On Mon, 05 Feb 2001, David Councill wrote:
> 2. Or if you are cheap like me, you fix up the mechanicals and drive the
> hell out of the car, the hell with the appearance and rust. So long as you
> buy the car to drive and not to sell, you will find the car to be
> incredibly cheap buy if you keep it for at least five or more years. I
> drove my well rusted 71 BGT for 17 years - bought it for $2000 (not a good
> price), one engine overhaul, two transmission overhauls, various other
> parts including three sets of 6 volt batteries. I probably had less than
> $6000 overall in cost and parts total over those years and still got $2000
> back from the insurance company after my son wrecked it. And that $4000
> difference is less than a year or two depreciation on a new American car -
> money gone into the wind.
I have only one problem with the Damn The Rust way of doing things. There's
a limited amount of Older B's out there, I'd much rather see someone save
one.
I've followed the Preserving the Breed thread and I'm not talking about
Concours. My 73B is getting an overhaul that's going to include Fiero Seats,
60's style chrome grille, 60's style chrome (non rubber padded) overriders
on the bumper, etc. Probably a Custom Dash and Center Console. In the long
run a 5 speed Waterloo transmission conversion. I've already switched from
two 6v to a single 12v size 26 battery.
What I'd hate though, is to have someone take a car like a 65 (Which may be
a pull handle, right?) which is much rarer than my 73, and have someone
drive it into the ground until the rust gets really bad and someone decides
it's not driveable anymore and sends it to the crusher. At that point the
only options are a Heritage Reshell, or moving the VIN plates to a rust free
chassis. All of which could be avoided if someone took some time to fix it
up to begin with.
I'm no zealot by any means, but we're dealing with a vanishing and non
renewable resource. If we truly love these cars, we should do what we can to
make sure that 1965 MGB's are still driving the roads in 2065.
________________________________________________________________________
| Chris Thompson ct@cthompson.com |
| 1973 MGB http://cthompson.com/mg/ |
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