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I examined the various parts of the ignition to start with and started to get into the connections around the distributor and I found that thin ground wire from the coil to the distributor base was attached to the post on the distributor base at a sharp angle. Upon further examination, it was twisted a little when it was last installed, which, I guess, eventually allowed some of the wire strands to fray. Maybe the wire has 16 strands in it that are braided to make up the whole wire and 4-5 of these strands were severed. I cut off the bad end, stripped the now good wire, and re-installed and crimped the connector. Vast improvement, car started up first crank, still ran a little rough, but about an 80% improvement. Smoke was reduced by about 90%. Came to smooth idle faster and ran okay at idle. I think this was my primary problem. Engine still misses, runs a little rough until it warms up, but is otherwise average running, but I wouldn't say good. I think it's about due for valve adjustments, but I think the engine is probably gunked up from 35 years with of mostly shorter-term driving. I'll keep doing some more tests over time, and when I get time to do so. Thanks again for all the tips and help. I'll see if I can keep improving the running condition of the car as I keep running some tests. -Chris

Thanks again. I'll try some of these tests this weekend.

Thanks John and Jeff. I think the strategy that works best for am amateur like me, who is also trying to do most of it alone is to balance out the challenging work with the small, easy work. I could walk away from something big and frustrating, like welding, and go clean up some bumper brackets, which is easy and productive. By the time I wrap up an easy task, enough time has passed that I can go back to the difficult task with a new mindset. Now that I only have the body left, really, I plan on doing just small portion each session, like just make a patch panel, or just weld in thus small amount, then quit, so I don't get overwhelmed. All the small sessions do add up to a lot of big work over time.

I'll try this as well, but the main problem is the extremely rough running right after start up. It will always start, it usually takes 5-6 attempts, but it will start. Before I replaced the points and condenser, it would start easily and run just fine from the get-go.

Thanks for all the tips. I'll start with a new condenser. The one I bought was an NOS one, I figured I'd have better luck with something 70-80 years old than some chinese piece of garbage. If that doesn't help, I'll move on to some of those other tests. Thanks! -Chris

Well, it's been about 3 weeks. Unbelievably busy with things in general, but have been getting some MGA time recently. Over the last 3 weeks, have been attempting to weld in patch panels in the trunk. The results are some very amateur welding, but I think it will be good enough. As bad as a welder as I am, the more I work on the trunk area, the more I realize that to do this perfectly would require cutting out the entire trunk floor and doing some serious re-working of the rear of the body. The metal is just a little too thin and pitted, so it's been difficult to weld in these patches. You get one good weld in, and a halo of air shows up around it, so constantly chasing pinholes and creating a series of small circular weld points, instead of a good line of welds. It seems to be solid after all the work, and it won't be seen under the body work, so I am going to have to make a compromise and just do the best I can with it. A new trunk panel is $2,300, I think, and I don't have the skills to do a whole panel like that. There are numerous small areas inside the trunk, in crevices, that will need attention as well. I'll have to just buckle down and do the best I can with them. The trunk floor is a real mess, I'm going to have to cut out about 25% of it, I think. The only good news is that it's fairly easy access from both top and bottom. Anyway, here are the results of the two sides of the trunk that were rotted out (Photos 1 & 2). I also started filling in my terrible spot welds on the rocker panels. I did about 10 of them as a test run, and they seem to be working out well and getting filled in nicely. I'll probably have to do a small amount of body filler just to touch it up a little, since some of it can be seen. In addition, still chasing some misc other parts and getting them finished. I got back the "new" bumper center piece from the chromer, as my original was too far gone for them. Turned out perfectly, as usual. Using Librandi's for most of my chrome. Put the assembly back together with new bumper bolts and refurbished other hardware and brackets (Photo 3). Ready to be bolted to the front, when the time comes. Also got my 4 original wheel knock-off spinners rechromed. Starting on the other tail light assembly, the other one just needs paint now. Updated plan is to have the welding finished by early spring (or sooner), get the body sealed and primed, then finish the high-build sanding, which should be easy, since most of the car is pretty straight now. I plan to have it rough assembled by summer, then make any modifications, which it will definitely need, as I'm sure things won't fit that well now with the awful repro rockers. Starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel, but still a ton of work to do, and not as much time to work on it as I used to have. Last, was able to attend the Grand National in Gettysburg. Saw two beautiful MGAs there. So fortunate that they were able to keep some type of show going. Great venue, good turnout. Even saw a Duesey there! Cheers! -Chris

Congrats Jeff, almost there!

