1st June 2005
First
of all I have to add another name to the long "I thank.."-list.
I forgot Colin Pratt, who rebuilt a gearbox simultan just to explain me
how to go on! That was a great help as I couldn't understand all the terms
of the american tech-guide I found on the web (will appear here later).
After months without a Magnette it is quite interesting to see people
turning their head or hear them saying "Oh look what a car". I
didn't recognize that before anymore but after 6 months anonymous in
traffic it's different again!
So, here we are with the news:
- Of course there's a new picture of the month.
Then I added a lot of cars to the gallery:
Let's start with # 7760, the remains of a Magnette on Hawaii. Read Ali Bairos'
report...
Eric Wilson sent me details and pictures of three Magnettes in Canada: # 5327,
#19181 and # 21707.
Another Magnette-free place on earth has gone: Johann Emil Björnsson
imported # 27973 to - ICELAND!
Opposite Iceland on the other side of the globe is # 16011
located in Tasmania, Australia
And a picture from homeland UK: # 30954.
All owners a warm (where necessary a very warm) welcome and enjoy this
site!
22nd May 2005
Qiete
a long time without an update! But I prefered to finish my Magnette
rebuild. It's always the little things that take more time than expected.
An leaking gearbox when everything has been rebuilt, to convert a ZA
bonnet to Varitone and so on. The last one was the front bumper: It took
me the last saturday until midnight to get the bumper horizontal, in
the right high and in the middle. These brackets are not easy to bring in
the right shape! When I returned into the garage on sunday morning I
wasn't very pleased with last nights result so started again... But now it
seems to be fine.
But there have been also lucky moments: the engine refused to run last
weekend. I checked the ignition and fuel again and again and had at
least the drivegear of the dizzy in suspect.
This was when I received a call from Carsten Wivel from Denmark who
was comming along for a night. Carsten has experience of more than 20
years and found the fault within minutes (it was the drivegear) as well as
a not working 2nd carburettor. Really a welcome visitor at the right
moment! Thanks Carsten.
Thanks also go to David for storing my ebay-buys, Martin for the missing
bits, Lou for the parts and everybody else who gave me good wishes and was
interested in my progress. At the moment it looks quiete good with only
some oil still dripping off the engine. Hope to get this sorted out
without removing it again.
Enough boring stuff. here are two new entries on the gallery:
# 28126 seen on ebay and
# 36997 of Jesse Bregman, Santa Cruz, USA
6th May 2005
Lately
we had many new ZB's on the gallery. Today I add two '55 ZA's, both
belonging to Nick Baker in Australia:
# 4678 and # 9472
2nd May 2005
Here
we arte for another update:
First see the new Picture of the Month. Another
example what British steel can do after 50 years!
Also the gallery is still growing. Please welcome
# 19975 of Eg Geissler, USA
# 23938 of George Diggle in
Australia, who is also Pic of the Month, #28134
sold on ebay for only 450 EUR,
#31119 of Richard Comfort,
Virginia, USA and
# 32557 found on ebay.
And finally a nice picture of Paul Vermont {MG Car Club Victoria; Magnette and Y type
register captain} standing with the Magnette to show the chauffeur/car
match he recently wore at the wedding.
Picture Loz Scott.
Personal note to Loz: I can't reach you by email. All my mails are refused
(old and new address)?!
24th April 2005
Normally
I had planned to spent the whole weekend in the garage to assemble my car.
But what happened: I received a call that the panels will only be finished
on monday. So there's enough time for an update:
After
a long time we can add some other collectibles: Paul Barrow found these postcard.
and also this model of a Magnette stockcar.
Steve Giannoni, USA, had another solution for broken temp
gauges...
Loz Scott, Austarlia, made a report about radiator
caps (pdf) and the correct pressure.
Also #24361 as seen on ebay has
been added.
And finally a hint that tickets for Silverstone can be ordered online now.
Save money with pre-booked
tickets...
20th April 2005
From
time to time I receive emails of persons who owned Magnettes when they
were young. All have good memeories! The following mail is one of them:
Hello, while living in New York City at around l960, my first husband
and iI bought a MG Magnette second hand. It was a left hand drive vehicle.
