'Rollers Rule' T Shirt

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Hi,

I an so chuffed! I found and just bought this shirt at Sage Outfitters and he says he can make it into a cup as well.

It might be worth buying a shirt and cup from this business to get some rolling block paraphernalia made ....

[Dusty Morningwood]

I like it!  And rollers DO rule. 

[WaddWatsonEllis]

I like it!  And rollers DO rule. 

Dusty,

I like them too ... I have this rule ,after owning several English cars, that the fewer moving parts there are to  break, the better the design ...

TTFN,

[Advertising]

[Dusty Morningwood]

Dusty,

I like them too ... I have this rule ,after owning several English cars, that the fewer moving parts there are to  break, the better the design ...

TTFN,

Yepper.  That's why we just dumped our 77 MGB and bought a small camper.  The MGB just constantly broke our hearts and drained our bank account.  At least we can sleep in the camper if the car breaks down. 

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Dusty,

I had (or more like it, it had me) a '57 MGA ... got it cheap because the engine came in a basket ... got all kinds of stories about it and the windwings/non automatic top/dual 6 volt batteries/and we won;t even go into the hand crank to start it when the batteries died ...*S*

I remember the first sentence of the Clymer (repair)manual ... "It is important to discern whether one has a drop-head of fixed head coup" ... WTF? (American translation whether one has a convertible or hardtop.) Then there was the banjo bolts ...

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Hi,

Just to prove my pint about Clymers, I found a pic of a 'fixed head coupe' ....

[Major 2]

Ah nostalgia  .....  adding to your own Highjack  

Mine was 1969 (bought new) and was a love affair ....

I had Minilites w/ Mitchlin ZX tires and a Weber 45 DCOE Carb.
The head was Ported & Polished, headers with Abarth exhaust.
 
Found a better photo with the roll bar  ,  and I had replaced the anti sway bars with racing versions from Adco

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Major 2,

Mine was a basket case only a teenager would love .. wind wings, a top that took ten minutes (and an engineering degree) to assemble the first time ... and a 57 MGA was one of the last Morris Garage (for that is indeed what MG stands for) that came with a hole in the front bumper.

The hole was for when both of the 6 Volt VW-style batteries were dead (which was often). One simply went to the boot (trunk to us Americans), pulled out the crank and turned the motor over a couple of times until it fired. I understand the MGBs were somewhat more reliable and that they did away with the crank ... good publicity but a bad idea ....

Then there were the wooden floorboards ... I removed them and replaced them .... but in the meantime, I just sat the old pieces back in while I waited for very special whitworth (decimal of an inch screws) that were only used on one French Aircraft (?) to be ordered and delivered.

I remember pasing six cylinder Mustangs and Buidks and Oldsmobiles , wondering just where they were burning fields ...but it was only when I looked between my legs that I found what was on fire ... the FLOORBOARD BETWEEN MY LEGS!

It seems that when I rebuilt the engine , the exhaust pipe had bent slightly , and the closer proximity had set the floorboard on fire .... LOL.

But the adventure does not stop there. I pulled off the hiway into a filling station with an old attendant known to be extremely slow and arthritic ... anyway, I knew there was water at the pumps, and pulled up to the pumps, grabbed a hose and extinguished the fire ... it only took a second or so.... but there was the attendant, about a hundred  yards away, cursing me with a gusto that would make a gunney blush, letting me know in no uncertain terms my ignorance (and the ignorance of my forefathers for ever begetting such a line) ... that any fool with a lick of sense would never park a burning car next to a gas pump ...probably ... but hey, I was 17 and this was a '57 MGA ...

[Old Top]

Wadd,

I had an old TD and do remember cranking it up when the battery went dead, which was quite often, I also learned about a positive ground car which was another reason that the battery went dead quite often.  The SU's that when you shut down dripped gas on the exhaust manifold.  The frame on the TD was oak and had termites.  The rear wheels had a disturbing habit of shearing the cotter pin and try to race you down the road, comming down a mountain road my passenger remarked that some one left a tire that just passed us, I told him to chase it down while I jacked up the car.  Untill I got around heilocopters that required an 2hr maintence for an hr flight, I thought the MG was the only mechinical transportation that demanded that much maintence.  Dusty you are right they break your heart and your bank account.

Old Top

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Old Top,

I have always said that if you dould take those beautiful bodies that only the English seemed capable of making, and then have the Germans or Japanese produce anything mechanical for it, it would be a marriage made in heaven ...

That is why I really wish I had a new Cooper Clubman ... sigh ...

[Old Top]

Wadd,

The trouble with that Wadd, is could we still crawl in an out of them?  I remember stareing at the center hub of 18 wheelers.

Old Top

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Old Top,

Hey,

I can stilll climb  out of a Clubman ... it ain't dainty or pretty, but I still can do it!

TTFN,

[Grogan]

I drove my first 10,000 miles in a 1949 MG-TC.

Of course it had "all things good", including Smith's Chronometric Tach and Speedometer, Suicide Doors, SU Carbs, and of course Lucas Electrics.

The Lucas part is clearly defined here:

http://www.mez.co.uk/lucas.html

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Hi,

I haven't laughed out loud at a computer, but the previous post had me guffawing ... the guy had definitely had Brit cars!

TTFN,

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Update ...

I have gotten the T-shirts that I ordered ... and rather than being thin and sleazy (as I had figured at the price). I found them to be rather like a Hanes T-shirt ... much thicker and capable of multiple washings ...

These are nice




And ... they are on sale!

http://www.sageoutfitters.com/catalog/item/7467389/9272458.htm

[hawkeye2]

Two things that Rolling Blocks have going for them is that they don't leak oil or use Lucas components!

[cpt dan blodgett]

What about the Brit Snider and Martinis.  Do the leak oil like all the british autos.

Lucas also makes refrigerators or at least that is how the brit warm beer is explained.

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Capt Dan,

There is certain things that Brits do and excell at ... just look at the early Cobras, Sunbeam Tigers and the new Mini-Cooper. I have often said that if someone would take the MGA and replace everything mechanical with German or Japanese engineered and built innards you would have a pretty amazing car ....

As and example, there was a company that 'out-Lotused' Lotus by making a Super 7 that was actually far superior (IMHO) ... so superior in fact, that Lotus, although they had not made a 7 in years, took the company to court and made them stop production of them ....

TTFN,

Martini or Snider Rifles I have to claim pure ignorance one, having never owned or fired one ... but since neither was purported to have and oil tank, I would think not .... *S*