Hello, A few months ago, I was driving my 1930 Plymouth Roadster and it suddenly had no power, then the engine stopped within another 2 minutes or so. Long story and a tow later, it was the points and condenser. I replaced the points and condenser and it started right up again. However, it never quite ran the same in terms of starting up. Over the last few months, it has gotten harder and harder to start, but always will start. When it does start, there's some gray/blue smoke, and it will run very rough, it will just barely run. Given about 2-3 minutes, after it warms up, it will settle down and it will run fairly well. The smoke goes away and it smooths out and gives a decent ride. I can drive it around, little to no smoke, full power. Another issue is that it misses quite frequently at idle. It would always miss a little, but it is much worse since I replaced the points and condenser. Since this problem started, I replaced the 4 plugs and adjusted the timing 3 times. I'm an amateur mechanic at best, so I'm assuming I got it right, I followed the exact procedures of the owners manual. Any ideas on what may be causing the hard starting? The only thing I can think of is that it may need a valve adjustment. It's been about 900 miles and 5 years since the last valve adjustment. As you can expect, when I drive it, I usually go no more than 10 miles or so, as I'm afraid it will leave me stranded. The owner's manual didn't have an exact time frame for valve adjustments. Thanks for any thoughts! -Chris

Thanks for the advice. I'm going to be very careful who I choose. InterCity is now high on my list along with a friend of a friend. -Chris

I've seen that I shouldn't use a broker to ship a car, but I can't find anyone to get the car shipped as of yet. The most promising looks like Sherpa Auto Transport, which is a broker. Does anyone have any experience with them? Does anyone have any other recommendations to have a car shipped (from Madison, WI to northern VA)? I'm not having any luck finding anyone yet; I have about a week to arrange shipment. Thanks for any advice. -Chris

Today I didn't spend too much time on the MGA, had some other things going on. The only task I accomplished was cutting a new metal piece out for one of the patches in the boot area (Photo 1). Not welded in yet, just cut out and put in place. This will be a little tricky, as there is a portion that sticks out right above it to the left, for structural integrity, that has some rust problems as well where it meets the depressed area, so I'll have to make sure I get the transition correct from the low to high area.

Thanks Mike! Good tip, I'll try to change that in the future. I may also need to cut out MORE of the metal in some areas, too. -Chris

Today, I completed putting primer on that last fender. With the exception of the door pillar over riders which I will have to fit and weld, before I screw it over the front of the rear fender, all panels are in high-build primer, except the main body. I can now focus on trying to get the body into reasonable shape. It did some minor cleanup work on some bad welds a couple weeks ago, but today, started in the back with 4 rust holes in the rear boot area (Photo 1). This is how they looked after I cut out the bad metal around the holes. I then made some templates of the holes from cardboard and cut some steel to fit (Photo 2). With the help of a bench grinder, I got the pieces to fit almost perfectly. Here's the finished product (Photo 3). My welding has not improved for a while, it's still "acceptable" at best. I have a lot of trouble either burning thru the metal or building stalagmites. I had the heat level to the lowest level, as this it fairly thin steel, and it worked for the most part, but there is a really fine line between no penetration of the metal and burning a hole thru the metal. You can see the general outlines of the holes, as I can never get a clean finish like the pros, just lots of overlapping beads of weld that build up where I try to fill in holes and pinholes. Seems strong enough at this point and I may call this good enough. It should look fine with a little filler to smooth it out. I'm open to any advice. I also cut out some bad metal on the front scuttle piece and on the boot floor. These may be more challenging as these are areas that are tough to get to, and it's very thin metal. I think next I will start to fill in my bad spot welds on the rockers to ensure the welds are solid and fill in the holes and gaps that have resulted. I'll probably just move around the body randomly from there. The biggest challenge will be the boot floor, where there are gaping holes towards the passenger compartment made by the battery acid and gasses. A replacement boot floor panel is something like $3,000 from Moss, so of course, I will try to piece it back together myself for about $35. Cheers! -Chris

Pushing thru the heat, I can usually get a good window in between 8am and 10am before it gets too hot. This morning, I was able to primer 1.5 front fenders, until I ran out of activator (Photos 1 & 2). With the ratio I've had to mix with the heat and my earlier issues, I use a can of this before I'm half-way thru the can of primer. I got tired of looking at the MGA body just sitting there, so I attacked the spot welds I did many months ago on the rocker panels. With hindsight and time, this was terrible work. The welds were too hot and I had too much wire speed, so most of the spot welds dripped down a little. I actually got fairly good hold on them, but that's not saying much. I ground the bad welds flush to clean them up, but I'd say 60% of them will need to be filled, as there is just a hole thru the top layer of metal and only about 40% of the spot weld connects the top layer with the bottom layer. I think I can fix these with less wire speed and slightly less heat. Next, I got out the door pillar covers and tried to get them to fit. I discovered that the easiest way to solve the problem was to cut (or break) the small tab by the lower opening at the beginning of the lower radius (Photo 3), which easily allowed my to bend the metal just enough to get these pieces to fit. I'll have to tack in a little weld to make up for the break. These go over top of the front rear fender edges, so it will be installed a little later in the process, so didn't primer them yet, waiting to do the weld (waiting for a cooler day!). Last, I got one of the rear tail light plinths and primered it (Photo 4). These are pot metal or maybe aluminum, so don't have to worry about rust. Only did one, as I needed the other one intact with all the wiring, fasteners, and somewhat complicated assembly, so I know how it goes back together. I'll piece this one back, then do the other one, then take a lot of photos, as I don't want to have to repeat this process when I paint them; need to paint them all at once. Pretty happy with the progress. Once I get more activator and primer the remainder of the other front fender, then I can focus on the body.

