The MGA With An Attitude
MGA Guru Is GOING MOBILE - (November 16 - November 30, 2018)
Friday November 16, 2018:
Snow bound with broken wiper drive, first priority this morning would be to get the wipers fixed. Having slept on it over night, I had the idea that the outer pipe of the wiper drive must have come loose from the LH wheelbox, and after checking this I was right. Trying to switch on the wipers for a test, nothing moved and no sound, wiper motor not running. Kind of a wild guess that when the pipe became disconnected and pulled the cable, the wiper arms (both sides) moved full right. wobbled a bit through a few cycles and stopped. I switched them off, but if the drive was stuck mid stroke the motor would want to continue to run until it found the park position, and if it was jammed it might burn out the motor when stalled. Or it may have sheared some teeth off of the bull gear in the wiper motor. Bugger all.
 This Shops list we have been working on must be good for something, and as it happened British Miles in Morrisville, PA was less than ten miles away, and they have lots of good used parts (and some new parts as well). We dropped in, groveled around to find some wiper drive parts (just in case).
Not precipitating this morning, but it was still moderately cold and windy, and sloppy wet melting snow all around. We found a nearly dry spot to work, against the building out of the wind. I had a pleasant surprise when I switched on the wipers and the motor made noise and moved things a little bit, meaning the wiper motor still ran (not necessarily driving the cable). There ensued a fair amount of time crushing knuckles up under the dash to R&R the cover plate from the LH wheelbox while reinstalling the disconnected cable pipe. Once that was done, the spindles would rotate appropriately, raising hopes considerably. In process of reinstalling the wiper arms I noticed entirely frazzled spindle seals on the new wheelboxes I had installed 2-1/2 years earlier in the interest of repairing leaky seals. That was a waste of time and money, chasing the cheap Chinese rubber parts again. I may soon try to snap a couple of rubber O-rings over the spindle to see how that might work.
Once the wiper arms were installed and aligned the wipers were back to their normal slow operation (Yeehaw!). BM had come up with a new LH wing mirror to replace the broken one, but that will wait for later. For now we were back on the road and heading south a couple more hours for one more shop visit.
Looking for Glenn Towery British Cars Only in Cheswold, DE, we found a couple of locked gates and lots of MGs behind the fence. A phone call got us an appointment for a couple hours later, so it was time for a late lunch break before returning for the visit as the light was failing. Glenn likes MGBs, and especially GTs, and he likes stuffing V8 engines into MGBs.
To be fair, there were a LOT of MGs in the yard, and a few more cars not MGs, like the Morris Minor that should be restored sometime soon.
There are three brothers here. The property is five acres adjoining a small airport, as it was "put together" with three large workshops (one for each bother) by their father who liked to fly. Looking around outside, I don't want to say they are trying to make a flying car, but things look rather suspicious.
Second bother and the second shop full of motorcycles.
Third bother was not here tonight, but the third shop is full of airplanes, and a few more motorcycles.
It was a nice visit, but soaked up a lot more time than I was expecting, so pretty much kissed of the rest of the day. As I was arriving back at the WiFi spot, Glenn followed me in driving one of his V8 MGB, and sort of insisted on taking me for a demo drive, killing some more time. I was then doing what I could with WiFi until the place closed at 10:30-pm, upon which we headed south again in anticipation of tomorrow's intent.
Saturday November 17, 2018:
What we had in mind today was a visit to Moss Motors in Petersburg, Virginia to pick up some parts before noon closing time on Saturday. Uh, say what? Apparently there has been a change of policy since we were here last spring, as the place was locked up, and business hours listed on the door were week days only, no more Saturday morning hours for the front counter. Bummer. So much for picking up a new windscreen glass and wiper blades and other small bits. Time to reconsider. Meanwhile we could use the rest of the day to catch up some more grunt work.
Sunday November 18, 2018:
Sitting in Rocky Mount, North Carolina today, doing some advance planning, BBS, email enquies, and making a few appointments. We had a tentative contact in Wake Forest, NC, a little over an hour to the west, with email and a street address but no phone number. So we sent an email early in the day, but got no return message all day, so come late night we skipped that one and ran two hours west in anticipation of ou morning appointment.
Monday November 19, 2018:
We had a few appointments and a lot of driving to do today. First stop was a visit to Nichols Speedometer &
Instrument Company in Greensboro, NC. Busy place. While I was chatting with Charlie Nichols at the front desk two instument panels for modern GM vehicles were dropped off for service. Nichols will also service the traditional instruments for our vintage British cars.
Another two hours west we stopped to visit
Vintage Mecha-Tronics in Hickory, NC. We got a little side-tracked here, chatting about the vintage British cars in the stable. There was an MG TD stowed ovehead on the rack with an MGB GT underneath, The GT was nearing completion of refurbishment with a late model engine running earlier model SU HS4 carburetors on a 1964-1967 intake manifold with the fuel vapor recovery system in tact. I was trying to talk him onto reinstalling the anti-run-on valve, just screw it on, plug in a couple of existing wires, and connect a vacuum pipe.