Within several years we had to give the car away to a auto mechanic
because we were unable to afford the maintance. However, I have excellent
memories of standing outside of my Greenwich Village apartment (downtown
new york city) with the crank handle waiting for someone to come along and
offer to crank start the car for me. Someone always did. I have no idea
what happened to that gorgeous vehicle. Any hints on tracing it? The car
was registered in New York State under the name of Tony B. at 41 Greenwich
Avenue, New York City. Yours, Joyce B.S. (names known to webmaster)
19th April 2005
For
a while I had this report from Laurie Scott lying around. He writes about
distributors in general and about "light tuning". More...
(pdf)
And Robert Schmitz spotted this
car on ebay which changed hands for only 450€.
14th
April
2005
Many
reports, articles and information are on my computers and lying around on
my desk. Time to sort them and prepare for upload. Here we go:
Piet.D.
Toxopeus from the Netherlands made a
list of wiring colors (pdf) to help him during his restoration.
He hopes that this is useful to others too. I'm sure it will! Thanks Piet.
!
I also added another event in the UK where Magnettes are most welcome.
Please see our diary...
And two more Magnettes on the gallery:
Robert Schmitz spotted #3528 on
ebay, while #33044 is for auction
at Bonham's currently. Spotted by Rutger Booy.
I nearly missed the small jubilee: the website is 5 years old now!
Presents and donations welcome :-)
11th April 2005
Finally I received some pictures of the season-opener (in Europe) Magnettes & Steam. For years now has this been the first event after a long winter and Stephen Tickell and Peter Martin report that it again was a nice event. More....
9th April 2005
Malcolm Robertson fro Australia wrote the 3rd part of his painful restoration...
5th April 2005
Time
to add a few cars to the gallery:
# 16376 spotted on ebay
# 24798 newly acquired from
Jacques Querton in Belgium, # 27973
spotted in a magazine in Sweden by Lars Tersmeden, # 29566
picture updated by Ron Cunningham, USA and # 36820
Jim Barcley's new toy (USA). All new owners a magnettic welcome!
3rd April 2005
Here
I am again! Hope you missed the missed the updates ;-)
Let's start slowly as I have to check a lot of emails and have to get
sorted a few things at home as well.
So the easiest and quickest thing I could do so far is the Pic
of the month.
16th
March 2005
Important
notice for the Z Magnette Day:
There are no rooms left anymore in the farmhouse without sharing rooms. So
please book either book at the hotel or send me an enquiry and we'll see
who is able and willing to share a room. But be quick as even in the
hotel not many rooms are left!
Those living in the UK may be reminded that on 26th March the seasonal
opener magnettes & Steam will take place!
Well that's it for the next two weeks....
13th March 2005
There
is a good turnout of new registrations at the time. So please welcome on
the gallery:
# 23891 of Mathew French in Australia
# 26695 of Ludo Smolderen in Belgium,
# 35929 of Alberto
Cruz in Portugal and two Magnettes that were on ebay: # 13435
and # 25603.
The "Magneteer of the year" award has been presented to Warren
Marsh. More...
8th March 2005
They
survive everywhere! Even if most Magnettes on ebay are located in the
States and are very often in a very bad shape you may sometimes find
interesting examples of our Magnettes. An example for the first said is #
22413 . The interesting example is #
33134 located in Bangkok, Thailand.
My update should have ended here, when I recognized that today is
International Women's Day. What have our Magnettes to do with it? Quite
easy: in the 50's the world looked ok with a clear role for men and woman.
This advert is my
contribution to the International Women's Day... ;-)
2nd
March 2005
Well
Iknow I'm a bit late with the monthly update, but my own car reserves
first priority. I hope to get my panels to the painter this week and start
reassembling soon...
But what's on in Magnette world? Mainly I received some interesting mails
and registrations. So let's start with new entries on the gallery:
# 22356 a nice example of Jean Marie Kohler,
Switzerland and # 23472 the new
parts car of Gene deRuelle, USA.
I also received another picture of the Manette-Hot Rod which I showed a
few months ago. It seems it's now painted and looks great, doesn't
it?
I would have left some more original stylish especially at the
front/grille but overall it looks what I had in my mind but refused to do
because of the time and costs. 
