Bob’s Garage – Restorations: The New Generation

This was supposed to be the first of a two part series comparing four popular carburetor setups for MGBs. Unfortunately, the test car has developed a terminal case of rod knock, or some other equally nasty condition, which precludes any further driving for the time being. I had completed two of the four test cycles, but all the data collected so far will be of no value when the engine has been rebuilt. Therefore, the Great Carb Shootout (Carb Wars for short) has been put on hold for a while.

Never fear though, in my continuing efforts to bring you the world I have the following news…

As of this writing, the MGB is back in production—well, almost. British Motor Heritage has started producing 1968-’74 specification body shells for sale in England. Unlike the MGA shell, which is being produced by Moss Spares on a one-at-a-time basis, production of the MGB shell is expected to reach 200 units per year. Because of the significantly higher production quantities, pricing will be far more attractive than a handmade MGA body shell could ever hope to be. But we’ll talk about pricing later.

Just because the MGB went out of production eight years ago doesn’t mean it has lost any of its appeal, particularly in England. In fact. MGBs are a full on cult car, highly sought after by young professionals, collectors, and anyone who loves open air motoring. To the British, an MGB is a perfectly modern, road worthy automobile. The B’s popularity has taken its toll on the number of cars remaining in circulation, between salted roads in the winter and general attrition through accidents and so on, the supply of good MGBs has dried up. One look at an English classified section will show prices often double those generally considered normal in this country.

Against this background of high demand and short supply, the odds of a remanufacturing program being successful look pretty good. With this in mind, BMH dug out the original body tooling, rehired a number of former Pressed Steel employees (the maker of MGB body shells) and went into production. Although the first batch is slated for delivery in England, we will be getting some here before too long. BMH hopes to produce the late 1974 1/2 through ’80 rubber bumper cars as well. The prospect of a brand new body could well change the definition of the word restoration. Consider some of these possibilities.

A new car is always much tighter structurally than one with tens of thousands of miles on it, particularly in a roadster where structural integrity is a problem in the first place. To bring an old body shell back up to snuff can require hundreds or even thousands of dollars worth of rebuilding. Have you ever seen a rusty B roadster whose doors have a bigger gap at the bottom than at the top. This is not uncommon, especially in the salt belt states. That funny door gap is the sign of a structure that is literally bending in the middle. I can’t count the number of MGBs I’ve seen where the owner’s desire to replace the rocker panels has led to a complete structural rebuild. Remember, if you can see through the rocker and the panel behind it, you’re essentially looking through the frame. There’s more to it than that, but the sill forms a major part of the car’s total structure. If the outer metal is badly rotted, you can guarantee that much of the inner metal is rotten too. A good welder is expensive and often quite hard to find. Rust repairs will eat up a large chunk of a restoration budget.

Here is an idea which makes the prospect of using a new body shell quite attractive. How often have you seen partially completed restorations for sale in a club magazine or the local classifieds? A complete restoration takes time, space and good organizational skills. Many people take a car apart (I love taking things apart) and then realize the extent to which they have committed themselves. Many a good intention has been negated by the reality of 2,000 bits and pieces scattered about the garage floor. An awful lot of

restorations die at this stage. If only there were a more practical way of going about it. Normally, for a frame up restoration you have to start at the frame, right? This means taking everything off to get there. Curiosity then drives many of us to disassemble the remaining bits to “ascertain their condition.” Net result: a mass of parts on the floor and all too often no clear picture of how to go about putting them back together. What if you could restore one part at a time and immediately reinstall it on the car? There is less stuff scattered about the garage, you can see your progress (very important psychologically), it’s easier to remember how things came apart and how they should go back on, and (my favorite) there is no chassis to scrape or rust damage to repair.

Rather than taking your old car completely apart, why not take off one item, rebuild it and then install it on a clean new body shell? Now you can move on to the next item without having to worry about how the last one came apart or where to store things while they wait for the reassembly stage. To go one step further, you could buy new and rebuilt items from Moss and create what amounts to a brand new car. You will still need a number of items off your old car, such as doors, windshield frame, top frame, brackets and so on, but a terrific job can be done much less painfully than you ever thought possible.

By the time you read this, a car will have been constructed at a show in England over a period of only three days. We’ll have a report on it in the next issue. The idea is to demonstrate how easy it can be to have a completely restored car. I feel that a “transfer” restoration will be the wave of the future for MGB owners. The price of a good MGB in England not only makes this practical, but actually quite logical. The value of MGBs in the States, combined with the horror of dealing with a badly rusted example makes the idea quite viable here too. Just think, rather than looking for a good clean example to start with, you can look for a cheap, bent up old rust bucket and come out with a better car. For those of us who qualify as lazy and disorganized, a new MGB body shell is a great idea.