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TeriAnn's '68, no, '70, no '73, no - *timeless* BGT

To: mgs@autox.team.net
Subject: TeriAnn's '68, no, '70, no '73, no - *timeless* BGT
From: Allen.Bachelder@vt.edu (Allen Bachelder)
Date: Thu, 13 Apr 1995 18:08:12 -0400
TeriAnn writes:
With a '68 BGT, early seventies engine, modified, recessed early mid 70's grill
from Scott Fisher's MGB, '70 rear bumpers and a late seventies insturment panel
& center counsel, my car should confuse the daylights out of anyone trying to
figure out the year by looking.  Assuming of course they don't throw up their
hands in discust about unoriginal MGBGTs.

TeriAnn -
There is a terrific precedent - at least in spirit - for what you are
doing.  Have you seen Jim Udkler's 74.5 BGT?  He beautifully rebuilt it as
a "replica" of the very last pewter-colored '80 model GT LEs made in RH
drive configuration only for the British market.  For that purpose, he used
a post-'77 style instrument panel and interior, and of course LE wheels.
Handsome car!  There is a picture of it in the latest MGB Driver - but it
hardly does the car justice.  He built it into a great driver - evidenced
in part by the fact that the last time I saw this Texas car was in DC, and
the year before, in New Hampshire.

OK - original or unoriginal?  For me, creativity and craftsmanship are the
key.  In Chicago I once saw a B with a Chevy 327 in it (on it?).  I would
never do that, but it was beautifully done and I couldn't help admiring it.
In terms of long-run economic rationale, we are probably well-advised to
restore metal-dash cars as authentically as possible.  But I'm about to
start on a BRG '65 B and, regarding the instrument panel, I have this
vision to which I'm quite sure I'll succumb, if I ever get that far.
Instead of covering the inside of the scuttle with vinyl, I'd like it BRG
with matching BRG instrument panel (instead of black), replacing the padded
dash rail with one of white ash - identical in contour, of course.  The
finishing touch would be to have all the gauge faces done in matching BRG -
otherwise identical - but I suspect that would be beyond the realm.  A neat
thing about Bs is that most of us use them - and at shows I enjoy seeing
all the creative efforts to make them more useable, comfortable, fun,
faster, etc.  One guy installed a cruise control in such a way that I
wonder if a concours judge would ever find it.

(But I always thought the pre-69 grill was the nicest ...!:-)

Allen Bachelder

***********************************************************
Allen H. Bachelder, Associate Professor of Trumpet
                                         =iii=<
Department of Music, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061-0240
E-mail: Allen.Bachelder@vt.edu, Phone: 703-231-6713,  Fax 703-231-5034
***********************************************************




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