On the road again....

The MG is back and better than ever!

Man, I wish my dad were here to see the MG now.

After a month in the shop and an outrageous amount of money, I can actually drive the thing with a certain amount of confidence. Of course, it is still British, so anything could happen.

I still have the Lucas, Prince of Darkness wiring that means my headlights just shut themselves off when they feel like it, and I have to wiggle the on/off switch to get them back. But overall, things are looking pretty good.

The MG had been sitting in a garage for some time when I bought it, and anyone who knows anything about British cars will tell you that they loooove to be driven.

Driving down the new, improved Lancaster Boulevard.

But it seemed like every time I did drive it, something happened. My muffler fell off (you can read that story here), the cookie sheet-cum-oil drip catcher came off, my fuel pump crapped out, my carburetor needed to be rebuilt, and the poor little thing overheated and blew the heat sensor right out of the radiator.

If it weren't for my dad, I wouldn't have the car. I was short about $3,000 of the asking price, so I called him from work and asked for a loan. When I told him the details, he not only said yes, he added, "Tell him if he sells it to anyone else, we'll kill him."

Dad was also my mechanic. I worked alongside him and tried to learn everything I could. I was aware that his health was not good, and he was slowing down from his former workaholic pace. His back gave him a lot of pain, and he couldn't do everything he used to, which drove him crazy.

So I savored the time we had together, and was thankful that he managed to keep it running as long as he did. When he died, the car wasn't running, and it sat in my mother's front yard for a couple of years.

One of the reasons it sat so long was the lack of funds to fix it, but another, bigger reason was my association of the MG with Dad. I couldn't really imagine owning the car without him. Cars and airplanes were his passion, and he passed that love on to me. Someone asked me why I didn't sell the car, if I was going to let it sit in the side yard.

That sort of woke me up, and I realized that I needed to get the car repaired and drive it, if only to honor how much my dad loved it, and how much work he had already put into it.

Al and Barbara Smith sharing a laugh after his glider ride in 2007

Dad always had car restoration projects planned that never really panned out. He was forever buying things that needed fixing, but he never got around to them. He was busy, he was traveling for work, or something else needed repair.

The projects that did get complete to the point where you could drive them were his classic Ford Mustangs. He drove those as daily drivers, but every time he loaned me one, something went wrong.

Believe me, driving this car every day is no picnic. It takes 10 minutes to coax the seatbelt out of the retractor, you cook if the day is hot, there's no room to put anything because the car cover is in the trunk, it takes forever to warm up, and it idles at an obscenely high RPM until it warms up.

But damn, it is a lot of fun. It makes running errands feel like an adventure.

Yeah, it is a lot of fun. No wonder I'm smiling!