Yet another thoroughly octagonal day at University Motors!
The boys continue to made great strides on the MGB. The seats are in, the wheels on, the grille in, and by this evening the front bumper was attached. We're leaving the windscreen to just about the very last!
Casey fitted the radiator, started up the engine, but was puzzled by the tiny things floating in the radiator. It turns out they were seeds! Some rodent had made a home at the bottom of the radiator sometime in the past 20 years and provisioned it well. Casey removed the radiator, and flushed it AND the engine with water. No the cooling system is seedless!
And, the engine controls are all fitted. This MGA runs and drives as photographed.
Curt disassembled the engine from the 1958 MGA today to find these wonderful examples of toasted lifters. The two on the right are slightly taller and in much better condition than the ones on the left. They must be replacement parts (how could any lifter have been worse than the ones on the left?). Surprisingly, the cam looked OK. It will be replaced -- but it's interesting to note how one component, wearing against another, can appear to have taken all the damage!
I answer emails every evening. They come from the USA, mainly, but they do come from around the world. We have in our employ Andrew Caponi, whose grandfather passed through Ellis Island following his emigration from Italy. I received a note from an MG owner (64 pull handle MGB) named Caponi, with an Italian email address,who hails from a city not far from Andrew's g-father's home. We're frantically emailing back and forth, trying to establish a family connexion, if there is one. MG! The marque of friendship.
If you've made it this far, then a picture of sunshine and green grass will lighten your winter blahs. This is my MGA with my red, octagon barn in the background. The area of an octagon is about 4.8 times side squared. The sides here are ten feed, so the square footage here is nearly 500 feet. We can fit two MGs plus the garden equipment into this attractive edifice.
