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So, you can still get your vintage British car serviced, but it might involve some time and transportation issues.

Skillman Collection

Early start again on Saturday with a morning discussion session on shop opportunities, issues and trends, followed by more discussion about adapting business to changing times and conditions. This stuff may sound somewhat cut and dried to Brit car owners and consumers, but we should at least appreciate the idea that these guys are helping each other and cooperating to keep the service shops in business and parts supplies flowing. Short buffet lunch before hopping the bus again, this time to visit the Skillman Collection.

We should all recognize the Ford GT40. The red car is a Kurtis 500. There was also a Kaiser Darrin with the sliding door. Several people were wondering how the Midget 1500 got here, but it had a sale sign, so maybe it really didn't belong. The E-type was in the shop area. The TD was really pretty (even with the retrofit wire wheels). There was one of the Indy turbine cars, likely the only one in a private collection, with a Lotus badge on the nose.

Back on the bus for late afternoon visit to Bentley Zionsville. I was surprised to find that Bentley has been making an SUV since 2016. But I was off to the service shop to see some of the older model Bentley and Rolls Royce. While the building was growing with business over the years, it was always stuffed and challenged to make the best of space allowed, including parts department in the upper loft. They also have a 3-level "barn" across the street stuffed full of mostly used parts, and a small machine shop in the basement level.

Bus back to the hotel for evening meal independently, followed by more interactive chat. As much fun as this is, I didn't stay long this time, because I had things to do (and wanted to get some sleep for a change). On the way out I noticed the magic trailer had a broken leaf spring (left side). Oh well, with 291,000 miles on the trailer, I can't fault it. After a quick appraisal of the situation, I carefully drove it 12 miles back to our hotel and made it without incident. I measured the spring for appropriate dimensions, hoping we can find them somewhere in Indianapolis. Bad timing made it Saturday night, and not likely to find the parts before Monday, so we extended out hotel stay for an additional day.

Sunday was originally programmed departure, but not this time. Spent the day catching up photos and notes. In the evening I was going to take pictures and measurement of the broken trailer spring when we discovered that the trailer had been broken into and there was a lot of significant stuff missing. With three hours reviewing video from security cameras, the theft occurred with multiple visits to the trailer between 4 and 5 am (and some maybe earlier). More time required to file a police report, but not expecting much from that. We will certainly have to repurchase a lot of stuff. Picked up a half cubic foot of paperwork and documents of ours that was strewn round the parking lot (in the rain), and spent a couple hours sorting that stuff, so we would be short on sleep again.

Monday morning chasing down replacement trailer springs, but those will require another day for delivery. So, we booked the room for another day and settled into get some work done, including some haste to get this report written and sent at a rather late date. The busy month was turning out a little weird, but life goes on.

Meanwhile, follow our follies at: http://MGAguru.com/mobile

~~ Barney and Elliot Gaylord