Where has the time gone... Updates to my MG adventures.

I realize it has been months since I have written anything on this page, but I have a good reason...life happens!  With the ever increasing success at my job (yes, I have a real job too) I have been seriously strapped for time.  I guess I shouldn't complain about obvious job security due to success, but it does cramp your style for some of the things you love.

You find less time for your cars, other hobbies and most importantly your wife and friends.  I have been trying to correct that over the last few months, especially the wife and friends part.  My wife, Kathy, is the best and I'm sure that those of you who know her already know that.  The woman actually let me buy a boat this summer and that has helped me to keep connected with the other friends in my life.  We have enjoyed the boat very much over the couple of months we've owned it and have made time to have friends out for days on the lake, which are very relaxing and really help keep in touch with all of the friends around Atlanta.

My MGB Roadster has, unfortunately, taken a time hit because of all of this.  Yet, I have still found time to do some things with it.  One of the projects I started over the winter was to convert the wire wheels to bolt on. Everyone wants what they don't have and I was luck enough to find a Peachtree MG Club member who wanted to do the swap in reverse, so my wires went to him and the bolt on hubs came to me.  Add some really cool Retro Sport Le Mans style wheels in 15" and we're off.  However, the best laid plans...

Since the car had been sitting for an extended period of time the battery had gone flat and I used my jump box to get it going again.  Except that I hooked it up backwards and tried to start the car frying some wiring... and the alternator, and fan relays, etc...  After doing some of the work myself the car went to British Car Service in Marietta, GA and I let Barry Rosenberg handle the rest.  Got the car back and the battery went flat again.  I started looking around for the reason and found that I had accidentally switched the trunk light to the "ON" position and the burning bulb killed the battery in a couple of days.  Well, live and learn!

Speaking of Barry and British Car Service, they are hosting one of the area Garage Parties this Friday, August 16th at the shop on Canton Rd. in Marietta.  The shop is just east of the Canton Rd./Hwy 5E. exit off of I-75N.  For those of you familiar with the area they are just across the road from Rib Ranch BBQ and next to Casteel HVAC.  I've been to some of the Garage Parties, both at area shops like Brian Fuller's Hot Rod shop and Chuck Beck's Porsche shop in Villa Rica, as well as garage parties in private homes.  They are a great event for tire kicking, story swapping and general car related entertainment for the evening.  Stop by if you get a chance, party starts about 8pm.

I'm going to try to post something more frequently and also add some pictures of the car and the wheel swap.  I think it looks really cool!

SF

The GA Legislature is try to get into your collector car!

The Georgia Legislature is at it again, trying to impose an additional tax on hobby and collector cars.  Two years ago they tried to do this as part of a legislative overhaul of the tax code.  That effort failed, in part due to the resounding negative input from the public, both collector car owners and lobbying groups alike. Now they are trying to re-introduce this portion of the code revision as an adjustment to the ad valorem tax structure on cars older than 1986. They want these cars taxed at FAIR MARKET VALUE!  DUH? What exactly would that be?

Georgia law does not require a title on pre-1986 vehicles.  In fact, current regulations do not provide a mechanism for pre-1970  vehicles to obtain a title! So the newly instituted title tax does not effect these vehicles.  Then someone took a look at the registration data for the State of Georgia and suddenly realized that there were a bunch of vehicles that would not be subject to this new tax.  BUMMER!

So leave it up to the Georgia Legislature to try to find a fix to a flawed piece of ill thought-out legislation that nobody took the time to take beyond the glorious revenue number that they thought it would generate.  Now the question is: have they thought this one out?  I doubt it.

In fact, the bill has no provision or mechanism for re-evaluating the fair market value of these vehicles.  So a 1968 Ford Mustang that someone drives as a rolling restoration could be taxed at the same rate as a fully restored trailer-queen that is a true show can and is hardly if ever actually driven.  If they use Barrett-Jackson numbers as a guideline expect to pay more in ad valorem tax on this Mustang than the owner of a new Mercedes will pay for his car.

