The MGA With An Attitude
MGA Guru Is GOING MOBILE - (October 1 - October 15, 2022)
Saturday, October 1, 2022:
Sure enough, found the video and watched the last two hours of last night's Tesla AI Day presentation. Those guys are gung ho, pull out all the stops, full speed ahead, Good to see rapid development of new technologies. --- Got the final photos and notes for the new tech page on MGA Twin Cam water pump rebuild. That was fun. --- the Publisher copy of CMGC October newsletter came in late night for me to transcribe into HTML pages for the club web site. Got hour and a half into that before WiFi spot was closing, have to resume tomorrow.
Sunday, October 2, 2022:
Heavy into the CMGC October newsletter today. Too many interruptions and phone calls, didn't get the newsletter even half done, more tomorrow.
Monday, October 3, 2022:
Better progress today, finishing the CMGC newsletter transcribe to the club web site by mid afternoon.
Tuesday, October 4, 2022:
Rain, rain rain, the remnants of hurricane Ian that came straight north from west coast of Florida. Right through south central PA, then turned east, slowly, and now we're on the back side of it. Hopefully it may stop raining this evening (or not). Forecast says rain stops 7-pm, but we have the tech session appointment at 6-pm.
 Still raining at 6-pm, so tech night at Darrell's garage in York turned into 2-1/2 hours of tech natter 'n' noggin, with 10 guys sharing interesting chat. Off to Sheetz at 9-pm for late dinner and some download only WiFi time.
Wednesday, October 5, 2022:
Took a short trip south today to visit Treasured Motorcar Services in New Freedom, PA. I picked up a business card for this shop at the "MGs On The Rocks" car show. No street address on the card, so it took a little effort to find their web site. Probably would have gone there last week if I had known where it was. Guys at Darrell's garage were talking about local shops, some of the owners retiring soon, and what shops were still working to service our vintage British cars. Treasured Motorcar Services came up again, so must be a good time for the visit.
No one in the front office, but there was some activity in the shop. I rang their phone and got a recording saying they were attending the car show in Hershey, PA this week.
Took a few pictures in the lobby, but didn't want to crash the workshop without invitation, so I just took a few more pictures through the window. They work on lots of classics, including vintage British cars. (Established 1980).
Thursday, October 6, 2022:
Back in York, PA today, and the MGA needs another oil change after 4000 miles in one month, and Darrell's garage has the facilities, so pick up a jug of 20W50 on the way there. Easy-peasy with the car on the lift to drain the oil, soon done with oil and filter change and chassis lube job. -- That pesky alternator rear bracket is broken again, but we will put that off until the fan belt needs tightening again.
Good time to check out the failed "bilge blower" used to cool the carburetors in hot weather. It blew fuse a while back, then with a new fuse made some strange noises until it blew the fuse again. Turned out the anti-vibration soft mount for the motor got a bit too soft and flexed enough to allow the fan blade to touch the side of the housing. Cheap part, easier to buy a new one than to fix that condition, so toss it in the dust bin and put another one on the wish list.
Then it seemed like a good time to change the left side headlight bucket, the part with the adjuster screw sockets riveted in place. This one was dinged with the front end collision damage a year ago, and the part was back ordered for a while. Once it was available, we have been carrying it around in the trailer for several months, and wanted to get it out of the trailer to free up space. Figured we could do this in an hour, until taking it apart we found a smashed halogen sealed beam bulb. The run out to pick up a new headlight soaked up most of an hour in rush hour traffic, turning the one hour job into two hours. At least we have a properly aligned headlight again.
Then an hour and a half behind the planned schedule, we packed up and made a mad dash east, mostly on US-30, to visit John Statts in Wayne, PA. He has a nice MGA to compliment his wife's nice MGA, and another MGA project currently in his home shop, not to mention his MGB and I suspect another MGA with one of his kids. This is truly a family affair. Kind of late for taking pictures, but not too bad.
Then we were off on a 20 minute tour of some historic roads (which would have been much better in day light). Finally landed at a nice restaurant for dinner with his wife, and swapping some good stories.
After 10:30 PM, navigator's choice, heading northwest about 90 minutes, landing somewhere west of Harrisburg, PA shortly after midnight. Not sure why we were that far north, maybe just to avoid the toll road on I-76.
Friday, October 7, 2022:
In a round about way we went back through Camp Hill, PA for late breakfast, catching up some email and BBS. In the evening we were back in York, PA to take up where we left off in a hurry yesterday. The prime objective was to get Darrell to drive the MGA, which apparently he had never done. Then back to a functional WiFi spot to post the photos and notes from yesterday (and today).
