The MGA Named “Dotty”

by Chris Adams

My oldest brother was 15 years my elder and, in 1966, he purchased his first car—a low mileage 1962 MGA 1600 MkII. I was just three years old when he brought the little car home. Southern California was a great place to be a teenager with a roadster in the tumultuous ’60s.

By 1969, he was in Vietnam, fighting for his country, and left the MG at mom and dad’s house so we could keep the batteries charged, driving it now and then to keep the cobwebs out. In a couple of years, Paul made it home from the war safely, returning to normal work and college life. The “A” was waiting, ready for his return.

Sometime in early 1969, while Paul was still somewhere in Bien Hoa, I really enjoyed playing “Gas Station” with the MG. I would sit in the driver’s seat and drive wherever my little mind took me. Apparently, at a gas station stop, I decided the car needed a fill-up. A wooden ruler, a rubber alligator, and a handful of sand seemed to be just what the service manual said the car needed to keep me fueled up for my journey. MGA’s have great petrol tank access for such things. I was too young to remember it, but mom and dad practically had to put chains on my big brother to keep him at bay, absolutely enraged by my innocent act. Not long after, the electric fuel pump gave up the ghost somewhere along the I-15 on the Gorman Pass, trying to visit Grandma in Bakersfield.

Fast forward many years, the “A” went to pasture in 1981 due to worn out SU linkage and “electrical gremlins” amongst other things. Nonetheless, Paul refused to sell his first love. He kept it until he passed away in 2001 from a hard but happy life resulting from his experiences in Vietnam.

My second brother, 13 years my senior, inherited the car and went to work vigorously restoring it. By this time, opossums were living in it. After years in storage, there was much work to be done. He completed a total nut and bolt tear down, restoration of the rolling chassis, and an engine rebuild. However, eyesight, available time, and other interests took their toll so that this second brother ended up stopping at that point of reassembly and offered the car to me at a “Family Discount.”

Fast forward again to 2021, after Brother #2 gave me his blessing to come and pick it up, the car sat in my garage almost entirely in boxes and parts on the floor transported from Emmet, Idaho to my home in Orem, Utah. I was determined to put it back together. The next phase began!

All the boxes full of parts had to be identified and sorted. This took up all the garage and my mancave upstairs in the house. My wife graciously gave up her car’s parking space in the garage as a contribution to the project. 

Having never taken on a project like this, manuals, online resources, Moss Motors, and plain good luck helped me complete the car. I decided to start with the “easy” things first, so I went to work on the dashboard. I ground the rust down to bare metal and prime coat, covered it with a vinyl kit from Moss, reconditioned all the gauges, and assembled. With that done, I moved on to the first part of our all-new wiring harness. Voltage checks, it worked!

I aimed not only to complete the car but to make it road and show-worthy. I tried my best to build the car as 100% factory issue as possible. My grandkids all visited me often in the garage. Benson, age 9 at the time, asked after having the car home for only a week, if the “MG is done yet?”

Body prep was extensive. I had to buy an air compressor and paint gun, tons of sandpaper, and various body fillers and glazing compounds to achieve a nice old-school finish. The grandkids all tried to sand a bit, but little hands tire and bore quickly, so they mostly watched from the safety and comfort of the swing set. We did encapsulation of all interior body metal, then two epoxy sealer coats, three primer coats, two color coats, and two clear coats. Whew! I had to undergo carpal tunnel surgery when I was done with the paint.

Body fitting day was all hands-on.deck! All three of our children, their spouses, and the grandkids pitched in. Grandkids were spotters while adults lifted and lowered. A scary process, but exciting!

Much final fitment was needed once the body was on. It needed the third section of wiring harness, foot pedal linkage, fuel lines to tank and carbs, and final interior carpeting along with the doors, bonnet, and trunk lids. Aurora, 6 years old, learned to use a socket and driver on the fuel line clips. She also put the nuts on the firewall badge nameplates that no adult hand can reach!

All the kids did a lot of sitting in the seats during the final days of details. After a full year of working day and night on the car, at last, the MGA was complete and was dubbed “Dotty” after my mother. We started going to car shows, and “Dotty” won lots of awards, including two People’s Choice awards and a Best of Show out of 226 cars while being parked next to an Auburn!

We are so lucky to have ended up with my brother’s car. I’m sure he would be proud. Thank you so much to Moss Motors for endless parts, The MG Guru for endless resources, and my family for enduring with me for one full year during this build.