January Potluck

It happens every year-our annual business meeting and Potluck. Only this year, instead of February, we're having the Potluck a month early. Why? The 2002 Winter Olympics and Special Olympics will take up most of February, so we thought it prudent to move our annual meeting to January.
If you have attended one of the business meetings before, you know how it works. it's a fun, informal gathering with great car talk and great food. Before the evening is through, however, we have to sit down have our business meeting. Not only is this meeting required as part of our non-profit corporation status, but it's how we plan the events for the year and ask for volunteers to lead or plan them. But it's not all business, as we share some great food and wonderful friendships.
The Time and Place
The Potluck will be on January 26th from 6:00 pm until about 10:00 pm. The location is St. Mark's Episcopal Church at 1st South and 2nd East in Salt Lake City. We have held the Potluck at St. Paul's the past few years, but the hall we normally use at St. Paul's is closed for remodeling. So, we're returning to St. Mark's this year. In past years, we've been able to use the either the hall at St. Mark's or at St. Paul's without any cost. However, this year, due to the timing and such, we agreed to pay $75 to use the hall at St. Mark's. So, please help the club out by chipping in a few dollars to the BMCU kitty that night to help cover the cost.
The Food
You may not remember the business discussion from past year's Potlucks, but I bet you remember the food. Everyone that attends needs to bring something for the Potluck. You can bring that favorite dish, or things such as soft drinks, paper plates and cups, or something easy like chips and dip. Either way, please call Mark and Karen Bradakis at 801-364-3251 to let them know
what you'll be bringing or to get an idea of what is needed. That keeps us from getting a tableful of deserts (maybe not such a bad idea!) or a whole table full of food but nothing to eat with.
The Business
As a club with non-profit corporation status, we are required to meet at least once each year to elect officers. The Board of Governors-a Governor General and at least two other board members-help keep the club going and serve as a focal point for club decisions. It doesn't take a tremendous amount of time, and the club needs this leadership to help it grow and continue to serve the needs of the members. It helps to rotate the club governorships around each year to keep fresh ideas and leadership. Want to help? Just volunteer at the meeting. If the Board of Governors is not your thing, then volunteering to lead an event may be. We always need folks to help plan or coordinate events. Sometimes that means calling a park or car museum to reserve a spot for us, and sometimes it means just showing up on the appointed day and time and leading us on a drive. While we have some favorite events, such as the
Alpine Loop, we're always looking for new things to do as a club, and one way to get those new ideas is when someone new steps forward and says, Hey, I know this great drive . Who knows? It might end up as a club favorite, one that we'll want to fit into the schedule every year. The end result of the business meeting is that we have a new Board of Governors and month-by-month list of events to put into the Lucas Calendar.
Share Your Adventures
Like I said, the Potluck and business meeting isn't all business. It's also a time to share some of your car experiences. Bring all your pictures from the year: trips you've taken in your Britcar, that restoration project that's taking up your garage, snapshots from the year's club events, or videos that you bought at a British Car swap meet. We'll have a table ready to spread out the photos as well as a TV and VCR available to play videos.
So, plan your calendar now to attend the Potluck!

Home Sweet .Garage?

Editor's note: this article is gleaned from a recent Wall Street Journal article. Thanks to Gary Lindstrom for sharing it with us.

A retired equipment maker relaxes in his garage, complete with five TVs, hardwood floor, an archery range and a ceramics studio. A Minnesota mortgage banker's garage houses a sports bar, with antique bricks lining the interior, TVs, a stereo system, car memorabilia, and a collection of over 60 neon signs. A Kentucky couple's garage looks just like a small brick home-only press the remote, and the wall with a front door, windows, shutters, and faux brick siding moves up to reveal the garage inside.
Used to be that the garage was a place to store the cars and all that other junk you didn't want in the house. Not any more. In many parts of the country, the garage has become much more than a parking spot. While garages that feel like the living room are not the norm, still there's a trend toward more livable space. Other areas of home improvement sales have stagnated in the current economy, but garage spending is up. Specialty manufacturers, such as Designer Doors, which makes custom hand-crafted garage doors, have seen their sales rise 25% in the past year. And many manufacturers have jumped into the garage storage trend, marketing everything from $12 hooks to $6,000 complete storage systems. The trend has generated interest in books, too, such as Your Garagenous Zone, a book by Bill West, that covers the move of the garage from a storage space to a living space.
So where do you begin on your garage? Most experts recommend getting things off the floor. If it's on the floor, it's time to store. Their recommendations: hangers and display/peg boards on the walls for most items, and steel mesh across the ceiling joists to hold heavy items. According to Greg Alford, a consultant in Atlanta, GA, the garage is sort of the final frontier in remodeling. The DIY remodeling trend, which fueled the growth of mega home centers and hardware stores nationwide, has almost become a victim of its own success. Once you redo the kitchen and the bath, Alford says, in many homes the only major thing left to redo is the garage.
The price of a garage redo is often cheaper, ranging from $25 to $100 a square foot, while home remodeling usually starts at $100 a square foot and goes up from there.
Still, the garage remodel can be worth it. That Minnesota mortgage banker says he and his friends would rather hang out in his sports bar garage than to go out somewhere. Their wives always know where to find them. Besides, a man's garage is his castle, he says. You can live in the garage, and the attached house for resale.

Way Cool Coolants

Editor's note: No one is suggesting that you should drain your cooling system and use one of these alternate fluids in or as your coolant, but evidently there's some folks who steadfastly believe in them.

