The MGA With An Attitude
Wednesday May 1, 2019:
 The new trailer tires are Taskmaster Contender HQ-502, which I have never heard of and cannot find on the internet, so it looks like I'm the guinea pig for testing a new model again. The tread pattern looks exactly the same on the new tires, so I wouldn't be surprised if they came out of the same molding machine with a different brand name on the sidewall. Rest of the day spent on WiFi work, and organizing the list of about 150 shops we still have left to visit. Wednesday May 8, 2019: Spent a few hours this morning pushing dots on a map, planning our routing through 8 or 10 states in the next several weeks, while we chase down the rest of the shops on our list. Then we got to go back into Portland to visit Guy's Interior Restorations which had moved and left us befuddled yesterday. Found them at their new location this time, still in Portland. A definite parking problem here, at least during business hours in this vintage commercial neighborhood. After a couple of passes, park here and walk around the corner. If you like vintage cars you might like a vintage building. "Tom Black's Garage" sign over the door is likely to be as obsolete. We finally found Guy's shop in the big door on the side street. Never did ask what was on the second floor. 
 Not sure who the hot rod belongs to, not even sure if it runs, but it makes a nice lawn ornament. Say hello to Guy. He said the grooming saloon we found yesterday, and the restaurant next door, used to be his prior shop, and he has been in the current location for four years (having been in several different location over the past few decades). Here's a picture just for fun. Guess what's under the cover. Hint: L.E. not MG. 
 Lots of classic cars in the shop, but today by coincidence he was trimming out an MGA. That's the cockpit front padded rail about to get its vinyl wrap. Guy plans on being here for years to come, so if you are near Portland and your LBC needs a trim job, Guy's your guy, maybe. 
 Then we headed north cross the river to visit Commonwealth Classics Ltd in Vancouver, Washington. They think this may be the only LBC shop in Vancouver, important for folks allergic to crossing the bridge with difficult traffic. Lots of nice toys here inside and out. The Jag XK-150-S Fixed Head Coupe was just coming back from a test drive before being sent home. 
 Next stop was Somers Racing Engines Automotive Machine in Vancouver, Washington. As the name implies, 
engine machining, and mostly racing engines. He gets an MG engine occasionally, sometimes to open up the tappet bores for larger tappets commonly used with radical cams (but so far not roller cams). One more stop today at Foreign Parts Positively (FPP) in Brush Prairie, WA. We came by here in August 2015, but didn't actually find the right place on that pass. The GPS will turn you into a street that looks like a private drive, and will tell you that you have arrived, but not quite there yet. Ignore a white house and white shop type building, and go left down a hill on a lesser road where you may see a small FPP sign on the side of the road. A short distance on you may see "19714", but that's too far (looking for "19900" which you will not find). Instead hang a right and go down a steep hill to the FPP home and shop. This is a very peaceful place on a quiet mountain side. Keith Ansel was not here today, off to Ogden, Utah for the 150th anniversary celebration of completion of the trans-continental railway. Yes, that's a steam engine sign on the front of the garage. Had a nice chat with his wife. They are celebrating 50 years in the business, still going strong. They are avid supporters of the local car club(s), and sometimes host club tech sessions here. Story is they may even allow some of the club folks to work on their cars and/or engines in this shop. 
 Running out of business hours, and the next programmed stop was two hours north in Tacoma, so we headed for a cool WiFi spot to bring you these photos and notes. Thursday May 9, 2019: During our traditional breakfast email session we made a few phone calls to friends with tentative appointments to see if we could arrange meeting times. We had no street address for one friend in Tacoma, and he didn't answer the phone, but we left a voice message and moved on. Today we were heading for Brooklands British Car in Tacoma, Washington, but accidentally wrote down the wrong address and ended up in front of a chiropractic clinic (oops). So we made the phone call to verify they were still in business and ask for the correct address. Whoever picked up the phone must have had a bad
Then we dropped by Griots Garage in Tacoma, WA, just for kicks. Not exactly a workshop, but I know a lot of people get some of their car care products from this place. 
