According to Wayne, these folks still have an old time machine which can straighten the wheels, using hydraulic pressure, jigs and lots of experience.

The place is:

East County Alignment
10741 Woodside Ave
Santee, Ca 92071
619-562-4110
866-562-4110
www.eastcountyalignment.com

Check out more information on the San Diego British Car Club Council’s website.

Speaking of the website, we recently upgraded to a new version of our content management system. End of life was announced for Joomla 1.5, so a migration to Joomla 1.7 was performed.

We also finished cleaning up the gallery, which was the source of an unfortunate code exploit back in November. Some of you may remember being prompted by your web browser that the site you were visiting was unsafe. The software developer of our gallery had implemented a third party utility and failed to patch it. There was no warning, as the exploit of this vulnerability hit the wild in zero-day fashion, leaving countless websites compromised overnight. Fortunately, google and other search organizations managed to block any compromised sites, including ours, preventing the spread of malware which was planted in the website code as a part of the hack.

Our sincere apologies go out to anyone who was affected by this incident. It serves as an example of why it is important to run both antivirus and firewall applications on your home and mobile computers.

Now that everything is put back together, we look forward to seeing you at Rolling British Car Day. Take photos! Send them to us! We will post them in the gallery:

Cheers,

Nich Ziesmer
SDBCCC Webmaster

We’ve made several nice additions to the San Diego British Car Club Council Website. We have added Google Calendar integration, allowing us to show our next upcoming event, as well as a graphical calendar which ties in nicely to the site.

We’ve also created a Facebook page, which you can “Like!” through the site. So hit us up! Join the community.

Our next event is coming up quickly – April 17th at Liberty Station. Rolling British Car Day. My favorite car event of the year, bar none.

Cheers,

Nich

It all started with me sitting at my computer looking at 50’s cars for sale, open two-seaters from the 50’s being my passion.  I had pulled up the listings from eBay and noticed a car I hadn’t seen or even heard about before:  A 1952 Singer 4AD.  I had the photo of the Singer on my computer screen showing its red and burgundy exterior and its red and white interior, and when I noticed it had four seats (two more than needed!) I was about to move on.  Right then, Dannie, my wife (God Bless her—she loves cars!), walked through my office and said, “Oh, a Singer 4AD!”  Needless to say, I was floored (not to mention humbled!).  In my state of shock and disbelief, I asked her, “How in the heck (poetic license here) did you know that?”  Her reply, “I rode in one wearing a witches costume and sitting in the back seat in a Halloween parade when I was in 2^nd or 3^rd grade.”  That conversation jump started my interest in buying the 4AD even though it had four seats instead of two because I wanted to honor my wife’s past connection to the car (and honoring the wife while collecting cars is ALWAYS a good thing!).  I won the bidding and purchased the car in April, 2009.

After taking delivery (the Singer came from Wisconsin) and driving the car about 2 miles from the delivery point to my home, I called Brian Anderson, my friend and restorer par excellence (I know little about the mechanical end of things so it pays to know someone who knows a lot!).  I asked him to pick up the car on his flatbed truck, take it to his shop a few miles away, and do a safety check from stem to stern.  Even though the Singer was drivable and running at the time, I, in the interest of safety, decided to have Brian pick it up to check it out to make sure it was safe to drive.  Some of the bits and pieces looked a bit suspicious to my untrained eye. 

A few days later Brian called with a preliminary report.  The first big discovery was that the engine had no oil filter!  The previous owner had simply capped off the opening where the oil filter was supposed to go.  Brian figured the motor had a few miles left in it before something serious would have happened so the flatbed was a fortunate and good idea.  There were many other things that were not factory original as Brian’s ever-growing list of deficiencies piled up discouragingly.  The previous owner, to his credit, emphasized this was not a show car.  I admire both his honesty and his accuracy!

To say the least, the car had a few “home remedies” applied to its preservation.  For example, much of the wiring was actually telephone wire.  To start the car, you had to know that the door bell ringer and coat hanger that were critical to the starting process were both under the dash!  The car had Morris Minor bumpers, and the battery was so tall it shorted every time the hood was closed.  The brake master cylinder came from a Chevy, and there was a chair leg for a gear lever.  The chrome strips on the engine hood and the strips on the front grille were painted with something that looked like gold metal flake from a spray can.  The transmission tunnel cover was actually three pieces of plywood that were “leaning together.”  Anyway, you get the idea of where we started—not really a rust bucket, but lots of work needed too.

I decided to bring the little car back to life as originally as possible.  Brian took her down to the frame (which looked much like a fluffy cat looks after you dunk it in water—much smaller than I had imagined!) and slowly began to make her an original 4AD once again.  Brian put me in charge of finding parts to keep my costs down (although he found many from his own sources quite easily—I think he was just keeping me busy).

