Just so you all know, it's still me, John Elwood, but with a different
mailing address. All I did was switch over to the (free) school account
rather than use (expensive) Prodigy. I can use the $30 a month to fix
the MGB-GT, which, while at the bodyshop, developed the need for a new re
brake cylinder and some hoses. Whatever, it should be done this
saturday. The bodyman, who claims to know a thing or two about MGs,
spent four hours re-setting/rebuilding the carbs. He says the one up
front was really out of whack, but the back one was that far off. Funny,
it's so much easier to reach the front one. I don't think a rear carb on
any MG has ever been out of tune. It's so hard to get to if you are shorter
than 6'5", nobody bothers to fiddle with it. The bodyman claims he had
these carbs both down to nearly thier last peices and re-assembled them.
He said he's never seen so much shit in a MG carb... plenty in Austins,
but not like this in an MG. But four hours of labor? That's something
like 22 an hour too! Atleast it's not as bad as someone I know from the
supermarket where I work. He has owned over 250 BL products. They (his
family) had so much money they could afford to buy a new BL product every
four-six months and put the old one in "the barn". He's still got quite
a few left, but he's gone up-class. Now he likes Rolls-Royces. His
recently purchased brown and tan seventies model has over $10,000 in
recent repair bills trying to find out why it get 3mpg. He's not happy
with it. The only answer he seems to get, whereever he goes, is "It's a
Rolls." He stopped going to the dealership in Massachussets when he got
the bill for something little. But what do you expect at a repair shop
that serves it's customers champagne as you wait to have you discs
skimmed? He's now going to a local place called "Percision Auto" in
Manchester NH. The only problem there is that they are all a bunch of hicks.
Speaking of hicks, I becoming one. I went to the DUrham Market Place,
affectionalely known as the DUMP, to buy some oil for the MGB tourer I
took with me to school this week. I couldn't find the oil, so I asked
for it. The clerk went grabbed a bottle off the shelf for me, and I
checked out. I popped the hood, opened the bottle and began to pour oil
into the crankcase. It just struck me funny that it was RED. RED oil?
Oh shit! It's automatic transmission fluid!
I figured it couldn't do too much damage, but I wantd to get an oil
change as soon as possible. So I went to the local garage, Durham
Village Garage. It's an old brick garage built in the 1930s, with a lift
outside int he back they they claim to use all winter.
That ten minute oil change turned into a 45 minute discussion with
owner, him telling me all about how he had an MGB racer the same color as
mine. It was a '69, and was telling me about how he did it when he was
my age, so I figured this must have been sometime around 1969. He had
spent $12,000, not including the car, on recing equipement in 1969!
That's a lot of money! The fuel injection system alone was $3,000 he
said. He took the car entirely apart and rebuilt as a SCCA racer. He
used to go to Lime Rockl and race down Mount Washington here in NH.
Apparently he also used to scare the hell out of some 6-cylinder XKE
owners. It was apparently a rather quick little B. It had 60series
tires too! He showed how the wheel arch lip had to be carefully cut,
folded up, and welded into place so the wheels would fit in the arches.
He went though tires in two weeks of he was sprited in his driving. But
when you work 70 hour wook weeks hwile still in HS, he says, you have to
reward youelf on weekends. Now he changes oil.
John
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