The MGA With An Attitude
MGA Guru Is GOING MOBILE - (June 1 -June 15, 2025)
Sunday, June 1, 2025:
Sitting in Holland, Michigan most of the day. Received the electronic copy of Chicagoland MG Club newsletter, a bit of entertainment, nothing new. move on in the evening.
Monday, June 2, 2025:
Breakfast in Cadillac, MI, just an hour from Traverse City, thinking check-in time was 4-pm. Got a call from someone at the car show mentioning some cars on hand and asking if we could how up there earlier in the day, So we were off at noon and checking in at the Great Wolf Lodge at 1-pm. Supposed to have a room on 2nd floor of the left bank very near the British car parking, but for early check-in we ended up on 4th floor of the right bank, opposite side of the building. We were soon to discover it is a long walk to get anywhere in this facility, only a few elevators far apart, and no crossover from left to right anywhere except up front near the lobby. NAMGAR registration and conference rooms at far back of the left bank. Found that and picked up our registration packet, but regalia items had not arrived yet. Got into the vendors display room long enough to pick up a couple bits from Cecelia at Scarborough Faire. Got a replacement fuel vent and overflow pipe for the missing carburetor part, and a new rubber seal for the boot lid. Might be a while before we get these installed. -- I spent half of this first day walking to find out you can't get there from here anywhere in the building. One quick trip out for calories to stock the mini-fridge, then park the car in the left lot. Enough time to walk around the car park for a few pictures. but the camera was still wacky, and I think we lost whatever pictures we snapped today. -- We were informed that a friend of ours, Gary Lowrie, had driven his MGA Coupe just over 2000 miles from Dewey, Arizona to Traverse City, Michigan. He arrived Sunday PM, parked his car, checked in, and had a not-so-comfortable night. By mid day Monday he had checked into the local medical center with a serious case of kidney stones. Bummer. More on this later. We did get to the Welcome reception in the evening, and to the Hospitality Room 9 to 11 pm. Lots of people to chat with, not much time for self-indulgence.
Tuesday, June 3, 2025:
Short sleep, and up early for the Magnette Breakfast at 8-am. Out to the car park at 10-am for a bit of the John Twist Rolling Tech Session (mostly tune-up tricks). My first rescue of the day was for the Magic Trailer to ante up a starter switch to help a Z-Magnette get going again. -- Some indoor tech sessions today, LiteZupp - LED Lighting at 1-pm, and Magnette Air Conditioning at 2:15-pm. The Perfect Paint Job at 3-pm was cancelled (no-show), with a number of disappointed attendees. -- I got a call from our friend Gary with a help request, He thought his Coupe may have a failing generator, making noise and vibration when running, and a loose wire. We will make a point to check it out later. -- In the evening a 10-mile drive to Blue Ridge Event Center for a Pig Roast, which turned out to be just a buffet dinner with no entertainment, so I cut out a little early. Back at the hotel, look at the calendar and the clock. Quick hop in the car and buzz over to Best Buy to pick up the new camera just before 8-pm closing time. In the Hospitality Suite 9-11-pm. Back in the room checking email and giving the new camera a test run after midnight.
Wednesday, June 4, 2025:
Day for the car show.The show field was supposed to open at 8-am with the cars on display from 9 to noon (wishful thinking). Early morning email message noting rain storms with show time pushed off to 10-am. Well, I showed up there at 10-am to discover i was first car there, and I had missed a later email message noting a later start time. So I parked on the side and lent a hand (and feet) marshaling incoming cars and traffic in a very tight space. Getting to use the new camera in daylight, and I think it works okay. They were trying to stage the cars to one side while taking pictures on the way in, but the photographer was late, so we had grid lock for a while, same time as the organizers were trying to set out flags for staging cars on the show field. Bit of a fiasco for a while, but finally got it together for show start at noon, truncated to 2-hours duration to finish at 2-pm. That cut into lunch hour and some self-driving tours, but seemed to come out okay in the end. Oddly, I didn't see any food vendor at the show grounds, but luckily I had brought my own drinks.
First up in a prime position was a group of five 1955 MGs, to celebrate the first production year of MGA in 1955. There was one MG Series MGA (a 1500 near beginning of production), and a MG TF-1500 Midget (near end of production). Also three MG Z Magnette (two years into production since 1953 start). The Brown/Tan Magnette not here may have missed the show.