On the other side was the father and son project vintage Mini getting a Honda VTEC engine transplant, with air conditioning. The front brakes were interesting 4-pot aluminum calipers on 7-inch rotors, because they were going to use original 10-inch wheels and tire to retain the original look of the car. Something about tall gear ratio in the final drive, and a special speedometer, anticipating a 135-mph Mini (and yes they are V-rated tires).
Almost forgot what we came for. These are these guys who do the electonic conversions for the Lucas contol box for generators (positive or negtive earth). Of couse they have gutted more than a few control boxes for these conversions.
We were just beginning a 53 mile trip west into the twisty mountain roads of the Pisgah National Forest
when the trailer decided it was time to remind us that we still needed to change the bad wheel bearings, which we had been ignoring since cleaning and greasing them in Quebec on Sept 1, so there was an hour delay to fix that. At least it picked a warm, dry, sunny day this time.
Finally arriving at our destination, we were looking for ADDCO Manufacturing Co. in Linville, NC,
previously claimed to be the manufacturing center of the world's largest manufacturer of automotive sway bars. Surpise! The factory has been gone for about two years. Pretty sure they are not out of business, so will have to call to find out where the factory may have been relocated.
During WiFi gunt work laer in the evening, we were discussing a shop, Old English Repairs, which we had been trying to contact for a while (like since last spring).
It was on a street which name we could not identify in Lenoir, NC. All mapping programs wanted to call it Granite Falls, which was only 12 miles from Lenoir, so we decided to give that a try. Cruising into Granite Falls late night, we found the addess to be a vacant lot with lots of nice grass, not something recently graded. So we finally concede to call off the search, because when there is no means of contact it is obviously out of business.
Tuesday November 20, 2018:
A simpler day today, we hoped. We were looking for a friend in Charlotte, NC who has an MGA which previously belonged to his father. We have his email and street address, but no phone number. Having no response to email, we decided to go knock on the door to see if anyone might be home. As happens, no one home, but the place was apparently occupied, aned there was an MGA in the garage. No luck today, but we well keep him on our Friends list to try again later.
A couple hours south we cruised into Columbia, South Carolina to visit Mintz Machine Shop. This is the place that was closed for lunch last time we we were here in the the spring. They were definitely open this time. We wanted to to stop in to thank them for torching the frozen studs out of the MGA exhaust manifold for Ansel Gantt last spring. Otherwise this is a generally generic machine shop that has no problem doing machine work on engines for pretty much any vintage car. So we wanted to add this one to our Shops list. From there it was rest of the day off to do a little shopping and WiFi work.
Wednesday November 21, 2018:
Had a couple of past friends to visit today. 10-am stop to see Dave Daniel in Lexington, SC. His MGA hadn't run for to months, but it fired up without much fuss. Hard to pull the choke, so we applied a little penetrating oil to the cable housing where is was a bit rusty in the engine bay. Not much improvement until I removed a (redundant) return spring from the output end of the choke cable, after which it was much easier to pull. Good deal, and then we wee off on some side streets to visit our next friend.
Say hello to George Lawson in Lexington, SC. Hid MGA is still muddling along trying to finish restoration. We got it running and drivable back in the spring, but it hasn't run since then. This was a bit more of a fiddle as the battery was mostly discharged and not cranking. With enough time on the charger we managed to get it running by day's end, but it didn't run well on stale fuel until it was fully warmed up. So we recon he will need to drain the two gallons or so of old fuel and add some fresh fuel, job for another day. And we had a curious neighbor out for a walk drop in to chat for a while, about his brother who used to have an MGA.
We also got Dave's MG TF out of George's garage. This one also was reluctant to start on stale fuel, but it cranked over much better, and with a little persistence it started on two cylinders and eventually improved to running on four. It was soon out for a lap around the block, and then a bit of fiddling to pull up the carpet and put fluid in the bake master cylinder (which likely had no attention in many years).
Being a nice day, I took the opportunity to replace my broken wing mirror incurred in the snow storm last week. We did this without needing to remove the wheel or splash panel. The trick here is that the mirror is located
above a space aft of the splash guard and fore of the body sill. I can reach the mirror mounting nut from underneath with a socket on an assembly of long extensions. I loosed the nut, then held all of the washes and nut securely in place with the wrench while someone else unscrewed the broken mirror post and screwed in the new one.
This was followed by tightening the nut underneath, and the job was finished in short order.
The last picture is an MGA 1500 or 1600 wire wheel rear axle assembly which is looking for a new home. If anyone has in mind to convert a disc wheel MGA to wire wheels, this is the largest part of what you need for that conversion. If interested, call George at 803-996-6550.
Doing WiFI work in the evening, I received word that my youngest brother (73 and 4 years older than me) has expired, back in northwest Illinois. Kind of expected, not a big suprise, but it will put a damper on spirits for a while. And it makes one think. Life is short; eat desert first.
