MGB's

[de minimus]

Anyone have any experience/ comments with MGB's. What to look for, etc. I am aware of the peculiarities of Lucas wiring.
Although I'm a die hard American car fan, British sports cars are my 2nd love. I'm thinking of buying this one>
http://www.drakesbritishmotors.com/forsale/527.htm

Price looks good and these guys have a good rep. hit the back button for more detail.

[Vortex]

Thats the last year w/o the crappy looking bumper. As long as you are familiar with the "Prince of Darkeness" issues, go for it.

[freakstatus]

Aren't you a little big for that car, Tim? You'll look like the bear on the bike at the circus...:P

[Hotrauder]

Tim, check and recheck to body and frame structure. Every and I mean every MGA and B have rusted to the ground, especially in snow country. I have owned one of each, thankfully many years ago. If I was thinking about a new romance with an MG I would go for the TD or F. At least they have character. The As and Bs had a little more power but not enough to be much fun and they really have no pinache (sp) How about a Sunbeam Tiger...they were fun, a Morgan Plus 4? a Healey 3000 or an XKE..Now you are talking. Based on my MG ownership I would not take an A or B again as a gift.,,brand new. Dennis

[RCSignals]

Tim, check and recheck to body and frame structure. Every and I mean every MGA and B have rusted to the ground, especially in snow country. I have owned one of each, thankfully many years ago. If I was thinking about a new romance with an MG I would go for the TD or F. At least they have character. The As and Bs had a little more power but not enough to be much fun and they really have no pinache (sp) How about a Sunbeam Tiger...they were fun, a Morgan Plus 4? a Healey 3000 or an XKE..Now you are talking. Based on my MG ownership I would not take an A or B again as a gift.,,brand new. Dennis

Agreed.

Also, 'Lucas' has a bad rep, but I've owned and been around a lot of British cars and never had these problems.
Early alternators were prone to burning out diodes if you jumped a car battery to battery but the work around is to disconnect the alternator first.

[Marauderjack]

Save yourself a LOT of agony and look around for a nice Sebring MX(AH Replica with AMERICAN DRIVE TRAIN)!!:rolleyes::D

I had a real MGB and it was fun.....held up pretty well but weak drive train!!:shake:

My $0.02....FWIW??:bandit:

Marauderjack:burnout:

[Blackmobile]

Tim, check and recheck to body and frame structure. Every and I mean every MGA and B have rusted to the ground, especially in snow country. I have owned one of each, thankfully many years ago. If I was thinking about a new romance with an MG I would go for the TD or F. At least they have character. The As and Bs had a little more power but not enough to be much fun and they really have no pinache (sp) How about a Sunbeam Tiger...they were fun, a Morgan Plus 4? a Healey 3000 or an XKE..Now you are talking. Based on my MG ownership I would not take an A or B again as a gift.,,brand new. Dennis

Not to go too far off topic but what would you say about the MGC? My brother almost bought one years and years ago, and I believe it was a 6 cylinder auto. The used price at the time was $600 but he passed on it.

[sailsmen]

MG were never engineered for US safety or emissions. The cars were butchered to comply.

1970 or earlier, every year past more and more butchered, such as jacking the car up to meet bumper height.

The Lucas designs were good, the quality of the materials was garbage.

I liked the MGs, worked on many a friends MGB, MGC, Midget, they were poorly built with poor performance.

Strickly a sunday driver that spends more time in the shop than on the road.

(ps You can only go back to where you have been, since we have not been to the previous page the back button cannot take us back.)

[finster101]

Ah..... Lucas the reason Brits like warm ale. :D

[de minimus]

(ps You can only go back to where you have been, since we have not been to the previous page the back button cannot take us back.)

Yes of course. Here's the link to the site.
http://www.drakesbritishmotors.com/main.shtml

Thanks everyone for your input. You'll see that they also have a lot of Triumphs as well - perhaps I'll consider one of them, though they don't have the leg room of the B.

[RCSignals]

Yes of course. Here's the link to the site.
http://www.drakesbritishmotors.com/main.shtml

Thanks everyone for your input. You'll see that they also have a lot of Triumphs as well - perhaps I'll consider one of them, though they don't have the leg room of the B.

A TR 4 would be nice

[de minimus]

Not to go too far off topic but what would you say about the MGC? My brother almost bought one years and years ago, and I believe it was a 6 cylinder auto. The used price at the time was $600 but he passed on it.

I don't think that I've ever seen one in Canada. There's a big British car show here in May...I'll ask around. Thanks for the tip.

[de minimus]

A TR 4 would be nice

A TR4 would be great but they're going for big bucks if they're not rust buckets. That and the 250 are my favourite body styles of all the Triumphs, though there's something compelling about the Stag.

[hot-rauder]

a friends dad had a new MG coupe imported from England last year... took him 2 years to get it imported and registered. he said due to safety restraints, only 4 more had been imported. it was a TF.... absolutely beautiful car. i couldnt get over it. how could i love an MG?!? lol looked like this only silver\\

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/MG_TF_2002.jpg

[de minimus]

a friends dad had a new MG coupe imported from England last year... took him 2 years to get it imported and registered. he said due to safety restraints, only 4 more had been imported. it was a TF.... absolutely beautiful car. i couldnt get over it. how could i love an MG?!? lol looked like this only silver\\


That is a beauiful car...too bad they were never exported to USA or Canada....they would have sold some of those.

