78 MGB GT Project

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Expatloon

Original Poster:

215 posts

156 months

Saturday 18th March 2017
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A good friend of mine and long time fellow MG enthusiast has been diagnosed with a terminal illness and has asked me the dispose of his 78 MGB GT which is he was in the process of restoring. He's already been forced to sell his first love which was his RV8.

He's owned the car since the mid 80's and although he drove it from UK to France over 10 years ago it's been in dry storage pretty much ever since as renovating his property took precedence, unfortunately his sudden illness has brought the project to a complete halt and in fact turned it into a liability as he's selling up to return to UK to spend his last weeks or months with his family and a sale of his house is already in process so it has to go.

Currently the car is completely stripped (rear axle excepted to maintain mobility) and his plan was to have it blasted before repainting. What very few minor repairs were required have been done the single question mark being the LH front spring hangar which exhibits some corrosion and which may or may not demand replacement - I can confirm that later - but that really is it.

The car was previously restored and and repainted about 20 years ago in UK at which time all the seams were sealed prior to painting which is why it's in truly exceptional condition and without doubt the best UK RB shell I've seen in a very very long time. The doors were replaced at that time also so are completely rust free.

Since it was a complete car before work commenced everything is there to rebuild it which includes 2 new wings, new bonnet, new radiator, and innumerable other small parts.

The engine* (which has an MGOC unleaded head), and OD gearbox are in perfect working order and the clutch is like new as it was fitted in the UK immediately prior to the drive to France.

  • Although I haven't seen the engine running it had no problems either when the car was being used in UK as an everyday driver or on the trip down to France and having been carefully dry stored with the rest of the car I have no reason to think that with a good service it would not perform perfectly once again.
Because of the urgency of the situation all he's asking of me is to do my best to recover what money he's actually spent on new parts plus the value of the major items which are readily saleable in their own right such as the engine and gearbox (last pair I sold easily made €750), and the black leather seats for instance.

I reckon in round numbers that all adds up to at least €3500 so that's the asking price.

The V5, a DVLA certificate of permanent export, and a Certificate of conformity are present so registration when rebuilt should be absolutely no problem and I will arrange for him to pre sign a sales receipt.

To get it out of his garage I'm planning to pick it up on Sunday to store at my place pending a sale so although I've got a few preliminary photos I'll be able to take more on demand after the weekend.

I would like to stress that this post is not meant as an invitation to discuss the minutiae of this part or that, I feel the car is described fully and honestly, I will answer reasonable questions to the best of my ability.

It's also not invite offers for individual items or open a bargaining process on the price, that is pretty firm and as I've said I think fairly represents what I could quite probably sell the major parts for without the shell itself so it comes as a package of all or nothing.

Separately I have a LHD front cross member, steering rack, and Andy Jennings fibreglass dashboard if a buyer wanted to convert it to LHD, I also have a trailer so delivery might be possible subject to distance and agreement on cost.

In a nutshell for $3500 you'll be getting a car which needs little more than painting and reassembling, or you could sell the parts off yourself to get your money back and then still have the excellent shell left to sell so potentially you could up to double your outlay.

Also separately available are 4 new unused Minilites with centre caps, €400 or €300 if you buy them with the car.

If anybody wants to discuss mail me with a phone number.

Car is in Cahors (46)





JulienG

4 posts

81 months

Tuesday 20th June 2017
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Hello,
I was just wondering if the car is still for sale