After returning this 1975 MGB to the road through some extensive work, the seller has tested the car for over 500 miles before offering it for sale! It’s listed here in our Barn Finds Classifieds and is priced at $6,850. The car is located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
There were 387,184 MGB Tourers (convertibles) produced between May of 1962 and October of 1980. As a Feburary 1975 car, this is one of the first cars with the “rubber bumpers” front and rear. It looks quite clean, straight, and complete. The seller has replaced the fuel pump and tank, carburetor, fuel lines, and the entire brake system. They have also installed a new distributor and heater valve. Those are new tires and tubes on the wire wheels as well.
I don’t know if this is the original paint or not, but it is an original color. British Leyland had a rather unusual color palette in the 1970s. The wire wheels set it off nicely, though.
Unfortunately, there is some rust showing in the “dogleg” area, a commonplace spot for MGB rust. You’ll have to decide if it’s worth repairing it or not. The crease in the door might be difficult to get out as well, although second-hand doors are pretty common.
The interior looks great for its age as well, and it’s helped by new carpets and new door panels. Even though I’m a Triumph fan (think Ford vs. Chevy for you ‘Merican car lovers) I admire the straightforward layout of the late MGB dash.
The 1798 cc B-Series four-cylinder looks pleasingly original minus an air pump. There’s also a Lucas “Sports” coil now on the fender. Overall this looks like a pleasant car to spend the summer in — when we have a summer to spend it in! What do you think?
You could spend your money in far worse ways than this one. The 500 mile cruise is nice, and rust not too bad? But given my experience with tubes and wire wheels, PASS. A nice set of alloys with some good rubber would be a better choice. The color works, cinnamon crush?
You can actually get spline-drive alloys now, although they aren’t cheap.
That’s Randy car from YouTube auto auctions rebuilds
Nice original car
Damn this car looks familiar. I didn’t see it at his house in his last video.
If it wasn’t for the bumpers, this was my ’71. I put 1/4 mil on that car until it broke in half. And for the record, I didn’t think the electrics were any different than any other car. A certain Jeep Cherokee comes to mind. No mention of O/D, which in ’75, I believe was still on the wiper stalk. I’d get a chuckle if this had O/D and the owner never knew it. I agree, wires look nice, but I’d never get a car with them again, and changing to disc wheels is quite a job. Great find, and a good price. They really are fun, dependable cars.
The owner hasn’t had the car very long. He did make a lot of videos of the car fixing it.
I’ve had plenty of wire wheels, and if you put the correct splines on the correct side, they function well and are significantly lighter than steel wheels. MGBs are great fun and this one is priced to sell. The rubber bumpers are heavy, and can be removed with a wrench, but you’ll never see them when you’re behind the wheel. Besides, you won’t have to worry about parallel parking. Go ahead, buy it; you’ll love it.
It was the weekly flats I grew tired of. Also, if by some miracle, a wheel didn’t have a flat for a while, gunk would build up in the splines and more than once, couldn’t get the wheel off. Grease or Neverseize helped but made a mess. Also, after so many miles, the spokes began to wear in the hub, hard to keep balanced, just a pain all around. I wanted to switch it over to steel wheels, but that required different axles and front spindles, it just wasn’t worth it. Now, what Jamie said, wheels with a spline center, that could work.
would it be possible to post some underneath pictures
Spline center aluminum Minilite style wheels are available from Moss Motors. The metal to put on the front and rear to get rid of all that rubber is available too.