The Steering Column
Left Hand Drive from our President

We are fully entrenched in a second month of quarantine. The last public function my wife and I attended was a high school play held in March on Friday the 13th. Good thing I am not superstitious. Fortunately, the club swap meet was held two days later with a better turnout than expected.

All of a sudden we are locked down, locked up and locked in. The only thing missing is the chafe marks from an ankle monitor. I haven’t been grounded this long since I was six and backed my parents’ 58 Chevy through the neighbor’s fence wiping out a number of their chickens.

Looking at the average age of our club members, we are the Pepsi generation in a triple venti soy no foam latte world. I can’t speak for others, but due to age, I believe I am in the “at risk category” for suffering the effects of Covid-19. They say stay home. I stay home.

Now I am not a techy, but I find myself getting used to Zoom, Skype, FaceTime and even the occasional drive by birthday. However, I hope I never become accustomed to spending Easter in the backyard separated from our grandson by a ten foot chasm.

Hopefully, we will all be back on the road before too long. Wouldn’t it be cool to dust off your MG while the price for a gallon of gas is cheaper than a gallon of milk?

I am anxiously waiting for when I can back the MG out for the first rally of the year. I’m ready, the car is ready, and last I checked, none of my neighbors have chickens.
Stay safe my friends.

~~ Phil Wydra

	The Steering Column
	Right Hand Drive   from our Vice-President

Greetings all from the Right Hand Drive. I hope everyone is Safe and Well in these crazy days we are experiencing. All is well here at the Hickenlooper Casa. So, what a MG enthusiast to do during this stay at home order from our Governor? Work on car projects of course. So, if you haven’t heard by now our club car project (1957 MGA) has been sold and is now on its way to a new home in the Netherlands! We were able to make a small profit on this one. I would like to thank all the club members who took time out of their busy schedules (before COVID-19 of course) to come out and help on the project. Also, a special thanks to Steve Skegg for permitting the clubs car project to reside on the side of his garage for months on end.

With this stay-at-home thing Kerry (My Wife) has been baking up a storm. Pies, Cakes, and cookies it is been nonstop. I think I have put on 5 pounds or more, so I have taken up walking up to the park and back. It is only 3- or 4-miles round trip. Nice to get out for some fresh air. Very surprised at the number of folks out and about but I guess there’s little else to do.........except Work on MGs!!

I’m lucky enough to have several car to work plus I’ve been out helping others with their projects as one of the Traveling Mechanics. As of late I have been helping a member with a 1965 MG Midget that we did an engine rebuild and now in the process of completing a 5-speed conversion using a British made Ford T9 transmission. Things were going well till we got the prop shaft back from the shop only to find They installed the wrong yoke on it. The T9 trans requires a 25-spline yoke to mate with the output shaft and they had mistakenly installed a 23-spline yoke. So back to the shop and they switched it out. Now we are on the finale stretch of the conversion with light at the end of the (trans) tunnel! pun intended.

On the home front the MG TF is coming along. I sent the front shocks off to World Wide for a rebuild. When they get back it should be road worthy with the brakes completely refurbished, new rear axle seals and front hub seals and one inner bearing which really did not want to come off the spindle. So, made the mistake of being impatient and called Pete at World Wide Parts. Will his response was “ I’ve got shocks stacked to the ceiling!! All you Guys who haven’t touched your cars in 20 years who are stuck at home now have decided to send in your shocks All at once!” Needless to say, I apologized in hung up. So, while the TF is in a holding pattern it’s time to get out and Drive the 1979 MGB. See You On The Road! 6 feet apart though.....
SAFTY FAST !

~~ Dean Hickenlooper    
your humble servant