[Zmagnette] Preservation

[Steven Trovato]

Wow.  Never thought to find the original owner 
and bring him/her along!  In the restoration 
spirit, if I can't find the original owner, can I 
find someone who looks like the original 
owner?  :-)  As for those XZX's, when places like 
Coker offer tires that have been out of 
production for a long time, they are catering to 
those folks who want to see that name on the 
sidewall.  They are not necessarily the same as 
the ones you would have bought back in the 
day.  They may be fine tires, but the performance 
will likely be different than it would have been with "real" Michelin XZX's.

-Steve T.

At 06:46 AM 1/28/2014, Wayne & Isabel Hardy wrote:
>I have to add one comment to “show” cars 
>presentation...A few years back, shortly after 
>getting our present ZB on the road again and 
>going to shows and MG functions, we were headed 
>to the Texas MG Register gathering out in Waco 
>TX, the home of Baylor U. AND home to the Dr. 
>Pepper drink. Anyhow as a part of this first big 
>showing, we invited over from Nashville, the 
>car’s second ever owner, and daughter of the 
>original purchaser and owner, located through 
>computer search of names listed on old 
>registrations. We sent this lady an airplane 
>ticket, got her a room in the convention hotel, 
>and here she came. She was first off pleased 
>that the car was back in great working order and 
>looking good, as she always had an affection for 
>this little car. Her father had given it to her 
>after 10 years of service as the family sedan, 
>(and about 110,XXX miles) and she had driven it 
>as family car then later as fun car for another 
>9 or 10 years and a second motor rebuild..the 
>Dad had done a Gold seal replacement motor 
>installation by the dealer for her when she became the owner.
>She ran the driving events , went to the 
>dinners, hung in the bar with us and all the 
>MGers and on show day she stayed with the car 
>all morning in the show field and told everyone 
>about it’s earlier history with a couple of 
>neat pictures to back it up..one, the day the 
>car was new, and she and sisters were picked up 
>at school in England in the ZB.
>Well no question about it, we won the favorite 
>car of the show, as well as best in our class, 
>(there’s that MG Variant again), but all of 
>this was in my mind attributed to the presence 
>of this lady who had been a part of the little 
>car’s first 20+ years. She stood with us when 
>we got our trophy too so as to be in club pics.
>So the moral is...I don’t know what!!! We just 
>seemed to make a big impression on the other 
>folks at the gathering, when all we had in mind 
>was having some fun. Certainly no one else at 
>this Gathering of the Faithful, had a previous 
>owner as an accessory for their car from 1958.
>On that basis I try only to add or change things 
>that I might have done in period, and not do 
>much updating. Such as spending a lot od time 
>and too much $$$$ for a real 1958-59 period 
>Blaupunkt 3 band radio of the type that would 
>have been installed as a sounds upgrade in 1958. 
>Yep it plays, but the old car speaker should 
>have been changed...It’s getting pretty “crispy” now.
>Boy I wish I could find some real Michelin XZX 
>tires from other than Coker’s Tire place, 
>because these were always a popular add on 
>option at the dealers around Houston at the 
>time. Change to the XZXs for about $10.00 per 
>tire when new was a bargain and a plus in the driving fun dept. too.
>
>Wombat (the windy one)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://autox.team.net/pipermail/zmagnette/attachments/20140128/364baa93/attachment.html>