I thought I'd dash out a quick trip/show report for the British Car
show this past weekend in Plymouth, CA.
First, as my car had been on the road only a week, there were naturally
a few things that needed to be done to undertake such a journey (it was
only 30 or so miles away, but further that I would care to walk). The
first order of business was to fix the leaking clutch master cylinder.
I debated whether or not to try the cheap fix (new seals) vs. the expensive
fix (new master cylinder). Luckily, my gamble paid off and the seals
did the trick (for now).
Now that paint remover was no longer being applied inside my engine
compartment, (restoration hint: Imron clear-coat seems unaffected by LMA.
Fortunately this covers most of my car. Unfortunately, the master cylinder
mounting bracket was painted in one-step urethane, which LMA removed quite
nicely.) my attention turned to tuning the carbs a bit. She seemed to run
ok, but throttle-response was lacking. The colour-tune quickly pointed out
that the mixture was a bit on the rich side. With that solved, the engine
was able to idle smoothly down to 900 RPM (I didn't try to go any lower),
a good 500 RPM lower than I ever remember. A few adjustments to the throttle
linkage to elimate some play and give me the full range of movement completed
the adjustments. A quick trip to the gas station verified the improved
performance.
That evening we had a thunderstorm, quite a rare event for this area,
particularly in June. Luckily, the next morning was clear, and I set off
for the show in proper LBC fashion, top-down. About 15 miles from the
fairgrounds, a BRG TR4 caught up to me while I was stuck behind an aging
VW. After the VW turned off, we cruised thru the foothills and caught
up to a blue Midget just as we entered Plymouth.
I was the 65th car to register for the show, the highest number I saw
was 89, a pretty good turn-out I thought. There was about 20 TRs, all
TR4/4A/250/6s except for one 3A and one 3B. There was probably about 15 MGBs
and MGB-GTs, most looked like daily-runners. Surprisingly, there was only
one MGA, one MG-Tsomething that was a in-progress restoration, and
a beautifully restored 30something MG-TA, complete with cycle fenders
and a set of "knobby" tire strapped to the boot.
For those of you who have seen it, the 4WD Midget attended the show again,
and while someone obviously spent a great deal of time, effort and money
building it, I'm not really sure why.
Some of the more obscure cars at the show included some type of TVR, a Turner
vintage racer, and several big 50/60s Rolls. There were 5 beautiful big
Healys (are there any ratty ones left?), two Bugeyes (my wife's favorite),
and a hot pink Tiger.
I didn't stay for the awards, but I was hoping that the TA would win best of
show. Looking at that car, I was able to sum up some of the reasons these
cars attract me. It was obvious that that car had more craftmanship in
parts as simple as the commission plate that a whole Miata, MR2 or whatever.
The trip home was uneventful, other than having a Jag driver wave and flash
his lights.
--
Darrell Walker walker@hprpcd.rose.hp.com
(916) 785-4059 HPDesk: walker (hprpcd) /HP5200/UX
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