A Heritage MGB Body Shell Adventure

It all began the day when I received a Moss Motoring which described the Heritage body shells and indicated that they would be available some time in the future. As I had had two MGBs in college, I was interested in the possibilities. I also showed the ad to my wife, and her reaction was “hmmm…that might be something I could drive”. As she had been reluctant to try driving my MGA, this started me thinking that I might be able to build a sports car for her to use as well. With that in mind, I had my name placed on the “notify when available” list.

Some months passed and I had nearly forgotten about it when one night a sales person phoned and said the body shells were coming in and “would I like to buy one?”. The next few days were agonizing as I tried to justify such a big purchase. There was the problem of finding a suitable donor car, as I didn’t have one. After searching the want ads. I found a fairly complete 1970 parts’ car with a ravaged body, not very far from home. I could now actually purchase the body shell!

My “shop”is a one car garage, so I had to gamble that I could get the parts’ car in and dismantled, and the old body out before my new body came. It was December, and I did not want to leave the crated body outside. The parts’ car was trucked in and unloaded into the garage where dismantling began in earnest. Those of you in the northeast may remember that December ’89 was possibly the coldest December on record, so the garage was quite chilly. (I used to joke as I was heading down for more work that I was off to the Arctic.) Despite this, the parts’ car was dismantled in two weeks and most of the major assemblies were moved into the (heated) cellar.
Two days before Christmas my body shell was delivered.

I had fully expected to work through the winter and spring, overhauling the engine and transmission and checking and cleaning the other components. The plan was to have the car completed in the summer of “90. I quickly discovered two things: first, it’s true what is said about not making schedules for yourself when doing a restoration of this type. Second, it is not a good idea to step back and survey the entire project as you may just get overwhelmed by the magnitude of the task I was almost totally overwhelmed as this was by far the largest project I had ever undertaken. It seemed that no matter how much I got done, the end was just not getting closer.

By April ’90, I had gotten the body out to a shop to be painted and I gathered most of the parts needed for the job over the spring. The garage and cellar were strewn with boxes of parts for much of the time. Through the summer, the engine block and crank were taken to a machine shop for reboring/grinding. I also had the cylinder head converted for use with unleaded fuel. The front and rear suspensions were cleaned and painted and attached to the body, as was the steering gear. I was working very slowly, however, and fall was fast approaching. It became clear that I was not going to finish in time.

Work slowed through early ’91, but picked up again in the spring when I installed the lights and wiring. Other parts we resent out to be rechromed. I finally got around to reassembling the engine. I painted it, and installed it and the transmission in the car. Now it seemed progress was being made. I bought a set of tires and finally the car rested on its own wheels. Before I actually tried to start it I took a great deal of time verifying that all the electricals were correct Finally it was time to see if it would run. I turned the key and the engine barely turned over (the result of using an old battery). On the second crank, however, it fired and ran. The oil pressure was good and the gauges were reading properly. It was exciting and relieving at the same time. I gingerly tried backing out of the garage and that seemed to work as well. Things were getting better all the time/there was still a lot left to be done but now the end was in sight.

I took two weeks of vacation for the sole purpose of working on the car and made great progress. Carpet and re-upholstered seats were installed and a new convertible top was put on. It was actually a real car at long last. On October 2nd I got the registration and drove to the inspection station to become fully legal. I still have some refinements to do, but I have been enjoying cruising in the fine fall weather.

With a little forethought and planning this is a project that is within the capabilities of many MG enthusiasts. It is not, however, a breeze, and it is easy to get overwhelmed (or side-tracked) as I quickly found. Now I have developed a different perspective on what is a difficult project. Almost everything that takes less than two years seems minor when compared to a total rebuild. With this under my belt, I can finally start restoring my “A”, which is where I was before all this started. Would I do it again? Sure, why not?

By the way, I’m having too much fun driving the new MGB…maybe my wife will get the keys in the springtime.