Discussion
Just need a quick bit of advice,
Am seriously looking into getting an MGB GT for around the £2000 mark.
Is there anything I need to look for when buying around that price? I thought the engines were meant to be strong but alot of the adverts talk about engine rebuilds when the car has only covered 100K!
Many thanks,
Matt.
ETA: It's a chrome bumpered version I am after.
Am seriously looking into getting an MGB GT for around the £2000 mark.
Is there anything I need to look for when buying around that price? I thought the engines were meant to be strong but alot of the adverts talk about engine rebuilds when the car has only covered 100K!
Many thanks,
Matt.
ETA: It's a chrome bumpered version I am after.
Edited by Night Flier on Wednesday 9th April 22:18
You'll struggle to find a good chrome bumper car for £2k. You'd have a better selection of rubber bumper ones to look at. Whichever you choose the main thing to look for is rot. MGB engines are easy and cheap to fix. A rotten body is a money pit.
MGBs rot everywhere. You may not be too worried about superficial rot around the wheel arches and wing tops (although it will go through eventually. More serious are rotten door bottoms, and headlight surrounds. Most serious, and expensive to fix, are the sills below the doors, and the inner section of the sill which joins the floor, called the castle rail. Also the jacking point in the middle of the sill. Rear spring mounts also rust badly. Rot in sill & floor will fail the MOT, and you'll be lucky to find anyone to replace a sill professionally for less than £400 per side. They go in pairs by the way. If a chrome bumper car hasn't got rust in these areas then it has almost certainly been welded before, which is fine if it was well done!
If you are satisfied its not rotten check the suspension and steering bushes and dampers. None are expensive or difficult to replace, but they do add up.
Most cars of this age will have had a re-conditioned engine, or two! If it runs, its not making horrible clattering noises, and the oil pressure is above 50psi it can be sorted without too much grief in a week. Serious rot will consume much more time, and money.
MGBs rot everywhere. You may not be too worried about superficial rot around the wheel arches and wing tops (although it will go through eventually. More serious are rotten door bottoms, and headlight surrounds. Most serious, and expensive to fix, are the sills below the doors, and the inner section of the sill which joins the floor, called the castle rail. Also the jacking point in the middle of the sill. Rear spring mounts also rust badly. Rot in sill & floor will fail the MOT, and you'll be lucky to find anyone to replace a sill professionally for less than £400 per side. They go in pairs by the way. If a chrome bumper car hasn't got rust in these areas then it has almost certainly been welded before, which is fine if it was well done!
If you are satisfied its not rotten check the suspension and steering bushes and dampers. None are expensive or difficult to replace, but they do add up.
Most cars of this age will have had a re-conditioned engine, or two! If it runs, its not making horrible clattering noises, and the oil pressure is above 50psi it can be sorted without too much grief in a week. Serious rot will consume much more time, and money.
You'll struggle to find a good chrome bumper car for £2k. You'd have a better selection of rubber bumper ones to look at. Whichever you choose the main thing to look for is rot. MGB engines are easy and cheap to fix. A rotten body is a money pit.
MGBs rot everywhere. You may not be too worried about superficial rot around the wheel arches and wing tops (although it will go through eventually. More serious are rotten door bottoms, and headlight surrounds. Most serious, and expensive to fix, are the sills below the doors, and the inner section of the sill which joins the floor, called the castle rail. Also the jacking point in the middle of the sill. Rear spring mounts also rust badly. Rot in sill & floor will fail the MOT, and you'll be lucky to find anyone to replace a sill professionally for less than £400 per side. They go in pairs by the way. If a chrome bumper car hasn't got rust in these areas then it has almost certainly been welded before, which is fine if it was well done!
If you are satisfied its not rotten check the suspension and steering bushes and dampers. None are expensive or difficult to replace, but they do add up.
Most cars of this age will have had a re-conditioned engine, or two! If it runs, its not making horrible clattering noises, and the oil pressure is above 50psi it can be sorted without too much grief in a week. Serious rot will consume much more time, and money.
MGBs rot everywhere. You may not be too worried about superficial rot around the wheel arches and wing tops (although it will go through eventually. More serious are rotten door bottoms, and headlight surrounds. Most serious, and expensive to fix, are the sills below the doors, and the inner section of the sill which joins the floor, called the castle rail. Also the jacking point in the middle of the sill. Rear spring mounts also rust badly. Rot in sill & floor will fail the MOT, and you'll be lucky to find anyone to replace a sill professionally for less than £400 per side. They go in pairs by the way. If a chrome bumper car hasn't got rust in these areas then it has almost certainly been welded before, which is fine if it was well done!
