New floors in a Morgan +4
Your scribe is just back from a quick trip to Montpelier to deliver a cherished MGB to the lady owner who bought it new on June 13, 1973. We we did an extensive maintenance which even included a new convertible top, but unfortunately didn’t include a final high speed road test. The owner did that for us, and it didn’t exactly pass with flying colors.
However we own our mistakes, so I fetched it back Tuesday after work and spent much of Wednesday doing a comprehensive tune up including several trial runs up and down a useful stretch of I 91. We tested it again on Interstate 89 just outside Montpelier, which has an even more serious grade, and both parties pronounced the outcome to be “satisfactory”.
Butch marks out his patterns
This Morgan +4 has recently returned from East Coast Collision & Restoration resplendent in a lurid yellow over black paint scheme, perfect for a bank heist get-away car. This is a frame up restoration beginning with a new frame. Butch can be seen here marking out a sheet of domestic (not Chinese) birch plywood with his cutting pattern. We like to make a little sawdust sometimes, and right now there’s a fine coat of it all around the shop.
'63 MGB low speed test
'73 MGB high speed test
New England has been going through a serious spell of rain, but the weather lifted Wednesday long enough to get out on the road to evaluate our tuning efforts. I’ve already told you about the 1973 MGB, but John spent much of his time this week with a 45,000 mile 1963 MGB which is a really wonderful early example, although not as extensively tuned as the blue car because it didn’t need it. The ’63 MGB is also the property of a proud lady owner, although this time through inheritance. I did a final roadtest on it this afternoon and it’s ready to go back home to New Hampshire.
John is now at work finishing up a 1973 Right Hand Drive MGB, a home market car with overdrive (they all had it), and quite interestingly, not a lick of rust anywhere.
It’s storny busy here now, and on Monday more help arrives. Stay tuned for details.
Dry shelter on a wet Tuesday night