For sure the slickest car in the show was this 1931 MG D-Type 8/33. I think he was in a cass of its own called Other MG. There were only 250 built, maybe half of them surviving somewhere today. It is old, similar vintage as the MG M-Type Midget.
Nice Escapade trailer tied to a wire wheel MGA 1500. Pretty sure I already have this one documented in the MGtech/trailer tech section. There were at least two MGA Twin Cam present.
More pics of the MGA Coupes, very nice, lots of these here today. First one on the left is the 1600 Deluxe Coupe.
At least two MGC, followed by lots of rubber bumper MGB (1975-1980).
One two-tone green MGA, very nice aftermarket interpretation, and one Alamo Beige MGA, rare original factory color.
 For lots more photos and notes for the cars present, see the Supplimentary photos and notes page for the GT50 car show.
Back to the hotel just in time for 3-pm tech session called John Twist & other Tech Leaders - Open Discussion. Apparently I had been drafted to sit on the open panel and answer some of the questions, 5 or 6 panelists for the visitors entertainment, and that turned out well. this was followed by another tech session with Forrest Johnson on SU Carburetors. -- After another phone call we went to the hospital for a brief visit, and picked up the keys for Gary's Coupe. Back for a look under the bonnet early evening. Sure enough a loose Field terminal and a bit of noise in the generator, but it was still charging. Running out of daylight, so making plans to fix it later. Into the hospitality Suite again late evening.
Thursday, June 5, 2025:
NAMGAR Board & Staff Breakfast, Car Wash, Gimmick Rally, self guided tours, Silent Auction plus Arts / Photos Crafts on Display for voting, and time to tally up the car show results. NAMGAR Chapter Contacts Meeting early afternoon, Review of 1955 MGA by Forrest Johnson in the car park mid afternoon, but we missed most of that. --
By early afternoon we were checking out Gary's Coupe with the suspect generator, thinking we can fix this, Three bolts and two wires to remove the generator,and get it on top of the Magic Trailer for a work bench. Remove two long bolts to extract the back end plate, brushes look decent, rear bushing still there, but field terminal had a loose rivet on the housing. We found a very large wrench socket that just fit inside the generator housing, jammed it in there to hold the field terminal secure while resetting the rivet with punch and hammer. That worked.
Noticed a few light rub marks on the armature and field coils, which may have been the source of the noise and vibration, so decided to replace the bronze bushing in the tail housing (spare part in the trailer, no problem). While using a 5/8-24-UNF thread tap to extract the old bushing, the bolt mounting ear broke away from the end plate.Damn! 90% of the way across the break line the pot metal was badly pitted and corroded black, looking like an original factory defect with blow holes in the casting. 10% of the break zone at one end only had bright metal at the final break point. looking like I could have snapped it off with my fingers like a postage stamp. Bummer. Now what? --
Well, the car meet is not a bad place to break down with all the friends around. One fellow who lives in the area took off to go home, and soon came back with a spare generator, same model with same connector terminals. Brushed clean, opened for inspection and reassembled, good bearings, bushing ans brushes, free spinning and quiet, looks good to go. Not long to get it installed in the car, bolted up with snug fan belt, and then the thread stripped for the bolt at end of adjuster link under the generator pulley and fan. Bummer again.Pull it all back out for more attention. -- someone had previously installed a 5/16-24-UNF bolt in place of the original 5/16-22 BSF bolt, cross threaded, and it stripped the thread out of the alloy end plate. So get out the Heli-Coil kit, drill out the stripped thread, special tap through to install a stainless steel Heli-Coil for 5/16-24-UNF thread, grab a new bolt and put it back together again.
Belt snug, bolts tight, two wires connected. Initial start up revealed a bright dithering ignition light, so polarize the generator with a hot wire to spark the field terminal, Then it settled down to charging properly with ignition light out and 13.8-volts output at fast idle, and not overcharging at higher speeds, so the control box was also working. Winner!
Another fellow had run home to return with a spare rear plate, so maybe we could fix up the old generator to be a working spare. After replacing brushes and rear bushing, ready for assembly. it turned out to be a part for a later style generator. Okay, the rear plate for a C40 generator with spade terminals will not fit on C39 generator with screw post terminals. So we dropped the old generator with the incorrect rear plate into the Coupe boot for future spare parts, and the car was good to hit the road again.
