How many MGA's have survived.....

Here is something I have often thought about.
How many of the 100,000 MGA produced are still inexistence.

Further to this what size pile of parts equates to an MGA’s existence.
Is it the chassis or the ID plate?
When you consider how many MGA’s over the years have been wrecked (both on road and the track), then either recycled, buried, cut-up, burnt, scrapped for parts, dismantled or concealed within peoples sheds or the cars which are mostly complete but sitting unprotected outside in the snow or heat. How many could be left?
Constantly on EBay and other places there are wrecks (parts cars) or incomplete projects being offered for sale? Are these the same cars just moving from owner to owner so we all think there is a lot of MGA’s left?
How many are forgotten, lost in barns. Overgrown in shrubs. At the bottom of rivers.

As the MGA is now a classic does that mean besides unfortunate accidents :( the number of MGA in the world should remain constant. But the number returning to the road should be increasing as the project cars we all see for sale are restored.

If a rep from Moss Motors (or another company) reads this forum, I would love to know how they decide how many of each part is actually needed and when that will need to be replaced again.

I was just thinking……..this could make for an interesting debate.

There are still thousands of MGAs in private garages, waiting for restoration, being restored or trying to be forgotten about in a state of part repair or disrepair. Many of the people reading this probably have one or two (I have three if I include donors) in that category. I know of more undergoing restoration, than on the road, locally. But there are also a lot of cars being used and gradually deteriating. It seems that, at least until recently, these outnumbered the cars completing restoration. Unfortunately, these days most of the good restored cars do not get driven very often, or at all (especially here in the UK). Fortunately we have some good exceptions!

Neil MG Wrote:

I have 3 including donors. I only have donor parts and sheet metal the frames and main bodies went to the dump long ago (rusted our). I am slowly getting rid of the junk parts as storage is a problem. I would guess that more MGAs are sitting in garages with boxes of unopened parts stacked inside than any other car. MGBs are catching up.

Wouldnt it be nice if we could document all out there. There are over 8000 registered in NAMGAR

I have my '59 roadster & my '59 coupe...plus 2 coupe parts cars.

At one time NAMGAR was asking for vin numbers off junkyard and parts cars. I used to collect vin plates and send numbers in

"I have three including donors"

What constitutes a donor? Well in my case its a car I bought complete (one owner from new) but too rusty to restore. I took all the good parts off, sold the chassis and some other bits, took the main tub, less front section, to the dump. The other parts will wait until I complete my two restorations and then be disposed of or used as spares.

Neil

My coupe parts cars are much worse than donors....as the bodies come off the frame, I know already thaqt 1 will crumble into pieces....the other has lots of new pieces to weld onto it & it might actually turn out to be a restorable tub if somebody wants to tackle it (we'll hang it from a shed roof)....I'm hoping I can save at least 1 extra complete frame/running gear from the 2 cars....1 car has an engine/trans, neither have much of anything else.....but, I've got the VIN tags & will keep them when the old body/ie's are crushed.

GILMGA Wrote:

autoist Wrote:

I have a 57 A tucked in my garage until some day when I have more time.

I think I've had it for over 6 years and have picked up a few spare parts along the way. It's a fairly clean rust free body but has a 1500 Nash motor in it. I'm thinking 1800 3 main.
I can't wait until someday gets here!

Later.
Kevin

Yep, David - especially since they're coupes...appears 1 body can be saved...the other has rust everywhere except in the coupe top itself (heck, even where the rear of the coupe top is welded to body is rusted out1)...I'm still hoping to have 2 good frames, but....

Kevin - I had an MGA with 1800 engine - casket on wheels is what my wife called it!

GILMGA Wrote:

autoist Wrote:

autoist Wrote:

DavidMGA1600 Wrote:

Is anybody building new MGA bodies?

autoist Wrote:

Not based on any scientific method. I'd say there are more chassis surviving that bodies. You'll see frames, rolling or not, for sale, but it's hard to remember seeing a body for sale. I have 2 spare frames.

Derek,

I would agree with you as a semi beaten chassis will always be thrown out after a semi beaten body. Maybe somebody will soon have to investigate the possibility of re-manufacturing bodies. But it does come back to the first question how many are left, particularly as chassis to warrant the complete re-tooling. Maybe the fibreglass/carbon fibre body on EBay a while back is the thing of the future, not for originality but for species survival.

David

David - I don't know if chassis hold up better than bodies...when I pull the worst body & start inspecting it to see what's salvageable, I'll know more about thaqt particular chassis.

Coupe chassis seem to fair better

Don't disagree. Based on my personal sampling of 7 frames, the first places for rust to start is pretty much anywhere that wet plywood floors contact metal. And of course with the Coupe, there's a lot less likelihood of the plywood getting wet. Anywhere else is just generally surface rust, in my experience.

I have a 57 roadster I used to drive, complete with rust. I have a 60 roadster I picked up from a salvage yard near complete with less rust, and a 61 roadster I bought less complete with rusty chassis repaired and sills cut out. All three COULD be rebuilt I guess, but it would take a welder and some various and sundry parts. Oh, the 61 came with a "H" engine (high compression) but the block needs one cylinder lined and the flat-top pistons are shot.