(Continued from page 6)

Then we turned south to visit Rally Restorations in Austin, TX. It was actually three businesses under common ownership, each run independently. Rally Restorations specializes in restoration of vintage cars. Next door is Colvin Automotive Body Works, where they like to restore American muscle cars (and other things with more power than anyone needs). The interesting car out front was a Local Motors Rally Fighter built in Chandler, Arizona. Mid-engine 6.2 Liter, 430 Horsepower, 4-speed Automatic transmission, rear wheel drive. Put down your hundred grand and go off road racing. They build a couple cars per year. Across the street is Colvin Automotive Service and Repairs where they are doing mechanical work. Today they were working on an Aston Martin and a TR Spitfire (among other things). I believe they really enjoy their work.

Then we ran into a couple of disappointments. We had been hanging out in Texas for a couple of weeks specifically to catch up with two clubs that we had missed in March, Capital City MG Club in Austin, and Corpus Christi MG Car Club in Corpus Christi. These clubs seem to exist (maybe), but we could not find any way to contact anyone in either club. We dropped into a restaurant in Austin for the first club meeting, and no one showed up. For the second one we called ahead to ask the restaurant about time of reservation, and were told the Corpus Christi club hasn't met there for a long time. Bummer. We will keep the feelers out, but for now have to move on.

The we stopped to visit Rory Hinnen in New Braunfels, TX. He has a nice MGB and a very nice MGA 1500 Coupe. He insists that I restored his MGA (meaning it would never have been completed or maybe not even started without my web site). I was particularly interested in the twin 8-inch electric fans and lack of engine driven fan, but it depends on having a good radiator. We then headed east on I-10 to Katy, TX, where we confirmed that one of my predictions (or wish items) has come true, gas for $1.69. Not only that, but even lower at $1.59.9.

Late on the 18th we made a snap decision and pointed it north for a few hours to land in the Ft Worth area. Next morning, we had breakfast in Arlington, TX with a dozen members of the Terrant County Breakfast Club which is a western division of Texas MG Register. This was followed by a visit with Bill Stewart in Benbrook, TX. He has a very nice 1958 MGA Coupe with 1800 engine, overdrive, alternator, air conditioning, a pair of 9-inch electric fans, A/C, halogen head lamps, Zevo Super Bright LED bulbs for all the corner lamps, Lucas PL tripod headlamps, coolant recovery, an ammo box for storage space, a 4-fuse block from MGB, a horn relay, an electronic flasher unit, headlamp relays, and he is working on a boot light. Bill calls his car "Millie", as in "Thoroughly Modern Millie". Next day (late night actually) we drove east into Houston, south out of Houston, and hopped the ferry from Galveston to Port Bolivar, then followed the coast roads to land in Winnie, TX about 3-am.

On the 21st we made it to New Iberia, LA for a late visit with Tim Markle who has a very nice MGA 1500 (among other things). Next day we got to check out more of his toy collection, including a project Triumph small mouth TR3, an MG YA/YB hybrid in process, an MGA Coupe and another MGA roadster with hardtop, and a bug-eye Sprite coming along nicely. Seems like there is another MGA hiding somewhere, but it may be a parts car. Then we followed US-90 in the (typical winter) rain along the southern coast, stopped briefly in Kenner, LA (intending to haunt the New Orleans area for a while). Not liking the incessant rain, we drove farther east late night to Slidell, LA, on the east end of Lake Pontchartrain, (and it worked, less rain).

We are currently (12/24) catching up WiFI work. I just posted some new web pages on MGA Coupe rear parcel shelf, lots of pictures, but still needing some piece part drawings. Beginning to look like appointments near here on the weekend.

~~Barney & Elliot Gaylord

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