Month: December 2025

🌟🎄 Wishing all of our customers health and joy for the festive season and the year ahead, here’s hoping 2026 brings everyone peace.

As many of you know this year has been exceptionally hard. But, we’ve kept the business going, despite it being a struggle at times. Thank you to you all for your continued loyalty and support.

🗺️ We’ve covered many miles, with our extended trips to Scotland, Devon, Cornwall,, the Midlands, Norfolk, Northumberland, Essex, the South Coast, South Wales, plus many other places in between, where we’ve been made welcome and received some amazing hospitality, while we’ve looked after your pride and joys.

⚙️ The workshop has been extremely busy too, where we’ve brought back to life a number of MGs that will enjoy many more years of fun on the road, having come over to us from throughout the UK, and not forgetting our overseas visitors, who came over to us, from Norway earlier in the year.

Merry Christmas
and a Happy New Year to all.

Best Wishes,
🌟🎄 Jon & Claire 🎄🌟 – https://ift.tt/7sjES1G

Bit of a short week this week…

James travelled up from London on Monday to collect his 2003 TF 135, that he had left with last week for some work. (All detailed on last week’s blog). We went in on Sunday to finish off a couple of things, one of which was to replace the top ball joint on the offside front, fortunately the wheel bearing wasn’t affected and this resolved the issue without the need of a track rod end either.

Nice to see James again and meet his cute woofer, his traveling companion for their trip back home.

This morning found us on a local call in Hull, where it was great to meet Mark. He’d fancied owning an MG and found this 1999 MGF VVC in Solar Red – CMU, back in July, this also resided in London with the previous owner, sure we recognise it, but unfortunately came with little paperwork. Although, he did know that the cambelts hadn’t been replaced for 10 years.

So today we carried out a full cambelt service. We swapped out the coolant temperature sensor as Mark suspected this was faulty, but it’s obviously a problem with the gauge itself. We ran the diagnostics, which showed that everything was working as it should, so he will address the issue next year. The radiator bleed screw was snapped off so we replaced this with new. That should have been the last job of the year, but we’ve got a couple of calls in the north east next week.

Thanks to Mark for all the welcome warming cuppas. Good to have fusses with his very cute woofer too. It’s certainly a very nice example he found himself, hope he has lots of enjoyment out of the car. – https://ift.tt/7sjES1G

Workshop & a trip up to the north east…

Monday morning saw us get started on the work on Jai’s ZR 1.4 that he’d had couriered up to us. We replaced the engine bay pipes with stainless steel. He also wanted to have the front brakes upgraded. Upgrade from a solid disc to a vented one, new calipers and Green Stuff pads fitted. Jai got the train up from Crawley on Thursday afternoon to drive it back home. It was great to meet him and have a chat about the other cars he has and is looking to collect. He’s done a lot of mods to this car and all very tastefully done. I didn’t get a video of the shooting stars in the roof! We look forward to seeing him again next year and his ZS, that he plans on keeping as totally standard.

James drove up from London on Monday to leave with us his 2003 TF 135 in Solar Red – CMU.

Work on this included; head gasket replacement, the car already had a PRT fitted, but in its previous ownership had been fitted with a standard thermostat also, so we removed that. Many of the coolant hoses were extremely bloated so we replaced these. Remap with a Kmaps map. Gear box oil change. Door handle replacement. Lots of other things sorted out that were then added to the list, including managing to get it fitted it in with Paul at the dent removal company on site that we use, it was his last day before Christmas and has done a cracking job.

There are still a number of things to check and sort on the car, so we will be going in tomorrow to finish it off. We’d allocated enough time for the jobs originally listed, which was added to a little, but we’ll get it sorted ready for James who will be making the journey back up from London to collect on Monday.

We came up to Amble on Friday morning to carry out a full cambelt service on Darren’s 2005 TF 135 in Rio Red – CQC. It was well overdue for the service as he’d last had it done when living down south. Unfortunately, one of the engine bolts decided to shear off. So we will make a return trip between Christmas and New Year to get it replaced. Everything else sorted for him. Let’s hope it’s less windy when we return, crikey it was a bit of a battle! We’d originally offered the dates that week for a big job in the workshop, but the chap has cut his losses with his car sadly as it was too far gone engine wise.

After a stop over in Blyth we headed over to Cramlington this morning to carry out the minor service on Susan’s 2002 TF 160 ‘Racey Tracy’. Plus a check over of a couple of other issues she’d noticed. These are on the list for our trip next year. Nice to see Susan again.

So we’re heading back down a foggy A1. It was lovely and sunny in the north. Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend and keeping warm, it’s a bit on the raw side. There’s still a lot to do before we can break up for a few days. Plus I need to find some time to do the Christmas tree and do the shopping I guess, I’ll try not to start panicking, just yet! 😳 – https://ift.tt/qvg58D2

(Hull), Wakefield, Leeds, Derby…

Whoosh and another week has flown by, with the beginning of it being an absolute wash out! We had received a couple of cancellations for this week, so I went through the cancellation list and filled a couple of slots. One of which, was a local ish booking in Bransholme, but it would have been a bad move to carry out the work, which was for head gasket replacement and underfloor coolant pipes, the car was in the street, which was just one huge puddle, along with flood warnings in the area, we literally had to take a rain-check. The owner understood and is happy to wait for a further cancellation.

We went over to Grange Moor, near Wakefield, on Tuesday morning, where, thankfully, it was dry, although a bit on the nippy side. It was lovely to meet Tony and his 2001 MGF VVC in British Racing Green – HFF, that he’d owned from new. Full cambelt service carried out. Good to chat with Tony while we worked, thanks to him for the cuppas and homemade cake.

We headed over to Roundhay, near Leeds, on Wednesday morning to carry out a full cambelt service on Mat’s year 2000 MGF 120 mpi in British Racing Green – HFF. It was lovely to meet Mat, who runs a classic car club, it was at a meet that he was given one of our cards by a friend of ours, thanks Chris!

Thursday found us over in Burnaston, near Derby, for work on David’s 1998 MGF VVC in Platinum Silver – MNX. Having owned classic cars in the past and also a current owner of two MGB GTs he fancied seeing what an MGF was like. He had found himself this excellent example, with very low mileage. Though everything else with the car was spot on, he’d found the ride a little harsh. So we swapped out all four of the hydragas spheres, hopefully he’ll notice a difference when he gets back out in it again, next spring. Small coolant leak, that he’d mentioned, traced and hopefully fettled. Great to meet David, with thanks to him for the cuppas and not to mention his garage, sheltering us from the grotty cold and drizzly rain.

We had the day off today for me to get on with some essential work needed at home and for Jon to get over to Rimmer Bros in Lincoln to pick up some parts required for some jobs coming up in the workshop over the next couple of weeks.

One of our enquiries this week came all way from America, now that would be great one to do, but I think we’ve managed to help him out remotely.

Have a great weekend everyone near and far, though looks a bit of a wet one all round, stay warm and dry. – https://ift.tt/uRhJ5nK