 
 Next stop was Olson's Gaskets in Port Orchard, WA. Across the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and another 25 miles north on the west side of the bay. The smaller building is shipping, receiving and office. The larger building is warehouse, literally bursting at the seams overstuffed with rows of shelves to the rafters loaded with gaskets, and part of a second floor as well. That's Mr. Olsen, doing this since 1972 with the business still growing. What you see on that shelf is not gaskets, but patterns (and just the beginning of the stash). They have spent decades searching out and buying up stocks of obsolete gaskets when other concerns have ceased to handle the parts. 
 You might think gaskets are boring, but this place is really into gaskets for vintage cars (and just about anything else that uses gaskets). They pretty much fill in the gaps where other suppliers don't want to bother, like 1901 to 1960, and anything so rare that the market is only a few gasket sets per year. They seem to be inclined to hand make gaskets if necessary, or make production runs of 10 pieces or less whenever they can find a pattern or an original gasket. And I believe they can make any kind of gasket that was ever produced. 
 
 
 
 Somewhere in the back of the workshop there were a few collector cars that are as old and rare as the gaskets they produce. Like the 1931 Twin Coach Bakery Van. That last one is a 1928 Erskine Model 51 (talk about obscure). 
 Our next stop would be a visit with David Heye in Algona, WA. He has an MGA (rather rough) which by today's demand may be a restoration candidate, but he will likely never get to it, so it may be looking for a new home. 
 The other MGA, which we have been chatting about via email and BBS for a few years, is an old friend of the family. David owned this thing in his younger years, even drove it quite a bit back then. It already had the Chevy small block engine transplant with Turbo Hydramatic transmission and narrowed Chevy rear axle (go ahead and count the wheel studs) before he bought it. He was driving it at the time pretty much in the current condition with the chopped up frame missing much of the goalpost, the frame side braces in the engine bay, some of the frame cross members, and half of the floor boards. He sold the car, a long time ago, and it changed owners a few more times, mostly unchanged. We think it has not run for 20 years. He got around to buying it back several years ago, and has been intent on doing the body restoration and finishing the frame renovation (suitable bracing and reinforcing to come of course). 
 
 Next was a quick stop at Carbs Unlimited in Auburn, WA. Story was carburetor rebuilds, parts, new carbs, fuel injection. They do not work on SU carburetors, but they are big on Weber carburetor conversions. Yes, they would install a Weber downdraft carburetor in my car (if I could be convinced it was worth the bother and expense). Weber side drafts as well I suppose. They are specialists in tuning Weber carbs. I jumped on the opportunity to buy a Weber DGV rebuild kit, which includes the rubber diaphragm accelerator pump that I have been wanting to snatch up for the spares. 
 Time for one more shop before closing time, so we headed for British Auto Center Ltd in Seattle, WA. No joy at 
first, finding instead Alki Auto Repair, which has nothing to do with vintage cars. But after some inquiry and some mind joggling, the guy said the old business was still there, sort of. It was renamed Secondhand Enterprises, and it had moved upstairs. They were now selling vintage British car parts, perhaps selling off inventory remaining from the old car repair business. And we got a phone number, which works. We made the call, got an answering machine, left a voice message, and hope to get more information later. Shop hopping done for the day but one more appointment to visit John Backman in Sammamish, WA. In our book, he is the guy who shipped a pair of front wheel bearing hubs to Texas when we needed them in late March 2015. We got to meet him briefly at a NMCCNWC club meeting in August 2015. Really good to finally meet the bloke when we have some time to chat. Those hubs (drum brake disc wheels) came off of a car he was (maybe still is) renovating, after it was converted to front disc brakes, and now they are on my car. We walked across the street to see his MGA, which is stored in a neighbor's garage, because John doesn't have a garage at his place. Really? An MG enthusiast with out a garage? Pretty bold. This car recently lost drive and has been parked for a short while. Best guess is the clutch disc has separated the center hub. He just picked up an engine hoist, and he and his son are about to push the car across the road to pull the engine in his driveway. 
