Subject: Five flights, few hundred bucks, lots of rust.
>I was so excited. I got up at three AM to catch my flight. After
>talking to the owner of the 67 BGT that Lawrie posted about I was so
>sure that this was going to be a beautiful car that I bought a one-way
>ticket for the flight from eastern Washington to Sacramento, CA. Talk
>about optimism. When I arrived in Sacramento the owner picked me up
at
>the airport and on the way to the car he filled me in on all of the
good
>and bad with the car. He was so excited that he woke up at three AM to
>write it all down. He had all of the service records dating from 1973
>and the car had been maintained by a mechanic in the local MG club. He
>and his wife couldn't have been nicer, more honest people and I was
>counting my lucky charms.
>
>Well let me tell you, love is blind. Unfortunately, the car had a bad
>respray over bad body work following a minor fender-bender. The chrome
>wires were pitted. The car was purported to have "about" a hundred
>thousand miles, but the OD stopped working at 40,000. What was left of
>the interior showed wear more consistant with 200,000 miles. The
>interior restoration needed to be started over again (remember the
>thread on how hard it is to do crinkle paint right??) and the resto kit
>that went with the car was vinyl when I was under the impression it was
>leather. But a rust-free body is enough to overlook minor
imperfections
>right? So I knelt down to inspect the right front rocker and noticed
>the paint was bubbled by rust. A few seconds later my probing fingers
>went through the bottom of the sill and the sill crumbled to rust-dust.
>Talk about disappointment. I felt bad for pointing out the defects in
>their baby. It was a one-owner car that had been Ziebart treated when
>it was new, and they truely believed it to be rust-free. The car is in
>excellent mechanical shape, and even has a Les Lestor? wheel which was
a
>dealer option at the time, but that's not what I was looking for.
>
>So I didn't get a new car, I didn't get to go to the autojumble in
>Portland,OR which is TODAY :<( but I had a good trip and met some very
>nice people :>)
>
> And it has given me a whole new appreciation for my '70 BGT with the
>perfect interior restoration, freshly bead-blasted and painted wires,
>and not-so-bad paint job. But I'll keep my eyes out for the
>garage-queen of a lifetime...
>
>
>Lonn Howard
>'70 TR6 -mine
>'71 TR6 -in my garage
>'70 MGB GT -ours
>'89 Saab Turbo Convertible -hers
>
>"We are but temporary custodians with an obligation of preservation."
>
>
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