It all started innocently enough. I wanted a replica of my first car, an hand-me-down 1966 MGB my mom bought new. And there was one on eBay for a few hundred dollars. The plan was to get it running, spray it with a coat of paint, and slowly restore it while I enjoyed driving it.
The best laid plans of mice and men aft gang agley…
I knew the floorboards would have to be replaced. But once the car was stripped it turned out to need new sills (important assemblies that provide strength to the monocoque structure), a new main crossmember, new longitudinal members, more sheet metal… So instead of a ‘rolling restoration’ it became a ‘ground up’ restoration.
In April 2003 it went to a body shop run by a guy named Antonio. ‘It will take about six weeks.’ Six weeks later he said, ‘Still working on it. Another six weeks.’ And then Antonio’s wife had an aneurism and nearly died. I can cut the guy some slack. A couple of months later Antonio told me, ‘About another six weeks.’ In October I was laid off from my job and moved to Northern Washington. I thought maybe Anotonio needed some incentive to finish the car, so I paid him in full. You know, if someone pays me for something I’ll be sure it gets done! So I’m naïve. From my northern abode I called Antonio. ‘A couple more weeks,’ he’d tell me. Every couple of weeks I’d call him and it would always be ‘About two more weeks.’ Oh, the pain.
In May of 2005 I went down to SoCal and dropped in on Antonio. I brought two friends with me. I’m not a small guy, and I was the smallest of the three of us. It was all quite innocent, though my friends pretty much stood around and glowered. Antonio had painted the body by this time. Miraculously, he finished the car a month later. It’s evident he hurried at the end. The car looks very, very nice; but it’s not a concourse winner.
Not that it would be anyway. Someone had cut holes in the rear bulkhead for speakers. I didn’t know if I’d put speakers back there, so I left them open. (I’ve since decided not to install speakers there.) And it’s been converted to negative earth. The engine head needed to be replaced, so I got an alloy head for it. It looks original, but I’m sure a judge would notice. And it now has a Pertronix ignition. But overall it’s ‘original’. And I’m not planning on showing it off in beauty pageants anyway. It’s meant for driving. One detail I like though: The engine number has an ‘R’ in it, meaning it’s meant for an overdrive transmission. I’ve replaced the transmission that came with the car with an overdrive-equipped one.
So. It’s out of Antonio’s clutches. Now it goes to John The MG-T-Series Hobbyist. The car was kept at his friend Howard’s machine shop. I started getting calls from Howard complaining about the car. He needed the space to conduct his business. Of course I couldn’t tell John that Howard was complaining; they’re friends and Howard didn’t want to piss him off. Howard said John hadn’t touched the car since November (2005). The pain! The pain!
Finally, after moving to SoCal for my job, I found an actual restoration guy, Chris. He used to work for Britalia, a shop that works on British and Italian cars. He built a shop behind his house and went into business for himself. He charges more than John, but half what Britalia would have charged. Only his shop wasn’t done. I had to wait a month for his floor to be finished, the wiring to be done, etc. I finally got the car to him in September.
He’s done more in three months than John did in more than a year. And now the car is nearing completion. Chris says he might get the car done by Christmas. Or it may take him until the first part of January. But at this stage the countdown clock is running. Paul The Upholstery Guy should drop off the seats and interior panels in a couple of weeks. Chris has the carpet kit (including the non-original trunk kit, which will cover up those speaker holes) and top, as well as all of the fiddly bits that go into a car. The new performance muffler isn’t quite the right shape, so he’ll have to get creative. Moss Motors don’t have windscreens that fit, so he’s ordered one from Victoria British. It should arrive Monday or Tuesday. I hope it fits. The original is pretty well pitted, and has a couple of arcs scratched in it – and changing out the glass isn’t as simple a job as it is with modern cars. The frame looks great, by the way. It’s been polished and hard anodised as it was when it was new.
