History
About 47 years ago, (on January 17 1970, to be precise), as a young car nut I bought a somewhat tired four-year-old 1965 model MGB. It was the best I could afford at the time as a 17-year-old, who’d saved up his money, mainly from summer vacation jobs as a builder’s labourer.
I’d originally wanted a Healey but my (motor mechanic) father did not think they were suitable for a daily driver. (In hindsight it would have been a poor example on my budget.)
My next choice was a TR4. We spent quite some time looking at potential buys, but my father found problems with each one we looked at.
I’d never really considered an MGB, probably simply because MGs were so common on our roads compared to (big) Healeys and TRs.
We happened on this MGB almost by accident (parked in a back corner of a car auction sales business, having been ‘passed in’ at a previous auction). My father liked what he saw and asked if he could have a better look at his workshop. The car was brought over a couple of days later. Up on the hoist and elsewhere it looked good mechanically. We set off to test drive the car, but within 200 yards my father turned to me and said “Buy THIS car”! $1,675 later, the car was mine!
Never did I imagine I’d keep this car so long, but it just became part of me, a never-ending project. In retrospect, however, no other sports car would have fulfilled all that my MGB ultimately delivered. My daily driver, even in summer heatwaves and in heavy rain, on highways and rough country back-roads for the next 15 years, (till it came off the road for its second series of rust repairs), it was always completely and utterly reliable and totally oil-tight. The amount of space in an MGB is extraordinary for such a small car, and the car has carried endless bulky items over the years, including camping gear, massive hi-fi speakers, even a large part of my worldly possessions when I had to move interstate in my twenties (the rest went onto the
train). I’ve lost my license for speeding in that car, carried endless passengers (often several at a time), covered most of Eastern Australia, and, eventually, left on my honeymoon with my new bride in the same car.
Prior to me leaving to work interstate in 1979, my father decided to redo my car for the period I’d be away. Even though the car didn’t need it yet, at 91,000 miles it received a complete engine rebuild including a re-bore. He then put a couple of spare radiator hoses and a fan belt in the boot for me, “just in case”.
In 1989, eight years after my dear father had passed away, when refilling with fuel, a puddle of water appeared under the car. A quick inspection showed my fan belt had disintegrated. Out came the spare fan belt, still in the boot where my attentive father had placed it ten years earlier, and in a matter of minutes I was on my way again. It was as if he was still around, keeping an eye on me and the little white MGB!
Countless memories, as you’d imagine, are associated with this MGB. I’ve torn the exhaust off on rough back roads three times. The most memorable time was on a level crossing at night on a side road. We were well and truly stuck; if I edged forward the engine pipe dug in, edging back, the tailpipe dug in. My girlfriend of the time became completely hysterical! Finally, I hitched the tail pipe up with something I found in the boot, allowing us to creep back off the tracks. The exhaust got welded up in the nearest town the next morning. The little white car and I had survived again. (The girlfriend didn’t; we parted company a year or so later!)
I’ve now done well over 230,000 miles in the same car, same re-bore, same wife still too, as it goes happily on its way around the odometer for the third time. Most of those miles were before fitting the Mk1 O/D gearbox I found when working in the UK for a year.
After some awfully shoddy panel work over the years, the car finally got a brilliant restoration a few years back, and the car is now in better shape than when I first bought it.
My two sons and two daughters love this old car and love driving it. My MGB is obviously now going to be in the family, presumably, forever. Who could possibly have predicted that, all those years ago when my father, with such conviction, turned to me and said “Buy THIS car”?
Modifications
Correct for model 3 synchro D-type overdrive gearbox.
Heater/demister. (it didn't even come with one originally!)
Dayton 72 spoke 14"x5" chrome wire wheels.
J & S hardtop.
Ported/polished/flowed "O" type cylinder head.
