Soon after we purchased the MGA I was doing a bit of work which required cleaning some parts in a solvent tank. My cleaning tank is quite large like the ones you find in a professional garage and is equipped with an electric pump to flow solvent through the cleaning brush. I settled down to the task at hand and began scrubbing. Then something happened which had never happened before. The hose came off the brush.

Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, however the hose is connected to a steel flex pipe which returned to a more upright position. This position was the perfect angle to jet dirty, oily solvent across the garage. Guess what the first thing in it’s path was? The MGA!!!

I was in a panic to stop the flow as I put my hands over the end of a pipe like a cartoon character trying to stop streaming water of some sort. Finally, covered in this oily brown mess, I got to the switch and shut the pump off. Solvent covered the new white paint which was my first observation. My stomach was already buzzing in dread and then I noticed it was on the leather seats. Then I noticed the carpet. Then the dash, gauges and windshield. It was unreal how much of the car this one small hose had covered in the three or four seconds of chaos.

Then I noticed something else. The solvent had sprayed behind the seats and onto the new tan canvas convertible top! I wanted to kill myself for making such a stupid error but the suicide would have to wait until I cleaned everything up, which took over an hour. The stains on the top never came out and serve as a reminder for me to expect the unexpected from now on. Fortunately here in Southern California the weather very rarely calls for the top to be raised so I can hide my stupidity most of the time.