New Old Car Day

Cross your fingers. First stop, coffee. Then a couple hours to a U-Haul near the target. Then a second once-over. (Or under)

Hopefully about five or six hours or so from now I'll have one more vehicle and a thread with pictures.

I'm almost sorry for the teaser. But I'm having fun.

So excited that you finally found something worth buying!  Can't wait for the full report!

Stopped about halfway home for one of Mrs Beesley's burgers of moderate regional renown, somewhere between Toledo and Vader.

It finally happened! This is at least the seventh MGB I went to look at, with much thwarting and frustration at not even finding out how they drive.

1. A '74 converted to chrome bumpers, had bedliner in the trunk, heavy paint runs in the door jambs, and fouled a plug half a block into the test drive.
2. A '72 which ran fairly sweetly on the original SUs, but had Herculean steering and brake efforts, and worse, had been repainted with bad prep, so it had a million tiny blisters waiting to send it back to paint.
3. A '75 in that wonderfully horrible mustard color which was at a detailer's, being sold for the owner. I drove the half hour there, and the battery was flat. Jumping it or getting it out of the corner was more than the detailer wanted to do. Though it had SUs, it also had the most stunningly horrible log air cleaner arrangement made of exhaust tubing.
4. A '70, I think, that was so bad up close I didn't bother to start it after seeing it, even though at this point I was still just so curious about how MGBs drive...
5. A '74 owned by a guy who owns a body shop. Ran so badly it wouldn't really take throttle, so I still didn't learn much about how they drive.
6. A BGT whose year I forget. It had SUs, and even after the owner stemmed the gout of fuel from the regulator onto the exhaust manifold, it was undriveable. This was about the third time I'd been told to come take a test drive, and basically limped a wounded B around the block.

And this one, a '72 BGT. I watched it on CL for a couple of months, trying to decide when I was wound up enough to drive the two hours to an area a few miles outside Olympia to look at it.

It started, it ran, I was actually able to take it for a drive. I confess that I'm not immediately smitten by how it drives, but I'm not too worried about that right now.

You see, I feel like a little British sports car has been in the pipeline for me for pretty much forever. So I'm okay with having found one that I can start by driving with its full complement of factory-installed foibles, along with a few accessory foibles and custom shortcomings added by previous owners and the passage of time. The time has arrived for me to invest in finding out what I think of these things, and whether I can improve the bits I don't like enough to bask in the bits I do like, and make it drive the way I want it to.

It may be utterly a fool's errand, and I'm okay with that.

Before I blither further, a dump of pics from today. I should probably start an actual thread about the car with a sensible title anyhow. It won't be New Old Car Day tomorrow.

In reply to Ransom :

That looks really nice.  Congrats!

I’ve ever seen a white one, looks really classy.  Needs a thread started ASAP.

I grew up in an MG family, but I was hooked on convertibles and never liked BGTs.

But now as an adult, who has owned a bunch of convertibles, I have completely gotten that out of my system. I prefer coupes and have removed several soft tops for permanent installation of hard tops.

I really, really like BGTs now and I wish that someone made a modern equivalent. And yes, I would put my money where my mouth is and buy one.

That's a really nice car. I hope you enjoy it for years and years.

Looks gorgeous in white. Congrats 

much better than the horrendously ugly british green i see them in locally 

I like white cars, and I've always liked BGTs. First time I've ever seen that combination. It looks good.

Woody said:I wish that someone made a modern equivalent.

Didn't they?

dculberson said:

Woody said:I wish that someone made a modern equivalent.

Didn't they?

I'd no longer consider that "modern". And, oddly enough, I owned a Z3 back when I was still doing the convertible thing. I liked it, but I didn't love it.

Cool find. Congratulations. 

Thanks, everybody!

I'm out of practice with out of state cars, so two hours at the DMV netted me a trip permit to go back and get the VIN checked instead of the title I was hoping for. I'll be more careful with what time I go next time...

Unfortunately the errands have been crazy today and it's snowing a little, so no drive report yet. I have totally sat in it enthusiastically, though.

dculberson said:

Woody said:I wish that someone made a modern equivalent.

Didn't they?

As as the old saying goes “Rare as hens teeth”