Re: FW: mods and sods

[Peter Pleitner]

-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Pleitner [mailto:pleitner@dundee.net]
Sent: Monday, March 06, 2000 10:31 PM
To: abradley@cnw.com
Subject: RE: [mg-tabc] Re: mods and sods

Excellent Andy,

Well said. Now may we all say good night to this thread until the next
century?

Drive em until the roads wear out, you'll never get another chance.

And mind our motto, "Safety Fast". Your interpretation is PERSONAL..

Cheers, Peter

-----Original Message-----
From: Andy Bradley [mailto:abradley@cnw.com]
Sent: Monday, March 06, 2000 10:09 PM
To: mrbadger; TABC List
Subject: [mg-tabc] Re: mods and sods

No offense intended on the Lucite bit. (Well, not much at least.) Its just
that we went through this same thread a
while ago and it got a whole lot of noses out of joint.

I did a frameoff job on a '46 TC a while back, and everything was done
right. Steering was as close as modern
technology could make it, brobably much tighter than original. And it was a
hell of a lot of fun to drive. Until you
got into traffic or onto a highway with a good set of ruts. Then the thing
handled like one of those Mini-Coopers going
through the sewer/tunnel in "The Italian Job". It occurred to me that I
might die.

I then drove a friend's car with a Datsun 'box. It is still old mechanical
steering, but it took out all of the play
that couldn't be measured, but could sure be felt when driven. I then
bought a Datsun box and installed it. The
original is in the corner, perfect and restored. I can hop in that car and
drive anywhere, on any road, street, or
highway and feel confident that it will go where I tell it too. Or, in less
than an 2 hours, I can have the original in
and go to a concours to take home a plaque or two.

To expect that our old cars should be driven, but only as they were intended
to, sort of misses the point. When they
were built, roads were virtually empty, compared to modern times. 80 miles
per hour was near-light-speed. If these
things are only fun and safe tootling around back country roads, what is the
point? Who will see the treasures that we
are the keepers of? A gas station attendant in some back-woods Podunk?
Sorry, but I would rather be out there in the
scrum, showing the colors and picking bugs out of my teeth on the
Interstates at full speeds. Who is to be offended by
the swap? Anyone who knows, will know that it is a Datsun steering box. I
am not trying to pass it off as original.
And no one else cares. It still looks like a black-painted lump of metal
with a stick poking out, to the rest of the
world.

Times change, and if we do not change, at least we have to bend a bit.

It would be truly sad if our beloved T-types became so outdated that we were
afraid to drive them in moden life. We
would become like the old fellows who tool around in Model-T's and
Locomobiles, who are affraid to venture onto the raod
with less than thirty or so of their pals and an escort car or two. Great
fun for them on the sunny weekends, I'm sure,
but they have been left in a condition where thay cannot drive their cars on
a daily basis.

Not one thing I have changed cannot be put back. You will have a harder
time erasing those louvers, than I will swaping
the steering.

Point is, NOTHING is original. If some fellow wants to put a Shorrock or a
Marshal blower in his car, let him. Heck,
help him. I have had people in the know drooling over my original "Dealer
Option" tappet covers. You know the ones.
And they get appreciative nods from concours judges. But the little beggars
are not original. Heck, they are FOREIGN!
Made in Chicago, as were most of the coveted doo-dads of the time. So the
line between what is OK foreign and what
isn't is pretty gray.

It is the spirit of the car that is important. Would you scowl at a
Deusenberg with a "foreign" Lalique mascot?

So, both Sides, LIGHTEN UP!!!

There are perfect museum pieces out there to represent the cars as they
were. I am glad someoone is willing to curate
them, but I would rather drive. Beautiful snapshots of a Time Long Past.
There are some real odd mosnters out there,
with V8's and such. They are called Hot Rods, and don't have a lot of MG
left in them. But the vast majority of
T-typers, and most sports car folks in general, are somewhere in between.
For the most part, gathered much closer to
the perfect side, than the monster side than a lot of folks are willing to
give credit for.

And now back to your regularly scheduled mailing list......

--
Cheers....Andy B.
Bradley Restoration



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