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MG MGA - strange valve cover

Someone was looking for an unusual valve cover that they had n their first MGA. If I am not mistaken, one has surfaced on ebay in Germany : just punch the number into ebay.com: 180807700349
dominic clancy

Dominic,

That looks like the one Del was looking for. I just gave him a call. Good job.

Ken
k v morton

Thank you. It appears to be the same thing as what I have been looking for, except for the breather location. Pretty sure I know a guy who can make the hole for that vanish if need be.

Del Rawlins

Del,

We've got to finish up our other projects and get back to work on the MGs....

Ken
k v morton

Yeah... My brother bought a hangar so most of the stuff that was plugging my workspace went away. We plan to have the TD out this coming year now that we have a place to store/maintain it. My next MGA project is to build a frame rotator. Right now we have a 2 week old baby boy who is taking up a lot of formerly free time.
Del Rawlins

Congratulations! My life is similarly consumed at the moment by my 92 year old father...
k v morton

Thanks. Sorry to hear that about your dad.
Del Rawlins

9 hours to go and still no response from the seller on whether he will ship to the US... Hopefully my wife's cousin who married a German and now resides over there will respond before the auction ends so I can have it shipped to her.
Del Rawlins

Looks like it's mine, and for less than I expected to find one for, not counting whatever it ends up costing to ship to Alaska. My wife's cousin responded affirmatively, so I'll have it shipped to her initially. I should have plenty of time to get it polished up and have a filler cap made for it, so I can present it to my brother this Christmas. Thanks again for the heads up guys. I should really make more of an effort to follow the board than I have been.
Del Rawlins

Del,
shipping is approx euro 54.
Siggi
Siggi

Excellent!
k v morton

Happy to have helped out, I just could not remember who was looking, so teamwork (as always) is best.
dominic clancy

Almost 3 years later, I can finally dredge this thread back up from the archives with a follow-up. I didn't dare do it before, because my brother is now active on the MG-ternet, and I didn't want to risk spoiling the surprise, even though I don't think he reads this site.

It's been a saga. I first started asking about the cover here in 2006 or 2007, followed up a couple years later, and then nearly missed Dominic's heads up in 2012 because I hadn't been around in a while. But luckily Ken was paying attention, and alerted me.

I had the cover shipped to my wife's cousin in Germany, and said to either ship it and I would cover the cost, or just bring it over next time they came for a visit. Then I didn't hear anything more... About a year went by, and I knew they were coming for a visit that summer, so I had my wife ask about the rocker cover again.

The response was shock that we hadn't received it, because they had shipped it the year before along with presents for our son. Crap.... I assumed it was lost for good, and I would probably never find another one.

Anyway, they put in a claim on the package (luckily they still had the paperwork, and let's have a round of applause for efficient German record keeping), and lo and behold, about a week later it was delivered. I think our incompetent post office had received it, and then neglected to put out a package notice. This happened to several other packages around that time period, and I think the only reason it didn't get returned to sender was the cost of shipping to Germany. It must have sat there for a year, until the claim process brought it to somebody's attention.

Anyway, here is a picture of it as received, next to the cover my dad installed on my car sometime in the 1960s. More to follow.


D Rawlins

As you can see from the picture, it was pretty rough. Somebody had welded shut the threaded hole for the breather hose on the left side, and made holes for an open breather on the right side (which was included, but I'd removed it in the above pic. There was no oil cap at all, and it was pretty beat up in general.

It took me a while to get around to doing anything with it, and I missed Christmas 2013. Finally I got the holes in the side welded up, and I re-drilled and tapped the hole for the breather hose in the original location.

I took the cover and my cover's filler cap to a friend who is a machinist, and he made me an exact duplicate of the cap on his lathe out of aluminum. Then I brought it home, and cut out a new gasket using the template I had made from my cover (the stock MG gasket is not an exact match. Then I polished both the cover and the cap to a high shine, and painted the ribbed area MG red followed by a clear coat. Installed a new hose barb with thread sealant.

It's got some scars on it, and it isn't perfect, but then again, the same can be said for mine. A couple thousand miles of use on a leaky, shaky old MGA engine and nobody will ever be able to tell. 8^)

Finished product:


D Rawlins

Anyway, I have been biting my tongue wanting to post about it, but due to various factors my brother's family and mine couldn't get together to exchange our Christmas gifts until earlier tonight. Cat's out of the bag now, so I just wanted to give a big thanks once again to Dominic Clancy for spotting this and remembering me, and to Ken Morton for his email alerting me to this thread. Also to Barney for posting my plea on his website, and anyone else who was keeping an eye out for this for me.

My brother was truly surprised and very grateful to have a rocker cover just like our dad's to put on his 1600. No matter how many Christmases come and go, I doubt if I am ever going to top this one, and it's thanks in large part to you guys.

-Del
D Rawlins

I love that cover! Unusual and very attractive.
Steve S

Neat cover, never seen one like that - glad for your perseverance. And a great gift. Thanks for sharing.
Dan Craig

Thanks Del

I love it when things eventually work out despite the curved balls that get in the way. Great to hear the end if the story and that all are so happy with the result.

Dominic
dominic clancy

Del,

The valve cover looks great. Glad it all worked out. One of these days I've got to get back to work on my car.

Ken
k v morton

This thread was discussed between 02/02/2012 and 25/01/2015

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