Make your voice known by signing this petition to be sent to the top legislators in the Statehouse.  Tell them exactly how you feel.

http://signon.org/sign/stop-georgia-from-raising?source=s.icn.em.mt&r_by=6901718

SF

The Continuing MG Saga, and a Merry Christmas!

It's been a while since writing last, but I have been very busy with work and doing some business traveling that has kept me occupied.  Now that the holiday season is upon us I thought it would be a good time to say Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Merry Kwanza, Happy New Year, blah, blah blah.  I also wanted to update the progress on the MG Roadster as it takes another turn in its evolution.

The little red roadster we call Scarlett, well my wife does anyway, was born with wire wheels.  Always a desirable feature until you have to maintain them; they take a little more work than bolt-on wheels.  You are also stuck with few options for changes as after-market splined wheels are only available in the minilite reproduction version.  So I decided to change the car over to bolt-on wheels.

Amazingly, there is always someone who wants what they don't have so I was able to find a local MG club member who had a bolt-on car and wanted to swap hubs and buy my wheels.  This allowed me to move to a 15" Retro Sport Le Mans style wheel; very 1970's looking as the original American Racing version. So after a few stumbles, like getting the right sized sockets for the front and rear axle nuts - they are not the same size on both ends of the car and are also huge - I was able to make the swap.

Of course the "while I'm at it" syndrome and some needed maintenance led me to also re-do the rear brakes and flush the system and install new brake hoses all around.  This is where it got interesting as the proportioning valve in the braking system decided to lock out the rear portion of the system and not allow bleeding to occur.  A couple of phone calls determined the solution, open both a front and rear bleeder and allow the system to equalize, and we were on our way.

Except I've now had to do it multiple times to get the braking system to bleed properly and I'm still not done as I inadvertently left the key in the on position and drained my new battery to nothing.  We are re-charging as we speak.  Perhaps this weekend I will finally finish the job!

I've also completed the "Garaj Mahal" project; 3 bay double-deep 1,100 square feet of work space with a 9,000 lb Atlas two-post lift!  More on that next time along with some pictures once I figure out how to post them.  Can you say Garage Party!

SF

Transition to The Soggy Footwell... Goodbye Examiner.com!

After almost three years of writing on Examiner.com about collector & classic cars, I  have decided to give that up in favor of this blog, The Soggy Footwell, which I started earlier this year on a lark.  I wanted to have a different outlet for some of the things I wanted to write about that didn't fit the format at Examiner. As they have become more and more stringent on their requirements, it has become less and less fun to write for them.  When I started at Examiner it was because I was out of work at the time, I was looking for something to keep my mind sharp, and a few extra dollars above and beyond my unemployment checks sounded good at the time.

Although I never made more than beer money, it did provide me with an outlet as well as a way to keep my already feeble mind from deteriorating any further.  Now that I have been gainfully employed once again for about two years, I am leaving mind deterioration up to my employer!

So I hope you will find this content just as fulfilling as the previous content from Examiner.  I still plan on writing about car stuff in the greater Atlanta metro area, but this will give me the opportunity to do different things as well.  Posts may not be as frequent as in the past, but I hope the quality will be just as consistent.

For my friends in the Peachtree MG Registry and the Georgia Triumph Association there is a charity tour on October 27th to benefit the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation in combination with the annual Three Square Meals Drive.  We will be leaving from the Starbucks at Hwy 9 and Mansell in Roswell at about 9:15am or so, but come early for coffee and snacks if you want.  Lunch is at Wolf Mountain Winery and Dinner is at 61 Main Restaurant in Jasper. Get back with me if you want to attend as I need to give both restaurants a head count the week before.   All donations will go directly to JDRF and no contribution is too small to help a good cause.

Thanks and see you soon!

Returned in the rain from MG2012

I attended the MG 2012 National MGB Convention last week and, you guessed it, drove home in another driving rain storm.  Again, water seeped in around the top corners of the hood/top, running down the insides of the doors and making small puddles on the floor.  Again, the mystery leak that appears from below the dash dripped water onto my left leg, with a corresponding leak on the passenger side.

