The MGA With An Attitude
Thursday, October 16, 2014:
We took a dinner break about 6-pm with a quick run into town, but returned after dinner for a bit more fun. These guys like to throw together some strange odd projects on shoe string budgets. But to be fair, they also get serious sometimes, like restoring the TR6 to be a very nice daily driver car. I picked a bit of plastic masking out of the driver side door, and someone began chanting, "MGA guru worked on my car"! In case you were (or weren't) counting, this makes the fifth MGA guru visit in one day, and we will travel a little to the west (to Statesville, NC) before retiring for the night. Thursday, October 23, 2014: Today we had a wonderful visit with Dave & Kathy Ahrendt in Lenoir, NC, along with several of their friends who showed up to greet us. Also in attendance was this nifty Volvo P1800 with a sport engine and air conditioning. Kathy posted up a nice barbeque lunch including deserts, which kept everyone busy for a while. 
 Dave has a few nice toys of his own, including the MG TC in the house garage and a beautiful MGA in the workshop garage. Oops, I seem to have missed the picture of the MGA, as Dave was moving it out of the shop so my car could enjoy temporary nesting. One minor fix was to install a new rubber pad on the throttle pedal. This pad from Moss Motors is not exactly concours original, but it will be serviceable. 
 Here I found time to paint and install the new rear flange on my prop shaft. After a bit of struggle to get it assembled (what else is new?), it needed a little grinding on one corner of the new yoke to allow mating of the grease gun nozzle connector. I'm glad I was greasing it before reinstalling it in the car. I may have to wait a couple of days before we get it up to expressway speed again to see if it reduces vibration. 
 Friday, October 24, 2014: Well that test run didn't take long. Today we travel east on some nice mountain roads, and I get a chance to run it up to expressway speed for a minute to verify that the prop shaft vibration has been banished. Yee-Haa! Our visit today is with Jim Ferguson in rural Taylorsville, NC. The approach is a long narrow gravel drive between closely snuggled trees leading to a comfy little well appointed house on a TVA hydro lake. I am immediately impressed with his grease pit, constructed on a steep slope over a narrow holler. Then there is a utility tractor sporting a serious mulching machine that is a near necessity for maintaining the forest surrounding his house. A short walk "down" brings me to the serene surroundings of the lake with boat house, docks, dogs, and the wild life commonly found in the forest. 
 
 Then we chug on over to his "farm" several miles away to retrieve his MGA for a cruise the following day. Unfortunately, after the last cruise it was discovered that the rear air cleaner cover had parted company and this should be fixed before venturing out again. 
 As a quick fix we fashioned a flat cover from a sheet of Formica covered particle board. While trying to install it I dropped a bolt (or two). While searching for the dropped bolts we found the original air cleaner cover wedged between the inner fender and frame (very good fortune), and it didn't take long to find replacement fasteners and get it back together. Peachy! 
 Also hiding in his barn is this nifty little Riley Elf. This is a sister car to an early Austin Mini. It appears to have been assembled (or re-assembled) from a collection of parts from several different cars, but it is now a solid and good running little car. 
 
This little Bushtec trailer also resides here. Apparently it gets used regularly, because it has already worn out a set of tires. Back at the house we chat a little longer with Dave and his wife before parting company. Tonight we intend to make some distance east perhaps half way to tomorrows morning appointment. Saturday, October 25, 2014: 
Primary target today is the Uwharie Mountains British Car Meet in rural Denton, NC. Aside from being misdirected on the way, we did get finally there and had a good time. I tried counting cars but got derailed a few times by friends with inquires. Best guess is about 65 cars in attendance, and twice as many people. It was a great picnic and they do this twice a year. 
 
