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MGB-GT MGB/GT Article

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AngliaGT

AngliaGT

Great Pumpkin
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There's an article in the January 2008 issue
of Automobile Magazine by Rusty Blackwell on his
buying a '67 (I think)GT in Calif.,& driving it
home to Michigan.Check it out.

- Doug
 
Thank you!!!
 
That was fun.
 
That's pretty neat. Thanks.
 
That was very interesting. I can't believe they had so many problems. My car is much more reliable than that (when it's working).
 
LOL
 
It appears they don't know these cars well, nor how reliable they can be. Their trip was taken in an unfamiliar car with an unknown mechanical history, so I'm not surprised they had a few issues. The previous owner probably didn't take it on the highway since the bonnet wouldn't even stay latched.
 
Respectfully (to the author) I have to say that number one

"fools rush in...".

There's no doubt that they would have learned much by first coming here and posting a few questions like:

How reliable will an LBC I've never seen before be on a cross country trip?

or

What should I be prepared for if I buy an old LBC and try to drive it across country without doing a LOT of maintenance first?

or

Does anyone have a checklist of things to look for in a newly acquired LBC before just heading cross country in it?
(Hiya Tony)

WOW!!! Either incredible bravery & courage under fire in play or abject ignorance!!! Let the reader be the judge!
 
Thanks Doug, I found his email address not 2 minutes ago!

Rick, I agree that some difficulty was to be expected, but at the same time it just makes for an even bigger adventure. When I got my first B nearly 20 years ago, I was a teenager. Half of the excitement of my "fun drives" was wondering if I would make it home without breaking down. Of course I got the car reliable eventually and used it as daily transport for some time, but I still tell stories about the fun times I had in that rattly old thing. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif
 
Hey, I have driven the ALCAN once in a B and again in a C.
I've made numerous trips to / from Seattle - LA in a 69 BGT.
I've done Fairbanks down to Homer several times in the C & the B.

However, I knew those cars and their capabilities. You get that by taking many shorter trips, and eventually longer trips once the kinks are worked out.

That story would have had a different (better IMHO) ending with just a little more knowledge, not much - just a little.
 
My first trip in our '49 TC was 700+ miles to, up and back from the Sierra Nevada Mountains. I had only owned the car for a few weeks and it had been sitting outside for over 10 years. I found out the generator was shot so we swapped batteries back and forth with another car for the weekend. It was a pain at the time, but I do like telling the story on occasion. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

Now a few years later we enjoy trips of hundreds to thousands of miles at a time without problems. I hope Rusty gets to that point with his B rather than become frustrated.
 
I finally read the article,& noticed that our
Cortina is pictured in it (click "More Pictures").
Wow it's sota,kinda almost famous!
I liked the article,maybe because I drove the same
route (or part of it) when I went to Denver.

- Doug
 
I certainly did not have that sort of faith in my B when I bought it. It sat in a garage for 2 years because of a dead clutch slave cylinder. I didn't have that kind of faith in my car until this year, I think it was. That's when I finally emptied the boot of all the spares and tools that I'd been lugging around. Now, I am nearly 100 percent certain that I'd be able to travel cross country without problem. However, I would still pack a tool bag... just in case.
 
SUNUVA! bah! I jinxed myself... I got in my car for the first time after making that last post and go no further than 100ft from the work parking lot to have the thing stall and not want to restart.

Looks like my B is spending the night at work tonight. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/cry.gif

I'm bringing tools with me to work in the morning to see if I can diagnose the problem. *sigh*
 
RickB said:
Respectfully (to the author) I have to say that number one

"fools rush in...".

There's no doubt that they would have learned much by first coming here and posting a few questions like:

How reliable will an LBC I've never seen before be on a cross country trip?

or

What should I be prepared for if I buy an old LBC and try to drive it across country without doing a LOT of maintenance first?

or

Does anyone have a checklist of things to look for in a newly acquired LBC before just heading cross country in it?
(Hiya Tony)

WOW!!! Either incredible bravery & courage under fire in play or abject ignorance!!! Let the reader be the judge!
Click to expand...

I was one of those 'fools rush in...
I flew down to SoCa and drove my 74 B home, 700 miles, to Ferndale.( a stone's throw from Anglia in Eureka).
Sight unseen and very very limited mechanical experience.
Rick, I sure wish I had known about this place and asked these very questions before I made my purchase and drive. Given the hours of work and dollars spent on my B I have no idea how I made it home-abject ignorance it was but the mgb gods took mercy on me. Yes, STRESSED. No,I would never do it again. BUT. Many thanks to this forum....
Fast forward a year and I now have a safely fast, reliable, most fun ride.
A few 100 mile trips led to a few 200 mile trips gave me the confidence I needed and culminated in the trip I had been working toward. 809 mile round trip in one day-drove my daughter to college and back. I loved every minute of it.
I hope the author of this article finds that joy in his gt too.
Paul
 
Oh, I'm 90% certain it'll be a simple fix. I did some minor electrical checks ensuring that previous problem spots were connected solidly. Made sure I have power to the coil. Checked the fuel pump: good pressure and flow. The way it just 'cut out' on me so quickly leads me to believe I have an electrical problem.

However, the sun was on it's last legs, and I didn't want to hold up my co-workers. So, I pushed it to the curb, parked it for the night, and hitched a ride home. I plan to bring a tool bag with me and a wiring diagram in the morning to see if I can chase this down.

None of my friends had a spark plug puller so I couldn't check for spark. I'm almost certain it's going to be ignition related though. And in a worse case scenario, my Crane XR700 will need replacing. I hope not, but it's been in the car for a while. So, it's possible.
 
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