(Continued from page 13)

Sticky sand paper for power valve grinding

Next day (Dec 2) we had time to attend to some urgency with our MGA. It had been running somewhat low compression on a couple cylinders for a while, so the cylinder head came off by midmorning for some touch up work. This turned out to be leaky intake valves. The valves themselves cleaned up fairly easily, but the valve seats would require a fair amount of grinding. I ultimately put some small bits of sticky-backed sand paper on the valve heads and spun them with a power drill to finish the valve seats, finishing with hand lapping of the valves. Lots of time doing this, but it finally worked out well and was back together and back on the road (with good compression) by the time we lost daylight.

Elliot draining radiator for engine work

There are number of individual people in Florida on our Friends list noted for visits sometime soon, but no great rush for that. So, during the week we got to catch up with the trip log and email and tech questions, and uploading the CMGC newsletter to the club web site, and to make a new web page for the vinyl covered door caps on an MGA Coupe. We tried to get a long overdue oil change, but were snubbed at the nearest Walmart, quoting the old adage about not having a torque spec for the oil drain plug. Just once I'd like a straight answer on why they don't want to do it.

Come next Friday (12/8) we were back to Tech Central where the Spridget engine was getting paint after a rebuild, and its gearbox was being refreshed as well. The silver MGB was getting some attention to a small dent around the fuel filler and misaligned boot lid, and a spiffy new MG badge on the nose. My MGA got a quick compression test and reset ignition timing. In the evening we were off to Fort Myers for a visit with Headley Wilson, and a realignment of his MGA door.

Ceres Motorsports in Oviedo, Florida

Following day was spent installing his MGA master cylinder and re-routing hydraulic pipes.

On Sunday (12/10) we had a two-fer, starting with a shop visit to Ceres Motorsports in Oviedo, Florida. This was combined with a holiday party for Central Florida British Car Club. Plenty of fine British rolling stock visiting here with a good club meeting, party, food, etc. During the week it was rather pressing

Heat curing paint on Spridget headers

to get off a parts order. And I was into a lot of email and tech questions and a couple of tech page updates.

Come Friday (12/15) at Tech Central, a TR7 needed a minor electrical fix to get its AC compressor running. A modern Jaguar needed a little knuckle busting to R&R most of the rear bumper just to reinsert one of the backup sensors that had dropped out of place. The prior mentioned Spridget was getting heat curing of paint on a

(Continued on page 15)