In the spirit of my Dan Hughes tale, 100% restos and Xmas, I offer the
following:
Dan Hughes tale:
While working on a customers TC many years back, actually a short
lived MG adventure, My partner and I did a routine oil change. Each
went over the usual tasks, and then time to start her and check on
pressure. I was standing outside the car checking for external leaks
at the oil filter side and my partner was inside the car reading off
the pressure..." Ok, she's coming up..20...30..40..30..uh,
oh...20..10..NO PRESSURE!! and he shut down right away. By that time,
I had noticed the problem as I was standing in an ever growing puddle
of fresh engine oil! I'm sure it was he that forgot to put the drain
plug back in the sump.
100% restos:
After 32 years as a certifiable MG nut( I auction "Octagon soap" at
the NY/CONN Xmas dinner as a Cecil Kimber invention!) owning 8.5 MG's
presently, I have restored two ground up MG's to date and am in the
middle of my third, possibly my last. The first was my 53 TD, the next
my 1960 MGA Coupe and currently my 67 MGB-GT Special. With my wife's
help on the interiors, I did everything but the major metal repairs(I
know my limitations) and actual engine machining. During these
restorations I was very comfortable with the fact that these were not
going to be 100% original jobs, but solid, safe enjoyable cars that
would be driven more often than shown. Both cars sport non-original
colors that I sprayed. I painted them both in lacquer, which I found
gave an easy to repair finish alas not impervious to stone chips. The
TD sports a black interior and the coupe an FM cassette player and neg
earth. I read alot and applied what I read and got lots of advice
from people more knowledgeable than I was at the time. These people
became our MG family which we have enjoyed and traveled with all over
the world.
I said that this latest resto may be my last only because of the time
its taking me to do.(loud sounds of frustration here) It's been 9
years since I started this and my garage is littered with new parts,
used parts, doubles and triples of things that I forgot I had and
bought again at Carlisle over the years. The GT shell has been sitting
fully painted for TWO years now and so far I did manage to get the
headlight shells in. I'm waiting for an expert's help in helping put
in the front and rear hatch glass. Once that happens, I know things
will start to happen. If I were asked to give my advice at this point
to a potential MG buyer? Buy a car that someone else has done so you
can enjoy it and drive it from the get-go. Keeping it on the road will
give you enough hours to tinker and rebuild, while increasing your
knowledge as to keeping them on the road.
Xmas:
A happy and healthy MG holiday to all and as some have already
mentioned on this list, be more accepting of people. Life's too short
and this ain't a dress rehearsal.
Dave Houser
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