65 Years On: A Year in the Life of an MG 14/40

Recently, we were delighted to welcome to Moss Motors a friend of ours who owns a very rare MG indeed! Cyril Mellor from Burton-on-Trent in England was our visitor and he is the proud (and fortunate) owner of a 1928 MG 14/40. An MG, by the way, which was not built at Abingdon, but at Longwall Street in Oxford!

Cyril graciously agreed to our request for further information on this magnificent machine which is used almost daily in summer, and here’s what he told our scribe…

The car was first spotted by my eldest son, Neil, an enthusiastic modern Midget owner. It was in an open-fronted outbuilding adjoining the house of a Lagonda enthusiast in Suffolk. The story is that the 14/40 had been exchanged for a Lagonda body!

On seeing the car, the first truly vintage MG I’d ever seen, the idea of rebuilding it, providing it could be purchased, appealed to me immensely since my retirement was approaching and I had spare garage space, provided I parted with my weekend car, a 1500cc Midget.

After some months of frequent inquiries, I was invited down to Suffolk again to open negotiations, and my second view of the car made me very aware of the task that rebuilding would entail. Mechanically, it was sound, but the body—oh dear! However, I was determined to have a shot at it and a deal was struck. Not quite the bargain it seemed at the time, but upon reflection, it was really.

Down to Suffolk again, but this time with a trailer, and I returned home with my MG—or what there was of it! It’s a pity I did not have a camera handy when I pulled up in the drive at home, not to photograph the car’s arrival, but to record the look on my wife Elma’s face when she saw what I had bought!

Contact with the Vintage MG Register of the MG Car Club revealed that XV 9508 was the oldest of the four known remaining Mk IV two-seater cars in existence, and I was given photos of a similar car which now resides in the York Museum in Australia. The National Motor Museum at Beaulieu also provided me with a couple of photographs of this other car prior to it being shipped out to Australia.

Armed with this information, plus some unbounded enthusiasm, I removed all the body panels that some previous owner had fitted, using 16-gauge aluminum and odd angle strips of metal, all held together by an assortment of tin tacks and brass screws!

A new floor was fabricated, the ash frame of the duck tail reshaped, and the dickey seat was narrowed until it looked right when compared to the photographs. From the doors forward, it presented no real problems, since it is almost identical with the four-seater model, and by this time I had met several four-seater owners and had been able to compare notes.

Repaneling commenced and I was helped enormously by a neighbor who, through his employers, was able to supply ample aluminum sheer at modest cost! The comparatively easy bits on each side of the scuttle were done first, since they have but a single curve, all the edges being annealed before being flanged over shaped timber formers. For our younger readers, the annealing was achieved by heating up the metal with a blowtorch until a black mark was left on the sheet when rubbed with a spent match. Who needs a pyrometer?!

The old saying, “measure twice, cut once” came into play on tackling the rear and side panels. By the time it came to paneling the doors, my fingers were devoid of fingerprints as a result of handling the hot aluminum, gloves having been discarded as being useless when trying to pick up panel securing pins with them on! The door skins, having a compound curve, required that they be annealed all over and then flanged and crimped down on the door frame while still b****y hot! The encore was to try and make the second door look a total match to the first one. This was achieved, but it took rather longer—two days longer, in fact!

By now, winter had set in, and I retired to the spare bedroom to give myself some sewing machine lessons. Part of the seat upholstery still existed, and this was carefully unpicked and copied. The dickey seat was reupholstered and the door and other trim panels made up. I made every effort to keep all these things as authentic as I possibly could.

As the days grew warmer, I returned to the garage, overhauling the clutch and dynostarter, checking the crankshaft and bearings, the magneto, etc., so that on its 60th birthday I could start it up and drive it out of the garage and back for the first time. No radiator, no exhaust or fenders, but at least it started up and was driveable!

The rear fenders that came with the car were correct, but the front fenders were a shambles. New inner panels had to be fabricated and the rear 18″ reshaped, most of the reshaping being done over a spare wheel rim and tack welded a little at a time. Once again, the second set took a lot longer than the first set to complete in order to achieve a marching pair.

New bonnet sides were then made up, the side louvers being formed for me by a local sheet metal shop. That task and the 8-foot-long side valances were the only contracted jobs on the whole rebuild. I next made up the running boards and built the silencer, while at the same time completing the rewiring of the electrics. Then came, for me, the least enjoyable part of the job, that of preparing and painting—a long and tedious task.

By the time this was completed, I had made contact with another 14/40 two-seater owner in Dublin who supplied me with details of his car, which has been in Ireland since 1936 and is in very original condition. He kindly sent me photographs of his car including one with the top up—a very rare sight indeed!

Then it was back to the hacksaw and welding to rebuild what was left of the top frame. Up to the spare room again for more sewing, only this time, the material was a bit thicker, and as it came together, more difficult to handle. Here again the old adage “measure twice, cut once,” was the order of the day.

So it was that on my wife’s birthday we took the 14/40 out for the first time and won first prize at our village show—on the hottest day of the year! We’ve been having fun with the old girl ever since. Trips on various runs around England, tours to the Continent and a memorable excursion to New England (with the car!) for the Triple M Raid in 1991. I don’t think concours events are really my scene. It’s far more enjoyable to be driving the car than wiping off some sticky finger marks in some corner of the show field!

As the MG nears her 67th birthday, we again are planning to take her to Holland for the Dutch MG Car Club’s Silver Jubilee. Meanwhile, I’m off for another cup of tea, and then I think I’ll check the tires in readiness for the start of another great season of vintage motoring—14/40 style!

—Cyril K. Mellor

(A few technical notes on the MG 14/40—Tour cylinders with a capacity of lS02cc, a single Solex carburetor and a wet cork clutch. The power unit produced about 35 bhp and 4000 rpm and massive 12″ drum brakes brought the car to a stop!—Ed.)