Iain's 1970 MG BGT

Buying the Old B

This is the old text from when I purchased my first MG BGT, PTE447L, a 1970 car. Since then I have bought a replacement of a 1967 BGT as PTE was rusting away!

I changed jobs early in 2003. This is relevant because my old job came with a company car, the new one did not. Transport was needed! First of all I did what I usually do - I bought an older car with a long MOT! I paid £300 for an F reg Escort. This car was ideal for me as I hate to think about depreciation! When I did sell it over 6 months later I got more than half of that back, and I hadn't spent a penny on it in the meantime. Truly budget motoring! 

So with the Escort approaching an MOT the decision was made to buy a BGT. The BGT was chosen for the reasons outlined on the home page. I had never actually sat in a B before, never mind driven one. I looked in four different places for cars. The local paper, which led to nothing, the MG Owners clubs classified pages, which were fine, but not local and seemed a bit more expensive. Finally I look on the autotrader website and the loot website. These both had the benefit of geographical searches and a large selection of classic cars. My criteria was simple. The car should be:-

I looked at four in total. Two of them you could see the ground through the corners of the boot! I just didn't want to take on a rust bucket at this stage! Another was just generally run down and very tired looking. If I was looking now, with what I know now, I may well have bought that one. The final one (which was, I'm ashamed to say, was the first one I had driven or seen!) was advertised as rust free with a gas flowed head. So, no rust and more power. You certainly noticed the extra pick up when driving - I was even blinded to the smoking exhaust! And in my ignorance I hardly took any notice of the bulging filler in both rear wheel arches! I guess the advice of taking someone with you who knows B's is very good - but I didn't know anyone who knew B's!

Anyway, I bought it for the top of my price range, and considering things like a stage II head, K&N filters, a good interior, and no structural rust means it was a decent buy. Doing it again I would have asked for more money off the asking price, but I have been happy with the B, so it has been a decent deal all round.

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