Down To The Wire

My Dad's 1970 MGB GT is pretty cool. It's a fun car, solid and for some reason it runs like a bat out of hell. It's got enough torque that I think I could give the import "drifters" a run for their money with a bit of practice (Dad's been able to pitch it sideways going UP a hill). I think all that power has a downside though, It's beaten up the splines on his wire wheels.

Back in the Day my dad mentioned that he didn't like the wire wheels, and his friends that had them also had a love/hate relationship with them. They look great and very classy, but hard to keep straight and it's hard to put faith in one big nut holding a wheel, rather than a series of lug nuts.

Dad mentioned that one day he almost didn't make it home on day this past month, as one wheel hub seemed to slip all over the place. So after pulling the hub off of his GT we took it (and it's wheel) over to MacKay's Garage. The Hub was deemed ok, the wheel however, is pretty much garbage. So we replaced the hub, and used the spare wheel (remember when you got a car with a REAL spare tire?). No problems there.

However it kind of makes a point. Dad wants this as a semi daily driver, and situations like this kind of kills some reliability points. The long term solution will be to swap the wire wheel hubs with conventional ones. Kind of a bummer, as I like the wire wheels. But thankfully it's not all a loss. We have access to 8 hubs for ro style wheels, as well as a complete set of recently painted Ro style wheels! The only think he'll need to purchase new is some tires!

Oh yeah and if anyone is in the greater Boston area this Sunday June 7th, British Car Day at Larz Anderson park!

www.mot.org

See you there!