Friday saw quite a lot of progress on several fronts!
Mark Kenworthy is nearly finished with the 1979 MGB LE (JG). As soon as he finishes the painting and buffing, applies the LE striping, and fits the chrome strips it will come back to University for completion.
Casey has the lights fitted, fore and aft, on the 1956 MGA (MS), as well as the fender piping. We were going to fit black piping, but since the car is truly original and nearly stellar in appearance, we just couldn't move from the originality of the gray piping.
Mark Schellenberger came in and worked on the left front fender on the 1974 TR6 (PR) which had sustained a long scratch -- perhaps a child's bicycle or a ladder. Standing is Paul Schellenberger, son of Mark (also pictured) and Lisa Kenworthy. Paul attends Grand Rapids Community College.
Curt Saunier has nearly finished the assembly of the 1957 MGA (CB). He stalled at the selector rods since the rear selectors were so horribly worn. We welded them up and have to grind them on Monday.
I heard from JP at tech time. Jerry struggled for about three years to get a brake master cylinder which wouldn't leak in his chrome bumper MGB. New cylinders, rebuilt cylinders, resleeved cylinders -- they all leaked. Very odd, indeed! Now he's had one in the car for about a year and a half which is still dry!
Ted from Fast Cars stopped around a picked up a pair of demister vents for an MGB.
Bob called at tech time to ask about the felt washers used in the MGA steering column. He said he couldn't find "graphite oil" so I suggested he combine powdered graphite with 90 weight oil. The workshop manual asks to have these felts oiled BEFORE fitting, but my experience is that oiling before swells them so much that you cannot fit them. It is not uncommon to trace stiff MGA steering to a steering column which has swollen felt washers.
Andrew and James made a run to the plater to take fasteners, and to the radiator shop to collect a TD petrol tank and a TF petrol tank. Both had been cleaned out. The TD will be on eBay this week -- it's a really good tank!
During the year I lived in London, 1972-1973, we would visit the Mississippi Bar on Gloucester Road. It was on the second floor of a building, just across the street from the Gloucester Road Tube Station. It offered some food in addition to beer and wine. There were paddlewheel steamers and caricutured Negros on the walls. They often had a jazz band playing. I heard a drum solo there that must have lasted for 30 minutes. An interesting place!
We often attended the bar with a group of Spanish girls who either lived in the flat or were friends of theirs. One girl, Carmina Andres, told me that she had difficulty distinguishing between the English words "hungry" and "angry." I told her I could help her separate the meanings. I feigned starvation, holding my stomach, and cried, "HUH, HUH, HUH, hungry." Then I snarled up my face, and barked, "Ah, Ah, Ah, Angry!" As I looked up the whole bar had gone quiet and everyone was looking at me. I didn't think to ask what the word "embarrassed" was in Spanish.
