I was so excited. I got up at three AM to catch my flight. After
talking to the owner of the 67 BGT that Lawrie posted about I was so
sure that this was going to be a beautiful car that I bought a one-way
ticket for the flight from eastern Washington to Sacramento, CA. Talk
about optimism. When I arrived in Sacramento the owner picked me up at
the airport and on the way to the car he filled me in on all of the good
and bad with the car. He was so excited that he woke up at three AM to
write it all down. He had all of the service records dating from 1973
and the car had been maintained by a mechanic in the local MG club. He
and his wife couldn't have been nicer, more honest people and I was
counting my lucky charms.
Well let me tell you, love is blind. Unfortunately, the car had a bad
respray over bad body work following a minor fender-bender. The chrome
wires were pitted. The car was purported to have "about" a hundred
thousand miles, but the OD stopped working at 40,000. What was left of
the interior showed wear more consistant with 200,000 miles. The
interior restoration needed to be started over again (remember the
thread on how hard it is to do crinkle paint right??) and the resto kit
that went with the car was vinyl when I was under the impression it was
leather. But a rust-free body is enough to overlook minor imperfections
right? So I knelt down to inspect the right front rocker and noticed
the paint was bubbled by rust. A few seconds later my probing fingers
went through the bottom of the sill and the sill crumbled to rust-dust.
Talk about disappointment. I felt bad for pointing out the defects in
their baby. It was a one-owner car that had been Ziebart treated when
it was new, and they truely believed it to be rust-free. The car is in
excellent mechanical shape, and even has a Les Lestor? wheel which was a
dealer option at the time, but that's not what I was looking for.
So I didn't get a new car, I didn't get to go to the autojumble in
Portland,OR which is TODAY :<( but I had a good trip and met some very
nice people :>)
And it has given me a whole new appreciation for my '70 BGT with the
perfect interior restoration, freshly bead-blasted and painted wires,
and not-so-bad paint job. But I'll keep my eyes out for the
garage-queen of a lifetime...
Lonn Howard
'70 TR6 -mine
'71 TR6 -in my garage
'70 MGB GT -ours
'89 Saab Turbo Convertible -hers
"We are but temporary custodians with an obligation of preservation."
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