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Re: Still looking for early B roadster

To: mgs@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: Still looking for early B roadster
From: David Councill <dcouncil@imt.net>
Date: Wed, 24 May 2000 21:39:56 -0600
At 05:58 AM 5/20/00 -0400, Bmgreen@aol.com wrote:

>You might find something here:
>
>http://www.mgcars.org/class/North+AmericaCFS.html
>
>Or here:
>
>http://www.namgbr.org/namgbr/classified.htm
>
>Stephen
>67 B Wannabe myself


It was last Saturday morning and as I was sipping on my morning Colombian 
coffee, I read this message along with my other MG mail. I figured, what 
the hell, I'll take a look at these pages again. I've been looking for an 
early roadster too but all I ever hear about are these great deals 
thousands of miles away. Old MGs wasting away, looking for a home, cheap.

So there I was, coffee in hand, looking at the classified at mgcars.org.uk 
and about 6 or 7 ads down, I find a 64B for sell right here in Billings, 
Montana. Its disassembled and in parts and he wants $1200 for the lot. 
Maybe its high but I figure its worth a look. But he also sounds like he is 
fairly desperate to get rid of it so he can rent his storage building out.

Tonight I went to look at it and it was a more daunting prospect than I 
thought. The body has been prepped and sanded but had extensive rust in the 
floorboards and rocker panels. The body was leaning against the wall and is 
just the tub. Doors, windshield, dash, front fenders have all been removed. 
All the parts are literally in boxes. The hard top is in good shape except 
for the discolored and weathered plastic window. The engine and 
transmission appear to be intact and turn freely. Hard to say what parts 
are missing but the spindles (hub extensions) that the wire wheels attach 
to are definitely missing. The four wire wheel rims are good but the tires 
are old mismatched sizes of radials and bias ply tires.

He wanted $1000. I told him there was no way it was worth over $500 and 
that several assembled, running rust bucket Bs were currently available for 
$600-$800 (mostly back east, and yes - Kai's 66B is one of those). Well, he 
was ready to go $500 for all or $400 if he keeps the hard top which 
apparently has generated some interest by itself.

After thinking about it, I'm thinking more like $300 or $250 without the 
hard top. Maybe I'm crazy because this car will need a lot of work. Finding 
a pre-67B will probably require a minimum 1000 mile trip from here. And I 
about have my son convinced to take welding at his school so I can get him 
to do the body repairs.

Am I crazy for even considering a deal like this? I'm thinking the parts do 
have some value and I'm sure I could use some of this stuff on my 67BGT. 
Any suggestions on what a 64B in a box is worth, even from just a parts 
standpoint?

David
67 BGT
71 BGT
74 Toyota Landcruiser (the current convertible)




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