Leopold...

Rose Colored Glasses

MGAs aren't easy to come by. There were over 100,000 built, but most have now rotted away, been wrapped around trees, ransacked for parts, or otherwise put out to pasture long ago.

I got a tip from a buddy that there was a complete MGA down in Hackensack. I could have it for a good price if I didn't mind putting it back together. This is what we found there. It had been driven into that spot in 1980 and hadn't moved since. I filled up the tires and rolled it out of the indentations it had left in the asphalt to have a better look. The door laying over the interior was some kind of creative way of keeping the weather out of the interior; it didn't work.

I worked up the courage to remove the bungee cord and see what was beneath the aluminum hood..excuse me, bonnet.

It wasn't pretty. Someone had partially dis-assembled the thing. The radiator, fan, pulley, belt, air filters, etc... were gone. What was there was severly corroded, as I would be if left outside for 25 years.

But I had my rose colored glasses on, so we loaded it only a dolly and dragged it home. The rest of the property was littered with 3 Jaguars, a Maserati, a Triumph, a Corvette, and some sort of Austin.

A good scrubbing was the first order of business.

The trim rings, lenses, etc... had also been removed (and lost).

The guy who lent me the dolly gave me strict instructions not to back up with a car on it (he had lost one this way). My garage is at the top of a hill, with nowhere to turn around so I had to wait for help to arrive.

We happened to have a lot of people over that night for a party, so everybody got to take a ride. The wrench sticking up from the crank pulley was an unsuccesful attempt to get the engine to turn.

Posted by leo at October 9, 2005 07:59 AM