About Willy
Cave and his Winter Trial I was told that the reason they did not finish
was dirt in the fuel tank. I'm still trying to get more information.
Nevertheless I found this picture on the Dutch website wvvw.thetrial.nl. :
And as we have a new month, enjoy our Picture of the Month as well...
At least I changed Lou questionaire a bit. Lou informed me tat some people couldn't download it. I found out that it was created with Adobe Acrabat 7.0 and could not be open with a lower version. You might now try again.
24th
February 2005
I just
return from my damned cold garage where I had to convert my new bonnet to
a Varitone bonnet. Right the difference are only 18 holes to hold the
chrome trim but these have to be drilled accurate on the right
place!
But I still have time for a little update:
Two new
Magnettes on the gallery:
# 1783 found by Robert Schmitz and #
9245
which was for sale on ebay.
21st February 2005
Lou
Shorten has a new price
list. She also asked me to publish the following:
"John and Lou Shorten would appreciate their many and faithful
customers from around the world taking about 5 minutes of their time to
complete a short
questionnaire on the standard of their restorations and panels, as
someone is currently contesting the quality of a restoration job they have
done. You may either post your return or email your return to us.
Thank you in advance for your help
John and Lou"
17th February 2005
Another
small update:
Loz Scott updated his article about the locking
handbake (pdf) and someone sent me a copy of an article from Enjoying
MG from 1980. Sorry I lost the mail that came with the article. And on
ebay was # 16142. A car we already had
on the gallery in another condition...
Those who enjoyed the 50 years celebration last year may have noticed the
cameraman who was always everywhere but you didn't recognise him. Well the
result is out now: "Golden Magnettes" is the DVD (or video)
called and gives over 40 min an impression of Silverstone (including
parade laps), Hambridge and Norwich. The quality is superb and the price
is as well. A DVD cost about 3 GBP, the video slightly more. They say:
"The object is to remind people of last years celebrations and is a
service to members not a profit making exercise." I would say
it's a must for those who attended at one of these events and for those
who couldn't be there! Please notice that the telephone number written in
Safety Fast! is wrong! You can contact John and Cynthia Harris at "ceharris(at)mgownersclub.net"
. I think payment with paypal is possible.
16th
February 2005
Just a
small update on the gallery:
Please welcome Olav Ross Sorensen from Denmark with # 14141,
Bill Durst, USA and # 21271.
Also added: # 14192, # 32776
and # 37061.
13th
February 2005
I tried
to get some information about Willi Cave in the Winter Trial over the
week. All I know by now is that Cornwell/Cave retired on the second last
lap.
Meanwhile we have some more Tech stuff:
Do
you remember the article
about cracked wheels? Warren Marsh sent me another
picture that might be the worst example of what might
happen!
Another topic is Loz Scott's article about reoairing the windscreen jet
washers
9th
February
2005
As
announced before: here's the beginning of the story
of Willi Cave and his Magnette in the Winter Trial....
6th
February
2005
So many
things happening at the moment. I could stop working and do a 24 hour
Magnette job. While I was checking the scenic tour for the Magnette Day,
passing ski lifts in action, the Australians enjoined another concours in
Melbourne with fine weather. Loz Scott reports...
The combination of winter and Magnette is (hopefully) enjoyed by Willy
Cave and his driver Mike Cornwell. Both started yesterday from Maastricht
to a winter rally finishing on friday in Monte Carlo. Henk Kroese,
the Dutch Magnette registrar and I went there on saturday to see him. An
interview and report will follow this week. Here's just an apettizer:
Attention: I was told that the entry form for the Magnette Day is not readable. I will create another pdf soon and will inform you. Sorry for that. I suppose it depends on the version of Acrobat reader you use as some others can read it. But I will fix it anyway!
1st
February 2005
Well it's
late in the evening on the 1st of the month so still in time for those in
the Western part of the world but too late for Japan, Australia and New
Zealand. But repairing my own Magnette is more relevant at the moment! I'm
sure you understand. Because of this the update isn't too big, but a lot
of tuff is waiting for you during the next weeks if time allows. So here
we start:
Firts welcome Piet Toxopeus from the Netherlands and his
Magnette
# 17007.
For the technical advised
Tom Matthuis from Luxenbourg wrote an interesting article about gearboxes
and the sympton "Jumping
out of gear". Not only of interest for the racers amoung us!