Early on in our search for the parts we needed, which seemed to me to match very closely to the factory parts list for the car, I noticed a letter (it was not an ad) in the NASOC NEWS from a gentleman who, along with a friend, owned two 4AD’s that were nothing but parts cars.  He and his friend were selling the pair for $1,800.  Brian and I immediately jumped in our parts chase vehicle (Brian’s of course), hitched a trailer to it, and drove the 90 minutes or so to this gentleman’s home.  Upon arrival, we saw a rolling chassis piled high with loose parts held together by a netting of rust and cobwebs and a much smaller pile of parts covering a chassis that was pretty much sitting on the ground covered in the same netting and looking suspiciously like a good home for poisonous spiders.  It all looked like gold to Brian and me!  We rolled what we could onto the trailer and shoveled the rest on top.  We got two chassis, two motors, two transmissions, lots of body panels, some seats, and boxes full of bits and pieces.

Brian said I got my $1,800 back when he discovered that one of the parts cars actually had an almost perfect floor he could use because the floor for my car was completely gone.  No fabrication time!  Shortly after that, I sold one of the motors to Mark Thompson for his current restoration.  Now, I was in the parts selling business too!  The purchase of the two parts cars came in very handy for us as the three cars slowly became one really pretty complete one.  I gave Brian the remaining parts from the two parts cars in exchange for a credit on my restoration bill.  If anyone is looking for 4AD parts, Brian still has the two chassis, one is in rolling condition and lots of leftover parts.  If you’re interested, my email is craig.m@roadrunner.com and I can put you in touch with Brian.   

As the restoration continued, we got to the point where we had to choose paint and interior colors.  Dannie and I met with Brian several times with the goal being to use blue and cream as our overall color scheme (inspired by Mark Thompson’s beautiful car).  Unfortunately, we couldn’t find blue paint, blue carpet, and blue leather that worked for us so we decided to make a change.  We then went with Old English White for the body, chose a creamy brown for the fenders (those who don’t like non-factory two-tones please forgive me, but we think the fenders scream for the two-tone look).  We then found the perfect cream leather to match the Old English White and the perfect creamy brown leather to match the fenders.  Once we found a good carpet match as well, our color and material choices were done.

As the restoration progressed over several months and we were getting to the end of the project, Brian and I were looking for the last couple of pieces to complete the 4AD puzzle.  The last two pieces on our list were the periscope or elbow piece that fits between the carb and the air silencer and the jack.  Despite looking everywhere and talking to everyone I’d met in the UK, Finland, Arizona, Georgia, Tennessee, New Zealand, etc. I couldn’t find the elbow piece I was looking for.  Brian then emailed me to let me know a similar piece from a 1939 Singer was on eBay.  I immediately signed on, found the piece, bid on it, and won it (strangely I was the only bidder—you would have thought there would have been thousands!).  Upon the part’s arrival, we were very pleased with what we had purchased and Brian made it work.  Now, we were down to our last piece:  The missing jack!

I began searching for the screw/pole jack only to be told repeatedly that, “I don’t have that” or “Those are very tough to find.”  I looked all over the world, emailed clubs, individuals, made a nuisance of myself with people everywhere (my apologies to everyone!), but no luck.  I began to get a bit discouraged.  In desperation, I looked at the NASOC registry for 4AD’s and discovered there was a member, Larry, only an hour or so away from me. He was my last hope.  His non-restored 52 Singer 4AD had been damaged in a wildfire a few years back (we had to evacuate our home during those same fires) and had been sitting in a field for 20 or so years waiting for a restoration.  Brian and I went out to see what he had.  Brian was interested in seeing if some of his “guesses” had been right and to answer some unanswered questions, and I just wanted to see Larry’s car.  Lo and behold, Larry had the jack!  He let us borrow it to use as a template for having one machined.  Here I was looking all over the world for the one last piece and there it was sitting in the dirt an hour from me!  Ninety minutes to two parts cars and sixty minutes to the last piece.  I was suffering from a case of serendipity.  

The car was finished on July 28, 2010, after more than a year of work.  Dannie and I couldn’t be more pleased with the result thanks to Brian! 

The Singer turned out so beautifully that we decided to truck it all the way from California to Stowe to meet other Singer aficionados and to show the Singer at the British Invasion car show.  Brian and his wife, Sheila, met me there and provided invaluable support and assistance at the show—not to mention companionship as Dannie couldn’t make the trip.   

