The MGA With An Attitude
MGA Guru Is GOING MOBILE - (October 16 - October 31, 2025)
Thursday, October 16, 2025:
Picked up some 1-inch angle iron at Lowe's today, Spent a few hours measuring, scratching, hacksawing, and grinding to fit up corners to fabricate a battery
tray. By evening we were off to visit a friend with a welder.
Early next week we will be in Virginia to see if we can install it in "Nora's MGA".
Friday, October 17, 2025:
Bunch of tech questions on air hose for Sutty tire pump, a new cross reference number for rear hub seal, search for an engine number, replacement hose for fuel jet on SU HS-type carburetor, and a fuel gauge short circuit burning a wire. Someone else fabricating MGA battery trays, may be making side braces, and may soon be able to supply fabricating templates for same.
 Two days now discussing "MGA Guru website blocked as potentially unsafe". Looks like the web site is fine, and it may be an issue with Malwarebytes security software generating a false alarm for visitors, blocking what should not be blocked.
Saturday, October 18, 2025:
Mostly a day off. Someone was asking how to remove the engine and gearbox to replace the gearbox rear mount. After a few messages, it came down to asking why you think the rear mount needs to be replaced? In the real world, those thick rubber bushings are pretty durable, tending to look bad around the visible ends while still being functionally stable inside. Food for thought.
Sunday, October 19, 2025:
Travel day. Up early for breakfast, tank up the fuel, head out of York, PA driving south from 10 to 2, landing in Rukersville, Virginia for lunch. Verify tomorrow's appointment, and take the rest of the evening off.
Monday, October 20, 2025:
Off on the wrong foot today. Late breakfast, then shopping by 11-am. Advance Auto Parts doesn't know what solvent is, so no lacquer thinner, and it took them 20 minutes to find a battery cut-off switch in a bubble pack on the hook. Couldn't locate lacquer thinner at Walmart, tried Auto section, Tools section,Paints section,no luck. No floor helpers, so spent 45 minutes waiting in line for Customer service (only 1 slow attendant), then another 10 minutes waiting for assistance, and another 10 minutes walking the same paths before finally finding a quart of lacquer thinner on the bottom shelf not near paint brushes, having to lie on the floor to see it. Then on to Harbor Freight for two laps around the store to find a pop rivet tool and a replacement combination square.
Finally arriving at our noon appointment at 1:30-pm. Here to visit Nora in Charlottesville Virginia. She inherited this MGA from her father, and is seriously trying to get it running and hopefully back on the road. The battery trays are badly corroded (common problem), and we were about to take a shot at installing a new battery frame weldment we made up a few days earlier in York, PA. From the get-go this wasn't going to be easy. No lift, so having to get under the car for frame access. First chore was to jack it up a little higher, and it was still a tight fit under there. Take some time to grind off a screw to release a couple of P-clips for brake pipe and parking brake cable. Then some work with a Sawzall to cut away what was left of the bottom tray of the right side carrier, along with a second layer of a makeshift steel box that was once used to extend the carrier for larger single battery. Did I mention there is no welder here, so we are trying to attach the new tray with screws and pop rivets?
Fighting this thing every step of the way, cutting away rusted metal, clamping the new tray to one side support, packing in a few pop rivets before removing the clamp. I managed to drill from the bottom to install one bolt in front end of the tray through the rear of the floor board. With even more difficulty for alignment, I finally managed to drill from top down to get the second bolt in the front end of the other leg of the new frame. After four hours of grunt work we ran out of daylight and packed in for the night. Planning to work on the second side support tomorrow.
Tuesday, October 21, 2025:
38dF cold thus morning with plans for late start. 1-pm trip to Harbor freight to pick up additional pop rivets in longer grip length, and a heavy duty compound action tin snips, one additional small welding clamp, and another pack of AA batteries for the small flashlights. Arriving almost as appointed at 2:30-pm, we had fired a warning shot and forwarded a copy of the Eric Omit battery tray support brackets templates to Nora L. She had these printed out in full scale, so easy to cut out and trace onto the sheet metal.
Then Elliot and I were taking turns with the snips to cut the first part out of 16-gauge steel sheet.Not an easy task, as 16-gauge is half the thickness of 1/8-inch angle iron. I suppose the problem was that original material was supposed to be 18-gauge like body sheet metal, as I have snipped a lot of that thickness. We had this thicker metal, because that was what Lowe's Home Store had in stock when we were there to buy it. But in the end we did get it cut out, hammered flat and deburred. The two long sides were hammered over the corners of 2x6 board to bend up the edge flanges. Where the narrow end was intended to be flanged underneath the battery tray, we just cut it off, because it was going to be privet in assembly, not welded. The semi-circular end needed some enlarging to fit over the round cross tube in the frame. This was because the original welded bracket was not completely removed, so the tabbed top corners were still welded there to interfere with the new part. After multiple fettlings and trial fittings, it was forced to fit. We finally had it clamped in place with three clamps.
