Mark Olson <
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wrote | I Really Really wanted a TR-6, but I was a poor college student. The | guy I bought the '65 MGB from had a nice Austin-Healy 3000 which I | also would have killed for. .... I wrenched at several dealers about that time. I found the MGB a much better car than the later Healy's. Quite a bit faster if one followed the special tuning manual. Not that it's extremely relevant but my last job before joining the USAF to avoid being drafted into the Army or Marines around 1965 was as an apprentice mechanic at British Motor cars in Walnut Creek over the coastal hills of Oakland/SFO. My Dad was a salesman there and got me the job and I mostly worked on European and Domestic trade-ins but I did get to work on a few Austin Healy Sprites & MG midget's. My Dad used to bring home everything to Jag XKE's back then and even let me drive the Jag and others. I also had a two friends who bought MG's one was the MGA with the Olds aluminum 215 cubic inch engine and the other friend bought a stock MGB. The MGB had roll up windows & compared to the MGA's slide windows and string pull door openers. So yes the MGB had more of just about everything including power, smoothness and a deep growl as I recall. No contest, the B was a vast improvement. I once blew the transmission out in an MG Midget my dad brought home. I took it out to Cull canyon near Castro Valley CA and he was fit to be tied as he knew he'd get a good ass chewing from the sales manager. BTW, I got the job by fixing at home one of those long Ram induction twin four barrel 413 Dodges of cira 1961-2 by finding a vacuum leak in those long intake runners. Myself and my journeyman boss were later stumped by a V8 Pontiac that ended up being softened valve springs exacerbated by the hydraulic lifters pumping up and holding the valves open with obvious bad missing that would magically go away after a couple of seconds. We gad some fun times at that place. Once a Black detail man got in a hurry and started a car that had the carburetor removed and the fuel line just pointing down into the intake manifold holes. It caught fire right away and he lifted the hood and grabbed the C02 fire extinguisher but in his haste he forget to swing the CO2 nozzle up at the engine and initially shot the cold CO2 directly at his feet. He jumped around for a few seconds then pointed it up like he should gave and put out the fire. We all, including the Black detailer were rolling on the floor with laughter. That had to be one of the most fun and learning jobs I ever had as just a kid. I'd also worked as the mechanics assistant right out of HS at Crescent Truck lines in San Leandro CA 1963-1964 where my primary duties were mild acid washing stainless steel ribbed trailers and steam cleaning brakes/undercarriages and doing brake jobs on the big rig trailers, also changing those big 22 tires. Then on the weekends I could earn $20 a tractor cleaning and waxing the big rig trackers (really the drivers responsibility) but they'd always pay us to do their dirty work. The neat work was helping the Mechanic overhaul a big Cummins 220 three head big Diesel 4 strokes but the boss had to favor GM as they were our main customer from the Fremont BOP plant back and forth to Vav Nighs CA near LA, so he had to buy at least 50% Detroit Diesel 2 stroke 6V-92 & 8V-92's and I was always fascinated by the two strokes because they sounded like hot rods not Diesel tractors. Also, when the RPM was set too low or below 500 they had the coolest engine lope you ever heard (due to the roots blower air starvation at low RPM). I also doubled doing quick loads switches of trailers with a fork lift truck. Finally I went in the USAF and my jobs got progressively cleaner & more cerebral but I did work as a ground power mechanic for a year before I cross trained into Electronics or 1st working on AGE or Air Force Ground Equipment like the jet start carts, Electric 400V 3phase AC and 28 volt DC on a two plugs using a Lycoming 6 boxer engine. Also, Air conditioner units, Pneumatic generators and these big lights for night flight line work. About the worst thing in electronics was trying to re-solder a broken Tacan Antenna wire in a 30 knot wind at Loring AFB Maine in the dead of winter at -30 degrees. We had to huddle three guys around to keep the heat from getting sucked off the soldering iron. It was kind of cool because we got yo drive our cars out to the B-52's and keep them running to take turns warming up-
Bob Nixon.. No regrets from this live with lots of different experiences. Boy have I got some military contract industry ethics stories to tell-
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