Antique & Classic Cars Blog
Need an Odd Part? Think like a Kid.
Saturday, September 27th, 2008
My British coupe has been a nice car, treating me far better than Lucas jokes imply.
There was this problem with the rearview mirror, however. It hangs on a stalk–and it attaches to the windshield with a suction cup. As pliable parts will do over the decades, the suction cup got brittle, cracked and ceased to hold.
Major British parts supplier Moss lists this mirror N/A. Roadster factory doesn’t seem to have it. For a minute it looked like it was going to take a major hunt–serious Googling, eBay, MG clubs. But hold on! The car doesn’t need the last in-the-box NOS B GT rearview mirror to be frenzy-bid to a hundred bucks on eBay. It just needs a mirror that doesn’t move like a pendulum or G-force indicator.
The mirror itself is fine. Reflects stuff behind the car and everything. All that’s wrong is that the little suction cup is dead. Well, shoot! What American-raised kid doesn’t know where to find a suction cup?
The new Dollar store at 46th and Nicollet answered the call for–you guessed it–a buck. Phew! If toy guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have steady mirrors.
2 Responses to "Need an Odd Part? Think like a Kid."
Nice idea! It functins but it will not win points at the Concours. Try calling Mark at Quality Coaches in Mpls. He probably has 12 in a dusty box in the garage or the house or the stoarge garage or…
Yeah, Mark’s a great resource for parts and I often talk to Randy at Quality about tuning & troubleshooting–and vintage racing. He runs a Spridget.
I got my front license plate holder, some fuses, windshield and a wire-wheel knockoff wrench from Mark on this car and a number of odds and ends for my TR6, including front bumper brackets and brake master cylinder. I have a 215 V8 in that car–same motor as Mark’s putting in his MG-chassised Devin sports car, so we talk about that too.
I may swap out my dart suction cup in the name of originality if Mark has a factory item, but for now I like who much grip this one has–and I get a laugh out of it.
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MotorMouth Kris Palmer, freelance auto writer and editor, blogs about vintage cars, the collectible auto scene and just about anything else that goes vroom.
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