 Time to sit on the patio with a cool drink and cool off while we chatted for a while. I guess it has been a while since we had time to sit and relax with no rush. But it didn't last long, as we soon had to move along to find a WiFi spot. Just as we were getting parked we got a call back from our early morning voice message, Kevin Penney in Tacoma, WA (which would now be a 45 mile backtrack). We had a rather long phone chat about a strange hybrid propshaft that has no business being in any MGA, but there it was. Kevin has sent a picture for our amusement.
He has an MGA 1600 car that came to him with a 1500 engine and early production low starter gearbox. The strange adaptation propshaft (that definitely does not work) looks like the original 1600 type propshaft mated to the rear flange from the 1600 gearbox, which was stuffed into the tail end of the early 1500 gearbox (without being otherwise attached). This makes for two sliding splines, so the front U-joint can slide fore and aft at least an inch. There is very little spline engagement into the gearbox, and likely no contact with the internal bushing, and a mismatch in splines, 1-inch 10-spline male spline, and 1-1/16-inch 10-spline female spline. When he tried to drive the car the coupling moved back and fell out of the gearbox leaving the front end of the propshaft on the ground. Good thing the car wasn't moving very fast when it happened. I suppose this was the driving reason why the prior owner sold the car (blame it on the DPM). Without touching the engine or gearbox, the expedient solution will be to procure the correct propshaft for an early MGA 1500. That issue resolved, an hour later our WiFi spot closed up before we got much else done. There's always tomorrow, right? (Maybe). Friday May 10, 2019: Only two shops on the agenda today, so we spent time battery charging all the electronic tools and got a late morning start. Then we were off to visit Bradley Restoration in Mount Vernon, WA. A little trouble finding the right driveway, but we finally spotted a couple of signs on a barn. After parking and walking around a bit I found the workshop in another building around back. Say hello to Andrew Bradley, the Proprietor. 
 Andrew was busy with a customer, so I had time to snoop around a bit. Plenty of vintage British cars sitting around, as this is all they ever work on in this place. 
 The red MG TD was just brought in for a full restoration (even though it looked pretty good as is). I was curious about the tires (having a lot of experience with a wide variety of tires in this size). These were Federal Super Steel 657, 165/80R15, likely 10 years old. I hadn't seen this brand before, so I was checking the specs. Treadwear 420, Traction A, Temperature A. This is ony the second time I have seen tires in this size with "A" temperature rating, the last ones being the Gremax tires I bought in Canada in 2017. 
 Lots of shop space, four bays wide. The AH 100 is about ready for paint, and as soon as that's done the car is out of here (because the owner is an upholstery guy). The blue MGA has an 18V engine and Datsun 240Z 5-speed gearbox. It was in for a tune-up, and we think the brake side of the master cylinder will need to be sleeved down from 7/8 to 3/4 bore because the Datsun slave cylinder is very small bore size. 
 
One more shop stop today, looking for Earl's Auto Tech in Bellingham, WA. We were pretty sure in advance that this one was displaced with Sterling Automotive, but we always try to get the skinny anyway. Sure enough Earl's has been gone four years (since 2015), and the phone is disconnected, so scratch that one. Sterling has naught to do with vintage cars, so nothing new to add in exchange. Got lucky and found a friendly WiFi spot nearby in Bellingham that was going to be open late. Checking to see if Mount Baker MG Car Club might have something going on while we were in the area, but discovered that the club has been officially disbanded two months earlier in March 2019. Pitty. For now the club web site remains on line under the name Skagit & Whatcom MG Enthusiasts. Managed to catch up two days photos and notes sometime after midnight. Zzzzzzz. Saturday May 11, 2019: Easy to explain today. Aside from email and BBS I spent most of the day configuring the CMGC newsletter for the club web site, and trying to figure out why the electronic publisher file has a flow in it (!@#$%^&* MS software). Sunday May 12, 2019: Sitting in Monroe, WA this morning. Had a little work, not much, mostly caught up, finally had some time to rest and took most of the day off. After dark headed east on US-2. About 10-pm we were climbing mountains for about 25 miles, much of it in 3rd gear. Finally crested Stevens Pass at 4061 feet and headed back down. Several miles on we found a nice quiet rest stop at Nelsons Creek. Monday May 13, 2019: Wonderful weather in the morning, so it was a good time to do a little maintenance. The cheap Chinese starter switch from Moss (which I have been cursing ever since it was installed two years ago) had finally gotten so bad that it would almost never work without a firm tug under the bonnet (done for most starts for the past week). So it was time to re-route the battery cables and starter wiring. Removed the distributor for easy access from the top. The long main battery cable was relocated from the starter switch to the power input terminal on the solenoid of the gear reduction starter. The shorter cable (already on the starter post) was then connected to the other terminal on the starter switch, along with a number of medium gauge battery power and alternator wires. One new wire was run from the second terminal of the starter switch to the trigger terminal on the starter motor solenoid. Reinstalled the distributor. Now the starter has power directly from the battery, and the starter switch only carries low current to trigger the starter solenoid. So far it works okay, starts every time on the first pull. 
