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MG MGB Technical - Worth the money?

I am looking for advice. I love MG's of all marques. I currently own an MGF, but my dream is to own a MGB GT, and it has been that way for at least the last 10 years.

I bought the MGF because firstly its an MG(of modern times) and secondly it is used as my main form of transport, which is 300 miles a week of mainly motorway work.

I know someone who is selling a 1970 MGB GT that is totally authentic and un-restored. It is also very low mileage (about 40K as I remeber). I have driven it (on a car park) and inspected it (including underneath) and it has no visible corosion anywhere. It has been pretty much dry stored since new.

The asking price is £4500.

Personally I think this is a fair price however, the reason I seek your advise is because I want to use this car. I intend to keep my MGF for a while longer, but I intend to use the 'B for the same journeys on a regular basis during the better weather.

Is the asking price good?

Can I use it for the longer trips without having to service it every weekend?

Will it corrode from the inside out the first time it experiences rain?

Thanks,

Sorry for the long thread!

Ross
R Longmore

I'm not sure how the prices in the UK are but that would be a bit high here in the states. The low mileage is great, especially if the car has no rust or other corrosion, and that is certainly worth paying extra for as it will save you much time and money in the long run.

300 miles per week is nothing for an MG. I put more than that on my B roadster. If you look in a thread currently running called "How far do you go in your MG" you will see no mention of an MGB being unreliable. There is certainly more maintenance with a 35-year-old car than a new one but as long as you keep up on it you should have no troubles at all.

Most of the mechanical work an MG needs is routine maintainence and a bit of the preventative type as well. Plan on spending 15 minutes each weekend checking fluid levels, tire pressure and the general condition of things. The best way to start ownership is to take the car to an experienced and reputable mechanic who can go through the car inside and out. He may catch something which has deteriorated simply from age which may have let you down on the road. It's money well spent and good piece of mind.

And when if worst happens and you find yourself stalled on the side of the road, you can take comfort in two things. First, with a basic knowledge of the car and a few hand tools you can probably drive it home (can't do that in an F!). And second, parts are cheap and plentiful so you won't be down for long like many other classic cars.
Steve Simmons

My opinion only: That’s too much money. Sounds like a great car though, although it might be full of rust on the inside, find someone who knows and get them to look at it. Its impossible to say exactly how much an individual car is worth as they all vary in price, but £3,000 should get you a very good car in top nick but not concourse. I have just sold a ’74 BGT (recent sills, solid, good mechanics but the paint was not the best but ok) for £1,250 – this would have done you – I did 400 miles per week in this car without a problem. Change the engine oil at 3000 miles and grease up, get a decent garage to service it properly every year and you will be fine. Personally I’d be keen to find a tax exempt chrome bumper car, but there are some real bargains to be had of rubber bumper Bs at the mo. Have a look on eBay too. Check the owners club sites and join one – look at the prices. However, all that said, if the car is right for you it might well be worth the £4,500. It is certainly nice to find an original one, but remember that these things need use, and so if its sat around recently you could be in for some re-commissioning bills. With regard to corrosion, get it under sealed properly and filled up with Waxoil and you should be fine. They are better kept in a garage if you have one, and it is important to keep them clean and free from mud, salt and other assorted filth! In closing, get one, there great…
C Beswick

Just been looking on Ebay. Theres loads there, these two caught my eye. I'd have the top one, then you'd have loads of money left over to improve it. The other has had five grand spent on it and I bet the reserve is under two!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2463649601&category=29757

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2462374377&category=29757
C Beswick

It’s good to hear someone wanting a GT. They are in my opinion one of the best looking cars the UK has ever produced. Not withstanding the fact that I have owned and driven one every day for the past 18 years, I do love this car. My 71 has been very dependable and a low cost daily driver. As long as you change the oil and check all the obvious problem areas you can easily drive 12-14k miles every year. Start off with a good engine rebuild. I did mine myself about 5 years ago and was worried that after a few thousand miles that the oil pressure would start to drop and start the slow down hill decline but 40,000 miles later I sill get 70psi at idle. The MGB-GT is a fine car. I don’t know how much 4,500 pounds are in dollars but I think I can get around $7,500.00 in California. Good luck in your search.