Good news, Gary will be released from the med center tomorrow morning. -- Social hour at 6, Awards Banquet 7-10, nearly 200 people for dinner and awards.The only picture I got here was the Magnette Group folks posing for a good shot. Hospitality Suite until 11-pm, then back to the room to try to get some sleep, another long day.
Friday, June 6, 2025:
Supposed to be good-bye and get-away day, so up early in the morning with a quick nibble for breakfast. Clear out the room and pack the car by 10-ish. Take our MGA and trailer with driver and navigator to McDonald's for breakfast while waiting for the phone call, which came soon after. Leave navigator at McD's while I run to the med center to pick up Gary. Run him back to the hotel to help him clear out his room and drag the stuff out to to his his Coupe. While he was packing his Coupe, I ran down the hill to pick up navigator and return. -- Once Gary had settled his account at the front desk, Elliot would drive our car with Gary as the passenger, while I would drive Gary's Coupe. We took both cars down the hill to McD's for lunch and a short rest stop before moving on. Then up the street to the local station for fuel fill in both cars, before heading south. 90 miles later we arrived in LeRoy, Michigan in mid afternoon to drop off he Coupe and Gary at his sister-in-law's place where he will stay a day or two to rest up. Then he plans on driving to Lansing, MI to visit his sister and family for a few days before heading back to Arizona (and I hope I got all that right). --
We had a few minutes to check out new door seals on the RH door of Gary's Coupe. Aftermarket parts, pretty good rendition of the original rubber wing seal. Woven fabric cover in place of original fur-flex cover, but nice enough and serviceable. Also checking out his boot lid seal from Moss Motors, too hard and too thick so the boot lid will not close flush.
We hung out for another hour or two before heading south again, stopping in Reed City MI before dark.
Saturday, June 7, 2025:
Good morning. Where are we? Oh, we found a WiFi spot in Cedar Springs MI, and killed the whole day here catching up with the world. Among other things, I was trying to get us registered to attend GOF Central with the T-type and Vintage MGs beginning a week from Monday in Downers Grove, Illinois. Been too busy and too undecided to do it earlier. Had problems with the GOF web site, contacting folks there to work around a few software bugs. They know we are coming, but haven't completed the paper work yet.
Sunday, June 8, 2025:
Got into a truck stop in Holland, Michigan in time for breakfast. This is when I finally had time for processing pictures from the Wednesday car show and Thursday Coupe repairs. Got the pics out of the camera and reduced twice, not yet posted to the web site, but it was a decent accomplishment for one day. Also got our registration for the GOF straightened out, helping out the organizers bit with their web site in the process. Late night shuffled on down to the Indiana Welcome Center in Michigan City.
Monday, June 9, 2025:
New WiFi spot less than 10 miles on, still in Michigan City. Half of the day spent catching up travel log notes for the past ten days (way behind this time). Pushing the pictures into the web page today, but then got into the John Twist Zoom tech session and killed a couple more hours in the evening.
Tuesday, June10, 2025:
Trying our luck at a different WiFi spot found us sitting in Westville, Indiana. Priority in the morning, answering a tech question about a gearbox that was locked out of shifting. This turned into a new tech page with pictures for Jamming In Gear, In Neutral, or Two Gears at once, and what to do about it. This WiFi spot was closing early, and we were in time zone transition, so we drove two hours late night from Indiana to Illinois.
Wednesday, June11, 2025:
Back in our old stomping grounds in Naperville, Illinois, and Central DST time zone (no jet lag here). Finally enough time to push the NAMGAR GT50 car show pictures into this travel log page, a full week after the car show. Don't quite have all the notes up yet, but nearly there.
In the evening we drove 25 miles north for dinner at Fox And Hound Sports Bar in Schaumburg, IL. This was to attend Natter 'n''Noggin with Chicagoland MG Club, Which we had not been to for several years. Expecting a dozen people, but not so. One MGB in the car park belonging to a young fellow whom we had met previously at Wednesday Night Garage Club. One older guy inside whom I did not recognize, but he definitely knew me from the tech information on this web site. One more couple we had not met before, new to the club I think. Otherwise none of the prior known club members here, rather disappointing. Things are changing? Will have to inquire about club priorities these days. Head back south late night.
