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I’ve always loved English sports cars and probably have more tolerance for these later MGBs with their ugly rubber bumpers and high ride height. But this MGB listed here on craigslist looks nice in the pictures and is only $1,800. Wouldn’t it be a cheap fun little ride for California? Too bad it’s in Clearwater, Florida.
The seller says there are no signs of rot and the pictures don’t show much rust. It doesn’t run, but that’s to be expected after sitting for awhile. This looks like it could be a fun driver without much work. One could drop the ride height down and swap bumpers eventually. Do you think it would be worth body work and a respray or should it just be left alone and driven?
There must be aftermarket replacement parts for the gawd awful clown lips and rump.
There are a few kits that get rid of the rUber bumpers. The one I like the best is from RPS in GB. It has 3 pieces. One that replaces the whole front end, fenders et al, the bonnet and a rear wrap around piece. Cost is about 1800 bucks.
This makes sense when you want to do a mgb v8 and dump all the heavy crap. It is not a mg clone and could best be described as a rebody. I think it looks a lot better than the rubber bumper cars.
MGB’s are not rare. One in my hometown ( N.Wis.) a person had a ’74, not bad really, on their lawn all summer, ( on a main hwy.) for $1800, and nobody wanted it. This, I’d fix the fuel pump, and drive the heck out of it. Great find!
I owned a 72 MGB. It was a reliable and great handling car. It had the knock-off wire wheels that were a pain. Required tubes in the tires and if the hub splines were not kept lubed, it was almost impossible to get the tire off the car!
Every body gets to have an opinion, and here’s mine. As I stated on the other B thread, IMO dealing with the bumpers is down on the list of things to do to a Rubber Bumper B. the PO has already changed the carburetor, and while the downdraft Weber is not much of an up-grade (a set of SU’s are the best remedy), it is much better than the stock unit. As important, is the change to a free breathing exhaust. Also having the stock distributor re-curved helps a lot since the emissions controls have been removed. For a lot less than $500 the ride height can be lowered with springs and bumpstops in front, and lowering blocks in the rear, with out negatively affecting the handling. What you are left with is a decent handling, free revving, top down cruiser that can run at current freeway speeds with little worry. Then, you can deal with the cosmetics that, on this car, are not terrible.
Every body likes to complain about the rubber bumpers. I’ve found that with the lowered ride height, and the front air dam (which this car already has) these cars have a fairly appealing look. The bumper change is fairly expensive, labor intensive, and creates a Mutt that is, unless the swap is performed with very high quality, difficult to move when it comes time to sell the car. The performance modifications tend to help in that area (I’ve sold three in the last couple of years set up that way, and the buyers love that the heavy lifting has already been done) The period correct Snowflake wheels also help this car.
All in all, if the rust hasn’t set in, and being close to a large body of salt water makes that an all too probable scenario, this car can very well be an inexpensive entry into the British sports car hobby, a daily driver with an attitude, or a fun weekend knock-around car.
That’s my opinion, and like dirty underwear, most folks aren’t interested in hearing about it.
Have fun
Rufus
If I could afford it I think I would be on a plane to go and see this little “B” I don’t mind the bumpers and this car would be a cheep load of fun. I’m liking these MG’s more all the time, someday maybe. Nice find.
needs a PI to see just how bad the rust is and what it will take to get it running. this could be a good deal in a daily driver. interesting find.