Ron
R Garcia

Unless you want to spend time fixing it up I think it's worth spending more on the initial purchase to get the right car. For instance my apparently excellent GT cost 2500. Just a small problem of a rusty front valence. By the time the new one was stonechipped and painted it cost about 100 . The seat foams had perished and the view down the bonnet was much better when they were replaced and so on... This year I decided would be dedicated to total overhaul of brakes and new tyres = 600. Looking at the receipts I've spent 1500 without much visible sign of improvement, though the driving experience is much better. I'd have been better off spending the 4000 in one hit if I didn't have fun doing the workshop stuff.. BTW Best value for money spare was new anti-rattle spring and plunger for gear shift.

I do 250 miles a week to work in the summer plus all weekend driving and the car has never missed a beat. Only precautionary maintenance, overhauled the distributor and fitted a new fuel pump. Better than doing it by flashlight at the roadside on a wet night.
Go for it
Vic
V Todman

I second what Vic says about the new anti-rattle spring and plunger for gear shift. When I rebuilt my gear box I did not change these and have regreted it ever since.

David
David Witham

I did about 150 miles per day in my V8 for several years with no problems, the more you drive them the better they like it. Every car is individual and one that has done very few miles over the years may well experience several component failures/wearing out when it is suddenly asked to do significantly higher mileages than it has been used to. But persevere and do things properly and you will get it as good as anyone else's. The beauty of these is the relatively low cost and good availability, particularly in the West Mids, of spares. But you get what you pay for so cheapest is rarely best.

The body is everything, and very small imperfections on the outside can mean big corrosion inside. Lyndsay Porter's 'Guide to Purchase and DIY Restoration of the MGB', republished as 'The mgb restoration Manual', is a must when looking at an MGB. It contains a checklist of things to look for and a guide as to how much each costs to put right.

The price is a little on the high side even for a good one unless it really is good inside and out and is exactly what you want. You need to look at some others to get a feel for price and condition.
Paul Hunt

Thanks for all your comments.

The general consensus seems to be that this particular car is slightly over-priced. Since reading your comment I have been looking around a bit more and I agree there are some real bargins to be had.

I have changed my approach slightly as well. The particular model I lust for is a 72-73 model year. The reasons being - still chrome bumpers, uprated interior and the chrome grill.

What certainly does attract me to a B is the relative easy/cheap maintenance you talk about. I have always serviced my own bikes and cars and have rebuilt a number of engines. I get a lot of enjoyment from this and it is something I want in a car.

My MGF has loosed me down once, even though it was only the top coolant hose that split, due to its awkward construction and reasonably complex engine installation, I was unable to fix it where I was and had to be towed home. The new part was over £40 and took half a day to fit. I have also had to replace the radiator because the original had corroded away to dust! That cost £118 for an aftermarket replacement. The corrosion underneath is also worrying for a 5 year old car.

From your comments I am satisfied that an MGB will easily do the sort of driving I require.

Once again thanks for your comments, and yes I will own a B in the near future.
R Longmore

Ross,

Make sure the one you buy is built in 72 or earlier in order to benefit from the free road tax. 160 a year towards bits and pieces!

I thought the 72-73 year still had the recessed grill, rather than the chrome one? Or had they switched back by then? I have the recessed grill on my 70 BGT, and I certainly wouldn't change it for a chrome one!

Try Loot and Autotrader websites to find local cars and go and look at as many as possible. They tend to be cheaper from a site such as those rather than an mg specialist site (IMO).

HTH
Iain

http://homepages.tesco.net/~rachel.cameron/
I D Cameron

Ross,

You are right to start looking around. I think you will find that high price does not necessarily mean that the car is in good condition. I have seen rustbuckets priced at £3500+. At the same time cheaper prices do not necessarily mean a bad car. The GT I bought a couple of years ago had been totally and properly restored about 15,000 miles previously and is still in excellent condition. It cost £2600.
You CAN be lucky. Take your time and good luck.

Bumpkin.
Bumpkin

I won't reiterate the excellent advice others have given, but I'd be slightly wary of buying a car from a friend. Could get uncomfortable. I've got a '66 GT and an F VVC and love both dearly. From a purly personal point of view, if I had the choice of driving the F or the B to work on a cold, dark, wet or icy morning I'd go for the F just to make life easy. Keep the F for the utilitarian travel, use the B for the fun journeys!

Tim.
Tim Jenner

Rust is our real enemy.

For £4500 you should be looking at a fully documented recently restored (or even re-bodied) car, or even a GTV8. If there is any doubt about body condition, whatever the price....walk away....mechanical restoration is clearly well within your capabilities, body restoration is time consuming, and consequently expensive and frustrating.

Ideally you should get the car checked out by someone who knows the MGB.

Good luck with your search.

