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RE: Am I crazy?

To: "'MMich99551@aol.com'" <MMich99551@aol.com>, mgs@autox.team.net
Subject: RE: Am I crazy?
From: John Steczkowski <stecz@Crossroads.com>
Date: Wed, 28 Apr 1999 10:31:18 -0500

> -----Original Message-----
> From: MMich99551@aol.com [mailto:MMich99551@aol.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, April 28, 1999 8:50 AM
> To: mgs@autox.team.net
> Subject: Am I crazy?
> 
> 
> I'll try this again.  I posted earlier that I was considering 
> buying an MGB, 
> but it didn't post for some reason.  In my original post I 
> was asking if I 
> was nuts for wanting a MG (my wife thinks I am).  I am not a 
> mechanic by any 
> stretch of the imagination, but am hoping to learn.  I am 
> somewhat beyond 
> this decision as I have stumbled upon an original owner '75 
> MGB.  I would 
> like your opinions on two things:
>       1.  He mentioned in our conversation that 75 was the 
> worst year for 
> MGB's, do you think this to be true?  Are there a lot of 
> problems after the 
> transition for all the USA requirements?

'75 was a transition year, it just got the rubber bumpers, it went to the
single zenith stromberg, etc. I have a '75 MGB with 57k original miles,
engine is totally stock (maybe not for long), but even though it's pretty
gutless (what, 55 hp?) it's a blast to drive. My Porsche 924S can run
circles around it, but it's different. I've done some maintenance work on
the MGB, and it's probably going to need some front suspension work soon,
but who cars, I'll take care of it next winter.

>       2.  He put a Webber Carb. on it a few years ago.  Ever 
> since the car 
> blows plugs every 300 or so miles.  Any thoughts?  
> Unfortunately, it has not 
> been driven much.

It's probably just hacked together wrong. The worst part about this, is that
it will be harder to put it back to stock, since he's probably lost all of
the bits. I'd convert it to twin SUs and get that working.
> 
> The car has 65,000 miles on it.  The body has NO rust, it is 
> in the middle of 
> a rebuild (interior), but has the interior kit and all the 
> parts to put it 
> back together.  All this for $1,000.00.  What do you think?

I've replaced the rubber floor mats in mine with carpeting and it looks
great. The rest of the interior looks like it's been well cared for for the
last 25 years, but will need to be redone sometime. (one tear in the
driver's seat). I'm to busy driving it to fix it just yet.

MGBs can be reliable if you put them together correctly and maintain them,
unfortuneately a lot of them you see are not put together correctly and they
are poorly maintained, so you end up with some up front work to do before
it's really reliable.

> 
> Thanks,
> Mark Michael
> Tallahassee, FL
> Soon to be Jefferson City, TN
> 



----
John Steczkowski
Director of Software Engineering
Crossroads Systems, Inc.
512-794-2742

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