MG FOR TEA?
Bought home in a bunch of tea chests now it looks like this!
Brian Prior knows a bit about cars, having spent much of his working life as proprietor of a Leicestershire village garage. But he didn’t make a conscious choice to restore an MG in his retirement…
How come you ended up taking on the MGB as a project?
‘The car came to me by chance when I was selling a secondhand car. The customer had an old MG stuck in his garage and insisted I should take it in part exchange, though I didn’t really want to. In the end I dragged it home – much of it had already been dismantled and there were bits piled in tea chests. Once I’d retired I had time to start the restoration.’
How long have you owned your MGB and how long did the restoration take?
‘The car came to me in 1990, but had been off the road since 1976. It sat neglected in my garage until 2014, when I began the restoration. I favour the garden and the golf course in the summer, so only worked on it during the winter. It was finished in June this year.’
How much of the restoration work did you do yourself?
‘Everything except the engine machining and the paintwork. I’ve lots of contacts in the trade; the rebore and crank grind were done by Michael Gregory in Desborough, now in his eighties but still going strong, very much an old-school engineer.’
Talking of the paint, you have chosen an unusual colour for an MGB. What’s the story?
‘Originally the car was Old English White and that’s how I started to restore the body. I took a break and while away on holiday spotted a car magazine with a feature on an MGB in Iris Blue. I immediately thought: “that’s so gorgeous, I’ve got to have that colour”, so came home and changed it. Iris Blue was really an MGA colour, though a few early Bs were finished in it, using up leftover paint in the factory.’
What were the hardest parts of the project?
‘Definitely rewiring the car with a new loom. Connecting all the instruments behind the dash was the most difficult part. Suspending the dash from the windscreen frame with coat hangers made it easier to get my hands behind to the wires. Also when the whole project was nearly finished, I changed the oil in the axle, only to find that all the crown wheel teeth came out with the old oil. Needless to say, a new diff was required!’
What element of the restoration has given you the greatest pleasure and how do you plan to use the car now?
‘I’ve aimed for perfection throughout the project and as it stands today, the car is pretty close to that. To be able to look at it and know that I made it with my own hands gives me an immense feeling of satisfaction. The dilemma is that as soon as you start to drive a restored car, inevitably it’s going to start to deteriorate. I’ve driven it for about 300 miles this summer and will keep driving it – though I’ll only be taking it out in dry weather.’
‘I dragged the car home – much of it dismantled and piled in tea chests’