A bittersweet moment as I watched it drive away. My wife loved driving it but we had more cars than needed and it gives some funds to work on the 1971.
| Oily Hand's Life with MGs |
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Seeing as the world hasn't ended here yet, I can only assume that the Mayan calendar is a bit off with its timing, so I'll take the chance give you your Christmas Card and a short video.  All the best to you all!
The drivers side front wing on the 1971 MGB GT is getting past its best. It was pretty ropey when I bought the car and to be honest I'm amazed it's lasted this long. I searched around and found that new steel wings are £400 each. Ouch!! It's a great driving car but not in the best of cosmetic shape and not really worth spending that kind of money on it. A bit more searching found a pair of fibreglass wings with a difference at less for the pair than one new steel one, so I ordered them and they arrived today.   I'm undecided yet whether or not to go bumperless with Sebring front & rear valences, as they may look good with these wings.
VeeBee Wing is where they came from and they look a quality bit of kit. I'll report on how easily they go on when I do it, but the fitting instructions look comprehensive and easy to follow. If you like them and decide you want some, please mention me when ordering, thanks. Over the years we've been on a few runs, some of which provide a rally plaque. These have been stacked up in a corner and I decided to do something with them. The first idea was put them on a board in the garage, but I never quite got round to getting the board. Then I thought that it would be a shame for them to be out of sight so I decided to decorate my den wall with them. 
I was surprised to find that all but one were earned by the TA
I've just added our fun on the 1982 event. You'll have to scroll down to find it.
Some low life has deprived a proud owner of his 1967 Teal/Mineral Blue MGB GT. If you know anything about it please contact the police, or the owner, who's email address is on the picture below. More information here  Have you ever had one of those days when you wished you'd stayed in bed? This was one of ours. This is the story of our day on the Wigton Motor Club Christmas Cracker Run Getting up at stupid o clock was bad enough, then we found the car was frozen solid, inside & out. Even the locks were frozen. That was probably my fault for washing the car on Saturday. Eventually we got in, scraped the ice from the inside and loaded up. Pam closed her door and found it wouldn't fully latch so we set off with the door on the safety in the hope that some heat would improve things. Thankfully, after about a mile with a freezing draft coming in, we managed to get the door fully shut. The trip across the A66 to the Reghed Discovery Centre was incident free apart from the fact that the engine temperature dropped by about 20 degrees from normal and there was little heat coming though at all. By the time we arrived we were quite cold and never really felt warm till we got home again. In fact we got a lot colder as you will find out later. We signed on and had our coffee & biscuits and a chat to some of the other entrants before going back out to get ready for the start. Friends, Don & Eileen hadn't decorated their Blaze GT so we put some of ours on before they came out. The run started badly with the route sheet having incorrect directions from the start which caused some 'discussion'. We weren't the only ones having difficulty as at one point there were six or seven cars stuck at a road junction in single track roads. After much studying of maps it looked like this was the way out.  We decided to give it a go but after grounding the car on nearly every bump we gave up after about 20 yards and reversed out, grounding the car even more. The others had obviously decided that going up there was not a good idea and disappeared. We eventually found our way out after asking a passer by for directions to the next village we had to find. Great! we thought, we're on our way again. Oh! No! It was not to be. After a couple of miles there was a great increase in exhaust note and a loud scraping sound from underneath us. Yes, the exhaust had come apart. All the hammering it got earlier had taken its toll. I thought at first that it had seperated at a joint but investigation revealed that the front pipe had pulled out of the front box and the support bracket was broken. It was a picturesque place to stop!  Seeing as we were in the back of beyond, I cable tied the rear of the exhaust to the rear spring and gently drove down into Glenridding and civilisation. That was the end of our run having completed about 8 miles of the route proper. Time to call the RAC. No mobile signal! Found a phone box. Remember them? The lines were busy. I waited ages on hold, luckily it was a freephone number, before giving up and going for a coffee. Refreshed and a bit warmer, it was back to the phone box. This time it was in use. 20 freezing minutes later I got to the phone. The lines were still busy and it was about 10 minutes before my call was answered. We would have a patrol man with us anytime in the next two hours. With no mobile phone we had no way of getting time updates so had no option but to wait in the car. Already chilled from the wait by the phone box the marginally warmer car didn't do much for our comfort and we got colder & colder. I did try to run the engine to get some heat but without the car moving it began to fill with exhaust fumes so I switched it off. Eventually, help arrived and a temporary fix was made. We headed for the coffee shop for warmth and refreshment before setting off for home. The car was still noisy but at least the exhaust was joined up and not hitting the ground. We growled our way to the A66 for the homeward journey and hit the heaviest traffic I've seen on that road. By the time we got close to home we were both cold, tired and very fed up so we hit the takeaway and put the kettle on as soon as we got in. Unloading the car was postponed to Monday morning. Here's some of the video we managed to get before the camera fell off its perch. |
AuthorHi, I'm Owen and I've been having fun with MGs since 1970, starting with my 1937 MGTA. Since then I've had three Y types and a couple of Z Magnettes. I now have a 1971 MGB GT along with the TA and my wife and I are still having fun Archives
September 2020
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