After months and months of looking and opportunities that were snagged up from right under me, I finally got a car. I bought the one that was posted here ~2 weeks ago (last Friday) -- it's a 1955 MGA, with a MGB 3-main engine.

The whole process of buying this (I'm in MA, the seller is in MD) has been fantastic and primarily this was due to the seller's attitude towards the process. I'm very happy with what I have -- a very nice and cared for driver car.

As such, given the fact that this car is *new* to me I'd like to go over it with a fine-tooth comb. My first impression is that the engine and mechanicals are in top condition, the body is in very good condition (there are a few areas where touch-up paint may be needed), and there are some 'gremlins' that I'd like to rectify to the car. Mostly electrical/etc.

Regarding mechanicals:

-> is there a suggested 'checklist' procedure for a new owner? The previous owner took great care of it but I'd like to leave nothing to chance.

Regarding body/exterior:

-> the car had been restored (frame off according to my understanding) around 10 years ago; as such the paint is great but has some light scratches/etc. that would be nice to clean out -- can this car be waxed normally or is there a recommendation on cleaning the paint (after a thorough wash)?

-> I was surprised to see the very poor fit between the side curtains and top (was made aware of this before); there are some gaps all around that will let in water the first time the car (may) see rain. Is this something that can be typically solved with a top adjustment and a side-panel reconditioning? The side-panels are plexiglas and along with the rear window are showing their age. There are scratches/etc. -- any procedures to recondition them? I'm assuming that for the surround trim I can get replacement(s) from MOSS/SF/etc.

Regarding electricals:

-> I'm building a checklist of things that don't work; I'm going to look at the MGA supersite since I think the individual things are addressed. Examples are - map light and horn do not work, dash gauge lights do not work, etc.

Here are two shots as the car was delivered today...

Three things that 'irk' me and I'd like some clarification/feedback on:

(1) the front bumper is sitting too low; see the picture -- could this be an issue of the brackets holding the bumper being mounted upside-down? I.e. do they mount the same in both ways or is there a tilt between them? I looked underneath quickly and everything is very solidly held together so it must be a bracket alignment of some sort?

Thoughts?


(2) the door stopper rubber pieces hold the door out too far - when the door gets shut they push out the door to the point that there is a slight gap that can be seen from the back between the body alignment and the door opening. Otherwise the door aligns very well and I'm thinking I should pull out the rubber stoppers and 'shave' the outer part of them with an exact-o-knife?


(3) this car has a MGB engine but MGA drum brakes -- as such they seemed to be extremely unresponsive to me. Is this typical?



Ok that's about it...sorry about the verbosity of the posts :-)

First of all - Whooo Hooo!!! Always a big day with a new car coming home! Looks like you got a nice one!

It looks pretty clean and really not that many issues to work through. I cant speak to the bumper as I left my front one off. However, for the door, I would first remove the bumper and see if it isnt the seal that is holding it out. Some aftermarket seals will do that. Mine did and I couldnt even get the door to latch. Got Mc-somethings very expensive ones and they worked perfectly. But I think I also trimmed my bumpers down after the fact.

I have drum brakes on mine and they are fine with the 1500 pooper engine. However, I at first had issues as I neglected to set the adjusters at each wheel. After that, no more pumping and much more responsive.

Have fun!

John L.

Re: the door buffers, if it is not the seals holding the door out too far, the door buffers can be sanded down on a bench grinder a little at a time until you're happy with the fit. Many of the new reproductions are too thick and need trimming.
Good looking car, btw, enjoy.

As far as the map light goes, they were wired so that the map light works when the headlights are on. Maybe yours works after all. Just turn on the headlights first to check.

