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MG TD TF 1500 - Another Pretend 'Mark II' TD2 on eBay

The sellers of this car are convinced this is a Mark II car, since the museum that sold it to them, the Automobile Driving Museum (motto - "The Museum That Takes You for a Ride") said it was. The museum and they are wrong, and it isn't.

Also, it's got 53 fenders and one of those awful stick-on ashtrays on the glove box. If the engine number in the ad is right, it's TD14569, made in March of 1952.

(http://www.ebay.com/itm/MG-T-Series-Left-Hand-Drive-1952-mg-mark-ii-td-midget-roadster-excellent-condition-purchased-from-/201309232812?forcerrptr=true&hash=item2edef71eac&item=201309232812&pt=US_Cars_Trucks)

Tom Lange
MGT Repair
t lange

I'm sure you're right Tom. I also expected to see the wiper motor wire emerge from the LH side of the scuttle, as this is a LHD car. It seems it is on the right as is the case with our RHD cars. I'm curious about this detail as I'm just finishing my windscreen & have seen LHD & RHD cars with both 4 & 8 hole top rails & with the wiper cable emerging from the scuttle on both the left & the right. Be nice to know what the factory protocol was, if indeed there ever was one ... Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

Peter - the LHD cars I have recently seen all have the wire on the right.

Tom
t lange

It has chrome head lights, which may or may not be correct for a 52' depending on when in 52 it was made.
Chrome headlight brackets, suspect!
No bonnet bump for the carbs.

Jim B.
JA Benjamin

Where to start with this one - it's quite a bodge and poor photos don't help.
It's a '52, wiper motor on the passenger side, but as noted by Tom it has '53 rear fenders.
Clearly not a Mark II - single fuel pump, small H2 carbs, no bump on the bonnet right side for the larger H4 carbs, chrome radiator slats are wrong for other than Mark II's.
Other issues, not specific to whether it's Mark II - black firewall inside engine compartment should be body color, black interior (black interior never offered by factory). Can't really make it out in the pictures, but is that some sort of keypad on the glove box door?
Now - if it were a Mark II the $ 25,000 price would be low. For not being a Mark II the price is right for a very clean car - not a concours car, but it should look darned near perfect even to an eye familiar with the TD.
They claim provenance back to original owner - a knowledgeable buyer should be able to get the car number. Engine number is given, but it would not be the first to have had an engine swap.
It's not a bad car - it's below average and generously overpriced. Sounds like a seller who was simply not familiar with TD's on purchase and is now hoping that the magic letters "MG" will monetize nicely.

BobbyG
Bobby Galvez

While surfing through craigslist I found this. Is this a MK II? Mike
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/ctd/4932397359.html
Mike Hart

Mike - it looks like that was a Mark II. It has the bump on the front of the right side of the bonnet for the larger H4 carbs. The front photo shows the Andrex shocks mounted on the A arms. The engine is missinf so one can't see the carbs, and the engine compartment would have shown two fuel pumps mounted on the high right side of the scuttle.
The gearbox housing shown is not the TD unit.
Unfortunately it's missing the engine, but there might be enough there for someone with an engine and gearbox to bring it back as a Mark II.

BobbyG
Bobby Galvez

That is TD/C14792, and genuine. Unfortunately, missing too many parts to bring it back economically, IMHO. Engine, trans, seats and all the rest of the interior, dash and all instruments, radiator, steering wheel, spare wheel, bumpers, and a million smalls. Not restorable for the faint-hearted, even at $2500!
A matching-number TD/C car in the same rough condition but with those parts in place is a MUCH better deal at $6,000!

Tom Lange
MGT Repair
t lange

Since it's 'rust free', I guess somebody must have painted it with a reddish-brown undercoat that's now showing through the paint and dumb irons, etc. Bud
Bud Krueger

Jim B: I'm curious about the switch from chrome to painted headlamps. I thought it was about Oct 1951. My TD was built in late Dec 1951 and had (what I assume were) original painted lamp buckets. Or did some get made with chrome into 1952? I'm curious because I like the shiny headlamps (memories of watching the trees go by in a friend's TC). I recently installed some nice stainless ones from SVC in UK... so I've gone completely inauthentic on this -- but maybe the look is period correct after all? So what was the date of the switchover... or was it one of these kind of erratic changes that MG seems to have sometimes made?
Peter Pope

Take the dates and numbers with a bit of a grain of salt

http://www.mg-cars.org.uk/mgtd/mgtd_production.htm#Feature
Christopher Couper

Re Bud's post on 18 March, I once advertised my Fiat 125 as '$xxxx, Rust Free'. Got about a million inquiries. Said, 'Yes, the car's $xxxx, and the rust it's full of is absolutely free.'

Sold the car OK.

David
David Provan

Peter
My TS was shipped the first week in January of 1952.
It came with painted headlamps.
I have read, here, that some later 52 TD's had chrome ones.

There were resent posts on this subject.

In redoing it I had mine chromed. Which ones were chromed from the factory do not seem to follow any nice rule.
Perhaps its another "Whats available" issue.

Jim B.
JA Benjamin

Jim B: Thanks for the info. I guess peripheral changes (eg lamp buckets) sometimes came in erratically. Your car must be just younger than mine (car no 12498, Engine XPAG TD2 LAX 12869, built 18 Dec 1951).
Cheers, Peter
Peter Pope

This thread was discussed between 16/03/2015 and 29/03/2015

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