Iain's 1970 MG BGT

Buying the B

Well, PTE, my first BGT, was getting rather tired. In fact it was rusting fast!! If you want to see a rusty BGT then have a look at some of the pictures here. The original tale of buying PTE is still available here. 

Basically the sills were gone, the floor needed done, the doors were on their way out, and there were numerous other rust problems with the front of the car. Of course the back was in great shape after the accident repairs. However the brutal truth was that it was not economical to try and repair PTE when there are so many BGT's out there. Just the panels required was going to be over £1000, so add in labour or buying a welder myself, and then painting and you are looking at £3k or more to get the job done. I reckon I can get close to £1000 in parts out of PTE, so effectively I would have £4k in the car. You can buy better for half the price, which is exactly what I did!

A poorly look sill on PTE!

I looked at three cars in total, 2 on eBay and one in Practical Classics. The first eBay one had “new floor pans”. To the seller this meant welding a flat piece of steel across the underside of the car. He didn’t bother removing the old floor pan so under the carpet there was a great rusty hole! Other repair were equally novel and I walked away. Unbelievably it sold for £970 and the buyer left +ve feedback!

Less than £1000 with a years MOT!

The second eBay car was on at £1500. It was much better, but had some ropey electrical fixes and some serious surface rust issues (when is it ever really surface rust!). It was just scruffy and wouldn’t be an easy fix up. It did not sell on eBay and I last saw it in Autotrader.

Or this for £1500

The third car was a 67 BGT in Practical Classics for £2150. It was certainly talked up, being described as excellent throughout! When I turned up it was a different kettle of fish from the previous 2. The chrome shone, the paint was excellent and the underside was solid! I could even read the part number label on one of the inner sills that had been replaced a few years earlier. The car had a few issues. Being a Mk 1 car the gearbox was 3 sync and had no overdrive. It also has a worn sync on 2^nd gear (I think). The rear wings had been de-seamed and had slight hints of bubbling. Also there was a bubble in the middle of the roof, probably from poor paint prep. However this was minor and the car drove well and stopped fine! The seller was taking it to Tatton Park the next day to try and sell it and I couldn’t let that happen, and so a deal was struck and HAK was mine for £1950.

So what’s the plan for HAK and PTE? It doesn’t look good for one of them! I am planning to break PTE. Simply put, I want the engine and gearbox for HAK, and even with a different engine in the car it would be lucky to get £500. It is unfortunately worth more in parts!

Loads of pics of HAK at the time it was bought here.

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