I really admire those who live where it gets really cold - it made it down to
3F here, and that's too cold for me.
The weather here in NC finally straightened out (65-70F) over the weekend, so
I doffed the hood on my Midget and went to see what I could see. What I found
was a friend's Bugeye in need of a starter drive gear and some motivation to
abandon his taxes. Having several defunct starters in my Lucas Pile (TM), and
knowing that the Bugeye in question has been off the road for 3 months whilst
the front suspension was rebuilt; now needing only this starter gear to
return to action, I offered to donate one to speed things up. "We could get
it running."
"I know."
"We could get it running before dark."
"I know."
"I must have six or eight lunched starters in storage."
"How far did you say it was over there?"
"Awriiight!"
When we got to the facility where my stash resides in a storage space, we
found three guys puttering around the lot in a half-restored Pre-War Mercedes
sedan. We watched the bulbous old beast lumber around, noting on how solid
and logical even old German cars seem, then had at the Pile. While my friend
and I were scrounging for the correct starter gear (screw-on shaft; at least
that's what is on his car-have no idea if it's *right*), one of the Mercedes
crowd wandered over and struck up a conversation, to the tune of "would you
be interested in a running 1275 w/transmission (no 2nd gear)?"
"Running, you say; what are you asking?"
"$100."
"Well, er, yes, as a matter of fact! When can I pick it up?"
Turns out it does run, holds no less than 120psi compression on all
cylinders, and comes w/LCB header, SUs, distributor, alternator and clutch
slave. Why so cheap? It could be sour, but SOMETHING out of all is probably
worth $100. The guy is putting a Nissan A14/5speed lump in his Midget, and
has no further use for the 1275.
This guy also knows where to get the slim case Nissan 5-speed trannies...and
I've been wanting to swap out the 210 4-speed that's currently in my Midget
for a 5-speed...
That's what I love about LBCs - neat people just wander up to you every so
often, offering some part cast in unobtanium, that last piece to a puzzle or
the know-how to make a repair/upgrade go smoothly, and it's just because you
both happen to have a taste for a particular flavor of car. And yet, it's
more than the cars; there's nothing much *unique* about most of them,
especially my Spridgets, but they are good at screening for particularly
interesting people, and THAT makes the hobby work for me.
And I got to drive the Bugeye that night, too.
Ernest Davis
wily1@aol.com
1/26/94, 9:53
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