 In the process, we found a couple more faults in the Moss starter switch (to add to the growing list). The copper power posts are not secure in the thick insulator, so one of the posts would rotate before the nut was fully tight. I had to apply Vice-Grip to the threaded end of the stud to hold it while tightening the nut with an end wrench. With the new bite marks in the thread, the nut will never come off again, so the switch will be trashed next time it needs any service. The mounting nut (with threads stripped during initial installation) was to be finger tightened, but even that didn't work because the threaded barrel was loose and rotating freely in the housing. When this stupid switch finally gets removed it will be dissected for pictures of all of the design and manufacturing defects. Meanwhile, don't buy another one from Moss. Ran another 18 miles down hill to breakfast stop at Leavenworth, WA. These mountains are absolutely beautiful in daylight. 
 Then another 25 miles on we stopped to visit British Car Ranch in Wenatche, WA. Nice service shop in the hills. They do everything from minor repairs to full restoration work, and they are booked up three months in advance. 
 
 
 Then we stuffed a foot in it and made a fast 3-1/2 hours east to visit Botzon's Automotive in Spokane, WA. John Leighton is the MG mechanic there (pretty much for all British cars and some other imports). The AH 100 that came in for a Spring general service had water in the oil. The head is off looking for a gasket leak, which was not found or not obvious. So the head was sent to an engine shop for pressure test, and the problem has to be resolved before the car can hit the road again. There has been a long list of vintage British cars through here for service. 
 While at Botzon's we got a referral to a fellow 35 minutes away on the north side of town. Tom Lux with a Spokane, WA rural address has a couple of MGAs in pieces, one of them half through restoration and the other with the body off (and I think they have traded chassis). Apparently Tom has run into some health problems and figures he will not be able to continue the restoration work, so the two cars may be for sale pretty much as-is. 
 There are (or were) two complete cars before disassembly, and all of the parts are still there. Plus there are more 60-spoke wire wheel from an Austin Healey, and a bunch of new new parts like the F-post assemblies to continue the restoration work. If interested, contact Tom Lux at 509-280-6175 or 509-466-8907. 
 Then we were off for a very late lunch and a WIFI spot, made some phone calls for a couple more possible personal contacts, and killed the rest of the on grunt work to post up these photos and notes. Headed east late night, just crossing into Idaho with a hour added to the clock with change from Pacific time to Mountain time zone. Tuesday May 14, 2019:  Today we were looking for John Daley in rural Cataldo, ID. We had missed him when he was out of town in 2015, and we blew through Washington state without time to stop here in 2017. He wasn't returning a phone message for a couple of days, so we decided to stop and knock on the door on the way by. No joy, as he has moved to the Boise, Idaho area. But we did get his cell phone number, and we are going that way in a few days, so we may get another shot at him yet. 
Then we headed east, and north. Did I mention the scenery in eastern Washington and northern Idaho is wonderful. Climbing over a couple of mountain passes around 4000 and 5000 feet elevation we passed some snow still hiding on the shady side of the hills. One fuel stop, and a late sit-down lunch killed an hour. 