There's a "Durant" section in the forum, you should definitely post there as well. That's a great car, too bad I have to space and no time for it or I'd buy it.

Did the same thing this morning, although last minute. Had a nice bank of clouds until about 9:30am, so tried to primer the rear fenders. I tried to start with the passenger side one, but quickly noticed that I had not done enough bodywork on the dent repair I had done a while back. It will need some filler and sanding before I can continue. I moved on to the driver's side rear, which is the one that looked like a small tree had fallen on it. This one went great, just like yesterday (Photo 1). Had to stop after this fender, as it got too hot, too fast. I did notice that I have some pinholes, some areas where I can see the filler contours, and a new dent that I hadn't noticed before. The high build primer brings out the problems much more clearly than the sealer, so I'll have more body work to do when I start the block sanding of the high build primer. Will continue on the pass rear fender bodywork when I get some more time.

Talk about a LONG board for this car. Nice work Martin, I'll be paying attention, as we're doling similar work at this point, always good to pick up more tips.

Great work!

Been very busy and it's been very hot, so little work has been done on the MGA, although I'm more motivated to finish it than ever. Today, I made an effort to get up early and get to more priming before it got too hot, which means try to be finished by 9am. I was able to put primer on the front valance panel, 4 inner fender supports, and the rear battery cover (Photo 1). Had no problems with the primer today, I now have a good ratio, plus the humidity and heat seemed to work in my favor. The more finishing I do, the less happy I am with the work on the valance panel. I'll need to do a little bit of filler work on some small pinholes, and I'll have to do a good bit of sanding to get the contours correct, or most likely, good enough. Not too worried about it, as it's very difficult to see this panel without getting down on your belly, but want to do the best I can with it. Thanks everyone about the tips on painting, now I'm leaning towards doing it myself, but at a minimum, it won't be until Spring '21, as the bodywork will take me through the winter, I'm afraid. Hope to have the 4 fenders in primer within the next few weeks, then I can just focus on the body. Work should go faster when I'm not distracted by all the smalls, but very happy I got most of that done on the side of the major work. Side project I've been working is to try to get the tach drive up and running. I bought a new mechanism on ebay (thanks for the tip!) and everything seems to fit fine now (Photo 2). Still need two gaskets for it before I can install it on the engine, so that's now on order. Too hot to work during the rest of the day, plus I'm mostly down to just bodywork now. Stay cool on the East coast! -Chris

Thanks for the info, didn't know that!

Oops. photos didn't make it. This was in an NOS parts stash of mostly '60's GM, if that helps.

I have one wire wheel that came as an extra when I bought my 1930 30 U. I assume it would fit a 29 U. Sorry, just one, but I'd sell it if you're interested. PM me if you are interested... -Chris

Does anyone know what this fits? Wiring harness with plug, thick rubber sheath at one end, and a bulb connector of some sort that has the two + and - points, but nothing to hold a bulb in, obviously missing some other parts or it fits into something else.

Thanks guys. If I do paint at home, I will take every precaution and step. I have a good series of articles in my Chevrolet Club magazine that goes through the entire bodywork process in 16 volumes, thus far. It as a chapter just on protection. I'll have to weigh the cost of buying all the protective, cleaning, and lighting gear and the risk of doing a bad paint job vs the high cost of hiring someone else to do it and the transport involved. I still have a while to go on the body, it really needs a lot more work, so it will be at least another year before I think about painting. I think I got my tach drive situation "good enough." I was able to use the repro cable in the original cable housing, then I was able to drill out some chunks and filings of the stuck end of the original cable from the pinion housing. I got it to the point where it will fit in and spin properly with the new cable, although debating whether or not to keep drilling and mess around with it, which may risk ruining it. I will probably leave well enough alone, then fix it again or replace it if it breaks down the line. Cheers! -Chris

Thanks. Trying to follow all the instructions, directions, advice from here, and tips I get from others and videos on your tube, so it's been very helpful. I think I can get the correct results, it will just take me a lot longer as I learn and trial and error. Since I'm typing again, short update for today. Got my restored tach drive together. Coated the cable with some graphite dry lube and inserted it in the cable housing. I tried to install it, but of course, no luck. The end of the cable was broken off and is stuck in the gear housing. Now I know whey the end of my original cable was a little frayed! Of course, getting the mounting base plate off the engine so I could remove the piece of cable from the housing was unbelievably difficult, but I eventually got it off with various methods. Of course, I used some pliers with plastic jaw protectors to help remove it, thinking it would protect the top threaded portion, but I was wrong. Spent about an hour chasing the fine threads to repair the minor damage I did on the threads. Got the threads back and working correctly again, but still need to exact the cable pieces. May have to replace the whole gear, not sure if I can get these wedged in pieces out. Even so, I'm guessing that my original cable may be too short now. May have to see if the repro cable can be taken out and used on my original cable housing. Nothing is ever easy! Anyway, enjoyed seeing a B-29, B-17, P-51, B-24, and other WWII aircraft fly over my area yesterday. Also saw a B2 Stealth bomber. Quite a site; good distraction from spending most of my time in the garage the last 3 days. -Chris