Getting a copy of the show judging standards is probably a very good
idea if your intent is to show the car. And I'm sure there are a
number of very good books out there that will give you guidelines as
to what the car was suppose to be when it left the factory. (you
might call 1-800-732-3646 (Brit-Books) and ask their advise on which
guide is best for your car.)
But I would caution that such things are just guides. Just because
that say that your car was suppose to be one way doesn't mean that is
really was. The guys on the line were after all just building cars.
Not museum pieces. Which is what so many are trying to make of their
BLC these days.
To illustrate I'll tell you a short story...
Several years ago my boss was judging E-types at the St. Louis JCNA
Concours. One of the E-type coupes had a "Green" headliner in it
and when Bill (my boss) deducted points from the car for the green
liner the owner protested. The owner said that he was the second
owner of the car and that the headliner had always been that color.
Bill insisted that the factory had only ever used gray or tan and
the point deduction stood.
A few years later Bill was traveling in England with his wife and one
afternoon they meet with a few former factory workers in a Coventry
Pub. One of the men related a story about how things were always in
short supply on the line. One day the foreman had given him a ten
pound note to run downtown and pick up some gray fabric because the
line had run out of headliner material for the coupes. When the
worker got to the local shop he found there wasn't a speck of gray
fabric to be had. So he bought a few yards of ... you guessed it,
green fabric. So in all there were 5 or 6 E-type coupes.
Now how accurate this story is I can not tell. But it has the ring
of truth to me. And I have heard similar stories about the MG
factory and outside door mirrors.
I guess the moral is, that just because your cars different, doesn't
mean it's not "original." So don't sweat the small stuff. Put the
top down, and go for a drive instead.
Jerome Rosenberger
Secretary, North American MGB Register
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