My ’65 MGB story started in ’83, when I was 15 years old and was looking for my first car in anticipation of my 16 birthday. My limited funds available meant that I was looking for a deal and I would have to borrow the money to get it. My father has always been a fan of auctions and decided that our best bet was to go that route to get the most bang for the buck. We attended a Cruze Auto Auction in Springfield, MA and came home with the B for a price of $1,500.00. My father spotted me the money at the auction, then co-signed a loan so I could pay him back. I had the better half of a year to get the car ready for my July birthday and did so by primarily washing and sitting in it. I drove the car summers only and found a winter beater every fall that would usually not quite make it through mud season. Upon graduation from high school in ’86, we stiff hitched the B to Melbourne Florida where I attended Florida Institute of Technology and was able to drive year round. Over those 6 years of use I put a transmission, clutch, fuel pump and gas into the car. The mechanic in Fla., who put the fuel pump in, explained to me that the reason the car wanted to shoot off the road, to the right if you let go of the wheel, was due to the dire need for some king pins and other front end work. The estimate was way more than I could afford and I decided to drive my motorcycle to school and used that to get me through the last year.

The front right tire was worn down to threads on the outer half and the king pins didn’t get any better after stiff hitching the car back to Vermont after graduation in ’90. Lacking money and having student loan debt, I decided to park the B in my parents barn and get a year round car to get me through till I could afford to fix the “fun car”. The Volvo 240DL wagon was the first in a long line of B replacement cars over the course of the next 26 years. During those years I worked, had a daughter, got married, had two sons, and the B got buried by “stuff” in the barn, so completely you could just see bits and pieces poking out. As fate would have it, one of my sons likes to tinker and thought the MG was worth unearthing and fixing up. At the same time his sister was looking for a senior project to complete her high school requirements. She said that it needed to be something she knew little about, but had an interest in learning. She definitely knew nothing about working on cars and didn’t really know what she was getting into, but decided to get the B back on the road, that is if I financed the restoration. That’s where it all started, pulling the car out of its cocoon on July 9th, 2016. My son was a little miffed that he wasn’t going to be able to do the work, but Aiyanna eventually found that some help would be a good thing and relaxed her “I have to do it all with no help” stance. The car was pressure washed and pulled into a shed on my property normally occupied by my tractor. The next step was to find a mentor for A.J. to work with, senior project rules dictate that the mentor cannot be family. That’s a great rule and one that probably saved her from not graduating. I have moderate mechanical skills at best and get easily frustrated when trying to “teach”.

My first instructions were to pour some Marvel oil down each plug hole, to which my daughter replied,”well, where is the twisty thingy to take those things out?”. After googling “MG people in VT”, Aiyanna found the name of our savior and mentor, David Sander. This saint of a man is the chairman of The New England MG “T” Register, Ltd., President of the VT Auto Enthusiast Club , and willing to give his time freely to a stranger who is interested in fixing a B, in need of a lot of help. In late September Dave came up and met the car, we were there, too. By December we had gotten new tires on the car so it would roll and we got it into it’s garage, a 10×20 tent with a pallet/plywood floor.After Christmas, Dave began a series of weekly visits on Thursday afternoons and the part buying frenzy began. By ground hogs day I was whipping out my Moss Motors customer number so fast it was catching the customer service reps by surprise. We have made a lot of progress and are on the cusp of starting the car for the first time. It currently has all new brakes, radiator, oil cooler, king pins, fuel pump, steering wheel, turn signal switch, slave cylinder, points, condenser, voltage regulator, rotor, tires, water pump, thermostat and housing, door handle, rebuilt master cylinders for the clutch and brakes, also many hours of loving attention. The car is smiling and so am I thinking of my kids driving my first car. Coming soon…

Editor’s note…The running engine has the sweetest sound you could ever hear!