Then we couldn't get the BIG battery powered drill to fit anywhere inside the frame in horizontal position to drill required holes for the pop rivets. Drilling one hole through at near 30-degree angle wasn't going to work. In a fit of frenzy I put the 1/8-inch drill bit in the Dremel tool, long enough to drill one hole and install one pop rivet. Crank the Dremel to full throttle, push hard on the tool to drag the speed down to something close to normal drilling speed for the 1/8" drill bit, and swamp the bit with oil every 5-seconds of drilling time until we got it to drill through. Ta-Da, one pop rivet installed in the new side bracket. Then we ran out of daylight at 5:30-pm, time to knock off for the night. Next step is likely to be another trip to Harbor Freight to see if they have a right angle drill gearbox attachment (I used to have one of those, when I had space to store it).
Received a notice from NAMGAR that my membership had expired, and I need to pay the dues to remain in good standing. Unfortunately theNAMGAR web site is a bit flakey, prevnting me from logging in ithout a current member ID number. More later.
Wednesday, October 22, 2025:
We can use a day off to recover physically. This coincides with limited open time slots, needing to kill some time anyway. After an email exchange with NMGAR my membership was paid on ;line, but not yet updated to be current. Then needing to correct an error in my registered Car No (which they call Chassis Number),but the process is not automated, needs to be done manually, so on with FormMail to send that notice.
Thursday, October 23, 2025:
Another trip to Harbor Freight to pick up a right angle drive adapter to allow drilling holes in the battery carrier from the inside out within limited space. Received notice from NAMGAR that my membership status has been updated, but now I caan't login because it will no longer recognize my password. Also the button for "Forgot my password",does not work, becuse it requires a valid member to be logged in, which of course I can't do without password. Catch-22. So back to FormMaill to send notice of that problem. Response to that was, the webmaster will reset my account, and it will default to an assigned password to allow me to log in. Isn't this fun.
Friday, October 24, 2025:
More delay, looks like we will not get back to the battery carrier until Monday.
Saturday, October 25, 2025:
Frost on the pumpkin this morning, and one more day off. back to work tomorrow.
Sunday, October 26, 2025:
We got started about noon today, getting to make use of the right angle drill drive attachment. Sweet little tool, allowing us to drill holes in the battery carrier assembly from the inside out. Once we got the hang of using four hands at once to hold and guide and push in the right directions, we did get on with installing more pop rivets. Not long then to fully secure the inboard bracket for the right side battery carrier, and to drill one larger hole to accept the J-bolt for the hold-down clamp.
By now you could stand on the battery carrier, if you could get your feet in there. Having see how we did this, so far,Nora L thinks she will be able to fabricate and install a new outboard bracket in similar manner. This was likely our last day of decent weather in the area for a while, so it will be time to be moving on. We will keep in touch to see how this project will progress.
Monday, October 27, 2025:
Looking like the rain will hold off for another day so Navigator allows us to sit in Charlottesville VA while I catch up with WiFi stuff, and order a new turn signal relay from Scarborough Faire (tired of repeatedly rewiring the old one with new relays). Late evening heading south 100 miles before catching a rest stop.
Tuesday, October 28, 2025:
Travel day. Casual breakfast, before heading south again another 100 miles, arriving early afternoon in Princeton, Vest Virginia. Then a couple hours for a laundry stop, and a stop at Lowe's to pick up piece of 1/8-inch steel strap to make new exhaust pipe brace. Then run to Walmart for engine oil (oddly no gear oil) and a short stock of food before checking in with our friend Michael Cruise. We got the car and trailer tucked inside his shop space as light rain was turning less light and temperature was falling at dusk.
Wednesday, October 29, 2025:
One very good day to be hiding inside as the weather turned to serious rain and wind (bad driving conditions). Most of the day spent doing a data backup, which apparently hadn't been done for 18 months. Checked on our small parts order from S/F, but not billed yet (meaning probably not shipped yet). Received a messaage from NAMGAR webmaster for notice of account reset and the new assigned password. That allowed me to login. Then I could not find a link to change my password, so sent another email to NAMGAR for that problem. Baby steps.
Thursday, October 30, 2025:
Late in the day my S/F parts order was charged to my bank account, so I presume it was shipped today. No electronic invoice or tracking number, but also no urgency, so I will just let it deliver at its own pace and see how it works. -- Our host wants to get a car out of the shop space, for which we will need to move our car, but not tonight, maybe tomorrow morning.
Since the miniature circuit board relays have proven to be significantly shy on durability (multiple failures), I am spending some time thinking about how to use larger (more robust) relays to replace the factory type turn signal relay unit. It is all the same electrical circuit using two double-pole double-throw relays, but this is more of a physical configuration issue, like how close can we come to making it fit in a similar space, and having a 2 x 4 rows of terminals in similar positions to connect to the original wiring harness. Food for thought.
Friday, October 31, 2025:
Mid afternoon, and host has not shown up yet to move his car, but no urgency, so we are just waiting. Received email fromNAMGAR with hot link to "Reset My Password, which did work promptly, so now I finally have a password of my choice that works. Peachy. Then I logged in and went to my Member Profile page, to update/correct my car Chassis anumber (as stamped on the original Car No. plate. But that is not automated, so sent another note to NAMGAR. Received a reply later in the day saying the prefix to my Chassis Number has been updated. I checked, and it is now correct.
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