ARTICLES AND STORIES
this is an
excerpt from the articles appearing in the Octagon
AMGBA Club Blog
Getting Old Together - My MGB
by Kevin Rooney
According to the door-plate, my blue MGB
convertible rolled off the production line in the fall 1977, coincidentally
within a few months of my wife and I being married, just over 80 miles away from
the factory. I’ve actually owned the vehicle since 1984, bought used, so the
three of us have actually been together now for 36 years. The three of us also
immigrated to the same state, California; I was living in Los Angeles, while the
MG started out its life of service in Palm Springs. This would explain its total
lack of any rust, but why also it required a respray in about 1986, having been
baked and sandblasted for the first 6 years of its life! Fortunes and the fates
have conspired to find us collocated in the Nevada desert, now 43 years after
the two simultaneous events of marriage and manufacture. I’ve tarted the car up
with a couple of headlight stone guards, and a lovely rosewood dash, but apart
from wear and tear items, she is basically "OEM".
As with all British cars (and wives, I’ve
discovered), personality and some stubbornness are in-built features, requiring
extensive maintenance to preserve the relationship – Hurrah for Victoria
British, with whom I am on first-name terms! (Note to self: should have taken
shares out in that company 25 years ago!) Take for example the electrics (the
car, not wife). The original Palm Springs owner, being apparently overly
paranoid, had installed a sophisticated security system involving seat
pressure-sensors, battery current monitoring, and lights-on detection, etc. The
problem was that prior to sale, this system was completely ripped out
(literally), leaving trailing wires, loose connectors, and bypassed boxes in
several impossible-to-reach nooks and crannies. Hence the first 10 years of
ownership were fraught with persistent short circuits and fuse-frying; none of
which could legitimately be assigned to the fault of Mr. Joseph Lucas! (Yes, him
of much anti-British-car humor!)
For many years, the lovely blue MGB was the daily
commuter car for my wife, with the number plate surround proudly claiming "Wench
Mobile", but these days, with on setting retirement, the MG is just our weekend
zoomer-about-town. And of course she is our primary contribution to rallies out
with our friends in the British Auto Club of Las Vegas, where several MGs of
various ilks can get together and doubtlessly chat about their varied life
experiences. A big advantage of living in Nevada compared to California is the
ability to register the car as a "Classic Vehicle", thereby avoiding the arduous
and nail-biting biannually enforced smog-testing ritual, whose stipulations had
gotten more much stringent over the years. Even so, after a mid-90s catalytic
converter replacement, she managed to squeak through every time (except once due
to a technicality when I hadn’t noticed that the vacuum advance tube had fallen
away from the distributor!)
One feature my MGB and I have in common is to note
the changes in our chassis over time: one of us has become a lot stiffer and
less flexible over the 36 years of ownership, while the other has become a
little more pliant. Hence my transition from avid self-repair enthusiast
(perpetually-scraped knuckles and concrete-scraped bald patches due to under-car
experiences to evidence) to employer of necessary garage services for most
discovered foibles.
For the period of time in Los Angeles, I was
supported in my maintenance of the vehicle by an expert but dour ex-RAF master
mechanic who offers at-home mobile service, and without whom the MGB and I may
well have parted company a few years back. These days in Nevada, I am still
searching for the ideal compatriot in "keeping her on the road".
But overall, the 36 years of MGB Roadster ownership
(more like "partnership") has been fun, exciting and rewarding. She costs
virtually nothing to keep right now, we do about 1,000 miles a year, I keep her
on trickle charge at all times, and when she is not garaged, I have a nice
protective heavy-duty waterproof/sun proof cover for her. And despite numerous
gasket-replacements, she still insists on marking her territory with a current
mix of hypoid, DOT-4 and 5W30. Would I part with her? Never. At least not till
she decides to embarrass me by letting me down far from home on an upcoming
rally!
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