Newsgroups: list.british-cars
Subject: MGB and Intro
Summary: Neophytes forever...
Organization: UTCS
Hello! Let me introduce myself:
My name is Rajiv Sarathy, and I'm a 4th year CS undergrad at the University
of Toronto. Ever since I can remember (okay, so I'm only 22 years old), I've
been in love with such beauties as the Alfa Romeo Spyder, FIAT Spyder, MGs,
and TRs... My friends' parents would own one, or I'd see one on the street,
etc. But my folks were much too practical-minded to buy a car they'd have to
spend every waking moment working on, so these cars were only mine in my
dreams.
Now that I'm graduating, (and have several job offers ;-), I can finally
afford to buy one. As any good UofT grad, I decided to do some research
before spending several thousand dollars that I'm planning to borrow from
my folks. As any good undergrad netter, I asked the net first, and went to the
library later.
My enquiry on rec.sports.tech (Subject: MGA/B vs. TR6/7) received several
very helpful suggestions (I'll summarize as soon as I get these assignments
out of the way...) One of these suggestions was to consult the pool of experts
in this group. So here goes:
I recently saw a cherry-red MGB sitting on a driveway with a 'FOR SALE'
sign taped to the wind-screen. I screeched to a halt (in my father's Olds),
got out, and started inspecting the car. A couple of minutes later, a rather
large burly-looking man walked out. He told me it was a '77 (I noticed the
black rubber bumpers), and with prodding found the following info:
- ragtop leaks horribly -- he suggested getting a new one ("$150"?)
- new paint-job 18 months ago
- he has owned the car for about 2 years (he said 3 yrs, but the
plate number indicated newer -- he said that his cousin owned
the car before him
- he and his cousin have done a lot of engine work. I don't know
much about engines (yet!) but here goes:
- he made some mods. so it doesn't use the Z-S carb -- 'though
I don't know what he uses
- uses 20W30 oil
- he has removed all emission-control equipment from the
engine compartment (gulp. can he still sell it legally?)
But shouldn't most of it cat. conv. etc. be under the car?
(I plan on taking a community college course on cars this summer)
Without any prodding, he mentioned several times:
- New set of Michelins
- Oil pressure gauge reads between 90 and 100psi (is that possible??)
- No visible rust (and never had rust he claims...yeah, right!)
- there's an Alpine radio/cassette installed -- it's old, and I
really don't want somebody destroying the dash to get to it, anyway.
The next day, I went back, and without his knowledge, looked at the under-
carriage, and found traces of rust -- spots, mind you, not holes. However,
it was obvious that body work had been done in the area under both doors.
Also, the door was about 2 mm above the panel at one end, and about 4 mm at
the other end. Does this mean that the car is sagging in the middle (as one
respondent to my enquiry warned)?
Overall, I don't trust the guy very much, but love the car. I think he's one
of these chaps who buys a car in very poor shape, fixes it up, and sells
quickly for a profit. He commented that his landlord was forcing him to get
rid of a couple of cars.. he has a '59 T-Bird, an old truck, and maybe
something else in his condo parking lot.
I'm not too thrilled about the rust, but I think the engine might be alright.
He's asking $4,000 for it and some misc. parts. Is it worth it?
Does anyone know if the VIN GHN58441285C actually does belong to a '77 B,
and if MG was having quality control problems (like TR was) at this period
of time??
Thanks in advance.
--Rajiv
--
Rajiv Partha Sarathy _ _ /@\ INTERNET sarathy@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca
................ooooooooOOOO(_)(_)\@/ BITNET sarathy@utorgpu.bitnet
University Of Toronto Computing Services UUCP sarathy@utgpu.uucp
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