We managed to take first place in the pre-1965 British Sports Car class at the judged Concours d’Elegance (I thought being considered a “sports car” was a victory in itself!).  I was told we were the first pure Singer to win a first in class in the Concours which only enhanced the joy of the moment.  The next day we managed to win the two-tone paint category in the Competition of Colors as well so I flew home with two first place trophies in my bag.  The trophies aside, I got to meet Phil, Paul, Peter (and his lovely wife Lindsay), Pim, and several other Singer people who proved to be the true highlight of my stay in Stowe.  I even managed to accept the trophy for Best Display as I received the Competition of Colors award on Sunday.  The Singers ruled at Stowe this year!  Brian, Sheila, and I celebrated with banana splits at Ben & Jerry’s original factory some 9 or so miles away from the show field. 

I truly enjoyed the restoration journey and the many people I met by email and phone.  I want to thank Brian for all of his hard and excellent work, Dave Green for parts and advice, Paul Barber for his original soft top we used to make a pattern, Arthur Michell, Paul Bouchard, Mark Thompson (hope your motor is up and running!), Larry Barnes (the jack man!), Mark Furneaux, Mike Rambour, Peter McKercher, Pim Visser, Bill Spullen, and others too numerous to mention.  It would be a massive understatement to say the restoration was very much a team effort and the assistance and input of many others far more knowledgeable than I was a key component in the finished product.

Of course, that’s one of the “problems” with being in a Club . . . no sooner do you mention such a hair-brain idea, then your fellow addicts start popping up with “leads”.  I was determined this time not to buy another total rust repair project like the roadster turned out to be. 

Almost immediately, I was offered a very early ’66 GT with just a few problems—no engine, no interior to speak of, and the dash had been a practice project for someone learning to use a Sawzall.  The body “appeared” sound, and the price was right.

We were already deep into the restoration of the roadster, but the compulsion to just “tear it apart” a little bit more was overwhelming.  I remember saying something like “I can have this done in no time!”  I think that was 15 years ago.  I was also attempting to restore a ’57 VW convertible “in parallel” to the roadster.

One fine day, a dim light turned on, and I realized my insanity.  I “parked” the VW and the GT in the rear, and concentrated on the roadster.  Over the next many years, I would often find myself just standing looking at the GT, and thinking things like “  . . . it won’t be that tough.  Maybe I should just take such-and-such off right now.”  Mostly, I stole parts to finish the roadster, and bought, traded and acquired parts for the GT.  Truthfully, I think most of those times, I just stood there and stared at it with no apparent coherent thoughts at all!   I also ended up acquiring three other GT parts cars—one netted an overdrive and that GT is now someone’s rallye car.  Another parts car provided an intact dash.  That was key.  I kept telling myself I had “all” the parts I needed—if I ever got started, I justified to myself, it should go really fast because I have “almost everything”. Immediately (like this is really something you need “right away”!!!!) I bought an NOS rear view mirror (BMC box and wrapping paper . . . the whole bit!) which I carefully stored for probably 15 years, and “lost” in my garage several times!  I bought a set of brand new “made-in-the-UK” wire wheels and stored them for nearly 12 years.  I bought carpet, upholstery and interior kits on sale and stored them for 10 years.   I constantly bought little “bits” on sale or at swap meets and stored them away . . . . several times ending up with ridiculous quantities  . . .  like 4 water pumps, 3 clutch discs and  . . . .

After finally finishing the roadster, and restoring our “ol’ family pickemup truck” (which was a beast, and took WAY too much time!), I finally started in earnest on the GT about January of 2007.  Initially, I did not think the GT was “bad enough” to warrant going down to the bare shell, as I had done with the roadster, but fairly early on, I realized it would actually be easier to just “go all the way.”  So, bare shell restoration it was . . . . every nut, bolt, fitting, piping, line, wiring, etc.  We did that do our roadster, and it’s nice to know, when you’re finally done, that everything is either “new”, rebuilt . . . and you essentially have a new car.  I tried to catalog all the fasteners, and made little drawings with their “marks”.  All the BSF fasteners were cleaned, and zinc plated (looks like “cad”).

My goal with the car was to do as much of it myself as possible.  As a professional woodworker, and retired furniture and cabinetmaking instructor, I’m pretty familiar with finishing, and I’ve tried my hand at painting cars before.  Each time, they came out a bit better, and then a fellow Club member shared with me the art of color sanding and polishing, and that kind of “got me over the hump” and gave me the confidence to go for it.  I’ve previously done most of my own bodywork, other than “frame straightening” type stuff.  This car was seemingly pretty straight . . . or so I thought!   I actually enjoy the bodywork, prep work, surfacing, and painting.  I find it much more “forgiving” than working on furniture  . . . . where the finish is clear and all errors are quite visible!