If you are satisfied its not rotten check the suspension and steering bushes and dampers. None are expensive or difficult to replace, but they do add up.
Most cars of this age will have had a re-conditioned engine, or two! If it runs, its not making horrible clattering noises, and the oil pressure is above 50psi it can be sorted without too much grief in a week. Serious rot will consume much more time, and money.
Not touting but my bgt is in the classifieds, green rubber bumpered car near the top £2750, I'd talk on price, but it really is one of the best out there, only selling as I need the space and cash, NO BODY ROT AT ALL, the lads on here will tell you that's a rare thing, and it is mechanically good had a recon engine a while ago. Have a look and give me a bell I really don't think you could do better anywhere. Can always convert it to chrome later.
Oliver
Oliver
edmason said:
You'll struggle to find a good chrome bumper car for £2k. You'd have a better selection of rubber bumper ones to look at. Whichever you choose the main thing to look for is rot. MGB engines are easy and cheap to fix. A rotten body is a money pit.
MGBs rot everywhere. You may not be too worried about superficial rot around the wheel arches and wing tops (although it will go through eventually. More serious are rotten door bottoms, and headlight surrounds. Most serious, and expensive to fix, are the sills below the doors, and the inner section of the sill which joins the floor, called the castle rail. Also the jacking point in the middle of the sill. Rear spring mounts also rust badly. Rot in sill & floor will fail the MOT, and you'll be lucky to find anyone to replace a sill professionally for less than £400 per side. They go in pairs by the way. If a chrome bumper car hasn't got rust in these areas then it has almost certainly been welded before, which is fine if it was well done!
If you are satisfied its not rotten check the suspension and steering bushes and dampers. None are expensive or difficult to replace, but they do add up.
Most cars of this age will have had a re-conditioned engine, or two! If it runs, its not making horrible clattering noises, and the oil pressure is above 50psi it can be sorted without too much grief in a week. Serious rot will consume much more time, and money.
I'm afraid I have to agree with a few of the comments made, superficial rot on back wings round the wheel arches and wing tops is serious, as it will go through and changing back wings is a time consuming and expensive job as they weld on. Rotten doors/Front wings/Bonnets/Bootlid matter far less as they all unbolt and are not that expensive especially used and there are plenty of good used panels out there. As a guide I could fit 2 new doors,boot, bonnet and 2 front wings and paint them in a weekend, would take at least a weekend just to replace back wings. I'm doing one at the moment and I detest the job.MGBs rot everywhere. You may not be too worried about superficial rot around the wheel arches and wing tops (although it will go through eventually. More serious are rotten door bottoms, and headlight surrounds. Most serious, and expensive to fix, are the sills below the doors, and the inner section of the sill which joins the floor, called the castle rail. Also the jacking point in the middle of the sill. Rear spring mounts also rust badly. Rot in sill & floor will fail the MOT, and you'll be lucky to find anyone to replace a sill professionally for less than £400 per side. They go in pairs by the way. If a chrome bumper car hasn't got rust in these areas then it has almost certainly been welded before, which is fine if it was well done!
If you are satisfied its not rotten check the suspension and steering bushes and dampers. None are expensive or difficult to replace, but they do add up.
Most cars of this age will have had a re-conditioned engine, or two! If it runs, its not making horrible clattering noises, and the oil pressure is above 50psi it can be sorted without too much grief in a week. Serious rot will consume much more time, and money.
Sills do go, find a car with original sills and it is rare, most have been changed at least once. Sadly when they are changed the job is rarely done well and water can creep in and ruin the new work in a few years, it is worth spending the money on getting a professional to do it and take his time. I can fit sills in a day, or I can do them in 3 days, work out which gives the best job.
Don't panic about suspension issues or brakes, even if springs are broken and shocks don't absorb, exhaust is hanging off, engine is knocking and gearbox only works in fourth, if you buy one with a good body then everything else is really cheap and really easy. Good used springs and shocks will set you back £50 for the set, £100 if they look almost new. Exhaust between £10-100 a bit more if you want new stainless sports system. Good used engine £25 upwards, same for gearbox. New disks and pads circa £40, rear shoes circa £15, rear cylinders (easy job to fit unlike midgets) £15, front calipers under £100.