Saturday, October 8, 2022:
45 minutes south into Hunt Valley, Maryland for breakfast stop. Catching up email, tech questions, and BBS stuff. Late night cruise hour and a half south into Virginia.
Sunday, October 9, 2022:
Breakfast in Marshall, VA, cold morning, 36dF with frost warning, but spitting distance from the morning appointment. Hunt Country Classic (British car show) at Willoughby Farm on Frogtown Road near Marshall, VA, presented by MG Car Club, DC Centre. Warmed up to 50dF by 9:30 entry time, low 60's and full sun in early afternoon, very nice weather for (most of) the car show.
A full report for this car show with about 60 pictures can be found here: www.mgaguru.com/tales/hunt2022.htm - So I will chop it down a lot and only post limited information here in the travel log. Photos will tell most of the story.
We had two MG Z-Magnette cars. The silver one is a ZA Magnette, while the two-tone job is a ZB Magnette Varitone.
Most of the MGA rolled in early, at least 12 cars here. My first visit to the Hunt Country Classic, but all good friends. I missed a picture of a historic Coupe hiding on the other side of the fence, but Bob Krzywicki
captured that one. This is the only known remaining car from the 1959 MGA Sebring team.
MGB chrome bumper cars, and a few GT.
MGB rubber bumper cars, and two MG Midget.
Open Class Sports was a single car with the Jensen Interceptor. There was the Rover 3500 V8, yellow SD1 American market variant 1980-1981 with live rear axle and rear drum brakes. and the Sterling 827SLi (red American market V6 1989-1991 with IRS and all wheel disc brakes. Due respect to a pair of Range Rovers.
Two MG pre-war and TC, one with wide wire wheels and fat tires. Four MG TD, one with wire wheel conversion. Several Morgans, 4/4 and +4. There was one 1959 Morgan 4/4 with 50-HP electric motor conversion attracting a lot of attention (although not quite up to modern electric car expectations).
One 1950 Riley Drop Head, also drop dead beautiful. Two Morris Minor 1000 coupe, One MG 1100 sport.
One modern Mini, one Sunbeam Tiger, one Sunbeam Alpine, and a hand full of Lotus.
Three Austin Healey bugeye Sprite (and another one in the Premier class). Nine big Healey.
One 1960's vintage Triumph Herald 1200 Estate, small enough to be called a "Shooting Brake" (go look it up). One 1952 Triumph Mayflower saloon, and one lonely TR-3.
 
Half a dozen TR4 and TR-250, at least one TR5. One TR8 (sorry no TR7), and at least 16 TR6.
The Price Of Wales class (commonly known as the Premier Class) with last year's class winners (11 cars here). That 4th bugeye Sprite was a real cutie, but I think the 1st place best of the best was the vintage Mini. -- Had to slip a couple of Aston Martin in here somewhere, as they are often overlooked. Mostly the newer models, not the older ones very often.
The place was infested with cats, Jaguar all over the place. Open Top Sports (OTS) XK120, XK140, and the slightly larger XK150. Line up half a dozen E-Types, and throw in some newer V8's for kicks.
No shortage of Jaguar sedans either, this time going from newer to older.
The Rolls Royce, Bentley group, getting older as we go. One 1936 Bentley Drop Head.
I had to jog around the fence to find the motorcycles near the registration booth. A newer Triumph Daytona, educated guessing 1999 Daytona 955i.
A definitely vintage Norton 850 Commando (1973-1977). And another vintage Triumph Trident. A 740cc 3-cylinder, one of the first "super bike" beating the Honda 750 4-cylinder to market by a few weeks in 1968 (through 1975 production). From appearance, this one may be a 1975 T160 model.
About 250 cars this time, so it took a while to sit through all the awards.
Monday, October 10, 2022:
Most of the day spent posting photos and notes from yesterday's car show (and dealing with a few computer and camera problems). Computer may now have two dead USB connectors (one good remaining), and the camera may need a new battery.
Tuesday, October 11, 2022:
Start the day at Advance Auto Parts in Centerville, VA, picking up and replacing a side marker light on the trailer,
as it was whacked again when parked a few weeks ago. This time the outer plug-in light was missing, and the plug-in base was munched and had to be replaced. This chore is a significant pain, because I had some time ago soldered and shrink-sleeved all of the trailer wiring harness connections for reliability. Places inside the trailer with exposed wiring are taped over with Duck tape for protection, which works but dries out and is difficult to remove. But persistence pays, and it only took 90 minutes before late breakfast.
