One rubber bumper MG Midget 1500 (first in class). At least six MGB present, but the dark blue GT first in line is an MGC.
Getting down to the fun stuff. Two modern Mini, one vintage Mini Clubman woody wagon, one Morris Minor woody wagon.
For more pictures of the 50+ show cars on display, check out the Supplementary Photos and Notes page for GOF Central 2025.
After all the drooling and voting, it was time for a short break, then back to the hotel for one more tech session. We got a little rain just as we were getting back to the hotel. Good timing. A lot of the show cars were tucked into the parking garage to be out of the weather. The late afternoon tech session was all about the history of Lucas Lighting, LTD, beginning with oil lamps and carbide lamps, evolving through 3-brush dynamos, 2-brush dynamos, and a variety of control boxes to control charging. rates. Good stuff.
Later evening it was time for the Awards Banquet. and a lot more. This was kind of fun being a first-timer at a GOF. Might have to do this again some time. Along toward 10-pm it was time to call it a success, and finished. Most folks will be heading out in the morning.
Friday, June20, 2025:
Raining again today, figure. Good day to be inside with air conditioning. Lots of photo work on yesterday's pictures, not finished yet. Had a little personal business to take care of.
Saturday, June21, 2025:
Early morning breakfast and email check. Early afternoon we headed north with good intentions of getting away from today's and tomorrow's heat wave. Not a bad trip, except for some stand still and creep traffic for half an hour due to a traffic accident. A few hours on in late afternoon we found a fuel and truck stop near Sheboygan, Wisconsin, north of Milwaukee, fairly near Lake Michigan for a bit of lake effect cooling. Rest of the evening spent processing the GOF Central picture. Think we're going to crash about midnight.
Sunday, June22, 2025:
First stop for breakfast and WiFi was a bust, no wall power. Second stop was the same, no power. Third stop had no A/C, only a few fans, totally inadequate, and intolerable, no-go. So we headed back to the truck stop, 25 miles and nearly an hour wasted this morning. Busting tail on the GOF Central photos and notes, including a Supplementatry photos page for more than 60 car show photos. Finished all that by evening.
Monday, June23, 2025:
Chuckle. Figuring out how to pay my registration fee for last week's GOF event. The issue was caused by errors in the GOF web site, two weeks earlier. Many car show events need to do better prep on their web sites before opening the site for registrations. -- Had a tech question about a Hardi aftermarket fuel pump.
Tuesday, June24, 2025:
Questions about installation of MGA Coupe door seal bottom retainer strip. -- Spent timne trying to settle a medical bill from instance of burned hand two months ago. Amazing how slow or inept the medical profession is at processing paper work.
Wednesday, June25, 2025:
Spent time looking for new convertible top, not easy to find what I want, waiting for a call back.
Thursday, June26, 2025:
Moved a little south, sitting in Belgium, Wisconsin today. Uploaded a new tech page for the MGA Gearbox Rear Bracket welded to the frame, including a full scale drawing template. -- Planning and making appointments for future events. -- Moving a bit farther south this evening, stopped at a Love's Travel Stop in Oak Creek WI. It had a Denny's restaurant, and a makeshift trucker's lounge, but no suitable place for any extended WiFi session, so not to stay here.
Friday, June27, 2025:
Found a so-so WiFi spot at McD's in Oak Creek WI. Data speed was not great, but we muddled through for a while. Checked out the local Pilot truck stop in the evening, but no suitable WiFi facilities, so no stay here either.
Saturday, June28, 2025:
Navigator made the executive decision, not staying in Oak Creek WI, so we headed west in the morning. Landed at a Love's in Elkhorn, WI, nice place with good facilities all around. Spent most of the day on email and phone calls setting up future appointments, as well as a few tech questions.
Sunday, June29, 2025 - Monday June 30:
Three days (extending into July 1) fighting with several new Part Numbers tech pages for all the parts in the MGA clutch hydraulic circuit between the master cylinder and clutch slave cylinder, dealing with odd information in the Service Parts Lists. I haven't been so confused in a long time.
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