Mike
Michael barnfather

The smart money buys a 73 model *built* in 72 (they started being made in Aug 72), no matter when it was registered, to get the benefit of the later spec with free road tax.
Paul Hunt

I'd agree that the MGB is very reliable, when serviced regularly, which is perfectly reasonable. The only thing that has consistantly let me down (over two cars and many years) is that damn SU fuel pump. This is not a real problem however as putting in an aftermarket (or salavaged from a Japanese car) pump is dead cheap & easy. I eventually bypassed my SU and put a pump from a subaru up in the engine compartment, out of sight tucked in above the guard.
Peter

Paul Hunt - too right... Most powerfull version too....
C Beswick

Peter (from Oz)
How about giving us a description of your results fitting Japper fuel pumps to the B. You mention a Sub fuel pump. Is is electric? If so what model Sub?

Are there other Jappers with compatible electric fuel pumps?
I'm really intrigued, thanks.
Ray (AKL NZ)
R P Shoebridge

Ray,
I got the pump out of my old brocken down '82 SUBURU station wagon, so it's nothing special. It's electric and I think any four cylinder Japanese type pump would do. It sounds just like the SU except that it's a little quieter & is WAY more reliable and much more effective as it obviously could pull fuel up from the tank to the top of the engine compartment (through a filter) no problems at all (and very quickly). This is not to suprising as in the subaru it was located at the top passenger side of the engine compartment. Really there are a vaiety of after market pumps that should do the trick.
What prompted me to replace it was my old SU took to failing (often) in the middle of the WEST GATE bridge here in Melbourne. This is a six lane, very high, very busy bridge and not the best place to be spending time. This would happen at night, usually in the rain and (I must empasize this) NOWHERE ELSE IN AUSTRALIA, NO MATTER HOW STEEP THE INCLINE. At great expense I replaced points and variously dissasembled cleaned and checked etc. to no avail. Allergic to the bridge I can only guess.I also had SU problems with my previous MGB although not so site specific.

I simple bypassed the SU with a bit of fuel line and left it as a decoration (all that it's good for)
I wrapped the SUBARU pump in a bit of blue foam camping mat(vibration insulation) and stuffed it into that small space at the top passenger side of the engine compartment. The tight location and the fuel lines held it firmly in place virtually out of sight. I ran power from the fuel pump wire near the fuse box.
Took less than an hour to do all up, and was not difficult.
It ran flawlessly for about a year and I think would still be going perfectly except I got the urge to install an fuel injected V8 which required a different fuel pump set up.
A few others have done the same, a honda was mentioned I think.
Good luck with it.
Peter

Whilst the roadster pump did eventually let me down (after giving me fair notice) at least it could claim to be very old if not the original. OTOH the V8 pump was a recent 'pointless' electronic unit that should have known better. As the roadster pump failed first I was able to clean up the points then put it in the V8 when the pointless pump failed, having already put a new SU in the roadster. Since then both have been faultless, and the pointless languishes on my bench, in a somewhat pointless fashion.

I'm sure Peter knows but you need to be careful using any other type of pump, the SU carbs can only tolerate a few psi of pressure, any higher and they will be weeing on the floor.
Paul Hunt

Thanks for the info Peter and Paul. Pete, perhaps there's something spooky about that bridge in Melbourne? Something dark and spriritual? Maybe magnetic fields. Is it a problem for all MGs?

What if you carried protecting herbs with you like a bulb of Garlic and a twist of St John's Wort?

You could even try chanting as you drive across?
Would that help? Ray
R P Shoebridge

Actually when it was being built that bridge collapsed killing very many. Perhaps a previous owner wanted his car back (play "twilight zone" theme music here).
Peter

I've just read on the general board that if you keep the battery cover off it's possible to reach back with a stick whilst driving and hit the pump to keep it going.

The SU was 23 years old and still going strong when I put the contactless pump in. The points were hardly worn when i checked so I've kept it just in case.
Vic
V Todman

HI

Just started reading this post and C Beswicks post of 03/03 caught my eye, He lists 2 cars advertised on ebay, well I bought the white one! I collect it on saturday. Cant wait. It will be a 2nd car for me, my first is a Mazda MX5 (I did buy a MGF to replace it recently, but I didnt like the mid engine handling as much) I guess I was comparing it with my old 1970 midget.

So I guess that I will be on here a fair bit now.

John
J M Collins

Well done JM!
There comes a time when the enlightened realize that its just not about comfort, it's about style.It looks a nice one.
Peter

This thread was discussed between 02/03/2004 and 11/03/2004

MG MGB Technical index

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