This is one that you only hear about every so often......
The story unfolds this morning at 9am. I take Red Molly (newly restored
77B) out for a spin downtown, and on a WHIM I decided to take the B down
to see the guy that painted her about 6 months ago. He had not seen it
since it had been done. He spent about 10 mins looking at it, saying
what he thought of it, naturally, he's not one to put down his own
painting....but anyway, the point of the whole story is.....
He said "do you want to start a new restoration project?"
I said no, but he took me over to what I thought was a rusted out old
hulk of a car that was under a tarp. I think Hey, its probably just an
old fiat or some old triumph..When he removed that tarp, my eyes must
have popped right out of my head.
It was unmistakably a MGA, MkII. Steel wheels, Old english white painted
over red. A ding on one door, missing a mirror, but it was all there. It
even started after about 2 cranks.
Turns out a customer came up to this guy and asked for an estimate to
restore it. The body guy, being a british car restorer by trade-turned
hot rod builder (what a shame) gave this guy a price of a full ground up
restoration. Apparently this price was too high, so he sold it to the
body guy for some astronomically low price, and the body guy was going
to sell it for parts (wings and interior, etc). Now this thing is not
pristine, but it could use new floorboards, prob a new set of
hydraulics, but I looked hard for rust, and I could not find any. It had
definitely been sitting in a barn somewhere for the past 15 or so years.
I am still waiting for more info on the car, there is no title, but I
can apply for an abandoned title, and retitle the car.
Here's the big part....the guy came DOWN from 1200 to $1000 since there
was no title.
MY bank loan officer had never seen someone so excited to borrow money.
So, I pick her up tomorrow morning after getting the paperwork signed.
Man, what an incredible day.
The people at Moss really helped (RB at Moss) helped me narrow the car
down to a late 1961. In Jan of 1962, the last one made was #106026, mine
is #105310, this means that it was made in late 1961 for the 1962 model
year.
I am soooooo PSYCHED!!
I will post tomorrow to let everyone know how the purchase and tow-home
goes.
Kevin Richards
77B
67B parts car
soon to be 1962 MGA 1600 MkII owner!!!!
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