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Re: bodywork or boneyard?

To: woodcomp@vt.edu (Christopher A. Lenth)
Subject: Re: bodywork or boneyard?
From: dcouncil@imt.net (David Councill)
Date: Thu, 7 Dec 1995 08:45:23 -0700
As an owner of a not so pretty 1971 BGT - mostly orange except for the
primer color right fender and hood, I have to respond to this. The orange
is real paint, not rust btw.

>1]  Bite the bullet and find a competent facility to do the bodywork and
>paint job.  Any cost estimates here would be greatly appreciated.
>

You would not want to hear a cost, it could be thousands of dollars. From
what I have heard from this group, the best alternative is to take a
vocational course in body work where you can do your own car with their
equipment. I have already bought all the rocker panels and patch panels for
my car (a few hundred dollars). Its the labor costs that rack up the
expense.

>2]  Find an early 70's B with a ~solid body but little else and transplant
>the necessary good bits from my car.  Ballpark ideas on price and
>availability also appreciated.

Maybe. But would you relegate your car to the junk heap - another MG gone
forever?
>
>3] Get the steel work done (a must if I keep the car intact in my opinion),
>shoot it with some primer and wait 'till I graduate (2 years) to attack the
>paint job etc.  I have a feeling that the cost of this alone will frighten me.
>

My car has lived with rust holes since I bought it 12 years ago. I just
stabilized the rust, and patched it up so it looked good from the distance.
"Someday" I will restore it, depending on time or money. Its not pretty but
it runs great. Thats the key thing isn't it?


4] Seal up the car as best I can, throw the cover over it, buy the SAAB 900
>my friend wants to sell me for $1500, and demote the B to an occasional
>driver until I can afford to spend the time and money to do it right.
>

A true college student is supposed to drive a less than luxorious car. When
I went to college, my 65 B had a disintegrating floorboard and gigantic
rust holes. But it was one fast car. We refered to our MGs as the "poor
man's Porsche". If you can afford the SAAB, you should be able to keep the
MG alive until the day it can return to glory. But then, this comes from a
guy who has been saying that  about his car for over a decade.

But then in the part of town where I work, my rusty BGT fits in.

David Councill
dcouncil@imt.net
http://www.imt.net/~dcouncil/home.html

Montana's 71BGT waiting for the new speed limit



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