As a regular car buyer, I love seeing “WILL CONSIDER ANY REASONABLE OFFER” on listings of cool-looking vehicles. Take this 1974 chrome-bumper MGB convertible, produced in October of 1973, and available on Craigslist in the St. Louis area. It’s an older partial restoration with documentation that is being sold due to age and health issues. A bargain? Maybe. The odometer suggests 95,000 miles. Special thanks to T.J. for the tip!
The B looks very tidy. The distributor, points, plugs, and wiring are “newer” on it. There’s a rebuilt carb, seatbelts, and a spare tire. The clutch master and slave, with attendant hose, have been replaced, and a stainless-steel exhaust is fitted.
You get shop manuals, parts, and tools, plus three covers. “The odometer may be accurate, as I’m told this was a barn find years ago,” says the owner. “Do more work or just enjoy driving it.”
This implies the B runs well, and there’s nothing visual to go against that. It “runs and drives,” and looks ready to go, go, go. The interior is very tidy, too, with a wooden shift knob and period red piping on the black seas. The top looks fresh, and of course annoying to put up and down. The door panels have speakers cut into them, as used to be done, but is frowned upon now.
So what harm can it do to make an offer? Classic.com puts the ’74 MGB at $15,144.
That’s a very nice car. If I didn’t have more cars than I really need I’d jump on this one. We really enjoyed our ’66, It looks solid with the only thing I’d do to it is put the dual carbs back on it. As for the speakers, tell us where you would put them if you wanted stereo in your ‘B.
My speakers were in the same place, but I used black, relatively flat grilles that didn’t draw attention to them. And yes to the SU’s!
When I met my wife 40 years ago, she had a blue and tan 71ish with knockoff wire wheels. She decided to sell it to get something more reliable with AC, thinking she’d buy another one later in life. She now drives a Miata that she loves, but still has fond memories of the MGB.
I bought a 70 B in 1974 that had been sideswiped (fender and door cost me $35 each) and sat for a couple years, Replaced the choke cable, installed the two batteries and it fired right up. I was in the Army at the time in Washington DC, that car was road tripped every weekend and never let me down. It had the “stow-away” top, you first removed the top from the frame, roll it up, then remove the bow assembly, breaking it down into each half and put them in the trunk. Pain in the butt, but what a clean look it gave the car. Also the 70 was the only year with the split rear bumper, the license plate was moved down in-between the bumper halves, simple clean look.