Hi Guest!
Hey - did you know if you click on the title of a thread it will take you to the first unread post since you last visited that thread?
but were afraid to ask: 
STOP!! Never post your email address in open forums. Bots can "harvest" your email! If you must share your email use a Private Message or use the 
smilie in place of the real @
Pretty Please - add it to our Events forum(s) and add to the calendar! >> 
Hello from frigid North Iowa. I have a 1977 MGB that I purchased here in town in 1982. It is Brooklands Green, and had about 35K miles on it when purchased. It now has about 117K miles on the odometer. It hasn't been driven all years that I've owned it. I'm ashamed to admit that that poor little car sat in the back of my garage, with sheets covering it, for 16 years. In the spring of 2021, my wife finally asked me, first, how old I was, and secondly, at what age I was planning to get the MG back on the road. The answer to the first question was 69. The answer to the second question, after realizing that I was not exactly getting younger with each passing day, was, "Ummm, 69. You're right. This is the year!" I believe that I let it sit for so long because, as is probably the case with many car owners, I felt that it needed so many things that I didn't know where to start. So, I did nothing. For 16 years. What was I thinking?! Anyway, that spring I had the MG taken to my mechanic in a nearby town, and, after a thorough going-over, it was running quite well. It needed a lot of body work, but we drove it all that season, rust and all, and had a blast. The joy of driving that roadster came rushing back. The very next spring, I began searching for someone to do the body work which, in this case, would require replacing panels on both sides of the MG from the chrome strips down, excluding the doors. Everything else was good. Couldn't find anyone. Everyone was busy for the next year. Got worried. I called a close friend who is a car guy (owns a restored '67 Chevelle SS) to see who he might recommend. Well, it turns out that he would be happy to do the work himself. (Why hadn't I called him first?) I drove the B to his welding shop, and, in his spare time away from his part time job, he did a beautiful job on the panel replacements. I had previously asked him about painters, and he had already lined up a local classic car owner who had painted his own trophy-winning pickup. I was feeling pretty darn lucky. But you have to get lucky once in a while, right? So after the body work was complete, the B went to the painter's home shop, where, with a little help from me, the car was stripped of everything including the windshield, sanded, primed, sanded again, painted (Brooklands Green, of course), clear coated, buffed, and reassembled. It was a hoot for me to help out, being able to put a bit of sweat equity into the project. The downside was that with the body work and then the painting, we lost that driving season. But we made up for it this past spring, summer and early fall. Taking drives, taking the B to local classic car shows, and attending a local classic car cruise made this past driving season a really, really fun time for us. I think you all know that special feeling you get behind the wheel of your British car. But even though we're loving the renewed B, I still need to see to a few things. There's always something, right? New seat covers are on the agenda, as is doing something about the Weber carb that someone talked me into back in '04. The car ran better when it had SU carbs fueling it, so that is the direction I'm heading. I will likely be looking to this forum for some expert knowledge and advise. It's always fun to see what others have done and how they did it.
Cheers,
Al
1977 MGB
Brooklands Green
Cheers,
Al
1977 MGB
Brooklands Green
