The CMGC newsletter publishing schedule made this past month 5-weeks long, giving us more travel activities. Tinkering with cars was on a normal pace, about 2 per week. We only touched lightly about 10 friends, 2 car clubs, and no car shows, as the driving season has been winding down in the northeast US. The big news is that we have been setting a record pace for shop-hopping for a variety of reasons, like the high density of service shops in the northeast, failing weather this time of year, and our intent to finish the job in this area so we won't need to come back in the Spring. To that end we have driven more than 4,600 miles visiting 112 shops in the past 5 weeks.

Shops that do service and restoration work on the cars are numerous and perhaps getting to be "old hat" in these reports, so I thought I would report on a few of the more off-beat services and suppliers. In late October we stopped to visit Rochester Clutch and Brake Co in Victor, NY where they like to re-line brake shoes and clutch discs, and they can make new ones if you can provide a sample part. Friction parts only, no power brake units or hydraulic cylinders. We also dropped in to Classic Tube in Lancaster, NY where they manufacture pre-formed and fully assembled pipes for brakes, clutch and fuel lines. If they don't have a pattern, but you can supply an original part, they can easily duplicate it, after which they will have the pattern for your part. They also supply the materials and tools for you to make your own hydraulic pipes and hoses.

We had the honor of visiting Smalley's Garage in Watkins Glen, NY, opened on Pearl Harbor Day, December 7, 1941, now in the third generation of family ownership. Being in Watkins Glen for all these years there is a long history of servicing race cars that were competing at the Watkins Glen International race track. The racing venue was established on the streets of Watkins Glen,

Smalley's Garage in Watkins Glen, NY

NY in 1948. A temporary course was built in 1953, and 2.3-mile permanent circuit was built in 1956. Smalley's Garage has always been there to service the race cars, and there are many pictures of MGs (and other British cars of the period) lined up at Smalley's Garage for service during the race dates. About six months ago (early 2018) the prime mover in the business passed away leaving a huge void in the vintage car service business. Since then his wife has kept the place open, but the remaining techs are working on modern cars now with no more service for the vintage cars. Sad day, shed a tear as time moves on.

Changing the broken halfshaft

We stopped to visit Dalton Garage in Dalton, PA, established in 1976 for general auto service, but also doing service and mechanical restoration on vintage cars. Our big story here is that as we were leaving the shop, we broke a half-shaft in the MGA, then managed to turn it around and push it back to the shop. As fate would have it, the shop owner had recently stuffed a V8 engine into an MGA along with a transplant heavy rear axle. He had left over the original rear axle for the MGA 1500-disc wheel car, so it was quick to retrieve a half-shaft from that one to install in our car, and we were back on the road in a few hours. I have always maintained that this car has a friendly failure mode and seems to know the best time and place to present the required problem. While we were fixing the broken axle, we also installed the new brake shoes that we bought two weeks earlier in Connecticut (to replace the too-small shoes that never worked). Gotta say it is a good feeling to have rear brakes that work again, both hydraulic and parking brakes.

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