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MGB MGB Info... In over my head?

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J

jimmythewrench

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I just found this web-site and thought it might be a good place to start my search for info.

My girlfriends mother offered to give my girlfriend her prized '68 MGB roadster. The car has been sitting for some time, but aparently at some point in the past it was owned by a local trade school that did restoration type work on it, rebuilt the engine, did a passable paint job on it, I'm not sure what else. The car has lived in a garage since the work was done so I am assuming it to be in fair shape with an aging cheap and hasty retoration done without an eye towards keeping the car original. I know it has wire knock-offs and Stromberg carbs that have been redone in the recent past.

I'm fairly familiar with British cars, being a former Triumph owner, so Bs aren't too alien to me and I have some experience with SU carbs and Lucas electricals, I assume I could adapt to working on an MGB pretty quickly.

We are both college students with reliable daily transportation, but not a lot of money for upkeep on a toy, but it will have a garage to sleep in and won't rack up many miles. We want this to be her toy for sunny day trips to the park, my job will be to help her and teach her how to take care of her new baby. We have no aspirations of restoring for show or modifying it motorsports use (that's what my car is for /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif ).

Her mother has offered to take the car to her mechanic and have it checked out, there is a "shimmy" in the front end at higher speed (50 mph +) and it is expected to need some amount of work to get it started after sitting for so long.

So from what I have said, would accepting the offer and adopting the car be a wise move? Is a '68 B good for what we want it for or is it most likely going to be a money pit?

What is the best place to look for more info MGB? I want to study up before we take the 200 mile trek to check it out/pick it up. Any good books on MGBs?

Thanks in advance for any info, sorry for the long post,
James
 
The Moss Motors catalog provides blown-out diagrams and some tech tips. www.mossmotors.com

Bentley manual

Local clubs. Many local clubs provide services such as tool loans, newsletters to their membership. Also a good way to make friends.

This forum. It has a good search engine, or just ask.
Some of the people who post here have their own web sites that contain many technical articles.
 
!. Welcome to the best place on the Web /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
2. Go Get the car
3 Enjoy it /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/driving.gif

mark
 
Welcome to the forum!

A frequent pitfall in antique car restoration is to allow restoration costs to exceed the actual market value of the car. Most MGBs have relatively low market values, and as a result, it's profoundly easy for restoration costs to exceed the value of the car.

A key factor in controlling costs is your skill. Are you willing and able to perform the work? Do you have a garage, tools and the time and ability to do engine, suspension and body work? If you can't, costs will multiply. And, reliable LBC mechanics are difficult to find.

Here are my suggestions:

1) Develop a restoration budget and determine how much you wish to spend, total, on the car. Do you want to exceed the car's market value, and if so, by how much? This requires a bit of research and thought. $1,000 can disappear like smoke in an MG, and if you pay for the labor it's EASY to spend $15,000 or more on a frame-off job.

2) If you are not fluent with British car restoration, hire someone who is to perform a complete, itemized inspection of the car for you. This will be the best $100 or so you will ever spend on the car!

3) While you're restoring, other stuff happens such as blown gearboxes, burned valves, and knackered suspensions. So be sure to consider routine maintenance costs as well.

Please understand, this is not intended to scare anyone away from purchasing one of these wonderful cars. But, it's prudent to consider the financial implications before you take posession of the car.

Ask me how I learned these facts. . .
 
Welcome to the forum, James. While I respect the opinions of everyone here and all have excellent advice, I am of the opinion to get the car running and learn a little at a time on it by driving it and fixing things as you go. You might stop on the side of the road once in awhile but if you have a friend with a tow strap that can come get you, you can have one heck of a lot of fun driving it and fixing as it needs it. Like has already been said, you will save mountains of money if you can do the work yourself.
That is what I did because I don't have a lot of money to do ground up restorations all at once. I have had mine 23 years and have yet to do a ground up. I get more fun out of driving a nice looking car every day that people complement you on wherever they see you (at the traffic light, in parking lots, in passing) I get more satisfaction out of this than sitting at shows and am afraid to drive it, let the rain get on it, or park it next to other cars or in some cases take it anywhere not on a trailer.
Thats just my personal opinion and see nothing wrong with how ever anyone wants to restore their car. Thats just me and probably would have done different if I had the money to do it all at once. But I have no regrets. I guess you could call mine a rolling restoration.
By the way, the '68 has the 5 main bearing engine and alomost no smog controls and the all syncor gearbox. I think it would be well worth your going to get it and HAVE A BLAST!!!
Thanks,
Bob
 
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