Apparently, in my effort to write well, I did not write clearly on my last
post.
The Vitrikas book, from what I have read so far, is more of a history of
the MGA with about 20 pages of restoration stuff thrown in. It does have a
very complete list of factory options. For instance, my car has the
"deluxe" aluminum frame side curtains which fit even worse than the
standard ones. Vitrikas also has a list of factory tuning options which
makes for interesting reading and could help someone prepare an accurate
historic racer.
Green's book is actually a pretty good restoration book. It does go
through the entire car and highlights areas important to an MGA. However,
when compared to the detail of Porters' MGB and Spitfire books, it is
lacking general information that a first time restorer would need such as
how to align metal prior to welding or recommendations for tools, etc.
If I had to restore my A, I would get the following books:
Green's Restoration book - good MGA specific info
Porters' MGB book- good general restoration info plus some applicable
MGA factory service manual- the nuts and bolts- torque settings, etc
Original MGA- pictures of what it should look like when you are done
MGA parts manual- shows how the car went together
I here that the parts manual is useful for seeing how the assemblies go
together and come apart. It seems that there is an easy way to take an A
apart and a hard way. For restoration, Vitrikas' book seems to be
primarily useful for the lists of options.
Maybe, if we all wrote Lindsay Porter (and enclosed a check) he would write
a book on the MGA. Better than wasting his time on another Tr***ph book.
Also the parts books from Moss, Vicky Brit, etc. actually have some pretty
good illustrations that can help.
Good luck and have fun
Bill Eastman
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