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RE: How I spent My Sunday Afternoon With My MG (long)

To: "Ed & Kris Curtis" <curtis@hayburn.com>, <mgs@Autox.Team.Net>
Subject: RE: How I spent My Sunday Afternoon With My MG (long)
From: "RossOvercash" <jroverca@tiac.net>
Date: Sun, 1 Mar 1998 19:38:53 -0500
Sounds wonderful!!

Safety Fast !!!

Ross Overcash, 74B, NAMGBR 2-1172, Ayer MA
http://www.tiac.com/users/jroverca/index.htm


> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-mgs@autox.team.net [mailto:owner-mgs@autox.team.net]On
> Behalf Of Ed & Kris Curtis
> Sent: Sunday, March 01, 1998 6:24 PM
> To: mgs@autox.team.net
> Subject: How I spent My Sunday Afternoon With My MG (long)
> 
> 
> I will start at the beginning.  In the autumn of 1960, a farmer in
> Illinois who owned MGTF 1500 HDA46-7949, loaned the car to his
> brother-in-law for a short trip.  Several days later, the car was
> returned with a broken crank shaft.  The engine was removed and taken
> apart, an old TD engine purchased to get the crank shaft, but then no
> further work was done on the car.  It was pushed into the barn and the
> farmer's son played racecar driver in it and broke just about everything
> that was glass or chrome or looked like it needed to be hit with a blunt
> instrument.
> 
> Fast forward to 1995.  The farmer and his wife are getting a divorce and
> one of the few things that he gets is the bedraggled and much ignored MG
> which he had to move to his place of business.  Enter a used truck
> dealer from Holland, Michigan, who was there to buy two mobile cranes. 
> The TF was thrown into the deal somehow and the cranes and the TF and a
> "pallet of parts" put on the flatbed truck to return to Holland.  After
> the man's mechanic and body man refused to have anything to do with
> rebuilding the car, he decided to sell it.
> 
> Enter Yours Truly.  Several weeks earlier, in August of 1995, I had sold
> my 79 MGB and sworn off foreign cars.  This man's brother came to me and
> asked if I would like to take a look at an old MG.  If there was ever a
> time I needed to be out of my office, it was then.  Needless to say, I
> fell in love with the car.  I had to have it in spite of the lack of
> many of the engine parts, the sad condition of the car and the family of
> mice living in the passenger side uphostery (is it any wonder that my
> wife has named the car "Minnie").
> 
> Fast forward to today.  The car now has the rebuilt engine installed in
> the renovated and repainted frame.  The new tires are installed on the
> renovated suspension and brake system.  The rebuilt transmission is
> connected to the engine and the rebuilt rear end.  The new wiring
> harness has been run as far as possible to the car - no fenders so no
> head or tail lights.  The renovated gas tank has fuel in it and is ready
> to supply the new fuel pump and then the rebuilt carbs.  The new battery
> is wired in place.
> 
> With the help of a good friend, the timing and points are set.  After
> cranking the engine without plugs to assure oil pressure, the engine was
> started and ran like a clock.  The car was then driven around the yard.
> This is the first time the car has moved under its own power since 1960
> - 37 and a half years!  My wife says that I was grinning like an idiot.
> 
> And that is how I spent my Sunday afternoon.
> 
> Ed Curtis
> '55 MGTF
> 
> curtis@hayburn.com
> 

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