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July 7, 2024

Beginning

This is the third of my major retirement projects.  Having finished my 74 Triumph TR6 in 2019, and my 69 Triumph GT6 just last week, it was the MG's turn to go under the wrench.  It's been waiting patiently for a long time.




I bought this car in 1970 from a small used car lot in Colorado Springs for $600.  I was in the Army, and it was my only transportation for several years.  It took me to my next assignment in Huntsville, Alabama, and then home to Omaha, Nebraska when I got sent to Germany.  After discharge, I came home and started back to school.  The MG was becoming a little unreliable about that time, so I bought the GT6, and the MGA went into storage.  in the late 70s, I started a fairly major restoration effort on it, but graduation, a job, a wife, and a kid put that on hold.  Until now.

Being essentially untouched for nearly 50 years, it was a lot like a barn find, but it was my car and my barn.




Removing some of the parts stashed in the cabin, I remembered installing new seat covers.




Evidence that many generations of critters  called this car home.




I had rebuilt the engine, and it "ran when parked" as they say, but that was 40+ years ago.




A non-stock washer bottle and pump I'd installed.




I had also installed a remote oil filter and an oil cooler, from an MGB, I think.




For some reason, I thought I needed a fuel pressure gauge.  And a chromed manifold for distributing fuel.




I started taking panels off, then tried to find a place to store them.  It's amazing how much space things take up when they aren't part of the car.




More critter leavings.  The whitish granular stuff under the seat is chewed foam from the seat cushion, I think.




This is apparently what passed for "cool" in the 70s.




This is where I'm at right now.  The shell and panels look deceivingly good in these pictures, but I know something about the hidden horrors beneath the surfaces.




It's going to be an interesting summer.

Commnets to Ed at elhollin1@yahoo.com

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