Just One MG Guy Helping Another MG Guy…

Authors note: George Kress, former NAMGAR Treasurer a long time member of 35 years, recently offered to write an article to share with fellow MGA enthusiasts. I’ve never met George but based on his generosity, he is quite the gentleman. George shared that he’s driven across the US twice, once on the Rallye to Reno and then later on the Ocean to Ocean trip to Solvang. He’s an avid collector of all things MGA and has shipped parts all over the world. Hats off to George…NAMGAR members are the best!

By George Kress

As I get older I wonder what will happen to all the good stuff I have accumulated over all these years of MGA ownership. I know that I am a little different than most. Nobody has only one but when I retired I had eighteen MGAs that I felt were able to be restored along with a bunch of parts.

I once answered an ad in NAMGAR for ten parts cars and a trailer load of parts about three hundred miles away from me. Needless to say I bought it all! I am always looking at the buy and sell page of the MG Experience and here is one story of a part that I acquired fifteen years ago with the trailer load of parts. On the MG Experience website, I noticed a person looking for the rear body panel of an MGA. As you can see by the picture of his car, it had been in an accident at one time and after he removed all the bondo, he really had a mess. As it turned out, I had three MGA rear sections in storage at the time. Did I mention the buyer was in Canada? So much for local pick up.

Based on the size and weight, I thought that shipping to Canada would be out of the question. He sent a request for pictures and I humored him by sending them. Apparently I was the only person to respond to his ad so he asked me to figure a size and weight of the boxed part and went to Fedex to figure out the cost of shipping. Well, it must have not been too much or he really wanted the part so I cut the part off and went to get material to box it up and get it ready for shipping. I called him when it was ready for shipment and eventually Fedex came to pick it up.

Ten days later it arrived in Canada. When it arrived, he sent me an e-mail asking what he owed for the part. I was glad to find a home for the part and glad to help another MG person so all I wanted was the cost of material for making a wooden box that would protect the part during shipping.

Just one MG guy helping another MG guy.