I don’t know why, but we see a lot of MGAs that have been abandoned while seemingly intact. These pretty little cars don’t deserve this fate! This one has been rescued from many decades of garage storage as pictured above and is now for sale here on eBay. It’s current location is in a car port in Sykesville, Maryland and bidding is up to just over $2,000 without a reserve.
As you can see, the seller has removed the car from storage and cleaned it up a little for sale. My compliments to the seller for taking pictures that do such a good job of illustrating the good, the bad…and the ugly. Although the car has been in storage for a long time, the roof leaked and the resulting water over the years did a number on the right hand sill. More about that later in the post. While I’m pretty sure the 4,593 miles showing are the result of the odometer flipping at least once, the car does sit nicely due to the suspension being off the ground for all those years.
This side of the car looks much better than the passenger side.
Here’s some of the good — the floors on an MGA are supposed to be plywood, and the seller has replaced them. Ok, Jamie, you are ignoring the obvious! Yes, there’s rust. The good thing is that almost all of the frame parts are available here and what isn’t is easily fabricated. The necessary body panels can be purchased here, and to give you an idea of how inexpensively these cars can be restored, new rocker panels are less than $55 each.
The classic MGA dash is one of the best you’ll find on a British car. I love the priorities of the British; if you really want to fit a radio you can, but it’s in front of the passenger where it doesn’t distract the driver! And yes, the wheel and radio position were reversed on RHD cars! The four-spoke “banjo” steering wheel is iconic as well.
Not that the MGA heater is going to do you a lot of good, but it is there. I actually find the under hood appearance pretty good on this car because it doesn’t look like it has been messed with a lot. According to this very detailed article on MGA serial numbers and engine numbers, the engine number does fall in the correct range to be original to this car. Are you interested in replacing those 1967 license plates with your own and restoring this gem? Let us know in the comments!
What tends to stop MGs and other British sports cars, Jamie, are leaky hydraulics (thank you, Mr Girling, for creating brake and clutch cylinders that corrode over the winter), and, of course, Lucas electrics.
This one appears to be saveable, albeit with a fair amount of work.
Hi, BB! Trust me, after owning 47 pre-1982 British cars so far and pretty much relying on them for daily transportation from 1980-2013, I’m well familiar with their foibles! What I can’t figure out is why so many of the MGAs we see are abandoned for so many years, where the MGBs, TRs, Austin-Healeys and the like typically are at least halfway resurrected on a regular basis. I’m a Triumph guy mainly, but MGAs are beautiful cars!!!
Well gee Jamie what happened after 2013? Loose your license? What’s in the driveway now?
I’ve both owned ’em and worked on ’em too, Jamie, and it seems a lot of folk park up these cars when something relatively minor stops them (an unintentional pun for you Morris fans out there). Big Healeys and Spridgets have had a loyal following, while TRs (Spitfires) and MGBs were built for quite a long time. This may explain the reason why MGAs were left to rot in a dark corner, somewhere,
In the 1990s, there were a lot of British motorcycles being imported into NZ from the Midwest USA. Most had very low miles and were probably used a couple of seasons before the curse of Joseph Lucas rose from the grave and they got left in a corner of the garage.
They folks who bought them got old, parked them and are now downsizing, going into nursing homes or dying. It is the path where cars get more valuable then decline as the bubble moves through time. Talk to the brass era guys.
There are still plenty of Triumphs in the driveway…and the garage…and the shop…and the back yard! However, I only drive them to work on pretty days now —32 mile commute and in October 2013 I realized a long-time ambition and bought a new Boss 302 and gave my trusty 1967 Spitfire a well-deserved rest :-). Most of my commuting now is in a 2017 Fiat Abarth 500 (start the jokes now, I love it and it’s the family’s second 500).
wish I could, these are great projects, and really big reward when finished. Fun to drive while waiting for whatever breaks next. Yup, hydraulics have to be perfect.
I really think these cars are “put away” or “saved” is because one, they are so attractive and beautifully designed. And two, they represent a certain type of automotive freedom that is just not seen on most cars. You look at that car and think, “I could just put the top down and take off down the road and just keep driving, away from all of my real life problems and issues.” Try that with your Prius……
This one doesn’t scare me at all. I can and have done that metal work before on my Spitfire, and it was in worse condition than this. Having plywood floors does simplify things quite a bit. This one seems to be complete for the most part, so restoration is very doable.
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Kinda wish I had another metal work project like this to dink around with.
Gotta love the snarky white walls. I’d go through the electrics, and hydraulics. Then drive with devil may care fun on fair days.
now THIS seller we can congratulate
In college in the 60’s I dated a woman from a Catholic college up the hill from my college, who had to be back in her dorm at some unreasonable hour, like 10 pm on weeknights, and maybe midnight on Friday and Saturday. I did not have a car at that point, but, she had an MG A, a cast off of her father’s. She would pick me up outside my dorm and off we would go, me driving. The first night out the connection to the clutch went, but I managed to match rev’s well enough to get her and the car back to her dorm under its own power and on time. The next time out the headlights went out, but it had “driving lights” and I got her back to her dorm on time. We dated for a long time, for her, I was a guy who could get her and her failure prone car home on time, and for me, I got to drive the MG A which was really fun compared to what else was on the road at the time. I don’t think we had anything else going for either of us, I have no idea what her name was now, but I sure remember the car. The car was COLD and drafty during most of the time we dated, being in New England, I understand why people just put them away, even in reasonably good condition, since they were so unreliable, and so cold.
Great story Charlie, my MGA story is from around 1970, my older brother had a red convertible, I was 13, and messing around in it and pushed a button on the dash, it was the starter and kicked the car forward, I nearly wet my pants.
The in-storage photos show that someone had shopped at Moss Motors.
( Another pun; this one involving a long time British parts purveyor.)
I’ve had a couple of MGAs and recall my first one purchased in 1982. I paid $600 for it! It actually ran and drove OK, and was surprisingly rust free but it needed paint and new seat covers. And a top. And brakes. It was my first restoration.
I suspect the reason so many ended up on blocks was because they were so cheap that it wasn’t worth it to restore them. Many cars end up that way when they are at the bottom of their value curve.
Ended: Feb 25, 2018 , 4:21PM
Winning bid:US $5,100.00
[ 36 bids ]