What Do You Eat A Tire With, or New Wheels and Tires

Back in November, I mentioned the teeth rattling shake I was having at speed (read "Shake Rattle and Roll"). Then I reported that after taking it in to a local shop, they found a convenient workaround - swap the spare tire in (read "Safety Fast") until I could learn to replace and adjust the spokes to
"true" the bad wheels. That worked great for a few months as I researched the planned procedure. Then, while crawling under the car to change the oil, I noticed a broken spoke on the front wheel. Looking a little closer, I found three more on the same wheel. There are only 48 spokes on the whole wheel, so having that many missing can't be safe. I was forced to swap the lumpy tire back in and stick to a slower speed. This carried me for a few weeks until the lumpy tire developed a flat. I really shouldn't have driven it at all and am lucky it didn't fail suddenly on a highway.

30 inch tire spoon from Northern Tool

Dripping a Flammable Mixture of Oil and Gas

I don't know exactly when it happened, but at some point the "few drips" on the floor of the garage started to grow. Under the hood and under the car I noticed some very wet areas on the frame. Also, Shelly commented when I came in from a drive that I smelled like gasoline. Time to investigate.  When the car was off there was no obvious oil leak, so I started the car up and looked around while it ran.  A braided metal hose coming out of the engine was dripping steadily at the point it connected to a very small rigid metal pipe that headed up through the bulkhead toward the dashboard. A quick check in the manual confirmed what I suspected - this is a feed from the engine to the oil pressure gauge. The leak was from the joint where the flexible hose coupled to the rigid. This looks like the same kind of hose I've used for plumbing water supplies to faucets in the house, but I decided to order from Moss just to make sure. $17 for the part, $10 for shipping, and $3 for an extra part I suspect I'll need later just to get the most out of the shipping since I pay the same up to $20.  Order by 3PM, part comes the next day before I get home from work because I'm lucky enough to live close to one of their two warehouses.

The new shiny metal oil line coming in from the right of the
picture, with the oily mess on the frame just below in the background.

Go West Young Man

The drive west from Aldie to Upperville in a classic convertible is good for the soul.  The drive winds through rolling hills along horse farms traced by stone fences standing as they have for 200 years, then passes through towns and villages at least partly stuck in time. It was a sunny, slightly cool fall afternoon and we were heading to British and Classic Car Doctors to have the seat belt mounts welded in. On the way I happened to stop in at the store owned by the guy I bought my car from.  He was glad to see it and we chatted for a while.  I've seen him twice since buying the car and both times I've gotten the sense I could sell it back to him on the spot. Not a chance.

I Hit My Car with a Hammer, or The Muffler Change

You don't have to be an expert to diagnose this muffler problem.

 As it turns out, that muscular "growl" of the engine was a series of small rusted holes in the muffler. Over the weeks, the growl got steadily louder until the other day when it became nearly deafening.  A quick peek under the car revealed a softball sized hole in the muffler where the small holes joined to let loose a big section of rusted metal.  I'm suspicious that the muffler had silver paint over a rusty section when I bought it, but no big deal I had already noticed the visible rust on it and had planned on replacing it. Turns out this is one part that has gotten scarce, but I was able to track one down from a supplier in Michigan: $89.95 plus shipping from the "Little British Car Company" (www.lbcarco.com).

Getting Legal

It was time to get legal, and I found some pleasant surprises after a little research.  First, I didn't need to get a safety inspection before getting it titled and registered in Virginia. You can take care of that afterwards.

Seat Belts and the First Sticker Shock

Did I mention that this car has no seat belts?  As it turns out, cars prior to 1960 were not required to even have the mount points to connect seat belts, and though they were offered as a factory option apparently no MGAs prior to that point were ordered with that option.  Kind of incredible. 

Not wanting to become an airborne projectile, I bought 3-point harness brackets from Clarke Spares and Restorations (CSR) ($87.50 including shipping - part number M70A).  I purchased the matching belts from JC Whitney ($89.22 including tax and shipping, part number BEACH300BLACK).  The Clarke Spares installation instructions include information at the end about options for suppliers for matching seat belts.  If you wind up doing this yourself, note that the JC Whitney part number information provided differs from what I could find on JC Whitney.  The info in the instructions is actually in the form of an old ad (appears to be 60's era?) so I imagine they've just changed their numbering since then. 

Not bad prices and cheaper than increasing my life insurance, which my enterprising wife would have insisted on. In all seriousness, though I am old enough to remember a time when it was common to ride around without seat belts, having done just a little of that in this car I can't imagine driving on any big roads around town much less commuting without them now, and the thought of taking my kids or wife around in it except on small local back roads is crazy.  Also crazy is the idea of going with just a lap belt. The three point mount is apparently a real pain because it has to be unhooked to close or open the top, but I am looking at this as a mandatory inconvenience.

Would you want these kids unrestrained in the car?

So far so good, but since these mounts require welding and this Great Experiment is not nearly far enough along for me to want to get into welding my own safety devices, I called the local British Classic Car specialist. I was lucky enough to find one 20 minutes away that I'll work with this time, but there is another an hour away that might be cheaper (based on location) and specializes in MGs that I may try out later.  Surprise #1: There will be a 2 week wait for an appointment. Modern cars can take advantage of the automobile version of the "walk-in clinic". An old classic needs to see a "specialist", and I should have assumed there would be a wait.  Surprise #2: The cheap option is the cost of 4 hours welding labor, about $400, but involves cutting massive holes in the carpet at the weld sites to avoid fires, and leaving them un-repaired: an eyesore.  The upgraded option is to pay about twice that for the extra labor to try to peel the old carpet back without ripping it to shreds, do the work, and re-glue the carpet.  The right option is 5-6 times more to rip the old carpet out, scrape out the glue, weld the mounts on, install a heat/sound barrier, and replace the whole carpet (and that maybe didn't include materials - I was sobbing too hard to fully understand the option).

For now, I've set the appointment and told him to expect the more affordable "peel the old carpet back" upgrade option but we'd talk again before the appointment for my final decision.  We've definitely realized the carpet will have to come out eventually because it really is pretty musty, but I don't want to do that before figuring out what major engine problems might be lurking.  I also didn't want to leave the car with him for 2 weeks to wait for that to be done.  It's been excruciating waiting this long to really use it.