Mike Harman's Journal

Well I got Lil Blue back from the paint shop the other day and what a difference.
The painter even buffed the carup got rid of a stone chip on the aluminium bonnet . It was well worth the effort in the prep and working with the painter as I went along.
There is absolutley NO Rust in the car as was claimed by the previous owner. He was correct in saying that claim.
I took photos all throught the preperation process to prove it
Now I it is ready to head off to the Art Decp Rally in Napier.

Well I finished getting the doors and the front guards ready for the painter today.
It took me about one week on each side after sanding back most of the time was taken in waiting at least two hours between applying body filler and then sanding once i thought thatit was right I applied a thin coat of primer then block sanded the panels with a long block iThey all looked pretty good becuse of the curve in the panels I then used a long thin stick to check that there was no hollows. as I had only applied a very thin layer of filler where thepanels were a bit hollow from the factory and it was to repalce the original factory filler. Off to the paint shop at the end of next week

Since the last big rally that I attended in february I have been to a couple of local runs but in february 2024 i am registered for a big rally again tghis time in a place called Napier and its called the Art Deco Rally which is a period rally. This year being the 100 yrs since the begining of the Mg they are celebrating the marque.
I looked at the paint job on Lil Blue and decided that the last owner who had had it painted as he thought she was looking a little shabby had a poor job done. The paint was blistering in places on both doors and on the guards in a fe place. i put a magnet in a cloth an that stuck really well so i tgought that it could not be rust but just in case before i started i checked with my parts supplier if i could obtain new panels if required he confirmed that i could.
The next step was to start sanding and well what a surprise the PO claimed that there was no rust when repainted he was right there is no rust after sanding back to the original paint , I do not even know why he bothered to repaint as the car has been shed stored and well maintained all its life.
So now it is booked into the paint shop in January for a decent top coat of the original Iris Blue ready for the rally and plenty more .

Day 3 was supposed to be a English breakfast followed by a park and show at the Beac.h reserve.
Unfortunately the day was wet windy . At the show the night before some of us were talking about the incoming cyclone and the fact that we would bail early from the rally to trty and get home before it hit, which is exactly what happened on Saturday night or should I say early hours Sunday morning I woke up around 2am with the rain beating horozontal onto the window and the wind howling, as it was pitch black we had to wait until daylight to try and escape.
Day ;ight saw us packed had a quick coffee as we had at least 2 hrs to drive home.
Throught the bags into the back behind the seats and jumped in thank goodness that I had the hard top on.
The next hour and a half was hard driving in torrentinal rain and strong wind gusts but we made it out of Whangamata just in time. as later in the day it was isolated from every where.
It was a great very friendly rally and I will be back next year it is the organisers that I feel sorry for as they had put a great effort into it.
The storm that I talk about made world news and wiped out over half of the North Island of NZ and will take many months if not years to repair the damage and rebuild the roads that were wiped out;

day two dawned fine with high cloud and getting up at 7am checking the oil water etc then off down the road to a reserve on the beach and lining up in rows. these rows were the different makes of cars that were made in England, you name it and it was there that is the make not the model. There was about 10 MGB but mine was the only hard top and my mates was the only GT.
As for the different engine configurations they were all there From the three bearing and 4 bearing 1800 to the 6 cylinder and also a V8 engine
After about an hour we left in convoy to do a street parade through the town to another reserve on the edge of the haubour here we parked up for three hours for the public to view the cars.On the wat to this reserve most of the MGs got fairly hot as we were at the tail end of the parade and had too wait to get into the reserve.
After the show it was back to the motel to rest and getn ready for the evening when there was a show band playing all the good old songs from the 60s and 70s antother enjoyable day with out too much driving.

Well it finally happened the Brits at the Beadh Rally held in Whangamata NZ.This rally has been going for a few years now but this is the first time for me.The weather stayed fine for most of the time which was lucky as cyclone Gaberial was due to hit NZ which it did on the last day . We went up from Papamoa Beach to Whangamata on Thursday which was a two hour drive 107 Kms very windy roads in NZ booked into the motel and then went to registration.
Friday morning saw us up at 5.45 coffee and back on the road this was the first day of the rally and also the inaugral run up the Coromandal and around the top and then back down the other side of the peninsular.
the first part of the run went from Whangamata to Thames but as the quick route had been washed out by a storm we had togo the long way which was about two hours drive then when we got to Thames we had breakfast on the old historic fridge. This bridge used to open up in the centre so that the sailing ships could go up river with their cargo. once we had our breakfast we then drove up the Thames coast to Coromandal a nice little village but isolated this was about 1 1/2 hours drive around some very tight bends. Here we had lunch and also
Here I also met up with another MG EXP member Geoff James who lives away up in the Coromandal.
After lunch we followed Geoff over a steep high hill that had plenty of twists and turns also we struck rain at the top which lasted all the way down to a place called Whitianga on the opposite coast to where we had started, from here we made that due to the roads being very full of tight bends and hills took us 81/2 hours to drive and that was not hanging around. It was a very enjoyable drive and I am sure Lil Blue enjoyed her legs being stretched.
Well that was just getting to the start and day one Day 2 tomorrow.