Cleaning, Prep, Machining and Assembly WHAT YOU CAN CLEAN YOURSELF The rule with engine building is clean, clean, and then clean some more. Items that don’t move, like valve covers, front and rear engine plates, lifter covers, timing covers, distributor bases, etc., you can clean yourself. First, scrape off old gaskets as much as you…
Dad Can’t Keep Up By David Deboard My son Eric and I have always been close. We would play video games together and play basketball and tennis. As he entered his teen years, he would continuously beat me in video games and his interest in them began to get beyond my capabilities. In some of…
by Ed & Kathleen Praxel It was a pre-destined encounter. A depleted looking E-Type Jaguar sat in a yard along the road where logging trucks and pickups were the norm. The Jag beckoned to me. I stopped and found that the owner didn’t want to know about the car anymore. It was a Series II,…
by Russell Corvese Like most good car stories this one isn’t just about the car, rather, it involves a whole series of life events that culminates with a restoration project that takes four years to finish. The car had no business being restored—it was beyond death—but what did I know having never taken on such…
by Dick Mason During the winter months of 2019-2020, I decided that my MG winter project would be installing Moss Motors’ new improved XPAG crankshaft rear lip seal kit into my 1951 MGTD. I installed their original kit a decade ago but that only turned a gusher into an annoying seep. Okay, parts have arrived,…
by Pat Sykora, aka “The Bird,” with technical input from Ernie Connor The sound was unmistakable. No need to look to know that the miserable, hot, sweaty hours of finger-numbing work were over. The nanosecond of verbal restraint followed by an oath akin to “bugger,” belied the cold, hard truth: I cracked the bleeping windscreen….
By Casey Yunker I became infected at the age of four in 1978. You know how the story goes, Uncle Rick had a 1965 MkIII Austin-Healey, black with red interior, and he’d take me for rides. The disease spread quickly in our family, given how contagious it is, and my father in 1981 got it…
By Keith Daniel I met Dave the summer my family moved to the country. He lived a short walk or shorter bike ride down the road, and by the second day we were best friends. His dad had a fantastic garage and hustled a buck on the side by clearing out things people wanted to…
By Tim Vachon We winched this beast onto our trailer from an Amarillo, Texas open field. Bought online in 2006, this tired MGA was designed as a poor man’s roadster, made to drive in the local race, run around and then put back home for future adventures. They made a boatload of these British cars and…
By Alicia St. John Photos by Christian Maurer The best years of my life have been spent driving my MGA. Nothing could compare to navigating the curves of Mulholland Drive, on a starry night, with Sinatra playing on the stereo. The beautiful instrument panel, lit up against the darkness. My right hand cradling the…