A couple of emails have surfaced concerning the use of alternate coolants. These coolants run the gamut from odd to bizarre. I no longer remember the authors of these emails, but the messages are quite interesting.
H2O with NaCl
I once had the pleasure of taking chemistry 201 from a Dr. Jonassen--the inventor of the lining found on the inside of every soda can to prevent the carbonic acid found in high concentrations therein from eating the can away (an early problem). As his preferred field of expertise was corrosion and its inhibitors, we often discussed the radiator issue. If you want a great solution to raise the boiling point and significantly lower the freezing point you need...saltwater. Yep, the ionized NaCl solution outperforms EG and PG in spades. Sadly, it eats the living daylights out of the engine components. In theory, though, a water passage lined with Teflon would allow the use of saltwater. Guess it is still too expensive to do.
Oolong or Earl Grey?
I have a friend who has a Mk 2 (and an MG TF) who is now running TEA in his cooling system. He claims it is really good and the engine is running cooler now. He changes the coolant every few months and mixes up a new batch of tea. It looks really BLACK in the system but he claims all the points [benefits of tea as a coolant] you have mentioned. As yet I have not been game to follow suit. Do the companies that make and sell EG [ethylene glycol] know something I don't or is this yet another scam by the big companies to sell us something we don't need???
Make mine red
I don't know about the tea issue, though there may be some merit to the tannic acid theory. In that case, though, a good red wine would also work due to the alcohol content and the tannic acids-and would be great for picnics on the road!
Help from the kitchen
As to using dish soap as a wetting agent, it will work providing that you use VERY LITTLE. Today's soaps are heavily laden with the chemical Cocomidopropyl Betane. This is a surfactant-i.e., makes the soap foam and bubble more that it would normally (most common in hand soap and shampoo but in dish soaps, too). We do not want bubbles in the cooling system else we shall cavitate the water pump and then the advantage of the wetting agent is lost.
Change and flush
I suggest leaving coolant science up to the specialists and just changing your coolant annually, though this speculation is entertaining! I have been using the PG [propylene glycol] orange stuff by Peak-it is the extended life formula, though I still flush annually. I have had very good results and no dead pets. I also flush with CLR at 50% (a strong acid).

Everything you need..

Before you head out on a lengthy trip, you should stock the boot with all the things you might need. This list is reprinted from MGB Driver, the NAMGBR magazine for NAMGBR members. It's meant for MGB owners, but with a little modification, most any Britcar owner could use it.
Major spares...
Alternator
Distributor
Fuel pump
Water pump
Ignition/starter relay (77 and on)
Oil bypass hose
Parts
Radiator hoses
5' of 1/2 heater hose
Assorted hose clamps
5' of 5/16 fuel hose
Points and condenser
Spare set of spark plugs (pre-set to the correct gap)
Longest plug wire
Ignition coil
Coil wire
Ignition relay
Spare fuses
6' of 14 ga. Wire
Electrial tape
Battery clamps
Bulbs
Fan belt
Oil
Selection of 5/16 , 3/8 , 1/4 nuts, bolts, and washers
Fix-a-flat (non-flammable)
Throttle cable or bike-brake cable (emergency throttle or hood release
cable)
Clutch slave kit
Clutch master cylinder kit
Variety of wire connectors
Brake fluid
Gallon of anti-freeze
Heater control valve
Wiper blades
Tools...
Regular hammer
Lead hammer
3/8 and 1/2 drive socket sets with rachet and extensions
#1, #2, and #3 Phillips screwdrivers
1/4 and 3/8 flat screwdrivers
Stubby flat and Phillips screwdrivers
Medium and long flat screwdrivers
Big screwdriver/pry bar
Needle nose pliers
Regular slip joint pliers
10 Channel locks
Side cutters
Feeler gauges, especially .015 inch
Spark plug socket
Spark plug gap tool
Brake hose clamp
Brake adjuster tool
Two 7/16 combo wrenches
Two 1/2 combo wrenches
Two 9/16 combo wrenches
3/8 , 5/8 , 11/16 , and 3/4 combo wrenches
1/4 pin punch
Cold chisel
Brass brush
Utility knife
Putty knife/gasket scraper
Mechanic's scribes
Wheel cylinder wrench (many different sizes are used)
Points file
12-volt test light
Two alligator clip jumper test leads
SU jet wrench or Stromberg adjustment tool
10 Vise Grips
Internal circlip pliers to fit master cylinder circlip
10 adjustable wrench
1/4 wrench to adjust rear brakes
Wire cutters
Scissors jack (two if rear springs are soft)
Lug wrench or knockoff wrench
Battery lifting strap
Jumper cables and safety glasses
Extras that can be handy to have
Multimeter
1/2 breaker bar
1/2 drive 1 1/8 socket for front hubs
1/2 drive 1 5/16 socket, for rear wheel hubs (usually sockets this large
are 3/4 drive, so a 1/2 to 3/4 adaptor may be useful)
Torque wrench
Battery brush
Jackstands

Let me know if you manage to fit all this into your boot!

Autojumble

For Sale: 1963 Austin Healey Sprite, Periwinkle Blue paint with red
interior, convertible, with 79, 115 miles. Very good condition; new
battery; leather interior. Dealer-serviced, clean, garage-kept, non-smoker
owner. Asking $2,700 OBO. Contact Devin Wengreen at 801-798-0703,
Lakeshore, UT.
Four MGB's for sale:
Two 1972 models, one for restoration, 50k miles, runs well. Spare car for
parts. $2,000 OBO for both.
Two 1974 MGB's, need more work than 1972's.
All four are titled, chrome bumper, dual carb, precatalytic converter, wire
wheel models. Call Bob Wager at 801-455-4400.
For Sale: 1964 Triumph TR-4, runs well. Call: Robert Kelsch in Provo at
801-375-0031 or 801-373-5309.
Wanted: MGA luggaage rack, 4-holer (AMCO?) at 16-7/8" x 23-7/8" spacing.
Call Keith McEligot, (732)-528-7411 or email at keith@usamailbox.com.