July 9, 2011 - Cruise night!
As a general rule, I don't go in for cruise nights. I prefer my gasoline burned at wide open throttle on a racetrack, not burbling up and down a busy street or squandered in burnouts. I also find that only a particular type of car shows up, and there are only so many 1960's American cars patterned after the same template I can take at one time. But there was an event last night just down the street from my house and so Janel and I took the excuse to get the MG out for some exercise.
I'm glad I did. There was a great mix of cars, from the usual cruise night fodder to a nice survivor 356 coupe. No other MGs, and nobody else with a set of worn R-compound tires other than my friend Brandon's bike-engined Locost and the MG. The reaction to the MG was pretty fun to watch. I had it parked with the hood up and there were a lot of double takes. A lot. After the masses saddled up to idle up and down the main drag, we took off and went to dinner with Brandon and his girlfriend Leigh. The MG behaved like a normal car with working windshield wipers, headlights, turn indicators and even a full-time fuel pump! Janel drove it for part of the night and displayed a tendency to use significantly large amounts of throttle without any provocation. She approves of the car's sprightliness.
Unfortunately, the paint does not look good at all when it's shined up and out in the sun. I got caught in some rain on the way home from work yesterday and it seems to have taken a lot of the shine off the final buffing, really showing up the wet-sanding marks. Even the flattened paint where I managed to get rid of all the sand marks with 2000 grit had no sheen. I tried to give it a quick polish but to no avail. So it's back to the buffer soon. Still, the car is a driver and that makes it a lot more fun than when it was stuck in the garage for paint!
tags: paint |
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