I also acquired “half” of a MIG welder with another Club member, and that was a tremendous assist in doing the many, many rust repairs and patch panels.  I actually saved all the rusted pieces . . . I figured whoever acquires the car next might want to see them!  I found the “fab” work of making patch panels to be rewarding.

I also am a firm believer In the “Clint Eastwood School of Restoration”—which is “ . . .  a man has to know his limitations.”  Although I broke the engine down, and did all the minor “bits”, I did not attempt to do the “hard core” part of the engine rebuild—the crank, rods, pistons, valve train, bearings, and assembly of the block/head.  Once the rebuilder got it to that stage, then I did the rest of the “fun” stuff—painting, and hanging on/assembling the ancillary stuff and making it look pretty.  I did an engine once, and every time it made an odd sound, I had to assume I did something wrong.  Now when the engine makes an odd sound, I assume it must be OK . . . a pro did it!

I made my fair share of mistakes . . . like doing way too much body work and surfacing and blocking and then took it to a media blaster to do certain sections I found hard to get to by “conventional means”.  In spite of carefully marking it with spray paint, and explaining it to both the owner and the foreman, when I picked it up, they had not only blasted what I wanted, but also blasted away months of hard work and no small amount of expense in terms of already completely finished areas.  I lost about 3 months and several hundred dollars worth of materials on that one.  They had the nerve to say “Oh, well, we didn’t charge you extra for doing the whole thing.”  Thanks.

Seemed like it took forever to do the rust repairs and patch panels, and I fitted the doors, hatch and hood along the way.   Looking back, it was really only from about Jan to October, but it seemed longer.  

Perhaps the most exciting days were when I finally started painting it.  I was pretty conservative and careful with the painting.  A pro would have done it much faster, but I masked off large areas and concentrated on small “sub” areas first (underneath the car was one area; the fender wells another, the interior another; etc.)  All loose parts, of course, were painted off the car, but I was careful to try and paint them in the same orientation they would be on the car.  Finally, the big day came when I painted the exterior of the car . . . there wasn’t really much left by that point.

Color sanding and polishing went quickly and fairly easily.  I find that very rewarding, and would encourage anyone to try and do their own paint work and color sanding/polishing.

By the beginning of 2009, I was pretty well into “assembly”, and I had no real “plan”.   I’ve been fiddling around with MG B’s for about 40 years, so this part was fun.  Perhaps the biggest challenge was selecting “which” of the many parts I had acquired to actually use, clean it up, refurbish, restore, plate, paint, etc.  Many of those parts had been done for years (starter motor, generator, radiator) but others waited till the “day of”. Honestly . . . the bigger challenge here was often finding the parts I had so carefully stored for way-too-many years!

I started with simple, simple “FUN”  things . . . gas tank, lights, trim,  bumpers . . . . they went on fast and were “rewarding” to look at – as our son and I say, a “Ta Dah” moment!  On the other hand, there were things like the new wiring harness, brake lines, gas lines, etc. that were NOT very rewarding at all!

One of my favorite parts, and this is stupid!, is finally getting to throw away certain boxes . . . . like the ones those wheels had been stored in for 12 years!  Yeah!

The Esteemed Editor said to limit this to 1500 to 2000 words, so I must stop.  I dare not even begin to discuss “technical” things, the patch panels, the welding, the rust preventative measures, the block sanding, etc., etc.

If you are having trouble sleeping one night, e-mail me at steve@sandiegobritishcarday.org and I will “invite” you onto our Picasa web album, which has over 250 pictures of the total restoration.  That should put you to sleep!  Some folks have said they found it helpful to see the “re-assembly”, and found the step-by-step parts interesting.  I’m glad to share that with anyone who might be interested.

I could also do a paragraph on help and advice I received from Club members—but you know who you are!

Steve and Diane Kirby

San Diego MG Club

Tuesday, May 4 was our San Diego MG Club meeting, and we happened to sit next to the Johnsons, and Wayne had pictures.  The car was crammed into a garage, hard to see details, and the car was dusty.   During “Show and Tell”, Wayne proceeded to tell everyone about the car, and that it was “rust free.”  I said to myself, “No Magnette is rust free.”  My wife Diane’s eyes glazed over.

