New MGB GT

[crapday69]

Well as well as my Citroen C5 I am now the proud owner of a classic MGB GT. My first car was a MGB GT when I was 24, so now the kids are all grown up and working, I decided to treat myself to a nice summer car for fun runs and enjoyment. Here are some pictures.

Sorry if this is wrong because its not french, but i'm so excited that I need to share with friends including my friends on here.

[NewcastleFalcon]

Sorry if this is wrong because its not french, but i'm so excited that I need to share with friends including my friends on here.

Well done and an excellent choice. Lots of fun and everything fixable and parts easy to source.

Good luck with it, and if you enjoy tinkering and renovation fine, but get out and use it and enjoy it

Cheers Neil

[Paul-R]

No need to apologise. I also posted about the MGB Roadster that we bought last year in the Classic under £10K thread.

Does that mean yours cost more than £10K?

[Skull]

Looks nice hopefully under 10K always liked them but miss the chrome

[mickthemaverick]

Looks nice hopefully under 10K always liked them but miss the chrome

I have to agree with Skull there, they do look so much better with the chrome bumpers and well worth the conversion although it can get pricey!!

[white exec]

Nice one, and British Racing Green too, by the look of it. A dream fulfilled!
Candidate for a Rover V8?

[Peter.N.]

I would rather repair an MGB than a C5 - but I would rather drive the C5.

Peter

[ekjdm14]

Daily drive it's no contest, the Citroen wins but as a summer toy that's great. I don't know if it's an age thing (probably, grew up through the '80s/'90s) but i actually prefer the rubber bumper 'B's (and the big bumper CX etc)

[mickthemaverick]

I don't know if it's an age thing edited but i actually prefer the rubber bumper 'B's (and the big bumper CX etc)

Never mind you'll grow out of it!

[Peter.N.]

I had a lot of '50s cars, many of them in the '50s but sports cars were never my style, I like my comfort to much. The nearest thing I nearly bought was a Mk2 Jag but the doors weren't wide enough to get TVs through - I was a TV engineer.

Peter

[Paul-R]

... they do look so much better with the chrome bumpers and well worth the conversion although it can get pricey!!

I can remember back in 1974 being horrified by the new ugly, ugly, ugly black bumpers. It wasn't just the looks either; the suspension mounting points were altered to raise the ride height (to meet a USA mandated minimum bumper height requirement IIRC) and then, to make the handling even worse, the front anti-roll bar was deleted on the Roadsters. This was fixed two years later when the front A/R bar was reinstated and both GT and Roadster gained a rear A/R bar.

From this distance in time the black bumpers don't look quite so bad after all (but, my God, were they heavy!). I think that when the RV8 came out in the early 90s (I lust after an RV8) the bumper treatment was much more sympathetic and this had a positive affect on how the black bumper cars were viewed.

I was involved in the classic car business at the time and we converted quite a few black bumper MGBs to chrome bumper. We started off sawing the little bit of bodywork under the rear lights off scrap cars but then persuaded Steelcraft to make these as repair panels. We only ever did one black bumper Midget conversion as this was not as simple as the MGB.

[Paul-R]

I would rather repair an MGB than a C5 - but I would rather drive the C5.

Peter

Couldn't agree more! I feel as though I'm pulling my arms out of their sockets when I turn the steering wheel on the MGB. A power steering conversion is very much on the cards for the future when I find the spare steering column to get chopped. Fortunately the brakes are servo assisted so not as heavy as they could be.

And yet, some thirty odd years ago I used a non-servo assisted ordinary steering MGB as an everyday run around. Could it be that I've become soft with modern cars?

[Skull]

Haven't we all become used to our comforts

I hadn't realised there was bodywork modifications on the chrome bumper conversion so maybe I would live with it

[mickthemaverick]

Could it be that I've become soft with modern cars?

Are you using the new spelling of "soft" there Paul............'O' 'L' 'D'

[Skull]

My old Triumph TR7 (Sprint conversion ) suffered the same overdeveloped bumpers for USA regulations of height for pedestrian safety and also impact crash protection at 25mph or something like that - the front plastic covered bumper must have weighed close to 60 Ibs from memory