I was then reminded of a conversation I had at MG 2012 about water leaks in the MG.  A fellow I was speaking with about these drips asked me if I had ever had the windshield washer nozzles removed from the panel where the wipers and center vent reside. I replied that I had when the car was painted last.  "Did you seal them when you replaced them?", he asked.  Hmm....I don't think so.

He then went on to explain that he had the same problem which was resolved with some small rubber o-rings and the miracle product, RTV.  I will pursue this at my next opportunity.  The good news is that the boot/trunk arrived back home relatively dry, just a little dampness which could have been from condensation it was so small.  I believe that the boot/trunk problem has been resolved. 

BTW, the MG 2012 MGB National Convention was awesome!  I've only been to a couple of these things, but this was a really great event.  The host club out of Atlanta really put on the dog and we were all treated to a super event.  Besides the show there was a cruise-in at a local drive-in theater where over 100 MGs showed up, I heard.  I didn't count them but there sure were a lot of MGs there.  Really great event, makes me want to go to next year's event, but I think it is in Oregon.  Maybe the 2014 show will be back east again.  Maybe it won't rain.

Welcome Back My Friends to the Show That Never Ends.....

MG ownership is somewhat masochistic. You will put up with abuse from the vehicle over and over and over again. My MGB Roadster, or Tourer for you purists, is not a show or trailer queen.  I actually take the damn thing out and drive it, though not as much as I would like.  Nevertheless, it is perfect in its imperfections, if you get my drift.

I was out with a group yesterday when the car suddenly sputtered and died, no apparent reason. I thought immediately of the ancient SU fuel pump residing in the trunk. Every now and then you have to bang on it to get it to work properly. I thought of this first as, you guessed it, it has happened before.  Also, one of the license plate bolts that I had recently slathered with RTV sealer to stop a trunk leak is also part of the rear wiring harness grounding strap.  If this was loose the whole car dies.  Neither was the case and just as mysteriously as the car had stopped it started again.

Off we went to our next stop were I noticed that the temperature gauge was rising unexpectedly.  Pull into our stopping place, raise the bonnet/hood and noticed that the water control valve was leaking onto the distributor.  I am unsure why the engineers at the MG works in Abingdon, UK thought it was a good idea to place hot water next to an electrical component, but they did and we now have to live in constant peril of water ruining a perfectly good distributor. 

Because of driving in the rainstorm that caused this whole thing, I had opened the knob on the dash to get some warm air up to the windscreen/sheild to keep vision at a premium.  What I didn't realize was that the water valve was faulty and leaking on the distributor causing spark to go away.  Fortunately, turning the knob back to off sealed the valve and the leak. But it is another thing that will need fixed, again.

More hole(s) than Courtney Love....

An MG boot/trunk is a holey place, not a holy place!  I have discovered 12 apertures in just the boot lid alone, 8 for the luggage rack, 3 for the MG emblem and one big-a** one where the lock mechanism resides.  All of these have been re-sealed with generous amounts of clear RTV sealer.   But I think I am on to something with this suggestion of the license plate holder.

The assembly itself bolts to the rear panel with two bolt/washer/nut combos, pretty straight forward, put some RTV around them.  Then I saw them!  There are two rubber grommets where the electrical wires for the license plate light come off the rear harness and through the rear panel and up to the lights themselves.  Over time the weight of the covered wires, they are sheathed in black vinyl, have pressed downward in the grommets and have made the holes oblong rather than round.  Even though they weigh next to nothing the movement of things in the trunk has drawn them in a downward position and made the vinyl coverings a virtual pathway for water running off the boot lid to drip into the trunk floor.

No wonder the rear panel and carpet covering it never seemed wet, the water ran down the vinyl covering behind the carpet and down to the lowest point, the bottom of the trunk floor.  Where the carpet became a giant wick and sucked up all the water until it could hold no more.  I think I've found my problem; slathered RTV around the vinyl tubes and the grommets until it covered everything.  I will let everything cure a day or so and then give it the water test.