Nonetheless, I told Wayne and Dee I’d like to look at . . . what the hey!  A date was arranged, and Wayne was nice enough to go with me.  They had removed the custom car cover and cleared all the stuff from around it.  I had brought a pick, strong flashlight and magnet (a magnet to check a Magnette).   My first impression was how absolutely complete and unmolested the car was.  Little “Magnette” details like the clock were still there, the very special rear view mirror, the beautiful MG-octagoned intake manifold, all the wood trim was intact.  But, I was there to look for rust.  I looked, and I looked.  Just like the A’s most of us are familiar with, there are just places where you absolutely know there is rust on a Magnette—stills, bottom of doors, bottom of spare tire “well”, boot floor, wheel wells, “dog leg” areas by all fenders, lower sections of fenders, etc.  I checked ‘em all.  Totally rust free.  I couldn’t believe it!  The bottom of the car is clean—not really even surface rust. 

Little things you rarely see . . . a California “black plate” car (meaning the car has had the same license plates since the 50’s), service stickers on the door jambs, the registration mounting on the steering column in a plastic holder.  Back “in the day”, it was required that your car’s registration be readily visible from the outside of the car.

Things like the chrome trim around the windows was perfect.  I began to realize that as nice as the other ZA was that I had planned to restore, this one was far better.  We then entered “negotiations”.   Let’s just say 88 years-young Mrs. Millicent Rose Thompson knew what she had!  But, in the end, we agreed.  I promised to take good care of it, and that I would make it my goal to give her a ride in it before she left us.  She said she was definitely planning on being here for her 90^th birthday, but wouldn’t make any guarantees after that.  So, the pressure is on!   She was both sad to see it go, but I believe genuinely pleased to see an enthusiast have it.  She feared someone buying it to “hot rod” it.  In fact, she said she would not knowingly sell it to a hot-rodder!

I went back a few days later to pay her, and she had found the original Bill of Sale, the original Owner’s Manual, the original factory warranty from Nuffield, and lots of other history

I believe she and I have struck up a neat friendship, which I hope to cherish and nourish.  I had talked to my wife that it would be neat to at least temporarily call the car “Millicent” in her honor.  After all, it is thanks to her vision and passion that she chose to always store this car inside, and keep it covered.  She never allowed it to be molested.  The car has been up on jacks for many years.  I told her I would like to call the car “Millicent” in her honor.  I got a big smile.  Then, I made a mistake.  I said something like “Maybe Millie for short?”  “NO!  I have loved my name for 88 years.  It’s a beautiful name,  If you’re going to call the car “Millie”, I’d rather have you NOT call it anything at all. NO!”  Ooops.  Then I said, “I noticed on the DMV registration tags, that your middle name is Rose.  That is really a beautiful name.  Millicent Rose.”  An even bigger smile than the first one.  That’s it:  Millicent Rose!  It not only sounds better, it rolls off the tongue so much nicer, and just has a natural rhythm to it!  And, it’s no longer a “temporary name”.

As we planned the second trip back to get the engine (which was NOT in the car) and some other bits, Millicent was concerned as to what time we would be back.  She wanted to know because her boyfriend was coming over later, and she wanted to get her nap first!  The next night she was going to a party, and then she was seeing her boyfriend again the next night!  This lady is a hoot!

Along with a lot of other people, my wife and I were one of the folks who tried to do their part to make the Magnette the featured model at GT 35, and to ensure that the display and event were a success.  However, we had never planned to bring a Magnette to GT 35.  We were in the middle of restoring another car, and the “other” 1955 ZA Magnette we plan to restore just wasn’t even started.  Our plan was to pull our small 5^th wheel to GT 35, and then continue on to New Foundland . . .  a trip we have wanted to make for years.  Then, what seems like just a few weeks before GT 35, we acquired “Millicent Rose.”  It just wasn’t possible to change all of our plans and trailer “Millicent Rose” to GT 35.

I’ve since shared much of this tale with our “nationwide” (including Canada) ZMG Magnette “e-mail chat group”.  However, after our fellow “Magnutts” heard about this, they insisted that I make a poster representing Millicent Rose, and we’ve had Mrs. Millicent Rose Thompson sign the poster.  That signed poster was on display, with all the incredible Magnettes which were ACTUALLY there.

We invited Mrs. Millicent Rose Thompson to GT 35 for this once-in-a-lifetime Magnette gathering.  She was honored and flattered and said she truly would have loved to attend.  I related to her that she and Lou Shorten must have bought their ZA’s at about the same time, and I know Lou Shorten and Mrs. Millicent Rose Thompson would have really hit it off in grand style . . . they are two peas out of the same pod!   To coin a great English expression,  Mrs. Thompson said she was just getting a little too “wobbly on her pins” to make the trip—but she was most definitely with us in spirit!!!

I took lots of photos to share with Mrs. Millicent Rose Thompson!

Steve and Diane Kirby, San Diego MG Club

From British Car Day 2009

'47 Morgan

Commando

Austin Healey Approaches