[hot-rauder]

That is a beauiful car...too bad they were never exported to USA or Canada....they would have sold some of those.


he had his specialy imported... he said he saw one whileon vacationa nd just had to have it. he used to have many MGBs and decided he had to have another MG. he said importing a vehicle is a b!tch but he loves the car. he found it kinda wierd though driving on the right side of the car, shifting with his left hand, and driving on the right side of the road when he first got it.

[Breadfan]

We have a '65 Triumph Spitfire. Well...a '65 (Mk II) body on a '68 chassis.

This was a hand-me-down from my dad. Neat little car, I can barely remember it running though. Sat for years.

About 3 years ago I got serious about fixing it up. At first I was just going to get it running enough to tool around and hear it run. Not too far later, it was completely disassembled.

What I found was that the deeper I dug the more issues I found, the more I went "well if I do that I really should do this!"

As others have stated, RUST is your biggest enemy. Another enemy is body damage.

IMHO the electrical system isn't that much to worry about, though they did change from pos ground to neg ground at some point. (At least Triumph did.) But there's only a few circuits on these cars. Converting them to modern electronics with a painless kit and a modern alternator isn't all that hard, check the net there are guides.

In my case I got very serious with this car a number of years back. That seriousness still exists as the car has sentimental value but the practicality for today has caused that seriousness to take a back seat.

As it stands right now the car is dissassembled, the frame and most suspension components were sandblasted, checked, and powdercoated. With a few hundred in new bushings and suspension parts I have a very clean rolling chassis.

Motor and trans are OK, and the aforementioned electrical system will be rebuild from the ground up.

The seriousness waned as I got into the body work. The car's body tub is in need of serious help. Rust and dents have taken their toll. Floors and rockers are in very bad shape, rear quarters have some rust damage AS WELL as some dents. Rear valence was trashed - repaired too look nice but taken down to metal it was wavey and had slide-hammer holes.

In the end though I share your fascination with these little cars. I hope to one day have that car back on the road and safe in a garage. It may take finding a donor car with a good body (anyone have any leads on a '65 MkII parts car?)

Taking the car apart was simple. Putting it back together is pretty simple. Doing the mecahnical and electrical isn't that bad. But the body is the problem. And without an indoors place to store it, metalworking attempts to restore the current body will be tough to do.

Moral of the story is that you could have a fun car but be careful about rust and body damage. Luckily MGB's are more plentiful than early Spitfires, so a decent parts car may be easy to find.

Also, having one WITHOUT rubber bumpers is a huge plus IMO.

(The MKII spitfire has the nice chrome bumpers that sit lower on the body, before being raised chrome bumpers in the MKIII and rubber bumpers for the IV and 1500)

[hot-rauder]

We have a '65 Triumph Spitfire. Well...a '65 (Mk II) body on a '68 chassis.

This was a hand-me-down from my dad. Neat little car, I can barely remember it running though. Sat for years.

About 3 years ago I got serious about fixing it up. At first I was just going to get it running enough to tool around and hear it run. Not too far later, it was completely disassembled.

What I found was that the deeper I dug the more issues I found, the more I went "well if I do that I really should do this!"

As others have stated, RUST is your biggest enemy. Another enemy is body damage.

IMHO the electrical system isn't that much to worry about, though they did change from pos ground to neg ground at some point. (At least Triumph did.) But there's only a few circuits on these cars. Converting them to modern electronics with a painless kit and a modern alternator isn't all that hard, check the net there are guides.

In my case I got very serious with this car a number of years back. That seriousness still exists as the car has sentimental value but the practicality for today has caused that seriousness to take a back seat.

As it stands right now the car is dissassembled, the frame and most suspension components were sandblasted, checked, and powdercoated. With a few hundred in new bushings and suspension parts I have a very clean rolling chassis.

Motor and trans are OK, and the aforementioned electrical system will be rebuild from the ground up.

The seriousness waned as I got into the body work. The car's body tub is in need of serious help. Rust and dents have taken their toll. Floors and rockers are in very bad shape, rear quarters have some rust damage AS WELL as some dents. Rear valence was trashed - repaired too look nice but taken down to metal it was wavey and had slide-hammer holes.

In the end though I share your fascination with these little cars. I hope to one day have that car back on the road and safe in a garage. It may take finding a donor car with a good body (anyone have any leads on a '65 MkII parts car?)

Taking the car apart was simple. Putting it back together is pretty simple. Doing the mecahnical and electrical isn't that bad. But the body is the problem. And without an indoors place to store it, metalworking attempts to restore the current body will be tough to do.

Moral of the story is that you could have a fun car but be careful about rust and body damage. Luckily MGB's are more plentiful than early Spitfires, so a decent parts car may be easy to find.

Also, having one WITHOUT rubber bumpers is a huge plus IMO.

(The MKII spitfire has the nice chrome bumpers that sit lower on the body, before being raised chrome bumpers in the MKIII and rubber bumpers for the IV and 1500)


my brother just did a 79 Fiat Spyder..... man that body didnt come from the factory without rust and waves.... what a nightmare, and i mean abo****e nightmare that car was. when we finally got the body right after 2 monthswe strarted itup and it sounded like marbles in the motors that ran great when we brought it in the shop. needless to say, if you find one that you feel is nice, just leave it and enjoy it. dont tear it apart. ive heard and now found that most of these little coupes are rust pits.

same color as our friends.

http://indianlake.com/lisacar5.jpg

[Aren Jay]

The keys from one will open the doors from another. At my College my Adopted Uncle Jack was not please to find that his keys opened the doors of the other MGB parked at the college. He went out and put in an engine immobilizer right away. Something to think about.

They are small and not overly safe but a great fun car to tinker with and drive.