MGAguru is on the Prowl

Since last month's meeting the MGA guru is still continuously cruising around on the mission of good will toward MGs.  It seems like we spent most of a whole month touring around Pennsylvania, a big state with lots of MG clubs and activities. After last month’s Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix we received a call and drove east half way across the state to York, PA, to visit with a dozen or more people who make a habit of meeting on Tuesday nights to tinker with their MGs (and a few other British cars). The next day we went back west to Armagh, PA, and spent a few days at The Roadster Factory Summer Party. The first day there I changed the front shock absorbers on the MGA, as they would no longer retain oil. The rest of the week end was just party, "bed sheet" movie with a bonfire, tour, rally, car shows, and more party.

Of course we regularly visit other MG enthusiasts to help play with their toys. I changed a failed brake light switch on my car on 7/29. On 7/30 we were touring a day in West Virginia, took a very short excursion across the Ohio River into Ohio, then back to WV in search of winding roads, hills and covered bridges. In the next couple days we found a number of very small roads, and a few that were impassable (but we passed through most of them anyway).

On Saturday Aug 2 we were caravanning with the Greater Pittsburgh MG Club on their "Johnstown Fun Run" (60 miles of very civil black top back roads). Next day Aug 3 we found another covered bridge next to an old mill with a sawmill attached. Power source for the sawmill turned out to be the front end of an old straight-eight Buick. Later searching the internet for more covered bridges, it turns out there are supposed to be 14 of them in Bedford County, PA. On Monday 8/4 we were visiting another personal car collection in Chambersburg, PA.

Continuing through Pennsylvania the next few days keeping busy with technical issues - installed a windscreen bottom seal on an MGA in Allentown, adding oil to my cars’ shocks, off to West Chester to doctor an MGA needing a small adjustment on a rear wheel hub, and drill and tap to repair a broken thermostat stud. We hit Honesdale, PA, to visit another friend with on MGA, and spent two nights in his cabin in the extreme NE corner of PA, looking across the Delaware River in to New York State. A very peaceful place, and the only time in the past three months when the MGA sat still for more than 24 hours. We were in Bethlehem, PA, for Lord of the Valley British Car Show here our MGA has earned another award, this time for "Ye Working Wench", which is appropriately highest mileage and hardest working car. The Austin Healey national convention car show was a few steps away on the same field, giving us a double car show for no extra effort. After the car show we dropped down to Rosemont, PA, to visit another MGA under restoration. Venturing back to York, PA, for picnic and club meeting with Lanco MG Club, I got lucky and won a contest to guess the number of chocolates in a large glass mug, the prize being the mug of candy (which we are still munching on almost daily).

Wed 8/13 we finally escaped Pennsylvania, followed by a few days circulating around the southern half of New Jersey, working some more diminishing roads, visiting tiny coastal villages along the Delaware Bay, Sunset Beach at the south end, Atlantic City (briefly) on the east coast, and some quiet forests in central NJ. We toured with the British Motoring Club of Southern New Jersey— fifty miles of sedate asphalt roads was a snooze by comparison, followed by a short dinner meeting, We then drove west across the north tip of Delaware into Maryland, then up to Pennsylvania for one more night to visit another MG friend in East Berlin, PA. We drove down to the north edge of Baltimore, MD and I disassembled an early MGB rear axle to retrieve the 3.9 differential, which I need for my MGA. It has been whining progressively louder for some time,. We hope to stage a club tech session sometime soon for this parts swap, but haven't found the appropriate venue yet. Late evening we traveled back east into the upper end of Delaware.

On 8/15 we are traveling south through Delaware aiming for the (expensive) toll bridge into Norfolk, Virginia by evening. From there the intent is generally west toward Tennessee and Kentucky, but no one knows yet where our wandering may actually take us.

Saturday 8/16 we were touring southern NJ with the British Motoring Club of Southern New Jersey. Fifty miles of sedate asphalt roads was a snooze by comparison, followed by a short dinner meeting,  We then drove west across the north tip of Delaware into Maryland, then up to Pennsylvania for one more night to visit another MG friend in East Berlin, PA.

Next day (Sun 8/17) we down to the north edge of Baltimore, MD, on business. Here I disassembled an early MGB rear axle to retrieve the 3.9 differential, which I need for my MGA which has been whining progressively louder for some time, we hope to stage a club tech session sometime soon for this parts swap, but haven't found the appropriate venue yet. Late evening we traveled back east into the upper end of Delaware.

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