You have just described the position I was in when I bought my '65
Mk3 Sprite. Since then, I've loved every minute of it even when I
hated it. Regardless of what mark or year you buy, buy the best you
can afford - little or no rust (look under the car, under the
carpets, and in the boot) and no major system problems (everyone says
the mechanicals are easy, and they are, once you've fixed them once
or thrice! - but, there is no substitute for a well-maintained
system). Try to get an experienced person to look over candidate cars
with you; there are many Canadians on this list who might be able to
help. It took me 8 months of searching to find a car in good shape,
but with the exception of one evening, one morning, and projects that
I initiated, the car has been on the road _everyday_ in Atlanta
traffic since May '97. If I had more money, I'd buy one for my wife
(she drives mine too damn fast!).
You might consider looking far afield if no locals appear - there are
several list members whose opinions I would trust for inspecting a
distance candidate. That's a big leap, though.
Good luck,
Jeff
At 5:05 PM -0300 6/28/00, Brad Stevenson wrote:
>Hi all,
>
>I've been lurking on your group for a few days now, so I thought it only
>polite to introduce myself.
>
>My name is Brad Stevenson and I live in Eastern Canada. I've been an LBC fan
>ever since I was I teenager, but for reasons of practicality I've never
>owned one. I currently don't have a garage at my house or an abundance of
>extra $$, however by this time next year I plan on being in a position where
>I have a garage and perhaps a little extra money to spend on some
>non-necessities. So, for now I'm doing my research to try and minimize any
>huge blunders when I go to purchase my first LBC.
>
>The things I consider to be important in a little sports car would be
>1 Performance
>2 Looks
>3 Price
>4 Availability and price of parts
>5 Availability of resources (advice, tech books, local mechanics, etc)
>
>Living where I do, there's not a lot to choose from. I'm prepared to do a
>little traveling to get something worth while. I'm certainly not a mechanic,
>but I'm not completely mechanically declined either. Given a book, I can
>usually learn to do anything. I would say my budget to get started will be
>less than $5000. This car isn't intended to be my only vehicle, so down time
>won't be a problem.
>
>Alright, so I'll just get to the questions:
>
>- Is this just crazy for some one of average mechanic ability and who can't
>afford to have a 'real' mechanic always working on my vehicle?
>
>- I guess given the things that are important to me, I'm leaning towards say
>67 - 74 MG Midget. This seems like a reasonable entry level purchase, based
>on what I've read so far, but I'd like to hear what the voices of experience
>have to say. Hopefully not "My God man, don't buy one of them!"
>
>- Any specifics books you recommend I read over the next few months?
>
>I picked this car because they seem reasonably priced. Reasonably plentiful,
>so there should be some parts around. They are a damn fine looking car, and
>seem to have a bit more guts than some of the earlier Spridgets.
>
>Anyway, I'd sure appreciate any advice/words of wisdom anyone might wish to
>share. Also, if anyone would like to take the time to give their thoughts on
>a compare and contrast discussion around Midget vs MGB (given the criteria
>above), I'd be real interested in listening. Possibly same discussion on
>Spridget vs. TR6?
>
>All right, time to take a breath.
>
>Thanks for taking the time to read this lengthy post! I truly look forward
>to hearing your comments and opinions.
>
>Brad
_____________________________________________________________
Jeffrey H. Boatright, PhD
Assistant Professor, Emory Eye Center, Atlanta, GA, USA
Senior Editor, Molecular Vision, http://www.molvis.org/molvis
mailto:jboatri@emory.edu
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