Every car featured here at Barn Finds has a story. Some are sad tales of being left to rot under the dreaded blue tarp. Others are happy stories where, despite the odds, a special car has managed to survive for decades, hidden away from the world. This 1958 MG MGA 1500 for sale on Craigslist in Vancouver, British Columbia, is one of those great survival stories. Having lived its life on an island, it was disassembled for restoration in 1974. For whatever reason, that restoration stalled until it was rescued in the nineties. Finally, it was completed in 2004. Well, almost. The car still needs a lot of sorting. With an $18,500 asking price, is this Glacier Blue MGA a sports car you can take across the finish line when it comes to sorting? Thanks to Curvette for the awesome tip on this Rip Van Winkle sports car!
Imagine spending the sixties and early seventies living on an island near Vancouver with a jaunty little MGA as your primary transportation. While the winters would be abominable, the spring, fall, and summer would likely provide more than a few perfect days to motor around with the top off in one of the prettiest places in the world. That appears to have been the scenario for whoever owned this 1958 MGA. Despite the salt air and the propensity of MGs to rust as if they were paid to do so, the car managed to survive and, presumably, manage its assignment with a minimum of fuss. That is, until 1974. It was then disassembled, and a frame-off restoration began. It must have been a bit of a slow process, as progress finally ground to a halt in the early 1990s. This poor MGA then unceremoniously sat until it was finally reassembled on the mainland in 2024.
What remains is the original car with all of its parts restored. The problem is that the restoration date of each component is in question. According to the seller, the Glacier Blue paint and the upholstery are 26 years old. As for the other parts and pieces, no date is mentioned. Perhaps the seller is not sure themselves. What they do know is that there are no body or frame rust issues. The car also runs and drives, but the engine and all of the mechanicals still need to be sorted out. It has officially been off the road for 50 long years.
There is a laundry list of restored and/or replaced parts. It rolls on a new set of Dayton triple lace wire wheels, and a new wiring harness carries the juice from the new battery outward. It also has a new braking system, steering rack, tie rod ends, kingpins, fuel pump, radiator, and a fresh exhaust system. The recently rebuilt engine also carries all of the fresh parts such an endeavor requires. Items such as the generator, starter motor, and the SU carburetors have been refurbished as well. As previously mentioned, it will still require tuning and tweaking to run perfectly.
The new owner will also need a truck to carry away the abundant spare parts that will come with this MGA. Among these parts and pieces are the original wire wheels complete with a set of vintage bias-ply may-pop tires and tubes, a set of wire whell knock offs, two convertible tops, a set of side curtains, a new starter, a set of shock absorbers, over riders (what are these?), some carburetors, a distributor, and a fuel pump. As for body parts and trim, a grille, a luggage rack, a badge bar, some specialty tools, and various gadgets will all be included. There is sadly no mention of any jars of genuine Lucas wire smoke being included.
The picture above shows the car in its heyday, presumably on the aforementioned island it called home. It is hard not to smile when you examine the photograph closely and imagine what it must have been like to live there at that time. We want to think that life was simpler then, but it probably wasn’t. Problems and worries exist in every time period. This MG was, however, a good temporary cure for such issues back then. After a little elbow grease and a lot of patience, it would be nice to see this car working its magic on a new generation of sports car lovers. MGAs are great cars, and returning this car to the road would warm a lot of hearts. It would also be the right thing to do if you believe in karma. 50 years is too long for such a car to hibernate.
Have you ever owned an MGA? How difficult would it be to return this beautiful blue example to running and driving condition? Please share your memories and thoughts in the comments.
That last pic reminds me of “The Birds”,( I know, hers was an Aston Martin),and the present color may be okay for the yupps in S.Cal.( everything, seemingly, in S.Cal. is this aqua), and I like the original color much better. While technically, it was a complete change from the spindly T series, it never caught on like MGB did. To illustrate, I read 101,000 MGAs were made, oddly, 94,000 of those came to the US. In contrast, the MGB was far more successful with 523,836 sold globally, and 380,000 of those came to the US. Holds true for yours truly, while the MGA never did anything for me, the MGB was perfect. Color aside, this really is a nice car, however,( oh, here it comes) interest for British roadsters has tanked considerably, I look for this stuff on FB, and the same cars advertised last summer, are still available with the “slash” on the price, often times HALF the original price. This one of those cars the seller is hoping for that one person( from S.Cal.) that will bite, otherwise,,start slashing.
