MGA Guru Gone Mobile

From last report we were in Summerland, British Columbia, Canada, south central BC in the mountains near the US border. Tuesday Aug 29, I was doing a carburetor tune-up on an MGA while

Niel Findly's yellow MGA Coupe

keeping one eye on a small forest fire very nearby (luckily extinguished in short order). Next day we fixed the fuel gauge on the same car (upside down sender unit) and re-calibrated the fuel gauge.

Lota of nice mountain roads in western Canada

Thursday Aug 29, a visit to Mike’s British Repairs in Kelowna, BC (which was closed two weeks earlier) and a late-night visit with Niel Findly a bit north of Kelowna. Niel has a nice MGB roadster and an even nicer MGA Coupe. Then we killed a couple of days looking for tires, which we did find, but due to holiday week end this would have to wait until Tuesday.

Gremax tires, good directional stability and good in the rain

On Labor Day Monday we had a visit with Terry Muir in Vernon, BC, who has an MGA, a TR7 and a TR8. We spent some time inspection an MGB differential which needed some bearing shim adjustment and change of sun gears before installation in his MGA. Next day was dedicated to getting two new tires installed on our MGA, then some WiFi work, and a late-night run two hours west into the mountains. It didn't take long to discover the new Gremax tires on the front have better directional stability when driving on the slightly rutted "W" shape road surfaces. The following morning drive landed us back in Abbotsford, BC (not far from Vancouver). This was about the time it dawned on us that we were not going to finish our business in all of Canada before the weather would be failing, so we were revising plans to finish western Canada, then return to Canada next year to continue.

Mt Baker, going down

On Friday Sep 8 we had a tour with Old English Car Club of British Columbia, Vancouver Coast Branch (mostly Triumphs), beginning in Surrey, BC, crossing the border into the States for lunch and a run up Mount Baker. Lots of rain gave us the opportunity to find that the new Gremax tires do very well in the rain. Also, fun hauling the 600-pound trailer up the mountain with steep hills and lots of switchbacks, then rolling it back down the hill and returning across the border to Abbotsville, BC by evening. Sunday Sep 10, we had a car show and picnic at Cultus Lake, BC with Fraser Valley British Motor Club, 45 British cars and at least 80 people, but oddly not much time to chat.

Pre-war Aston Martin

On Tuesday Sep 12 we had some hustling in the Vancouver area to visit British Bigfoot Classic British Car Parts in Mission, BC, then Best British Cars in Langley (restoration shop), followed by an evening meeting with more than 30 members of Canadian XK Jaguar Register - Canadian Classic MG Club in Burnaby, BC (another club with two names) in Burnaby, BC. Here I finally met

Crushed umbrella seals, when you don't remove the oil shrouds

Graham Pointer, the young owner of the very original Alamo Beige MGA that has been in the family since new.

Friday Sep 15, we had an early morning visit to Doug Holburn in Abbotsford, BC. We had been there to visit his shop (All British Cars/West Highland Coach House) on June 27, but this time for a morning Cars and Coffee with several local British car enthusiasts. By early afternoon we were 25 miles farther west in Port Coquitlam, BC to visit Roland Falcioni. His MGA suffered from considerable smoking out the tail pipe. We ultimately removed and disassembled the cylinder head to find disemboweled umbrella seals on the valve guides, because they had been installed without removing the original oil shrouds (doh!).

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