Side Roads Nov/Dec 2024
The year is nearly done, but the weather has been good in my part of the country. We have one more club event coming and that will be our Fall Color Tour. That will, of course, be over and done by the time this reaches you.
As many of you may be aware, we had a tragedy that occurred at our Regional held in Dillard, GA. That, of course, was the accident that Ralph Ratta of the Texas MG Register, and our own Communications Manager, Greg Poffenbarger, were involved in. Ralph did not survive the accident – our prayers go out to his family and friends. Ralph was well known and had made major modifications to his MGB. He and Greg were the best of friends, too. Greg suffered major injuries and spent considerable time in a local hospital. He has since been released and is back home again in Texas. The last we heard from Greg, he expects to be recovered from most of his injuries by the first of the year. I hope his recovery goes well. Our prayers go out to Greg and his wife, Mary, as they deal with this terrible event.
Don’t forget that the NAMGAR Board Meeting will be coming up sometime in the first quarter of 2025. Neither a location nor a timeframe has been set as yet, but be sure to contact a board member if you have any issues or questions you’d like discussed at this year’s meeting.
As we move a little closer to the new year, a reminder is in order for next year’s GT-50, to be held in Traverse City, MI. We’re hoping that we’ll have some registration information available in January. It is scheduled to be held June 2 – 5, 2025. Our host hotel will be the Great Wolf Lodge in Traverse City. It’s a beautiful area of Michigan and is also a popular tourist destination. That means there’s lots of fun activities available.
Our club just finished up with a “Day in the Garage” for my Magnette. As a reminder, this car had a lot of rust damage so an enormous amount of time has been spent on removing / replacing /repairing sheet metal. Our own NAMGAR Tech Editor, Bob Shafto, has spent time at my house helping me correct all the metal issues on the car. So far, we’ve concentrated on repairing the floors and the rocker areas. Other areas in the rear of the car will eventually have to be addressed. For the Day in the Garage, we were interested in checking the fit of the rockers. The inner rocker had been installed, but the outer rocker was only temporarily installed for our checking. The car has spent a lot of time on a Rotisserie, but we removed it for the purpose of getting the body solidly on the floor via floor jacks. We then installed the front fenders and all four doors. On a Magnette, the installation of the fenders also requires several brackets, the inner fenders, the radiator surround, and a cross tie bar between the fenders. The need for “trimming” at the front end of the rocker showed up immediately after the fenders were installed. Install of the doors went well and it looks like they’ll be a good fit. It was, however, obvious that there will be a lot of adjustment needed to get them into final position. All in all it was a good day and I feel good about the progress of the body.
If you own a Magnette, I hope you were able to venture out for this year’s Drive Your Magnette Day in October. If so or if you delay and enjoy your Magnette on a different day, I hope you can take the time to send details of your day to our esteemed editor for publication in MGA!.
This article will be my final article as your NAMGAR Vice Chairman. Congratulations are in order to Dean Hickenlooper as he takes on the mantle of Vice Chairman. I’m certain he’ll do a great job. For the last several years, I’ve been in and out of the position as we dealt with changes in the Vice Chairman position. Through it all, I’ve been honored to serve as Vice Chairman. Like most NAMGAR “jobs”, it exposed me to a lot of different people as I interacted with them. That included helping them set up a GT or a Regional, but also included enjoying my time attending those events and meeting more NAMGAR members. I’ve also learned a lot about how NAMGAR functions and I want to assure you that it is an outstanding organization. It is both a well functioning business (as it must be) and a fine organization in terms of being a great car club with lots of great individuals.
My final wish to everyone is to continue to make time to enjoy your MGA or Magnette. I hope we have a chance to meet up somewhere along the way!
