MG MGB GT "Hit and Run MGB GT"

When I was about 20 years old I asked my Dad to help me find a British Sports car to work on. My Uncle Clark, then living in Mass. donated his MGB GT that was basically on mothballs in his garage.

My Dad drove with me from Chicago to Massachuesetts to trailor the car back. It had a rusted out gastank, an engine semi dismantled, no brakes, etc.On the way back somewhere in Ohio or NY state, some guy at a reststop asked us about the car, and then mentioned he lived just down the road, and had an old MGB GT too, with parts he'd give us. I specifically in need of a rear seat, so we drove over to the guys house and got the seat for free!

Back in Illinios, I spent night after night disasembling the MG; taking the entire engine apart ( every piece ), got the engine sandblasted, painted it, replaced all the gaskets, and inserted brand new pistons and a cam.

Oh the horror that night when cranking hard to tighten a bold on the engine block, I accidentally dropped the entire block off the work bench and onto the concrete floor! I didnt know if I had cracked it or not.Sure enough, a few days later, after finishing the assembly of the engine, and putting it back in the car, hooking up all the electricals, the gas, the carberators, etc... crank the engine.... leak, leak, leak... a steady stream of oil poured from a hair line crack in the side.I had to take the entire engine out and apart again and get a new block.

Eventually I had the entire car running. So what if the breaks were like stepping into mashed potatos, or that the exhaust leaked into the cabin making me stink of fumes! It was a success in my book!

In the end a drunk driver smashed the front end of the MG in pretty bad while it was parked. The collision pushed my car backwards into another parked car. So the front and back suffered some serious body damage.