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MG MGA - Thanks to All

Just doing a bit of reflection. Hard to believe that I have had my MGA for 18 years, been on the road for 13. This was one of 3 MGAs.

The first was a freebie from a friend's uncle who felt so bad that I rented a tow bar to get it home that he paid me back the fees...and insisted I take it. That car was beyond repair. A fire caused by the exhaust rubbing the floorboard, more rust than boy, and anything perishable had perished. But I kept it in my garage, looking at it for 9 years. It ended up being a good source of original parts, mostly hardware, as it was socked away in the early 70s in a garage untouched for over 25 years.

After a very successful restoration and sale of an MGB, I thought I could take on an MGA so my father and I hit up some clubs, attended some meetings, and located one from a club member. A restoration had begun, but it was abandoned. It came with a lot of new spares and was, as we were told, and easy project. As you may have guessed, it was almost as bad as the first. We started working on it and gave up. It was to much work. I decided to find another car.

And I did, from a dealer in RI. Price was $5,000, came with almost $12,000 work of parts (yes, I viewed all the receipts before purchase) restoration started, just needed finishing.
I think yo know where this is going.

I was basically new panels pop riveted over all the rusty one, spray painted and bolted together to resemble a car. It required a full teardown and rebuild. Good thing was I had most of the parts I needed, just had to re-fit them properly.

Fast forward a bit. I had owned the car since 1997, working on weekends. I was slow. Almost 6 years in, and it was nowhere to being completed. Then I got a call for a job in Japan. They would ship one car for me for free. I had a 1-owner mint 280Z that still had the plastic on the carpet, ready to go. Or, I had the MGA, in pieces, incomplete. I was leaving in 6 weeks.

Well, why would I bring a Japanese car to Japan? I decided to take the MGA. One caveat, it had to move under it's own power and at least appear to be a complete car. No Problem with the drivetrain. I worked at garage and the owner was a friend with a guy who built NASCAR engines. And he had been known to dabble in British car engines. He agreed to do all the machine work, but I would have to assemble it. No problem. Drivetrain, check. The rest of the chassis parts were new or reconditioned so we had a rolling chassis in no time. Problem was the body.

Fortunately, I had already fixed and painted the frame, the body was almost complete as well with all new inner panels, etc. But it needed some finessing and of course paint.
I was working a full time job and had 2 part time jobs so that meant late nights and all weekends to meet the deadline.

I had never painted a car before, but with the help of the paint jobber, my uncle, my father (and you) we just did it. In a very dirty, old garage. And to be fair, it came out pretty good. It still looks good today.

We got it all together, it looked like a car, and it moved under it's own power. But it was still nowhere to being finished.
Anyway, the shipper accepted it and 3 months later it met me in Japan.

The registration process is very, very strict here and very, very expensive. We have to do this every 2 years as well, but that's how it is. No sense in fighting it. After several setbacks, it was registered.

Since coming to Japan I have added a supercharger, a real rear main seal, replaced the gearbox, added an MGB head, added a plastic cooling fan, and many,many other things.

So after this long post, I just wanted to thank Barney Gaylord, Steve Gyles, Dominic Clancy, Chuck Schaefer and EVERYONE on this site for helping me and others keep their MGAs on the road. I really appreciate everything. I hope I can be of help to the MGA community, too.
Tommy Baker

Do Japanese cars still have those buzzers that go off if you drive them faster than 60 MPH? That's more annoying than the American interlock that makes you depress the clutch pedal to start the car.
David Breneman

Tommy, You are welcome. I try to help out as best I can. MGA's were in my blood for 30+ years. I no longer have my car to refresh my memory, so some things are starting to fade away.

I didn't even think, I was in Tokyo on business for a few days last October. I should have looked you up. Could have shared an Old Specked Hen. With only 13+ million people, I'm sure f I asked anyone for you, they would know how to find you right?

Cheers!
Chuck Schaefer

Dave, no more buzzers (except for my old RX-7 to let me know it was being revved to high).

Chuck, don't hesitate to contact me offline. We have a couple of car enthusiats here that would love to get together anytime. If I told you where I worked, you could very easily find me.

If you are ever in these woods again, there is an open invitation.
Tommy Baker

Hi Tommy

Are you required to have a flare in the car, and where did you put the bracket ?

Great post by the way, Kd regards, Matthew

M Elliott

Tommy

Best of luck with your disc brake conversion. Hope it all works well. Glad we have all been of some help with not too much duff information!

Steve
Steve Gyles

This thread was discussed between 25/01/2015 and 26/01/2015

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This thread is from the archive. The Live MG MGA BBS is active now.