MGA Restoration and Adventures |
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Helga the MGA has been with me since 1992. We've had some adventures together
since then, but I've no idea how far we've traveled as the speedometer
was broken for 7 years. Here are some tales about our adventures.
Over the last few years the MGA hasn't had a lot of use, but I still
have the car. I've always promised her a paint tidy up for her 50th
birthday to remove dents and scrapes. Eek - that's 2009. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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! |
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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. |
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Hot starting
Some thoughts about the differences between summer fuel and winter
fuel, and my favourite problem - a weak spark! |
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MGA to Morzine
2008
The idea for the ski trip in 2008 was to blast down the autoroutes
in the MGA. It started to go wrong when another friend decided
he wanted to come along. We put him on an aeroplane with plane
to meet him with the keys.
Then it started to go badly wrong. Not many MGA pictures but
some nice holiday snaps. |
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Restoration and Adventures
