Today is my daughter Mary's turned 20. She's a chemistry student at Hillsdale College. Now I have only three teenagers!
It snowed heavily last night and when I arrived at work, Dan, our MGB owner fire-fighter / snowplower had not yet cleared the lot. In fact, school was called throughout the area. So, today we just packed the cars along two sides of the shop allowing us free movement. No cold starts - no pushing. Now nice! Dan got there later in the day and now the lot is clear. Gosh -- it's supposed to be nearly 30F tomorrow!
Casey has the TD all but finished -- I think we only have to fit the bonnet and test drive the car to ensure it no longer leaks oil. He brought in Joey (wasBob) again today. When my kids came by with their mother, before they drove to Hillsdale to take Mary for lunch, Casey entertained them with the small creature.
Curt finished an MGA gearbox this morning and then, during the afternoon, fitted the gearbox to the Volvo P1800. This is not our normal type of work, but a dear friend called on me to assist him as the car was supposed to be done two months ago and he just couldn't wrestle the OD gearbox into place. We had four guys doing the job -- one holding the flashlight to assist the lineup of the first motion shaft and the clutch, and three of us holding the gearbox up underneath. Only one of us got pinched -- ME!
I assembled the D type Laycock overdrive for the 1964 MGB during the morning. In the afternoon I worked cutting, shaping, and welding repair pieces for the rear frame of the Sunbeam Tiger.
Trevor worked this morning but left at noon to go to his second job -- working at the local ski slope. He loves snowboarding and winter sports.
Andrew arrived at the normal time. I was surprised because he comes to work when he can and there was no school. I'd forgotten that he has a Calculus 3 class at the GRCC and those classes were not cancelled. He worked on the very last pieces of the 1979 MGB LE. Now that's set to go out to Mark for painting.
Another customer called from Traverse City. We have his wife's TF in the shop -- she purchased it, used, in California in 1957! He and his brother-in-law, an Austin Healey owner, are coming by on Friday to go over our estimate for mechanical and body repair -- it's pretty tough!
I spent part of the afternoon cleaning and priming flywheels and valve covers for articles in the next MGB Driver. Say! If you're not a member of the North American MGB Register, please join! We started this wonderful organization in the shop in 1990. The NAMGBR site is easily found through the monster MG site
www.mgcars.org.uk A gal called during tech time. It turned out she didn't want tech advice at all but wanted to sell me accounting services. I explained that Caroline keeps all the books on 24 column pages by hand entry. We've got to be the only business left with books like this! I did speak with an MGB owner from Fenton, MI, who was enquiring about the flange thicknesses of the inlet and exhaust manifolds on MGBs (9/16" through 1971 and 7/16" for the HIF carbs). Another enthusiast called from Des Moines -- he owns an MG VA and wanted to know about bearing inserts. I referred him to Northwestern Auto right here in Grand Rapids as they do a lot of pouring and scraping of bearings on the old engines, foreign and domestic. I couldn't get a fix on this man's accent. He said he was of German ancestry, born in Argentina. His folks escaped from Germany during the war with a single handbag (which his mother still has). For those complaining about $30 co-pays and having to wait for dial-up service, imagine quitting your home, leaving everything behind. Most of us have no understanding of deprivation or calamity. An MGA owner called from Florida wanting to purchase the Judson supercharger we have. He'll probably get it.
Lisa left a little early to get over to see Carl Heideman at Eclectic Motorworks. We're about to do some mechanical work for one of his brilliant MGA restorations.
If you've read this far you'll want to learn about the BMC Rosette. I found two of these at University Motors in London when I worked there in 1972-1973. I sent one to my former partner, Alan Lanphear, of British Motors Service in Kalamazoo. The other I kept for myself and it adorns our UPS door. It's of fibreglass construction. I'm not certain I've ever seen another round these parts!
The gearbox? That's a prop we use at the Technical Seminars. My webmistress is about to have this site updated with the 2006 seminar information. Stay tuned!
TGIF