At the picnic we met a lot of new friends, among them Charles & Shelly Kappauf from Greensboro. There is a picture of a white MGA in Hendrix shop three days earlier. This one recently got a new five speed gearbox and gear reduction starter. It was picked up a couple days ago and driven some, but this morning the new starter wouldn't work. So we followed Charles "other" car home to have a look at the dead MGA. Sure enough, the new gear reduction starter is dead. Power is connected, but jumping power to the relay trigger terminal does nothing, not even a click,just open circuit. Looks like triple-A is about to pay for another tow back to the shop. We hang out long enough for dinner, but then head back toward the expressway with a jaunt west in mind for tomorrow's appointment. In the end we drove two hours west to overnight at Morganton, NC. Sunday, October 26, 2014:  Catching up with WiFi work in the morning (first time caught up in a week). I also called Walmart in Salisbury, NC, to confirm an order for new tires for my MGA (which we should have installed in a couple of days). Then we drive another hour west to Asheville, NC, for an appointment with Norm Davies who has a nice driver MGB and an MGA restoration project in the reassembly phase. 
 The MGA front bumper is a 1980's vintage replacement part with too-flat face and too-square corners, so the front overriders have been ground on the edges to match the incorrect contour. Those with a keen eye can see this in the picture. The contoured rocker panels also seem to be 1970's vintage parts with incorrect shape, too tall on the outboard side so they interfere with bottom edge of the doors. 
 
We spend some time inspecting his convertible top frame (original) and front wood bow (new Moss Motors part). The frame with center notches and short slot in the leg is early MGA 1600 type, correct for this car. The wood bow with overhanging flange at top rear and long ends is the "third" type bow intended for late 1600 and 1600-MK-II cars, which is a mismatch for this early 1600 car. The wood can be trimmed at the ends to convert it to "second" type for the early 1600 with narrow canopy rag top. 
 There are a couple more things wrong with this wood bow. The worst and most blatantly obvious is that the bore holes for the copper bushings do not line up with holes in the steel frame. To fix this properly requires plugging the holes and re-drilling them in correct location. Norm has wood working tools and can do this "fix", but otherwise it may be beyond the resources and abilities of most home restoration people. The wood bow is also flat with top side parallel to bottom side, which is not as original. It should be wedge shape with thinner edge in front. This is serviceable as is, but it changes the appearance on outside in front after assembly, where the leading edge of the front of the rag top will be too thick. We spend some time cataloging parts, particularly identifying three convertible top canopies, an early wide tonneau cover (wrong for this car), an interior panel kit, leather seat cover kit, and carpet set with non-standard brown color. It is soon dinner time, after which we check out some football (strange watching TV now). There is late night car chat, after which it is time to crash for the night (or in my case catch up with photos and notes before sleep). Monday, October 27, 2014: Early start today and a casual drive (secondary roads) from Asheville to Huntersville, NC. We are here to visit Dick & Beth Lunney, editors of North American Classic MG cars magazine. After a short stop we go off to lunch at a local pub. Thinking we were only doing lunch, I left my camera behind (rats). Next stop was a visit Hendrick Motorsports home base (the NASCAR team organization). There is an extensive complex of buildings where the race cars are prepared for multiple race teams, pit crew training, and museum space among other things). It gives a very strong impression of the complexity and great expense involved in NASCAR racing. Then we take a short visit to Auto Barn Classic Cars where we find lots of classic cars available for sale, some of them getting restoration work. 
 Next stop is a casual visit with Robert Ravich in Charlotte, NC, who has a nice MGA (and a nice house on the lake). Then we roll on back to Dick Lunney's place for chat, dinner, and more late night chat well past midnight. Tuesday, October 28, 2014: Top priority today is to fix a non-charging problem on Dick Lunney's MGB. The ignition lamp checked out okay, would light up using jumper wires, but would not light when ignition was switched on. 
The ignition lamp socket and bulb are killers for access on the late model MGB. Following the wiring with test light and schematic, it turned out the harness plug on back of alternator was unplugged, like it came loose on its own. Further inspection revealed a bent connector pin in the alternator so the ignition light wire was not connecting to the alternator. Straightening the bent pin and reconnecting the harness plug solved that issue, and the alternator is now charging properly. Next up is to get new Nexen tires on my MGA, which been ordered a couple days earlier. 
This required a late afternoon trip (sans trailer) to Walmart in Salisbury, NC, (45 minutes travel). The process there was a bit of an inefficient foot dragger that sucked up two hours to get the tires installed (bummer). There was also a small problem with the MGA, that it wouldn't start when it was time to enter the tire service bay. That turned out to be a corroded cable connection on the battery cut-off switch which I fixed in about 10 minutes (at least well enough to work for now). In the end the new tires were necessary, and it is nice to removed that particular worry. 
Then we had to hustle over to Statesville (again) for a meeting with Piedmont British Motor Club at the Boxcar Grille. We were an hour late this time due to delays at the tire shop. We may have missed a substantial part of the club business meeting, but we did get food, and we had plenty of time to chat with the locals. A few people we had met in the past week, and we made a few more new friends. We may now also have one or two more appointments for the next day or two. Then follow Dick Lunney back to Huntersville where we try to knock off the chat by midnight so we can get a little more sleep this time. Wednesday, October 29, 2014: First stop today is Elite Vehicle Restorations in Denver, NC, run by Glenn Jermalowics. The big Healey is in for service. The TR6 is nearly finished with partial restoration. The MGA is finished. The AH 100 is Dick Lunney's car doing restoration. The Spitfire and TR3 are awaiting restoration. The VW bus is here for body sheet metal rework. This is a busy place. 
 
