BEHIND THE GARAGE DOOR

We take a peek at a handful of your ongoing classic car restoration projects

Sandy find

Many of you will remember Simon Crisp’s concours-award-winning E-type Jaguar and Daimler SP250, which we featured in 2016.

Simon has just returned home from working in Dubai and has brought with him another project that he rescued from a sandy grave. He plans to fully rebuild this MGA Twin Cam roadster himself, with help from body-repair specialists and trimmers in New Zealand.

Simon basically found a pile of abandoned parts at the back of a dusty warehouse in Dubai. He managed to identify the parts as belonging to an MGA Twin Cam roadster chassis, number YD3/2479 (stamped onto the chassis frame), and he has obtained the official Heritage Certificate from the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust.

The car was built in September 1959, and was apparently completely dismantled by persons unknown many years ago, quite possibly more than 20. The original body is all steel and complete with the correct body number, but is missing the original alloy bonnet and bootlid panels. It is in good overall condition because of being in the desert for so long, although Simon suspects it is partially covered with a layer of bog, so this will need to be removed by soda or media blasting to expose the inevitable rust underneath. He is actively on the lookout for the best body and paint shop to undertake the task.

Simon would ideally like to separate the body of the MGA from the chassis, and mount it on a suitable rotisserie frame so that the chassis can be separately blasted, restored as needed, and epoxy painted. He will then build up the chassis separately at home before reuniting it with the fully restored and painted body. This is how he rebuilt both the E-type and the Dart, and he plans to prepare the MGA to a similar standard.