While the MGA looked sleeker and more modern than the TCs, TDs, and TFs that preceded it, it was a rather primitive car otherwise. Wooden floor boards, plastic or canvas side curtains, no synchro in 1st, drum brakes, 6 volt positive ground, limited heat and defrost, low powered engine. I’ve commented before on my 59 that I renovated. It was fun to drive and easy to work on. This one looks like a good starting point but there’s no money to be made at the asking price…if you’re looking to have some fun and then sell it. The MGBs were not as cute (IMO) but were much more modern mechanically and otherwise. That’s not to say that MGBs didn’t have their Lucas and rusting issues, and need upkeep on a regular basis. But it does explain why, in part, they sold so many more copies, and for over a decade with few changes.
Positive ground, but 12-volt system, using two 6-volt batteries you can’t find today (those wacky Brits). Agree that $18.5k is likely all the money and then some for this one that still needs sorting. There was one on local FB Marketplace recently for $15k (reduced from $19.5k), with an MGB engine and overdrive. It looked ready to use and sold quickly at the lowered price. I might have gone for it if I had the room (owned two in the past) and were a couple of decades younger.
Hi Vance, 6 volt batteries are available, and naturally I was SHOCKED at the prices, $139.95 at Tractor Supply. Somehow, $29.95 was the memory. My ’71 MGB had 2-6volts and was negative “earth”.( since 1968)
It’s a nice looking A and looks to be a well done driver. I’m not so sure of the price though as the market for these (like most British mid range cars) is disappearing. I still like them but I am in my 70’s. I’m not a lover of the whitewalls on these and while the wire wheels are nice, I prefer the steel wheels and hub caps. As with many things in time, these are slowly going ‘by the wayside’. You can’t really drive them on busy highways anymore. These are now cars that can only be driven comfortably on back roads doing 45-50 MPH. Todays SUV drivers do not tolerate that!
My first car was an MGA in the 80’s. It was a father son project with my dad. I had another one later on that I switched from steel wheels to wire wheels. Hindsight tells me that switch wasn’t worth the effort. If that last picture is of the original car then the owner has done the same. Finding people to mount tires on wires, and straighten them if you hit, a curb is hard and expensive.
To Howards point, the ‘B’ was probably better mechanically than the ‘A’ because the next generation should be better. But I much prefer the style of the ‘A’. As for numbers, ‘B’ production ran almost 3 times longer. We should probably expect to see significantly more production.
Also, @Howard A, we should grab a coffee at Romeo’s the next time I’m in town. I would love to put a face to the name.
50 years ago I restored a 62 MGA (lug hub) to a high level….. some years later i put it on Dayton bolt on wire wheels…. much easier than all the change over… owned it for 27 years altogether. Only walked once… ran it out of gas.. for some reason the Lucas gremlins never visited it…
’58 MGA, most fun car I ever had, when it was running. Grad school student in late 60’s driving all over the SF Bay Area, periodically breaking down, including once on The SF Bay Bridge, once inside the tunnel through the Berkeley Hills. Still I loved it. Had to drive to Colorado one summer for a ranch job in central part of the state and knew it wouldn’t make it so sold it and bought a ’57 VW with 120 k miles….no problems.
Still would like to have another MGA though…beautiful cars.
“Overriders”, you know those two chrome things mounted to the skinny bumpers that might keep another bumper from riding over it.
Car is probably worth $18,500. Most of the difficult stuff is done and evidently minor adjustments needed to make it a good driver. Im currently deep into a MGACoupe restoration and have already put more into the car than it’s probably worth but it will be a nice driver. I don’t think folks realize how much money it cost to rehabilitate an old car. Be careful when you think pennies will do the job when folding money ,and lots of it, will be required. If you like a car go for it and enjoy the fruits of your labor.
Dad owned a ’57 that he sold in 1964 to a teenager who wrapped it around a tree a week later! He used to put both me and my younger brother in the front seat together and since the doors didn’t have door locks, my Mom tied the passenger side door shut with clothesline, so we wouldn’t pull on the door release cable and fall out of the car! This was long before NHTSA and seatbelts were installed in cars, let alone child safety seats, LOL!
