First Robin of Spring

2013 was a busy year at Sports Car Services, so much so that our friend Ray’s MGA has been languishing   in his garage since last July  with a very dirty gas tank.  Thank goodness he had his trusty black overdrive TR3 to fall back on.

Ray’s home on the Common in Walpole, N.H. is a short gallop away, we run over there to Abingdon Spares all the time, a round trip of just about half an hour, so undaunted by Wednesday’s  five degree (f.) ambient temperature at 9:00 in the morning, we hitched up the trailer for the first time this year and I trundled on over.

to be continued…

Some suspension wear was present

Sunbeam Alpines don’t show up here very often, so it’s always a special event when we have one in the shop.  This particular Alpine was imported, I believe, from Alabama where it was subject to some creative repairing which we’ll get into in just a moment.  But anyway, the good news is that it’s pretty solid underneath with new floors, even if the installing technician threw away the complete handbrake assembly when he was done.

Two chokes are better than one

Another interesting  feature of this Alpine is the 2nd choke cable to the right of the steering column under the dashboard.  The now ‘primary’ choke is under the ammeter, just right of the main lighting switch.  Although the engine is correctly fitted with a pair of Stromberg 150 CD carburetors, they are the wrong 150 CD’s.  They won’t take the factory air cleaners and their linkages, are also  “creative”.  Thus the two choke cables, one for each.  More later as we go along.

Warning on TR6 master cylinder

Silicon brake fluid is great stuff, if all you’re concerned about is keeping the paint from crazing on the bulkhead of your MGA 1600.  Otherwise, it’s a  source of grief for owners, and a continuing revenue stream for Sports Car Services.  It leaks out.  Some hydraulic seals don’t like it and rebel.  It doesn’t trap moisture so that moisture can be removed by periodic flushing (every two years is our strong recommendation).  The timely reminder on the left appears on the box containing a replacement TR6 brake master cylinder from TRW by way of our brake parts shelves.  Heed the warning.

Sweating body solder on a sunny day

In other news, we have my XK 140 just about prepped for Wray Schelin at Pro Shaper Sheet Metal (see the web tile on the right).  Because the vent door at the back of the fender went missing, another creative technician made the housing disappear.  Did this guy work on Alpines too, I wonder ?

BD 8744 N.O.S. fender

Back in the day, the front fenders were spot welded to the bulkhead and the joint was then lead loaded.  Saturday was a nice, sunny day, so Patrick took his work outside and sweated out about 1/4 inch of lead filler, which was installed in 1955.

Fenders parted from the bulkhead

As it happens a very handy fix was available,  another Hat Rabbit, if you will.  This genuine Jaguar right front fender has been on hand for the last 40 years.  Planning ahead as it were.

As a reminder, we don’t do paint & fender work, but sometimes we’ll do a little bit of prep.  We retreated back indoors for this last photo.  Here’s hoping winter will relax its icy grip from around our collective throats soon.

Running up Ol' Myron

Out on Long Island back in the 60’s, an MG TD named Myron was a familiar sight, and sometimes even a very welcome one if your MG had left you stranded beside the road, because Ward Michaelson usually had a rope with him, and on more than one occasion he used it to drag someone’s forelorn MG home behind Myron.

Later on, as a growing family took precedence, Myron was relegated to the back garden where he waited patiently for the Call to Duty once more, a call that didn’t come until after the advent of the new century, an extraordinarily long time, perhaps, for a humble servant of such sprited origins.

Tuesday afternoon Patrick & Butch ran ’em up in the shop with a fresh engine.

4.2 crank & rods with those blue & white boxes again

Monday morning Patrick started bolting together the  4.2 Jaguar E-type engine for the soon-to-be Gunmetal Gray open two seater currently being painted in Brattleboro.

We always check 'em, anyway

Well, we pulled off another hat-rabbit for this engine, too.  In a dark corner of the shop attic, under the dust of many years past, was another engine set of engine bearings in genuine Vandervell VP2 material and, Cor’ Blimey, didn’t they look nice.  Before we even check the run out of the crankshaft at the center main while rotating it on the #1 & 7 bearing inserts, we check the inserts.   It wasn’t that long ago that the AE main bearing sets (M 7118LC) had intermediate bearing shells that were too big.  That wasn’t a problem if you knew it beforehand and the machine shop ground the crankshaft accordingly, but if you just threw them in the engine, with no effective clearance the crankshaft didn’t turn !

A Healey 2 seater heads up the Hurd's Upholstering

Once upon a time, many years ago, I ran over to Abingdon Spares to grab a set of .030″ oversized connecting rod bearings for another TD engine we were putting together.  Imagine my surprise when the clearance was rather excessive.  A quick check with the micrometer revealed that they were in fact .3 millimeter, or roughly .010″ engine bearings !   No real mystery.  An XPAG (as “T”series engines are techncally known) are actually metric engines.  Get out your owner’s handbook or factory service manual and multiply all those dimensions by 25.4 (to convert to millimeters) and you’ll see what I mean.

A giddy sign of spring from last spring: a Ford 8N waits for the Rapture