We finally stopped to visit Jerry Berry in Libby, MT around 6-pm. He has an MGA that has been struggling through restoration for, shall we say decades? He used to drive the car, then started restoration work which was stalled for a while. He was dragging the car around the country through a few moves. Then some pro shop was working on the body work, but not recently. Got discouraged and was talking about selling the car, but a local shop friend talked him out of it. Now he and his wife are determined to get it finished, and it will soon go into the pro shop for all of the remaining work, to be finished within the next year (hopefully). We were chatting for a while when it suddenly dawned on me that it was getting dark, and we hadn't seen the car yet. The car was temporarily in a storage locker, so we drove over to see it. Kind of dark by then, but we got some pictures anyway (Yes we know the MGB style fan is backward). 
 
 
Back at the house, more chat, and holy cow it was suddenly 11-pm, and we needed to be moving on. Being well out in the hills where small towns roll up the sidewalks at night, we tanked it up and headed east another 90 miles to land in Kalispell, MT half past one. I recon it was a long 280 mile drive in the mountains today. Wednesday May 15, 2019: Breakfast in Kalispell this morning with time to post photos and notes from yesterday. Then we drove 12 miles north to visit Restorations Limited in Columbia Falls, MT. At first, nobody here, but an assortment of vintage American cars on site. We spotted a Mini in another building nearby, and went there to inquire, but no luck. When we drove back past Restorations Limited again few minutes later, there was a truck in front that was not there before, so we stopped to check again with better luck. 
 Meet the owner David Symcox. He does restore some odd things here, couple of trucks in process currently, and he claims the cars in the yard are mostly for parts. With the low population density and the rareness of British cars in Montana, it is good that someone here still works on these things. He was recently doing some of the body work on Jerry Berry's MGA (above). We had a lengthy chat about poor quality of current issue replacement panels for such cars. Such service here will be limited to sheet metal restoration, but not much more of the restoration process, as Davd claims to be not very familiar with the vintage British "philosophy". 
 
Then we had a longer drive 138 miles south in 3-hr 21-min on some casual roads, mostly US-93 in the flat lands and foothills with not much steep grades. But also mainly two lane roads with twisties and traffic and very little passing following the side of a small river (fat creek) here and there, which accounts for the 41-mph average speed. We eventually found Culver's Foreign Car Service in Missoula, MT. First impression is good size shop, and a number of foreign cars on hand, nothing British in sight
today,and oddly enough no British cars listed on the marquis. We finally summoned up the owner Charles Culver. They do indeed work on British cars, at least occasionally. Lack of the British names on the marquis has something to do with reserving the right to say no, kind of a socio-political thing I think. But they do service the cars on "special request". Turned out that Charles likes to chat about the vintage cars, so we killed the better part of an hour before it dawned on him that he should get back to work. 
 By this time it was late afternoon, and we wanted to stop for lunch while we catch up some grunt work. We had in mind to run several hours east to visit a friend in Billings, Montana, then back southwest to Boise, Idaho. Being quite a bit out of our way, we made a call first, but our friend in Billings was not returning the call, so we scratched that idea and decided to go direct to Boise. Good call maybe, as that would cut 560 miles and 8-hours off of our travels. Around 10:30 pm we tanked it up, cleaned and Rain-Xed the windscreen, and headed south on US-93 with a light mist of intermittent rain. Two hours later and 96 miles on we arrived at a rest stop just over 7000 feet
altitude at the top of a mountain pass right on the border between Montana and Idaho. We had spent the last half hour running up the hill in 3rd gear (sometimes 2nd gear in the switchbacks). This also happens to be a ski resort, which was closed, and so was the rest stop. That didn't bother us, as we pulled a hundred yards up a side road, turned around and parked on the side of the road where we got to sleep in the snow (sort of). Very dark and quiet, no birds and no crickets, maybe got down to 40dF overnight (melting snow), no wind, and delightful sleeping weather. |
