MY FIRST BRITISH CAR
 The year is 1975. I’m fifteen years old and anticipating getting my drivers license in less than 12 months. The only thing on my mind are girls. And what’s the best way to meet girls? A cool car. I’m a pretty ambitious kid, by 15 I’ve had real jobs now for three years. I have a little cash saved up and my goal is to get that cool car………so that I can get the girls.
These are pre-internet days and the best way to find a car is the Trading Times magazine. I’d had an introduction to MGs when hitch hiking home from cross country practice a guy in an MG TD gave me a ride all the way down Western Ave from the Dan Ryan woods on 87th to 47th street. I’m hooked, I’ve got to buy an MG Convertible. What chick doesn’t love a convertible? This also occurs during the time when MG’s are still in production. Although we didn’t know it then, the company was dying a slow death do to American regulations which did eventually kill the company.
Back to the Trading Times. I find an MG Midget on the North side of Chicago. The car is in almost perfect shape but only needs a clutch. It can be had for $300.00. I’ve got that much and more saved up so this is the car for me. I talk to my good buddy Tommy who says putting a clutch in only cost about $35.00 in parts and we can get them on State Street at Warshawsky’s Auto Parts.
Tommy and I drive up there and buy the car, we’re driving Tommy’s dad’s ‘70 Chevy Impala. We buy the car and then tie a rope to both cars and tow the car from around Montrose and Damen, all the way back to the south side. Keep in mind, I’m still about 10 months away from having my drivers license. Miraculously, we make it all the way back without killing ourselves or anyone else. Now for the clutch job.
I buy a Chilton's repair manual for MGs. After reading up on the repair I’m bummed to find out that I have to pull the engine to put the clutch in. This is now really bad news for me because renting an engine hoist wasn’t in the budget. So I park the car, buy all the parts and study the Chilton guide to get my game plan for when I have enough to rent the engine hoist . I Had to pump a lot of gas at my gas station job and worked every available extra hour to come up with the cash. Finally, it’s now early December. I’ve got the money together but it’s also starting to snow and I don’t have a garage to work on the car in.
A little cold weather and snow were not going to stop a determined kid, after all, the chicks were waiting for me to have a car. I rented the engine hoist, can’t remember how I got it home, and then began the process of pulling the engine. Everything seemed to go exactly as planned. Over the weekend I had the clutch installed and the car was running and driving. I was really proud of myself and only eight more months til I get my license. Can’t wait.
Winter hit hard and we had a bunch of snow, this was pre-Jane Byrne days and the side streets didn’t get plowed for days and sometimes weeks back then. The ruts in the snow where higher than the wheels on the Midget so it stayed parked until Spring.
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By Tom Raddatz — Western Springs, IL
Spring had sprung and now armed with my driving permit I was in a position to be able to (legally this time) actually drive my car. Along with my friend, we drove the Midget all over the south side of Chicago and up and down the full length of Lake Shore Drive—for about two weeks. Then, the clutch went out, Again. That can’t be right I thought, a clutch has to last more than a few hundred miles.
Back to being a back yard mechanic again. This time I was a little smarter. Instead of renting the engine hoist I found one used in the Trading Times for almost the same price as renting one. I pulled the engine, this time armed with the skills and knowledge gained in the first try. What I found when I pulled the engine was an egg shaped hole in the back of the crankshaft. Apparently, while installing the engine in the cold and snow I must have neglected to put the pilot bearing on the end of the pilot shaft. What the hell is a pilot bearing? As it turns out the pilot bearing is a tiny little bearing that’s only job is to hold the pilot shaft which centers the clutch and pressure plate. If that bearing is missing, which it was in this case that pilot shaft wobbles around and tears up the rear of the crank shaft which is exactly what happened.
Now, I was back to square one, but only worse. Now, instead of needing a clutch I needed a new crankshaft. So, I went back to the Trading Times and started looking for a crankshaft. What I found where a lot of MG parts but no crankshaft. Even if I found one, I didn’t have the mechanical skills to install it. I took the engine out and took it to a machine shop and they wanted $500 to repair it. That was $200 more than I paid for the car so I decided to see if I could buy a used engine. Instead I found another MG Midget the same year for sale for even less $200. So I bought that car and towed it home. At this point my dad wouldn’t let me have two non- running cars in our yard so I made a deal with my neighbor to rent his garage.
I don’t remember how we got the second car home but we put it into the garage and pulled the engine and successfully installed it into my car, making sure to install the pilot bearing this time. The car ran great and eventually I got my drivers license. The jury is still out whether it helped me meet chicks.
Now I had this other “parts car” I decided to strip it down and sell the parts. When I was done I had made an almost $600 profit. At 16 I had tripled my investment. That seemed like a better way to make money than pumping gas so I decided to buy two more Midgets and strip them down. I was making some really good money doing it. Then one day the neighbor came into the garage and saw the hulks of the cars I had been stripping. I think he thought I was running a chop shop and he kicked me out of the garage.
But it was too late, the seed had been planted and my love of MG’s was growing and couldn’t be stopped.
In the 44 years since then I’ve probably owned more than 50 MGs. Some were drivers, some were parts cars, but a few were Gems.
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September 2018