 Next stop is Sports Car Salvage, Ltd. in Mt Holly, NC. Meet Tony, the owner, who has been accumulating salvage cars for the parts for decades. The Sprite is a car he has raced for many years. 
 The Lotus 7 is undergoing restoration (apparently all the parts are here). The engines are only a small sample of his inventory (and there is a similar large inventory of transmissions). The Tigers are a favorite hobby; the white one bears a Chrysler emblem on the lower fender (after acquisition of Roots Group). 
From here down the pictures may break your heart, but most British car enthusiasts should get the idea. 
 At least 200 cars have already been removed from the "lower pasture", but still more to go. 
 Tony has done his bit to keep these cars from the crusher, but time moves on, and more of these now have to be recycled. Many of them are stripped for parts before the shells are crushed for scrap, but the stored parts inventory is already huge. 
 With bit of daylight left I get to do some maintenance for my road warrior. I finally get around to adding the upward spacers for the trailer hitch ball (that has been in the works for months, and over due for decades). That makes the trailer more level, 1/2 inch lower in the rear for better sight over the top, and less likely to drag the tongue prop on aggressive pavement dips. You might also recall the coolant loss immediately after engine repairs a couple months back. Well, today was time to refresh the anti-corrosion coolant anti-freeze mix. 
 Thursday, October 30, 2014: Today we head back north again to visit PJ Lenihan in Winston-Salem, NC. He has an MGB GT with a 3.4-liter V6 with 4-bbl carburetor (slightly over 200-HP) and 5-speed gearbox (a wonderful combination). 
 PJ insists that I should drive the GT, so we swap cars for a run to lunch. The GT is delightfully light and frisky and at about 10 pounds per HP it will definitely scoot when you kick it. It is also entertaining to follow the MGA with trailer, almost an out of body experience. 
Hey, the new car tires are alright. Navigator reports the odometer error is now 0.1 miles excess in 35 miles travel, or less than 0.3% error. Pretty good compared to 1.3% error with the worn (smaller OD) tires. We will have to re-check and verify this later. Friday, October 31, 2014: This was mostly a work day for the club newsletter. While stationary we were regularly surrounded by ghosts and goblins and demons of all sorts. I was too busy to take pictures, which may be just as well, as I could have flooded the page with pictures not related to MGs. We did finally move south after dark into South Carolina with the intention to be close to a scheduled morning appointment. |
