When did you buy your first LBC, and what was it?

[DrEntropy]

Resurrected thread! Good read, too. First LBC for me was a '66 MGB roadster as a college freshman, in '68. Most of the tale is in the "Articles" section here, that car went for many years and a couple rebuilds. I make distinction between rebuild and restoration: pop-rivets and empty Miller beer cans are involved in "rebuilds!" Along with a LOT of Bondo...

Found the S3 Elan in '71 while serving in the USAF. It got an honest restoration in '75 and now needs to be done again. Time's a mother. Me mum would quote George Carlin and say: "What good's half a word."

 

[Bayless]

My 1948 Ford Prefect in 1962. I didn't actually buy it though. It was given to me. A friend won it in a $5 poker pot. I helped him dig it out of the sort of junk yard where it was buried up to its running boards in sandy dirt. Living in an apartment, he didn't have a place to store it so "temporarily" stored it at his parents house. That deal soon soured on him as you might expect and he had to move it. Still having no other alternative, he said I could have it if I would just go get it. I did and like Doc, "rebuilt" it. We drove it as a second car for a few years and put about 30K miles on it. It is recieving a proper "restoration" now. The whole story is in the link in my sig below.

 

[59diamond]

Hmmm. my Bugeye was yellow with pop riveted rockers on it when I bought it.

I bought a 1959 old english white bugeye in 1961 or 1962 off a used car lot for $1200 and drove it to college for about a year or so before I sold it for $1200 to buy my wife an engagement ring. Didn,t buy another Bugeye until 2012 and my final one in 2014 which Istoill own..

 

[Randyz]

As a teenager in 1981, I bought a '72 MGB from a terrible person who didn't tell me the ca had a brake fluid leak, a bad battery, leaking tire, and a blown out spare. I cancelled my check and made him come get the next day. I almost bought a gorgeous '68 MGB GT the net year, until my dad said he'd disown me. Eventually I got a house in 1990 and bought a rusty '70 MGB GT. It was the first of at least (16) MG's and AH Sprites I've bought in the years since.

 

[Scargo]

Mine was this non-running 1960 Bugeye, purchased from a gas station in 1971 for $50. The gas station owner took possession of it when the owner decided it would be too expensive to get running again. After flat towing it home behind a friends Karmann Ghia, it turned out to have zero compression in two cylinders due to a couple of burned exhaust valves.

Back then when British cars were all over the road as daily drivers many were treated disrespectfully as disposal toys, as evidenced by the condition of this Bugeye after only 11 years. In addition to the outward appearance, the front floor boards on both sides were like Swiss cheese.

I could have also had the TR3 sitting next to it for $150 but that was out of my price range. Another reason I was not interested in the Triumph was because I had learned how to drive stick in my sisters '67 Spitfire, and I drove that car to senior year of high school and my first year of college. I never realized how much of a rattle trap it was until the first time I rode in a friends '66 Midget. That thing was tight and rattle-free. From that point on I became an MG/Austin guy.

 

[Roger]

I built an Austin Seven Special in 1957.

 

[PAUL161]

Two Metropolitans back in the 60s. Then bought a new Land Rover. Had the Land Rover for one year and sold it after three broken axles. The second axle was much higher in price than the first and the third was twice as much as the first! Very noisy and the engine would scream at 60 MPH! Happy to get rid of it and bought a new Bronco, which we had for many years.