According to Dad, this was the substitute for the Mercedes 300SL he wanted to buy, but the bank wouldn’t loan him the money for! Rats!
$18500 Canadian is $13200 US if that makes a difference to anyone. MG’s, A or B are both fun run around cars but not for fast travel on the highway as Joe Mec said.
Nice car! I have a very similar MGA. My paint is VW Miami Blue, and looks almost just like your pics. And I have a blue everflex tonneau, and top. My interior is black cloth, and my wheels aren’t wire’s but it’s all very similar. Nice car.
Curvette,
I beg your pardon – the MGB with overdrive is very comfortable at interstate speeds. I have run my B/GT for days on end at 75-80 mph without breaking a sweat. I will agree with you regarding the MGA, although they will cruise at much more than 45-50 mph. My TD – with an MGA rear end – would cruise nicely at 60. An MGA 1600 must be good for 65 or even 70, although I can’t speak for them. The MGA 1500 and 1600 engines were externally almost identical to the MGB 1800, making the swap a very easy bolt-in job, and more than a few MGA owners have done it. Alongside of one of the elegant five-speed gearbox conversions now available and an MGB 3.9 rear end and you have a fast, comfortable, fun turnpike cruiser reliably capable of even coast-to-coast trips. I have MGA-owning friends who do it annually. Granted, these cars are much more fun on twisty backroads, but they’re also good at getting you there and back – even when “there” is two or three thousand miles away.
Eric, Yeah, the wooden floorboards were rather primitive – although they didn’t rust out! ;-). But what American cars in the ’50s had synchros on first gear? Nobody expected to shift into first with the car moving – that is until VW permeated the US market circa 1960.
FWIW…
Allen, that was a comparison to the MGB being much less primitive, not in comparison to what was generally available at the time.
Also, my 59 did 60-65 without complaint, but I certainly wouldn’t want to drive it for any distance. The seats were not very comfortable and the flat floorboard (similar to the first Etypes and a major complaint) were not comfortable either. That doesn’t even begin to cover the side curtains and poor heating/defrosting systems. Cross-country? On a flatbed maybe.
Sorry for the assumption Allen, I’ve only driven a B without overdrive. To me the B-GT is one of the best styled sports cars of the period.
Curvette and Eric,
Well I could have responded more gently – ‘sorry ‘bout that. Just for your ammusement: an MGB without OD will run 18 mph per 1000 rpm. Speaking just for myself, an MGB engine sounds unstressed up to about 3500 rpm. Somewhere between 3500 and 4000 rpm I find it unpleasant to hear. Many experienced MGA-B owners tell me these engines are perfectly happy up to 4000 – even 4500 rpm, but I can’t stand to listen to them. So at 3500 rpm, an MGB runs 63 mph without OD, but with OD, it runs nearly 79 mph. Quite a difference! That puts the MGB safely into interstate traffic – where it will do more than just keep up.
“Comfortable” is a subjective term, I must admit. That which is one man’s punishment might be another man’s delight. I guess I’m of the latter persuasion. But maybe that’s because I feel more guilt than some others and feel like I deserve the punishment???
LOL, no one on Barn Finds deserves punishment. We’re all good people. Besides our cars are sometimes enough punishment for a lifetime.
Back in the very early 80s, before I worked shadetree to put myself through a 2nd tortuous grad school program, I worked in a garage owned by a Brazilian guy. He had a 67 or 68 MGB that he was restoring. He pulled the engine and had it blueprinted and balanced. He regularly popped it up to 6000 rpm. Don’t know how long it lasted because I couldn’t stand him and left.
‘Just realized I left out some needed info. First of all, to be clear, there are the kind of rpms we momentarily touch on as we go through the gears accelerating, and then there is the rpm at which we steadily cruise. I don’t like to cruise above 3500 rpm. That does not mean I won’t exceed 3500 rpm while accelerating!
Next: 18 mph per 1000 rpm only occurs in fourth gear. I neglected to mention that in fourth gear overdrive the 18 mph goes up to approximately 22-1/2 mph per 1000 rpm. At my optimum cruising rpm of 3500 rpm, without overdrive multiply 18X3.5= 63 mph. With overdrive, 22-1/2X3.5= 78.75 mph. This is all in fourth gear, of course.