Recovering a History- Do you know this MGA?

By Harry Buberniak

Back in the 60’s, my dad had two project cars that were on his waiting list to be freshened up. One was a 1955 thunderbird with the steering wheel on the left and the other was a 1953 MGTD with the steering wheel on the right. Both cars were in running condition but needed body, paint, and interior work, so my dad let me move up from the go carts to driving the T-bird and MGTD so long as I stayed on our property or in the abandoned farm field, no driving on the street. So, I started my driving experience, behind the wheel of a couple of two-seaters. The difference between the two cars was immediately and profoundly noticeable, the T-bird was like driving my dad’s boat, compared to the responsiveness of the MGTD steering input. Right-hand steering, auto trans, differences in weight and suspension contributed to the night and day personalities of the cars. I was hooked and have had sports type cars ever sense.

Fast forward to 2011 and I had been making some test drives around the neighborhood on a 2002 BMW I was working on, and some neighbors, Donetta and Jim, stopped by and commented on how the car looked like new now. Donetta asked what I was going to do now that the BMW was finished and then asked if I would be interested in another project. She went on to explain that her parents’ farm in Ohio was going to be auctioned off soon, and there were a couple of old cars. She said that they were both two seaters and remembered seeing the smaller one at a wedding back in the early 80’s. I was interested in at least looking, so after a few weeks of arrangements Donetta’s husband Jim and I took a ride to Ohio to look at what turned out to be an XK140 Jaguar and a modified 1960 MGA 1600 with a twin cam engine.

It was obvious that the cars had been parked in a barn for many years because animals had been living in both cars. Negotiations began, not too soon either because soon there were many interested parties, at least that is what the seller started trying to use as a bargaining tool. I was offering $10,000.00 for both cars and I would get a response like “ the Jaguar only needs rocker panels”, but when you opened the door you could walk right up to the drive shaft by stepping over the frame ( I did not close the door because I thought it might fall off). The Jaguar was some sheet metal but was mostly rusted away. Anyway, I felt lucky to get the MGA for a little over half of my original offer for both cars. Then we had to deal with seller remorse, Dave the owner of the Jaguar and the MGA, said he had really dropped ball on both cars that he had hoped to fix up one day, he even offered to help try to start the MGA, but I explained that after sitting for over 25 years that was probably not a good idea with either car.

Another neighbor of mine had a car trailer so Steve and I took a bottle of compressed air and went to get the car. I hoped that the tubes in the tires would hold air because the tires were flat. To my amazement, the tires turned out to be Perrelli’s and all the way around held air- the car looked better already! When I got the car back home I vacuumed everything I could out of the car, and started noticing event tags almost everywhere. I had initially seen some on the heater housing and dash but as years of dust, dirt, straw, and animal evidence were removed I found lots more event tags from the 60’s-70’s on the firewall shelf- including a Ford Field (Michigan international speedway) road course tag! I then used compressed air, followed by a power washer, before bringing the car into my garage.

I did not know anything about these cars so I was surprised to find an extra wire wheel, a spare 30-year-old Parelli tire with a new toolkit, a brass hammer, a bunch of paper items, and hanging on the trunk wall a long handled crank. It was getting dark so I turned on the garage lights and the car looked pretty good. What I thought was a brown 1600 was now a metallic Bronze MGA 1600, and on closer inspection what really surprised me was that all of the fender seams were perfect. That really surprised me because the Triumph TR6 that I bought new in 1972 when I got out of the Army had rust spots on all fender seems after three Michigan winters. I decided to touch up the few paint chips and do a rolling restoration on the 1600. I wanted to bring it back to the condition it was when parked 25 years ago. I decided to only use period accessories as much as possible but did eventually upgrade a few things like the fire extinguisher and stereo. Some of my car friends heard about the car and their friends, and out of the blue, I got an offer for the car that surprised me… $27,000.00 as is. I had been putting Kroil oil around the spark plugs and tapping them gently with a spark plug wrench because I had already heard that there were bets on, that I would break at least one if not all four spark plugs off while trying to get them out of that oxidized aluminum head. I had no attachment to the car yet but did have a few hours and effort into it, so I was guessing I could make $20,000.00 and buy something else. After all, I was not looking for an MGA, this car sort of presented itself out of the blue, but the switches and gauges sort of reminded me of the ’53 MGTD that I used to drive around that abandoned farm field when I was a kid. I declined the offer and started doing some research online.

I knew the steering wheel was not correct so I looked online, Les Leston steering wheels were going for $1000.00-$2000.00, interesting. A twin cam heater $900.00, twin cam valve covers $950.00 each, and in just a few minutes I had a list of parts worth well over the money I paid for the car. I started thinking about why and who modified this car in the past. Unlike the Jaguar that had rusted away to only the sheet metal and gussets, this car was still really solid. My neighbor Greg offered me the use of his suspension lift kits to start the suspension work. The first thing we noticed when we put the car on his lift was that from front to back the entire undercarriage was covered with a layer of oil soaked dust and dirt that was approximately ½ to 1 inch thick. That was why the body was in such good shape, the layer of oil had protected the car while it sat in the barn, unlike the dry Jaguar that had rusted away. Good thing this MGA had some oil leaks or was driven on oily roads. I had to use a putty knife and scraper to find that bolt and nut heads to start removing the suspension. I listed the set of five Pirelli tires online, I was surprised by how many people bid on them and off they went to a happy buyer in New Jersey. The shocks went in the mail to be rebuilt by Lazare at Apple Hydraulics. Jim Alcorn was contacted to rebuild the leaking water pump and later sent more hard to find twin cam bits, including pistons and rings. About this time I got a Moss Motors catalog in the mail, and unless you are the type of MGA owner that just buys and drives, then you know the rest of the story. I did get the spark plugs out of the car one by one and oiled the rings with Marvel Mystery Oil. I also turned the engine over every day with a crank for about 6 months before changing the oil again and starting the car- it’s alive! I was so excited that I drove it around the countryside on a cardboard seat and no dash because since they were at Red’s getting covered. It’s so much fun to drive and causes so much attention that, even though the 986 is a keeper it reminds me of the T-bird now.

I still need some help to make this story complete! The Car was Originally a light blue 1960 MGA 1600, Vin #GHNL71737, ENGINE # 1213, BODY# B3752, NAMGAR # 647. Does anyone know who Modified this car in the 1960’s? Or have any information on the engine #1213 that is now in this car? Thanks for any help.

I want to take this opportunity to thank my Dad for letting me drive the MGTD and T-bird in the 60’s, David for buying this car from Paul in the 80’s, Donetta and Jim for telling me about the car in 2011, Steve for helping bring it home and power wash, Tim for Kroil oil, Greg for lift use and Marvel Mystery Oil etc., Brian for POR 15 help, Red for help with seats and dash, Skip for numbers and stripes, Ken for suspension, Jim Alcorn and Forrest, John, and Mike at University motors.