Mid day dash back to the parts store to pick up a spare brake light switch ordered this morning (likely needed at least twice a year). -- Intended a visit with Aron Bee in Fairfax, VA, but he has sold his MGA (still driving a modern Mini).
Wednesday, October 12, 2022:
Going to visit a shop today, and got a two-fer, entirely by accident. Dropped in to visit Blue Ridge Motorwerks in Manassas, VA, and also found Schebish Bros Automotive at the same address. Schebish Bros seems to be the more active business, servicing and restoring vintage cars, including rust repair, restoration, collision repair. They really like to work on Porsche and other European cars, but include nearly anything classic. There were an MGB and a Jaguar E-Type in house today. Blue Ridge on the other hand seems to be primarily for storage and parts supply, subcontracting repair work to the cooperative shop in the same premises.
Then on a personal reference just this morning, we went to visit "My Dad's Automotive" in Chantilly, VA. In business since 2015 they service mostly modern cars, but can service vintage cars when needed. They don't encourage the rush of vintage British cars, but would provide mechanical or electrical services for emergency break-down situations.
In the evening we stopped to visit Bill Demarest in Gainesville, VA. He has a concours quality MG TD tht may need a little help, as it has not been wanting to start and run for a while. But Bill wanted to sit and chat some, so the evening went away, and we put the TD off for tomorrow. Oh, he does have a nice HO gauge model railroad layout as well.
Thursday, October 13, 2022:
After breakfast Bill got the MG TD down to floor level so we could check it out. Battery charged up, trying to start it, managed to get it to pop a and run on apparently two cylinders. It could be kept running with full choke only, but was still running rough and would backfire with a little poke on the throttle.
Seemed to me that perhaps only one carburetor was passing fuel. Not long to lift the float covers, and sure enough no fuel in the rear carburetor. Gross Jets in this case, and the rear one was firmly stuck shut. We removed the fuel valve to poke the inner ball from the top side and spray it with carburetor cleaner, managed to break it loose somewhat, but still sticking occasionally, and would pass only very small flow.
So give it up and install a new Gross Jet (provided by the Magic Trailer). Cinch up a couple loose choke links in the process, after which it fired up and purred like a kitten. Score one for the good guys.
Bill also has a Jaguar F-Type hiding in a local shop for some service. The thought it might need new suspension struts, but lucky it only needed some adjustments and a few loose bolts tightened to be back in service. Sorry, didn't get to see that one.
But there is also a rather rare British Falcon race car in his race trailer some distance away in Winchester, VA (at the race shop), and we did get to go see that one.
Seems like I have been providing some assistance for this one in the past, as it has an Austin B-series gearbox (MGA style) and an Austin A-series rear axle (MG Midget style).
Sweet Coventry Climax 1.5L race engine 140+BHP), neat Lady Godiva emblem on top.
Then we were trying to find Matt Szechenyi in Boyce, VA (very near to Winchester). He is (or was) restoring his 2nd MGA. No reply to phone message in 2016. Phone out of service now. I knocked on the door, but no one home, so I suppose we have to scratch this one off the list.
Heading south in direction of next appointment, not much luck for WiFi. Spent rest of the day trying to process photos and notes but didn't finish.
Friday, October 14, 2022:
Caught up with the trip log by mid day. Headed into Richmond, VA by mid afternoon to visit Bruce Woodson at Mercer and Woodson Automotive, Inc. Mostly just a friendly repeat visit, but they always have a few interesting cars around. That would be a Fiat 2000 in front of my MGA,
And a Volvo next to the TR6. The white car on the lift behind the Jaguar coupe is a Triumph TR5, the European fuel injected version of the North American TR250. All mechanical fuel injection with a manual choke, and it works very well. On inquiry we found an O'Reilly store nearby that could get us a replacement alternator with overnight delivery, so we will stick around overnight to pick that up tomorrow.
Meanwhile, laundry day, and a little time left in the evening to post these photos and notes.
Saturday, October 15, 2022:
Time for planning today, phone calls and email. Also trot over to the local O'Reilly Auto Parts to pick up the next spare replacement alternator in exchange for the last failed one. We had the test sheet from St Louis, which was good enough for them, so no test this time just swap the pulley and fan to the new unit and toss it back in the trailer.
We did need to replace another broken rear bracket for the alternator, just three easy bolts. Just finishing that up when a friendly voice said, "Need to weld something"? Yeah, sure! We followed a neat 1950 Chevy hot rod a few blocks home to borrow a hand grinder and a MIG welder. Thanks much to Rick Stanley in Richmond for the kind offer, the broken bracket turned into a nicely welded spare in short order.
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