Michael

Your brakes should work fine. If they're not responsive, adjust them. If that's not the issue, pull the drums and inspect the shoes for wear or damage - same with the drums. If that all looks good, it's time to go through the hydraulic system. Let me know if I can help. Thanks. Basil 707.762.0974 basiladams@yahoo.com

PS - Nice-looking car

---

Basil C. Adams
1956 MGA Coupe (Show Car)
1957 MGA Roadster (Driver)
1958 MGA Coupe (Racecar)
1959 MGA Coupe (unrestored)
1960 MGA Coupe (unrestored)
1960 MGA Roadster (Driver)
MKIII Elva Courier (E1056)
1967 427 Cobra
1972 Alfa Romeo Montreal
A coupla late MGBs
1960 Austin Healy BN7
More Cars than Brains



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2012 01:31PM by Basil Adams.

Awesome! The car looks great.

On the electricals:
- the horn could be lots of things. Start with the fuse since that's easy and the horn has its own fuse (the bottom one). Proper fuses for MGA (slow-blow) are not easy to find locally, but SF has them with the proper labels. They're cheap and you'll need more eventually anyway so no waste swapping one for a test. After that check voltages as you normally would. The hornsby have just gone bad. See mgaguru.com - good details on the horn as I recall.
- if map and dash lights don't work check your front running lights. If those are out check voltage going into (unless the headlights work - then you know power is getting into the switch) and out of the light switch on the dash. Since it looks like you don't have the optional fog light, those three items are everything connected to the post activated by the first light switch position. either switch internals, or the connector at the switch have gone bad. Even if it's the switch may be able to open it and repair rather than buy new.

On the brakes, you've already gotten good guidance on tracking that down. I just want to point out that engine power has nothing to do with brakes, except possibly if you drive above the top speed of the 1500 engine (90+ mph). Once you are applying brakes you are slowing down from a certain speed and all that matters is what that speed is, not how long it took you to get there.

Post back what you find

---

Geoff Howard
http://mgaexperiment.blogspot.com
Now Playing on the Blog (1/6/2013): Sagging With Age

Well, except with a larger engine, getting there fast might (would) be more tempting...

Comparing to my B, with front disks, I would certainly describe them as more responsive. And then comparing those to my 4 wheel disk ABS...
I take advantage of their increased ability to accelerate and get up to speed much quicker in traffic. Only to then have to suddenly jamb on the brakes when cross traffic misjudges the time it takes for then to pull out and get across.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2012 03:00PM by jclars.

Where in Massachusetts are you located?

There's a small get together, tour, eat and greet, coming up in a couple of weeks near the Southern Coast (Dartmouth and the like) that you might want to come down for. My ride is FAR from done, but I'm showing up anyway just for the fellowship, to meet some new folks in the hobby..

You might want to as well, quite a few MGA guys here and abouts.

LOVELY car ! ! !

TC



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2012 05:06PM by TeamEvil.

Thanks -- I'll have to learn a little bit about the brake system; the current brakes just seemed sluggish with little pedal feel at first, but the car does eventually stop.

Thanks for the tip -- I had no idea this was the case; hopefully it should be a non-issue.

Thanks for the tips; I will dig into the electricals next weekend.

With regards to the engine vs. brakes -- I expressed myself wrong; what I meant to say was that with the MGB 1800 engine the car is pretty zippy, with relatively good pick-up. As a driver I'd like to match that with somewhat 'responsive' brakes. The ones that are on the car right now have no feel, and -- although I did not pump the pedal -- do not give me any confidence that I can stop the car on an emergency.

The car does slow down when brakes are applied but it takes a long time to come to a full stop and it doesn't seem that applying the brake harder stops the car faster.

I'm in Brookline (Boston) but the car is being stored in Mansfield, close to I-95/495. Is this drive the one on May 5th on the South Shore? I'll try to participate; would love to meet some of the members.

Just to be clear, the map light should be wired to the instrument lights position. I don't know if you received any specific training but on the stock MGA switch the instrument lights/marker lights come on in the first position and then you turn the knob clockwise and pull it out again to turn on the headlights.

As to the brakes, I have a 1600 (with front disks) and it stops fine, but compared to a modern car with power brakes, the first time I tried it it was alarming. Now having put hundreds of miles on the car I don't even think about it. I can lock the tires on the car with enough force (which would be a lot) so you should be able to also. If you can't lock up the tires, then you do need to figure out why not.

