I took my 1966 MGB to Maaco a couple of weeks ago to have it repainted. I just needed to protect the metal from rusting, as the original body guy did a crappy job. Maaco did an excellent job on Mrs. L.A.'s Tacoma. I opted for the guaranteed-for-five-years paint job, and they sanded it down to the bare metal. I was hoping to pick it up today.
Maaco just called. They said ‘We were moving cars around, and there was an accident.’ They damaged my right-front fender, and will have to repair it and repaint it. They also asked where to get the chrome moulding, as that is not repairable. I sent them a link to Moss Motors. They said I might be able to pick it up late next week.
As it happens, Mrs. L.A. injured her foot Wednesday night and cannot drive. I guess I don’t have to pick up the MGB, leave the Prius at Maaco, and then catch an hour-long bus ride to pick the Prius up.
Years ago I was pumping gas into my car at a service station when an employee backed a car out of the service bay very fast. Alerted by the loud zoom, I dodged away and he hit my car and pushed it a couple of feet sideways.
The owner of the station, who did not speak English very well but keenly understood that an admission of guilt meant liability, came running out waving his hands and saying “No pay! No pay!” before I had even recovered from the adrenaline spike.
Fortunately the police concluded otherwise. One of my tires had been resting on a quartz pebble, and when the car was pushed sideways the pebble scored a bright white arc where it dragged across the asphalt, giving the officer a clear indication or relative motion.
I worked with a guy who had leased a Jeep. Very near the end of the lease, one of the parking lot attendants ran into another car with it. Don’t worry, the boss assured him. We’ll take care of everything, pay for a rental, it’ll be like brand new, etc. After a couple of weeks in the shop, they were bringing it back when it got T-boned at an intersection.
Try to explain that when you’re settling the lease.
Shouldn’t a paint and body shop already know where to get parts like that? I know you don’t just drop in to the local MG dealer anymore, but it still seems like it would be part of their business to have a network for stuff like that.
Shops do have connections for the stuff they routinely work on, but I don’t know if anyone even sees more than one or two MGBs on the road in a year. A shop can do brisk business for decades and never put a hammer on one. They are likely equally represented in parts yards and such, meaning not at all. For such rare items, it’s reasonable to expect the owner has already done the work of identifying a parts source, making them the logical first step in finding the parts.
Ouuuuuch. I hope that they’re able to repair it properly.
Even back in the '70s, they weren’t exactly common here in the States (though I have no idea how many of that half-million were imported here), and you don’t see a lot of 50+ year old cars on the road, of any make.
Hmm, well the frogeye versions had pretty weird headlights, so I imagine the adjusting screws would be a little weird, too. Otherwise, I’d think the headlight screws would would have just come from the Big Bin of Common British Car Parts.
But the frogeyes were all Sprites rather than Midgets, weren’t they?
There was a dealership in Lancaster, CA where I lived in the mid- to late-'70s. MGBs were fairly common. In the '80s I had a '66 that my mom bought new, and two '77s. At that time, '77 MGBs were selling for about $1,500 so there were quite a few of them driving around. I still see the occasional MGB between where I live now and Seattle. A few couple/few years ago there was a very nice, red, ‘rubber bumper’ one parked at the corner market.
I stand corrected, though I know that the southern California climate is a lot kinder to cars than the Midwest is. Whenever I’ve been in LA, it’s always been fun to see how many older cars are still on the road (and still in great shape).
