MGB Made a decision, my MGB is going...

[drooartz]

And we're home! Drove down to AZ on Monday July 4th and back the next day. 11hrs each way, lots of driving but my father-in-law's truck sure is comfy. A mobile barc-o-lounger.

Now I'm working on getting the car properly tuned and sorted for the elevation, and dealing with the things you have to sort after this much work is done. I'm at 6500' here in UT, so there's some setup to do, and the car is running rough. And while the shop does good work, I won't feel comfortable until I've checked through all the basic setup pieces and made sure myself.

 

[JPSmit]

very happy for you and yes, make sure all is correct.

 

[drooartz]

Now that I've got the initial sorting on the car done, I figured I'd wrap up this thread with a few thoughts on the whole process. Might help someone else that's thinking about sending their car off to have work done.

The short answer is that ultimately I'm happy that I went this route. In my situation, the reality is that had I not paid someone else to get the work done the car would still be sitting in pieces, and might still be sitting in pieces in years to come. Though it was quite expensive, it was money I could afford to spend at this point in my life. Having the car back as a car was worth it to me.

That said, this was not a process without issues. So a few thoughts:

It will be more expensive than you think: This should surprise no one, but paying a professional shop to do work is costly. Everything adds up, and every little while-we're-in-there will cost more. I went in knowing this, and still spent more than expected. Things like "hey, while the engine's out let's paint the engine bay" and while that's being done let's restore the heater, and... it all adds up. This is not a low cost approach.

The further you are from the shop, the more complex the communication will be: I live in Utah, and the shop I used is in Arizona. Communication with the shop on issues large and small is critical, and in my case was not without some issues. Hard to just stop in and have a chat when the shop is 11 hours away. My lesson here is to be absolutely clear (and in writing) with what needs to be done and with what you expect from the shop. In the end I was able to sort out my issues, but some could have been avoided had I been a bit more proactive.

No one cares about your car as much as you do: I love my car, you love your car, the shop wants to do quality work in a reasonable timeframe. If you want the car to your level of perfect, you'll need to do the work yourself. Don't assume the shop will do what you want, if something is specifically important to you make sure that is clear up front. Even with all that, you will need to sort some things out after the shop is done with their work. Expect to have to go through all the work and make sure everything is as you need.

So in the end I'm happy with the work, even with the frustrations I had. So nice to have the car on the road again.

Bald Mountain Pass, (10,700' elevation), taken July 16, 2022 -- first real drive since the rebuild