And of course there is a new Picture of the Month .
At least please notice that entry
form and program for the Z Magnette Day in Germany are ready for
download! (Auch in Deutsch)
Well that's it for the moment
January, 26th, 2005
Time for
another update on the gallery:
please welcome
Charles Griffith with # 8986
and Franky den Abt from Belgium with # 13670.
Both cars are very original examples.
January, 22th, 2005
Quite a
lot news are commuing over from the Netherlands. So this update is
especialley for the "Oranjes":
The most important notice might be that Willy Cave, navigator in the 1955
Monte Carlo Rally on a works Magnette (see also pic of the
month) is doing
the same 50 years later! He will start for the Winter Trial from
Maastricht/NL to Monte Carlo in a - yes - MAGNETTE ! The start
is on Sunday 6th February and srutineering on the saturday. I hope to meet
Mr. Cave the saturday and get some more information for you. Anyone else
going there to see the starton sunday might send me a picture please!!
Talking about the Netherlands can't be done without mention the
Dutch
registrar Henk Kroese. Currently he makes the Magnettes more famous in TV!
He and his car are shown in a local TV-series driving through picturesque
landscape as well as a small river. He says his doors were draining water
for a week! Anybody out there who can transform an ordinary DVD into a
mpeg or so to show here?
And more from my neighborcountry:
The teapot that is listed on
"collectibles" is available again. It was seen on a motorshow
and is sold by the shop of the T-type
Owmers Club @ 75 Euros. Here's a picture...
January, 18th, 2005
300 !
Well, you probably know what this means. It's
the next mark we reached on the gallery. Please welcome Mr. John Murphy
and # 36601 . Isn't that chassis
number great as well? Exactly the number of cars built, but as they started at 501
there are some more younger cars after this one. Before you bomb me with emails: the
number of Magnettes built differs between 36,600 and 36,601 depending on
whether a prepoduction car is counted or not!
Well and no. 301 is as special as well! A car still in first hands: not
sure whether the 80 y/o owner will see this website, but give her and # 34407
a welcome as well.
January,
13th, 2005
One of the weak points
on our Magnettes is the 2nd gear synchromesh ring on the gearbox. I suppose
nearly everybody around knows of this. So was mine gearbox too and an
overhaul was necessary. Some people told me that it can be done DIY, while
most others (like me so far) are a bit afraid of the gears, spacers and
anything else that can be found inside the box. Especially Colin Pratt and
our chairman David Johnson encouraged me to do it myself. (Propably an
extra article when done...)
But this weak ring brought back some memories from last summer: My friend
and I where on our way from Silverstone to the Hambridge event and stayed on a campsite in Exmoor.
There we were looking under the bonnet because my friends ZA wasn't
accelerating very well. Then an elderly man came along, had a look under
the bonnet as well and said: "Ah, it still has the original gearbox.
Is it still working fine? I told John Thornley at that time that the 2nd gear
was to weak." During the following conversation it turned out that he
was employed in Abingdon (or where the gerboxes were built) and had a very
good knowledge of gearboxes and diffs in general. If only Mr. Thornley had
heard of this engineer...
January, 12th, 2005
Exactly 50 years ago on 12 January 1955 the following article released: Motor Trader Service Data No. 223 (3,5 MB)
January, 3rd, 2005
If I counted
correct we now have 299 (!) Magnettes
on the gallery. That's fantastic isn't it? And new cars in every state of
condition are still found from time to time. So here we are:
# 11469 is the joy of Brian Woolmer from Australia
# 12304 is the second car from NZ
but what a car...!
# 12936 a bad example how
they can look nowadays
# 26561 rescued by Wray Lemke, USA
January,
1st, 2005
Welcome to 2005! I hope
you had a good start despite whats going on in Asia at the moment.
What's going on here? So far the only change is the owners
gallery which was changed slightly. Due to the total entries of nearly
300 Magnettes I had to split the gallery for faster download into years of
production. Incorporated are now the production changes and I added a few
early cars that could be identified by chassis numbers.
And of course there's a new Pic of the Month...