Thursday November 22, 2018:
Thanksgiving day in the U.S. of A, an official holiday. Shops are closed, and everyone should be busy with family affairs, so we have the day off. Time to update some tech pages. Bailed out of Lexington late night and drove 2-1/2 hours west to Anderson, SC.
Friday November 23, 2018:
Day after Thanksgiving, still a holiday for a lot of people, so we were not expecting too much, but we have a few items on the agenda, and some traveling to do. There is (or was) a shop in Westminster, SC called Triumph Restorations. We have a phone number but no street address. Tried calling last spring, left a message, but got no response. Called again today, no answer again, so we moved on.
Three hours to the west, just west of the expressway loop around Atlanta, GA, we were looking for McMaster-Carr Supply Company in Douglasville, GA. The given street address was confusing the GPS, so we had to retreat for a bit to a nearby WiFi spot to investigate. After making a phone call to McMaster-Carr we came up with a location a mile away that works (do not trust you GPS on this one). The satellite photo shows this place
is huge, at least 600x900 feet, more than half a million square feet (maybe a bit larger), and multiply by three stories tall for volume. I put this business on our Shops list because I have been buying stuff from here for decades. I used to have a paper catalog, which was larger than a Chicago phone book. Don't bother, because you can find it all on their web site now. They have industrial supplies of every type imaginable, like fasteners, tools, shelving, welding supplies, electrical, Speedy-Sleeves, bearings, air compressors and accessories, paint sprayers, and lots of other stuff you can use for maintenance and restoration of you vintage British cars.
Two more phone calls, one stop and one skip for a couple of friends who would nor be home. Two hours to the south we finally stopped to visit Crossroad Classics & Customs in Pine Mountain Valley, GA. Say hello to the owner/operator Andrew Wemmer.
Andrew likes to work on custom and vintage vehicles, including custom pick-up trucks. But this stop was a request, as the shop is currently working on an MGA for a customer, getting it reassembled and trimmed after some restoration work and a repaint.
We spent some time identifying a lot of parts the car owner had supplied, where and how to fit the parts, what might be good or bad parts, and generally how to complete the assembly of the car to get it back on the road (in spite of it having three different kinds of road wheels). Pretty sure we will get back to this one again later.
Getting late in the day, so we took one more hop just 26 miles south to land in Columbus City, GA for the night, staged for next day's appointment.
Saturday November 24, 2018:
Funny day. We had scheduled a 9-am tech session in Columbus, GA today, and several people showed up, but no one needed anything done to their car. So it turned into a Q&A tech session to some benefit. With not much happening we knocked off in time for noon lunch, then took the rest of the day off.
There was one interesting car, a 1986 Lotus Excel SE (that wasn't hard to remember). 2.2-liter, 180 bhp. Not an official North American import model, there may be six of these in the country.
Spent rest of the day on photos and notes. Headed north late night, landing in Chattanooga, TN in the small hours of the morning.
Sunday November 25, 2018:
Heading for NW Illinois where they are getting soused in 4 to 8 inches of snow today and tonight. The worst of it should blow over by mid day tomorrow. Need to be there Tue-Wed. Tuesday partly cloudy and cold, overnight low 6dF. Wednesday mostly sunny and cold, gentle breeze, improving to near 20dF by afternoon. We should survive, planning on heading back south Wednesday night. Okay staying in Chattanooga all day to do my monthly trip report for the Chicago club.
Monday November 26, 2018:
Moved across Tennessee and Kentucky. Have one more day to kill, so we stopped in Mt Vernon, IL where we expect it to be down to 20dF tonight. No sense getting much farther north where it would be significantly colder.
Tuesday November 27, 2018:
Peoria, IL Galesburg, IL
Easy enough run today, just getting deeper and colder. Passed through Peoria and landed in Galesburg, IL where we expect 11dF tonight. The storm has passed, leaving plenty behind. Unseasonably heavy snow for November, about a foot of the stuff, not cleaned up very well.
Wednesday November 28, 2018:
Only one planned activity today, the funeral of a brother. Personal of course, so not to bore others with details here. Very cold, but no snow, only gentle breeze, and the sun made an appearance for a while by mid day. After the graveside services about 15 of the family gathered for lunch at a local restaurant. Nice chat with some folks we don't get to see very often, especially as a group. Then time for everyone to depart, so we headed south again toward slightly warmer weather. Two fuel stops, one break for evening meal, then cruise on. By late night we had escaped cold Illinois, passed through Kentucky, and landed near Clarksville, Tennessee where it was at least slightly above freezing.
Thursday November 29, 2018:
Drove on a bit farther before a late breakfast, stopped in Joelton, TN near Nashville. Warm front moved in, but raining all day, and it seemed like a good time to take a day off.
Friday November 30, 2018:
Kimball, Tennessee. I recon we didn't go very far today. Weather warming up some more, but still raining. No appointments, so good to take another day off. Doing something useful though; spent most of the day on a couple new tech pages for wheel bearings. Drove a little farther south late night, past Chattanooga and into Georgia (just to say we went somewhere).
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