Some other things to check:
- Is the felt block mounted on the underside of the bonnet over the radiator?
- What coolant mixture is in the radiator and is it appropriate for your climate?
- Make note of the brake/clutch fluid and see if it goes down over time.
- Check the accuracy of your tach. This is easiest with a dwell tach/meter diagnostic tool but there are other methods that involve a GPS and figuring driveline gearing.
- Check the accuracy of your speedo and odometer. This can be done directly with a GPS or with a calibrated tach.
- Assuming the car has a heater, does the heater control valve shut off completely?
- Is the spare tire any good? Check the pressure in all the tires (26 lbs is good but Barney has a whole bunch of info on this subject).
- Are the air hoses mounted on the left and right side of the engine compartment: two for the heater and one for the carbs? If not, you should put these in place.
- The turn signal control should automatically shut off after 20 seconds.
- Does the panel dimmer work?

As far as the side curtain to top fit: you appear to have "aftermarket" side curtains. On my car, these have a wide rubber flange around the whole edge. At the top, this tucks under a flap on the hood, but you have to tuck it under each time you close the door. When driving, the air pressure pulls the curtains away from the car and if you don't have the clips that hold the top corner to the windscreen then a gap will open up along the windscreen. Of course, you would have to be nuts to drive this car intentionally in the rain. The hood and side curtains are not designed to keep you dry, the are simply meant to keep you drier than no hood and side curtains.

It looks like you have an aftermarket "Anco" style luggage rack. This attaches to the boot lid with four bolts into the open sheet metal surface of the boot. It only takes a moderate amount of force for the legs to make dents in the boot skin so I would be careful putting anything on that rack. A 10 lb piece of luggage would probably be fine but would not put the spare tire up there. Note that there should be "feet" that go between the metal legs of the rack and the boot lid. I'd appreciate a picture of those feet on your car. I have the same rack and the feet are missing and I'd like to know what yours look like.

I love driving my MGA and hope you will feel the same way, good luck!

Russ

Thanks for all the other feedback -- I'll follow-up with responses on it as I go through the items...

With regards to the luggage rack - it's one place where I wish I had the original one (or nothing at all). Will experiment with removing it and plugging the holes (temporarily).

I'll take a picture of the feet, it looked to me like there were 2 screws on each of the legs but I may be wrong.

Here's a zoom in to the luggage rack from the previous owner's pics. I'll get a chance to take a pic of the feet themselves later on this week as the car is off-site while waiting for plates/etc.

Picture of my rack here:
http://www.mgexperience.net/phorum/read.php?2,1927492,page=1

It mounts with one bolt at each corner. When it is removed (which is all the time) I leave the 4 chrome headed bolts in place to plug the holes. There is evidence that one of the legs dented the lid in the past and the dent was filled in again (e.g. the dent is visible on the inside of the lid).

Russ

Very interesting -- looks like whoever mounted the one on my car used some (optional?) adapters which have rubber seals between them and the trunk lid. I am pretty sure of it because I looked closely at the fit of the rack on the car -- the legs are fine and sit very firmly on the trunk lid but I am just not that happy with the aluminum finish and shape of this rack.

I think I will remove it and go to a non-rack *or* go back to the original chrome factory rack. I think the original rack shows the car more streamlined as it seems to slope nicer on the trunk, whereas this aftermarket one is too 'blocky'.

On the same note, I'm unhappy with the side curtains as they are not 1500-type and I don't think the aluminum framing works well with the chrome of the car. I may try to find the canvas flip-up type in the future for a swap (will have to see the fit on those).

I've never heard a good word about the flip up style curtains - I think folks just want them for show cars. Functionally the sliding window style works better but if you want a show car then you will need the flip style.

Can you post a close-up of one of the feet?

I don't think your rack is an Anco from the '60s. I'm pretty sure all the Anco's were all welded construction and chrome.