A very different rebuild story ……
A very different rebuild story . . . I am writing this as an encouragement to the less able bodied members (if there are any) of the MGOC. Let me explain, I had to retire a little early due to becoming disabled. I will not bore you with the details, only to say that I have a mobility problem. I can’t stand for long or walk very far and shopping trips are made by wheel chair, my body movements at times are clockwork and erratic and I have a tremor in my right hand, otherwise as they say I am perfect.
The car in its hand painted green awaiting refurbishment
My story begins about 2 years ago when I was forced to give up my yacht because it was just getting too dangerous to sail it. Walking on deck with a walking stick in one hand and sail and rope in the other is just not on when out to sea, especially when the sea is rough and I was becoming a worry to my wife. It was about this time when my health took one of its turns for the worse and I was feeling low and depressed. Now, I believe one’s state of mind has an influence on one’s health and I decided that I needed something to occupy my mind, so I turned to my other love which was sports cars. It must be easier to drive a sports car than a yacht and at least it would be hard to fall overboard and I can drive it by myself. I decided on an MGB roadster and the hunt was on, but as usual, there is never one for sale in your area when you want one.
So I bought an MG Midget 1500 which was mechanically sound but a little untidy. Great fun was had with this little car and my love for sports cars increased and my wife loved it also. Then one day while at the local garage for a MOT on the Midget there was a rather sad looking MGB roadster, hand painted a horrible green and parked at the side of the garage. I enquired about it and was told it had failed the MOT for rust and was for sale. The lads in the workshop pushed the MGB onto the garage lift for me to inspect the underside. After a few phone calls to the owner and I had bought the MGB and I brought it home.
gress engine masked up
My wife was not very impressed at first but after sitting in it, said there was more room inside than the Midget and it would be alright perhaps when it was done up. However, my wife was not sure if I should attempt the rebuild, declaring that she thought it was too much for me. I said, let me give it a try and if I can’t do it then I would take the MG to a specialist somewhere and get it repaired. So the car was driven into my workshop where I have a very old 4-post lift and then I began the work by stripping it down.
I soon realised the size of the task and the difficulty I was to face because of my health. Both sills and the front of the floor pans were very rusty with the rust in the sills being covered by the stainless steel trims and not noticeable until they were removed. A plan of action was drawn up, I decided to set myself a work target for each day and stick to it. Not being able to stand for too long a large part of the work was done by sitting on a cushion on top of a 5 gall oil drum and I raised and lowered the lift to the right height for me to work at.
Work was slow but eventually all the rust was cut out and a phone call and conversation with a very helpful and pleasant chap at the MGOC spares department and 2 days latter all the panels I needed were on my doorstep. This is where I encountered a problem, I have a mig welder but I also have a tremor in my right hand. As I am normally right handed I had to learn to weld with my left hand and I was surprised to find that I managed to produce neat and tidy welds. The old paint was all stripped off with Nitromors stripper and the body prepared and primed ready for painting. But at this point I took a turn for the worse, brought on by me overdoing it, so I had to take a rest.
Rebuild in progress engine masked up
While resting and reading the monthly magazine ‘Enjoying MG’ I noticed adverts for holidays in France and as I had never been to France I thought it would be nice for my wife and I to take the MGB to France for a week’s holiday. My wife was not so sure, with the thought of a couple of oldies; with one of them disabled, driving in an old car in a foreign country. Anyway, she took some convincing that everything would be OK. A phone call to France to Janet Martin and a gite was booked for a week at the end of June 2000. Another phone call to MGOC Travel and a very helpful man booked my ferry to St. Malo and also saved me some money. The pressure was now on to finish and road test the car by the end of June ready for our holiday. This meant that there was only about two months to go before the off. So I made a trip to my local paint factors and I bought the paint in the correct shade of red for the year of the car and waited for a nice warm day to re-spray the car. I gave it five coats of paint, leaving the shell to harden a bit for a week before starting the rebuild.
Even more parts and a boot rack were ordered from MGOC spares but unfortunately the boot rack was out of stock. We left Weymouth about 7.30 am but due to some engine trouble with the ferry we did not arrive at St. Malo until late afternoon. Our 180 mile drive down through France was trouble free arriving at the gite late in the evening where we met our hosts Janet and Neil who very kindly gave us a nice bottle of wine to drink before bed. Our holiday was great, the sun shone, we had the roof down the whole of the time, the accommodation was good and our hosts Janet and Neil were very friendly and helpful. We also met John Day and his wife with the MG 18/80 featured in the June issue of ‘Enjoying MG’; what a superb car and a very nice and friendly couple.
Two things we learnt on our holiday in France, one, if you drive a MGB with the roof down while wearing shorts you get very sore sun burn on your legs. The other thing is that even when you leave home loaded to overflowing with luggage in an MGB there is still room for 2 cases of wine on the return journey, “funny that”. Maybe it was because our gite was next door to a champion wine maker.
On holiday in France after a restoration job well done
In conclusion, would I do it again? The answer is yes but next time I would pace myself a little better and not impose a time limit. The most useful tools, well to me anyway, was my telescopic magnet for retrieving all the nuts and screws etc that I managed to drop in the most awkward of places and my magnetic screwdriver with its socket attachments. This article is also aimed at the many people I see who advertise their sports cars for sale due to age or illness; well I bought mine because of age and illness and don’t regret it one bit. I am not suggesting it was easy, it was very hard work and it put me in bed to recover on several occasions. This was because I tried to do too much. On the other hand it did my mind a power of good. I no longer feel useless because I am disabled and as long as I have the MGB I have a constant reminder of what I managed to achieve despite my physical problems which can only be a good thing. I hope that this article will give encouragement to the less able bodied members of MGOC.
Fred Chilcott