Re: mods and sods

[mrbadger]

Howdy pard,
I appreciate the note and yes, some of the comments were pretty funny,
that one about the lucite block was definitely the best, it caught me
off guard and I didn't know quite how to respond to it. It was a well
placed punch for sure. When I started this whole thing out, all I
wanted to do was to make people think a little bit and to try to remind
them that the best thing about an old car is that it IS an old car
complete with all its quirks and short comings but things escalated very
rapidly and soon got totally out of hand. My own car is far from
pristine, I don't use it like I used to but it sure as hell ain't no
garage queen either and it has louvers in top the bonnet and a leather
hood strap but these are period mods and none of which alter the
character of the car and anyways, they were done many, many years ago
and I don't think I would do them now. That Datsun box has got to have
a very different steering ratio which will have a profound effect on the
way the car drives and handles to the point where driving it is no
longer like driving a T-MG and re-engineering the block to be cast in a
totally different material will make it a different engine and amounts
to an engine swop in my book. That's the only point I was trying to
make. I wasn't trying to tell people what to do, everyone is the owner
of their own car, for sure, and can definitely do whatever they want to
with it, if I decide to take my car out into the yard tomorrow and set
fire to it, I can do that and nobody can say otherwise ('cept maybe the
fire department but what the hell do they know about MGs?). I would
just like folks to think about it a little bit from one who has
considerable MG experience. It seems to me there are a lot of chips on a
lot of shoulders out there and I guess I knocked em all off at once.
I might have bid on the St Christopher/Carry & Lambert badge Keith,
it sounds familiar but I don't know what cars Carry & Lambert sold. I
don't collect badges (see "me" for mrbadger on ebay) but sometimes one
will catch my eye and I bid on it. I have been selling a lot of cars on
ebay lately (I have been a dealer in vintage British sportscars for 35,
or so, years) and this spring, I will be offering four TCs, a TF 1500, a
1930 18/80 MK-II roadster, a P-type basket case, and many others. Those
four TCs are all good old original motorcars just coming out of long
storage, they will be sold to the highest bidder but i kinda hope they
end up being appreciated for what they are.
That's just about it my friends, if I offended anyone, I do
apologize, it's just that I have my opinion and you have yours. To the
person who said "we don't need your kind", I will not make a response.
In a little while I will be going on holiday, I'm taking my wife and
10 year old son to Portugal, Spain, Gibraltar, and Morocco and when I
return in 2 1/2 weeks, I will be very busy doing the things I enjoy
most, selling vintage British sports cars and driving my old TC and you
can be certain that when I do, it will be JUST THE WAY THE GOOD LORD, IN
ALL HIS WISDOM, INTENDED FOR IT TO BE! (Lord Nuffield, that is).
Cheerio and happy motoring, it's been fun.
Badger

[Andy Bradley]

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