Hi,
Since I'm new on the list, I thought I'd introduce myself, or rather, my MGs.
I live in Seattle, Washington, and I have an incurable habit of adopting
British cars and motorcycles. I bought my first British
car, a 1970 Midget, in 1987 when I was 20. Since then I've had (roughly in
order) a '67 Rover 2000, '61 MGA, '74 MGB, '59 Austin
Healey 100-6, '73 MGB, '67 MGB, '72 TR6, '69 MGB, '68 MGB-GT, '84 XJS, '71 MGB
GT, '62 Austin Healey 3000, '88 XJ6, '66 XKE FHC, '61
XKE roadster, '63 MGB, '66 Mini, and a '74 MGB GT. Most of the ones early on
the list were semi-decrepit and, come to think of it,
the cars I own now are semi-decrepit. Maybe cars come to look like their owners!
I currently own a '54 BSA Golden Flash, which I restored
(http://rogerlos.org/bsa) and the '61 XKE roadster
(http://xked.com/?car=876073) which is under restoration; thinking about what
it has cost so far makes me faint (and would get me
divorced if my wife knew), and it's still nowhere close to being done.
Restoring a Jaguar makes you thankful for relatively simple
and inexpensive cars like MGs!
Which brings me to my MGBs. "Reggie" (http://rogerlos.org/mg/reg.jpg) is a '63
MGB roadster (just about the 10,000th MGB built),
white with a black interior, steel wheels and no overdrive. He's a pretty
original old car, with 83K documented miles on him. He was
repainted once in the mid-70's and had his seat covers and door panels replaced
at the same time (the seats aren't the prettiest,
but are passable). The car was purchased new in 1963 in San Diego and the car
spent half its life in California. It came north in
the mid-70's with Jack, the guy I bought it from, who was the best friend of
the original owner--indeed, he drove him down to the
dealership to pick up his new car in '63. I still have the original California
black plates. Jack was crying when I bought the car
from him, and I can't blame him.
Every oil change, every light bulb, every tire rotation, everything, was
documented by the two previous owners (unfortunately, I'm
the kind of guy who simply files receipts, I've never been good at keeping a
notebook). In the notebooks I got there are entries
like "57,537: new wiper blade" and the like. The non-original pieces are
minimal: the paint job, the seat covers, the interior door
panels, a mid-70's Jensen stereo with a "positive to negative" converter box in
the engine bay and (alas) two speakers in the rear
bulkhead. The top was replaced but the replacement is so old it's a collector
item itself.
I replaced the rear springs (sagging beyond belief) and did a tune up when I
bought it, about three years ago. The car is a nice
driver, and gets positive comments though it is by no means a show car. The
30-year old repaint, in addition to being "too white" is
cracking, and the passenger fender is rotted out at the bottom. The original
carpets are threadbare on the tranny tunnel, the
original steering wheel is cracked and poorly repaired, and the driver's seat
has no foam left (or so it feels like). The seat
covers were probably fine for the 1970's but new covers would be more in
keeping with the car and would look better. The engine is
still strong, and the suspension is still tight, but there is NO syncromesh on
second gear, and hardly any on third. The car is also
one of the world's great leakers, it flows from every fluid-filled component.
I'll be keeping Reg, barring catastrophy, until I'm no longer of this world.
I'm reluctant to destroy the original aspects of the
car with a full-blown restoration, but the sill definitely needs work and a
paint job would not be amiss. Once the XKE is done (ha!)
I'll figure out what to do with him, but as I have other fish to fry, so for
the time being he'll just remain a fondly considered
"driver."
My other MGB is "Scoop", a 1974 MGB GT built in September of 1973, so it has
the chrome overriders. Scoop is a sad pup, but is
getting better. Regency red with wire wheels, I bought him two weeks ago to
bail a friend out of a project he wasn't equipped to
handle. It's a weird car. There are dents and dings (mainly a pretty decent
munching of the right-front fender), but under his
chalky paint this is a rust-free car--and I've spent the better part of the
last two weeks under it! There is some surface rust
where the original paint has cracked, but hefty application of a scatch awl
doesn't budge the metal. The sills and floors are
beautiful.
The car looks to have been someone's treasure up until about ten years ago,
when it was left to go to seed. As purchased the car
ran, but with no brakes, horrible tires, no clutch, no handbrake and just about
every problem you can get from sitting.
So far I've pulled the head (blown between two and three), had new guides put
in and had it resurfaced. Car runs again and sounds
great. I bought a new heater valve, installed a thermostat (there was none in
the housing), replaced a hub on the rear, rebuilt the
wire wheels and installed new tires (combined, the largest expense thus far),
put a new emergency brake cable in, replaced the rear
wheel cylinders and shoes, the brake master and all of the clutch hydraulics. A
new exhaust went on, as well.
I also put near door panels on the inside, glued a dash-top repair kit on, and
replaced the piece of carpeting on the rear
deck--these minor interior improvements has transformed the interior, even
though it still isn't perfect by any means. Looks lived
in but respectible. The seats are the original fabric, slightly worn.
I polished up the paint and while it still needs a respray, it actually looks
semi-decent. If it wasn't for the front end damage,
I'd call it good and keep it as-is. However, the body shop working on my XKE
has offered to do a decent respray on the cheap if I
provide the grunt (and a new fender), so I'll probably go ahead and do that.
I paid my friend $1000 for the car and have about another $2000 into it thus
far, a bit more than I expected , but I like living on
the edge of bankruptcy. I had optimistically guessed at $1000 to get it back on
the road, but I hadn't factored wheels and a hub
into the equation.
I'm not sure what my plans are for this car. Once it's had the fender repaired
and a new paint job, it will be a handsome car, and
I've always thought the GT was a great looking car. I wouldn't mind owning a
matched set of MGBs, much like my ambitions to own a
matched set of XKEs--a FHC to go with my roadster. My wife is fairly dubious
about all of this, especially as I have a one-car
garage (http://rogerlos.org/mg/garage.jpg).
Anyway, having pulled the master cylinder apart on the '74 this weekend and
found pits large enough to house a small badger, I just
put a new master cylinder in the car this evening. Tomorrow I bleed the
hydraulics and then I can--shock of all shocks--take the GT
for it's first drive in who knows how long. I hope we're both up for it!
Roger Los
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