RBH....
$750 for an MGA? Grab it unless it's
really a mess. The cars are going for
15K and up in reasonably restored decent
shape with good engines.
I want to hear from other listers who
currently own/drive MGA's or are into
them. I owned both my '56 and '61
back in my high school and college
days. That was like 40 years ago but,
this is what I think I remember. If I am
wrong it's OK. I don't mind testing my
memory in this respect and don't mind
appearing a fool in front others if the
following is found inaccurate by current
MGA types...who cares?! Not an "engine
fire" or "gear up landing" we're talking
about here, after all! :)
Same rust problems as a Spridget with
one saving grace. You'll not have to worry
about the floors in this respect.........if
memory serves me properly...they're wood, a la Morgan. Like Austin
Healey's
and TR's, they've that rubber insulation between main body panels. These
are favourite places for rust to begin.
You want to check for rust in the inner
rocker areas and up and "in" the area
of the body, just behind the doors. This
is an "L" with the longest side representing the bottom of the door
opening within the rocker....like this
looking at the left side of the car... ___I
The short part of the "L" being the rear
door pillar. As I recall, this structural "L"
piece keeps the body from buckling...
it is the main side support in this respect.
As I recall, the 1600 varient came out
in 1960-61 and was called (I believe)
the MK1. Or the '60 was just a "1600"
and the '61 was a "1600 Mk 1". Something
like that. Prior MGA's had tailights like
the Sprites and TR's. The 60-61's had
and additional light placed vertically
above the prior tail light.
Somewhere between 59-61, there was
a "Deluxe" model. This was a "twin cam"
in all respects except for the engine....
the factory had discontinued the twin
cam engine and had to use up the bodies,
so they stuck a normal 1600 in it and
called it a Deluxe. Or Deluxe Mk.1 1600?
These had an upholstered dash instead of
just painted, and whatever else the twin
cam came with, but without the 7,000
redline(?) tach of the twin-cam, of course.
I think the "1600"'s were 1588cc's putting
out 78hp. "The 1600 Mkll" appeared in
'62 @ 1622cc's and 90hp. "Rougher" engine, but it went better of course!
The MKII had the upholstered dash of
the twin-cam and horzontal tail lights
placed on the lower part of the panel
that surrounded the trunk. The vertical
bars in the grille surround were more
vertical in their placement than all prior
MGA's and thus, recessed "within" the
bottom of the grille surround instead
of sharing the same "plane" as with all
prior "A"'s.
Like the Bugeye, the MGA's had a positively sexy, raspy sound with the
"period" Abarth exhausts of the day.
These like weighed about half the weight
of the car and lasted about forever!! :)
A decent MGA today has got to go for
around 15k+ I would imagine. God knows
what a running "twin-cam" goes for.
As I recall these were produced in '58
and '59. There were two types of engines
available. In addition to different compression ratios they had
different
cam timing. I think the later ones had
a lower compression ratio than the
early motors which, as I recall, burned
a lot of oil (chrome ring and bore
incompatibility?) and too high a CR, so
the later engines actually had a lower
CR and more "useable" street torque
in terms of cam timing.
I think the idea with the twin-cam was
a car that could serve both as a daily
driver and week-end race car.
Cap'n. Bob (Ret'd)
'60 Frog
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