Thursday, June12, 2025:
Finally all photos and notes caught up to date by mid day, two weeks after the last update to this page. Now people can stop worrying about what happened to us. I also postded the photos of the MG D-Typefrom GT50 into the History page for the MG M-Type car.
Friday, June13, 2025:
Rain day, good day to stay inside, checking email and bbs.
Saturday, June14, 2025:
Early breakfast, and run, off to the 39th Annual Scottish Festival & Highland Games at DuPage County Fairgrounds in Wheaton, Illinois. Not particularly interested in Scottish culture, but the festival might be fun. Scheduled for Friday and Saturday, with a British Car Show Friday morning only. Our paid registration for the car show included one car, two people,and full access to the festival for two days. Apparently they have gone all digital this year, so we have to check the event web site for any and all information. After we paid the entry fee we received an email thank you note, and that was the only communication and only information available other than the web site. We do not carry a printer, so we made a few notes for the time and location and how to find the place.
The street address given for the fairgrounds was the south entrance, which was incorrect. The intended west entrance was given as map and driving instructions, no address for the GPS. Having found the proper entrance, with no identification and no tickets in hand, the little British car was allowed to enter with no question. Really? At the next stop someone recognized me and the car, and gave us the windscreen placard for the car, and pointed, "go that way". Someone else waved and pointed and escorted us through a narrow gate, and helped park the car and trailer in a reasonable location near other British cars. So we were in and parked, not knowing exactly where we were, with no schedule of events and no map of the area. I guess that works if you are there for the car show only. -- Walk around, chat, kick some tires while waiting for other British cars to arrive. Near as I could count, 18 cars, so this was a side show, not a primary event of the Scottish Festival. We had done this at least once before in past years (different location), so not a big surprise. We where here because the British car clubs were promoting it and encouraging their members to attend.
Starting where we parked,looking around,two modern Jaguar nearby. On the other side,a BIG modern Bentley next to an MG Midget (quite a contrast). Two MGB, another Jaguar and two Big Healey.
The Triumph Spitfire immediately caught my eye, as it had a neat engine transplant. The engine was an English Ford 2.6-liter V6 originally used in the Capri. in north America it would have been availabel in the Mercury Capri and Ford Pinto, with t he2.8 version used in the Ford Mustang-II of which I owned one in late 1973). It is a sweet little simple engine for a small car. Think 2-bbl Weber downdraft carburetor, no catalytic converter and no electronics at all. I have been wanting one of those engines in my MGA for a long time. Not sure why this particular engine had a TVR lable on the rocker cover. It also has a 5-speed gearbox, and a final drive ratio slightly lees than 3.00:1 (yes I asked twice). A quick mental calculation makes this run about 2600-RPM at 75-MPH. Sweet.
Just behind it was this 1948 Hillman Minx, in the family since new, only half a dozen still left in the United States. 1148cc 4-cylinder, don't expect it to be too fast, but nice to look at.
Nice old Land Rover. You always have to appreciate the utility and durability of these things.
Behind that was this 1991 Nissan Figaro with one liter turbo engine. Right hand drive convertible, a one year only model. This was the year that Nissan spent about 5-Billion dollars changing the corporate identity back from Datsun to Nissan. They sold about 25,000 cars in one year, with about 200,000 pre-orders, but discontinued it anyway. Not a British car, but it does follow the heritage relationship between Datsun and Austin in the post=war period.
there was a nice Morris Minor Traveler woody wagon, complete with the drive in food tray with fish and chips, tea and Guinness fake food on the tray and on the ground.
Also a very nice Austin Mini 1000 Clubman woody wagon, and of course the venerable Austin Healey "Bugeye" Sprite.
I was wandering around the fairgrounds for a while, trying to take in some of the Scottish Festival and Highland games. Large area with some hills, no map or guide book. I found some drummers and pipers spread around, disorganized, no dancers. There were some areas marked with signs for other events and games, not immediately at hand, so I soon got tired of walking. Never did get to any of the highland Games. I did find a couple of Scottish cows, but never found the collection of Scottish dogs I was looking for. Back to the car to sit and rest and chat about the cars a bit more. I think the car show was scheduled through 1-o'clock, which was when a few of the cars began to leave, so we figured that was a good time to head out for lunch at a cool WiFi spot.
Sunday, June15, 2025:
Warmer today, into the low 80's. Scheduled day off with time to post the photos and notes from day before, done by mid afternoon. Looking at tomorrow's schedule.
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