MGA Restoration and Adventures

MGA Restoration

Helga the MGA was rescued from a scrap yard in Texas in 1992. This is the story of a 3 year restoration.

Helga was far from complete when I bought her, and despite selling everything I had I was unable to afford completely original parts. This is why she has MGB instruments, engine and overdrive gearbox.

To the Alps in an MGA

A three week trip in February 2003. I drove to Munich to see Dan for some snow boarding. From there to Freidrichshafen to pick up Chris (more snow boarding). We met an English gentleman in Schruns - he was surprised at our chosen transport: "Bloody Marvelous". Finally we drove across Switzerland to Val D'Isere for another week of snowboarding.

MGA Cooling

On the skiing trip the MGA managed to overheat in a traffic queue at minus 4 degrees C. Overheating has been a problem with Helga for several years. Finally I got around to improving the situation, and I've written some notes on what I found.

Fuel Vaporisation

After one too many breakdowns in town due to fuel vaporisation I've redesigned the heatshields to protect the carburetor float chambers from exhaust heat, and made some temperature measurements with a thermocouple.

MGA Seats - Making them Comfortable

Some modifications to the seat base that improve lumbar support and lower leg support (they tilt the whole seat backwards). One 3,000 mile trip later and I don't have a sore back!

Alternator and Negative Earth Conversion

How to replace the dynamo with an alternator and change from positive earth to negative earth at the same time.

Hot starting

Some thoughts about the differences between summer fuel and winter fuel, and my favourite problem - a weak spark!