Coming Home

June 12th 2009: Gary met me and Brendan (my 7-year-old son) at the old MGB, and when I arrived early, Gary already had the operation started. He hooked a chain to the front of the car and dragged it out of it's parking space.

The rear wheels were frozen, and dragged big furrows in the soft earth, but freed up about halfway through the drag-out. It was amazing to see Gary's big Jeep drag the MG, locked wheels and all, while in idle!

Gary has a towing frame he fabricated from an old VW tow frame to suit a myriad of mouting points on the front of an MGB. It can mount to a bumper, to bumper brackets or to the frame.

Knowing Gary, he'd make it work if all of the above were unavailable for connecting to.

Once

he

hooked up the frame, attached the magetic towing lights and checked to see if anything obvious was loose or could fall of, we were on our way.

It took about an

hour to get my GT

home, and most of the drive was across the twisty highway 49 as it snaked through the Sierra Nevada mountain range.

Once home, and detached, we rolled it into it's position in front of the garage, ready to push in once I tidy up enough to fit it in. Amazingly, the brakes functioned and held pressure, sufficiently to guide the car into place at the bottom of our driveway.

It occupies my wife's parking space for her Honda Pilot, so I need to get it indoors ASAP.

Later that day, after much vacuuming, and a good soapy scrub, my GT was showing her true potential.

Here's a picture of the vacuumed interior.

Here's a picture of the washed GT.

Where it all began.....

June 11th, 2009

Well, I had been looking for an MGB GT for quite some time. Years in fact, but in earnest in the last few months. My friend Gary, who has had MGB's all his life, and has restored at least 50 of them, helped me look and evalua

te potential candidates for my project.

I wanted an MGB GT, simply because I've always liked the design and clean lines (just look at this picture of an orange GT [not mine] - priceless). The convertible Roadster may be more practical for California in a car without air conditioning, but I simply love the look of the GT. Add to that the great availability of relatively inexpensive parts, a huge worldwide support group, endless technical assistance and the rudimentary easy-to-work-on nature of the beast; all good logical factors to support the emotional desire to own and work on an MGB GT.

After a couple of near-misses I found a neglected GT in pretty good shape for it's age of 42. It had very little rust, almost none on the body, and the engine was mostly there, though

in parts in the trunk (ooops, have to say "boot" now). It was under a tarp in a wooded junk yard among other car parts and carcasses.

Despite the dirty

condition, the body was straight and dent free (small ding below where the grille should be) and it looked like a manageable project (though I didn't realize the extent of the engine work until I got it home). I was quick off the mark to respond to the Craigslist add and after some negotiating and sending Gary photos from my phone I was a very proud owner of a "Project".

The interior was in decent shape for having sat neglected outdoors for years. Th

ere were many spiders, lizards and half-eaten acorns, but not bad, dry, cleanable and most importantly, it didn't smell bad.

The car itself was mostly intact. And though, as mentioned, half the engine was in the boot, it looked like all the parts were there (and a couple of "extras" which will eventually be used on eBay to offset the project budget). Even the chrome side trim strip missing off the front passenger fender was inside.

In the end, what was missing were the front grille, bumper and lower apron panel, passenger side door handle, spare tire (bare rim there though) and the window crank broke trying to open the stuck passenger window. Otherwise, everything is there. That's the radiator you can see in the boot with the "spare" rim. The steering worked, the brakes worked (though wheels were frozen), but the clutch pedal sank to the floor with no pressure at all.

Under the hood, there were big gaps where the owner prior to the guy I bought it from had started to remove the engine, but bailed on the project. The radiator, generator, oil pan and pump, and sundry other parts had been removed. Unfortunately, it looks like the oil pan had been left off for years and as a result the engine internals rusted up somewhat, which will necessitate pulling the engine and rebuilding it (more on that later). In addition to a partially-disassembled engine, under the hood was a huge skink (lizard) that likely lived there all his life, and a huge Black Widow spider with an egg casing ready to spew hundreds of the venomous little buggers into my car. I rescued the Mom and set her free at home (down our hill) but the offspring are no more :(

Did the deal with the owner. Got working keys and a current pink slip and plates in exchange for a deposit and a bill of sale. Made arrangements to return and pick it up and bring it home. More on that in my next posting.