In
February of 2004 the car was transported
to Sports Car Haven in St. James, NY
for mechanical work - suspension and
engine rebuild. After disassembly, the
body/frame was sent to Performance Auto
Body in Smithtown, NY for a full frame-up
restoration. Soon things got stalled and
Ken had to become part of the restoration
team, working at both Performance and
Sports Car Haven every night and weekends
through the summer of 2004.
We
expected to have it all complete and be on
the road by the "Tour deMarque" at Watkins
Glen in September, but that was not to be.
In spite of that we had a great time at
the Glen, meeting many wonderful
other MG owners that we hope to have
as long-time MGA friends.
In May
of 2005, with 55 miles on the engine
"rebuild", we bent a valve. Upon pulling
the head we found that the rebuild,
supposedly done by Sports Car Haven was
only partially done! The head looked
like the valve guides were inserted with
a hammer, and all the exhaust valves
were original, but had been turned on a
wheel! The head was then rebuilt by
Tyrolean Autosport in Northport, using
stellite valves and seats. The rest of
the engine was apparently never touched,
although we paid for new pistons, etc.!!
Well, Tyrolean's rework of the head, by
master mechanic Rich Mooers, was
excellent, and we put 2,500
miles on it that year.
In
December of 2005 Ken removed the SU's
(again supposedly rebuilt by Sports Car
Haven but poorly) and took them to Joe
Curto (Mr. SU) for a rebuild. Since then
they have been running fine, with
trips to Key West, Gatlinburg, and
Watkins Glen all completed during 2006.
Now (2012) we've put over 24,000
miles on the car since the head rebuild
in 2005. In July of 2010 we did a 2400
mile, 8 day round trip to
Cape Breton in
Nova Scotia.