3 words for looking at mg's. Bodywork, Bodywork, Bodywork. If your wanting more info on what to look for message back and I'll tell you all the spots they tend to go.
B engines are worth nothing used (late engines) same story with back axle and gearbox, mainly because lots of B's get broken, and the drivetrain is generally in great condition, hence there is oversupply which brings around poor prices on the used market. Generally if I sell used engines, I test them and make sure they are 100% before selling them and hence ask for a bit more, but even so not expensive cars to maintain.
Things to check are as some have been mentioned:
Sills, rear wings both the bead at top and the arch, castle sections, jacking points, floor pans particularly down side of sill, floorpan where it meets rear bulkhead, boot floor.
Round the windscreen frame, under rear quarter lights, along top and bottom of doors, check door body with hand underneath. Scuttle panel between screen and front wings, bonnet leading edge, front wings at rear where they join scuttle, at bottom where it joins sills and at front round headlight bowl.
Bootlid general look over.
If you can get up in to the wheelarch without the splash guard fitted get your hand up and feel for the triangular trumpets, they rot out on the tops.
They are the main areas of corrosion if you find one that is solid in those areas rest of it should be pretty good. Your looking for deep crusty rust that is spongy to the touch or that you can push through, stonechips that have got light surface rust or light rust due to lack of paint isn't an issue, just rub it down and coat with stonechip/paint or underseal depending where it is.
Engines should start easily, settle down to an easy idle, when warm they should rev freely, should pull smoothly, no excess coughing or spluttering, they should start at 50psi at least, good engines can do more, and at tick over hot you don't want to be seeing less than 10psi. running hot about 50.
Gearboxes and clutches. Should engage all gears smoothly, should not crunch in any gear including first on the later 4synchro boxes which will be fitted to all the cars your looking at, reverse usually crunches unless your slow. Overdrive should engage crisply when gearbox is warm, maybe takes a second or so when gearbox is cold. they should disengage instantly warm or cold.
Things to check are as some have been mentioned:
Sills, rear wings both the bead at top and the arch, castle sections, jacking points, floor pans particularly down side of sill, floorpan where it meets rear bulkhead, boot floor.
Round the windscreen frame, under rear quarter lights, along top and bottom of doors, check door body with hand underneath. Scuttle panel between screen and front wings, bonnet leading edge, front wings at rear where they join scuttle, at bottom where it joins sills and at front round headlight bowl.
Bootlid general look over.
If you can get up in to the wheelarch without the splash guard fitted get your hand up and feel for the triangular trumpets, they rot out on the tops.
They are the main areas of corrosion if you find one that is solid in those areas rest of it should be pretty good. Your looking for deep crusty rust that is spongy to the touch or that you can push through, stonechips that have got light surface rust or light rust due to lack of paint isn't an issue, just rub it down and coat with stonechip/paint or underseal depending where it is.
Engines should start easily, settle down to an easy idle, when warm they should rev freely, should pull smoothly, no excess coughing or spluttering, they should start at 50psi at least, good engines can do more, and at tick over hot you don't want to be seeing less than 10psi. running hot about 50.
Gearboxes and clutches. Should engage all gears smoothly, should not crunch in any gear including first on the later 4synchro boxes which will be fitted to all the cars your looking at, reverse usually crunches unless your slow. Overdrive should engage crisply when gearbox is warm, maybe takes a second or so when gearbox is cold. they should disengage instantly warm or cold.
wildoliver said:
Not touting but my bgt is in the classifieds, green rubber bumpered car near the top £2750, I'd talk on price, but it really is one of the best out there, only selling as I need the space and cash, NO BODY ROT AT ALL, the lads on here will tell you that's a rare thing, and it is mechanically good had a recon engine a while ago. Have a look and give me a bell I really don't think you could do better anywhere. Can always convert it to chrome later.
Oliver
Looks like a very good buy for the money!Oliver
edmason said:
wildoliver said:
Not touting but my bgt is in the classifieds, green rubber bumpered car near the top £2750, I'd talk on price, but it really is one of the best out there, only selling as I need the space and cash, NO BODY ROT AT ALL, the lads on here will tell you that's a rare thing, and it is mechanically good had a recon engine a while ago. Have a look and give me a bell I really don't think you could do better anywhere. Can always convert it to chrome later.
Oliver
Looks like a very good buy for the money!Oliver
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