I have been wanting a new top for some time and i Hve done my research. It was a Prestige Mohair, and this is a nice top, fits great and look ever better.

It was time for some work on the suspension, The rear had the driver side squat and the bushing were shot. I collected all the parts and started on the rear with new spring and busheing. WHILE I had it apart "Might As Well" scrape and undercoat. That is a VERY messy job, But very satisfying. With the rear done and a 1.5" inch lowering kit, she now sat level. It was now time for the front. The "Might As Well" ended up with the cross member off & repainted and new springs (1.5" lower), bushings and several new suspension and break parts, along with scrape and undercoating. Had the front caliper rebuild and everything was back on, BUT the brakes would not bleed and I thought the master cylinder went bad. Ordered a new one 10 day to get it and still the brake would not bleed. spent several days and had an UPSET wife. Checked the system found nothing wrong. checked it again, still nothing and when my wife was helping bleed the brake for the 6th time I found the problem, only one piston on the front calipers was working. The guy that rebuilt the front calipers put the outer piston on the WRONG caliper, it was a quick change and ever faster to bleed the brakes. 4 weeks to do the front & rear suspension and two week just to bleed the brakes. It totaled over 6 week with out driving her, and I was starting to have withdrawals. I have an appointment with the brake guy tomorrow and I'm bringing my big stick for my talk with him!!!. But then again it is the best time to drive with the top down. The shop was great, ther were very sorry of the problems and gave me money back, more trah I expected. The true measure of a shop is when something goes wrong and how the deal with it. Anyone in the Tampa Bay area the ONLY MG guy is Glen at Glems MG reapir in ST. Petersburg Floida.

I was still having some problems with hesitation and the timing was being erratic. I decided that it was beyond my skill and I took her to the local MG garage (Glenn’s MG Repair in St Petersburg, Fl). He was able to diagnose and fix the problems. The hesitation was a bad accelerator pump and a lot of sediment & varnish in the carburetor. The timing problems were from very weak springs in the mechanical advance and a worn out distributor. With a freshly rebuilt carburetor and distributor she was like a new car.

My wife and I had decided to take "Bea" on a road trip to St Augustine (about 250 miles). As a precaution I took some tools & parts, that took up half the truck, my wife packed for two weeks (the trip was only for a long weekend-3days), that took up the rest for the trunk and behind the seat. I was allotted the luggage rack for my small duffel bag. and don't forget we took the dog too. He was very happy sitting on my wife lap. I didn’t want to drive on I-4 (always major traffic and road work) so we took the back roads, all secondary state & county routes. Less traffic with some scenery and a few twists & turns. The interstate would have been about 5 hours, my route was just about 7 hours, but more fun and when we stopped soneone always asked about the car and told me about the MG they had owned. Its alway good to get away and more fun in a MG

Now that she was in good running order, I wanted all the gauges to work and something was wrong with the fuel gauge. I pulled the sending unit and checked the float, “No bubbles” so I checked the wiring, it was good. It must be the sending unit, it checked out. That was when I noticed the float was heavy, it was full of gas. So after spending several hours checking things, I found my first idea about the problem was right, but was fooled into thinking it was something else. Anyway a new float fixed the problem.

Now was the time to start making it better. I ordered a new interior “Biscuit”. And started to remove the old interior, I was very surprised to find NO rust on the floor. And I cleaned everything up and painted it with rust preventative paint. The interior went in with "almost" NO problems, with only minor injuries (always have puddles of oil, gas & blood on the garage floor) and looks fantastic. My wife insisted on a new “radio” and I installed a AM/FM CD player with 400 watts. Now I can inflict my taste in music (classic rock) on others at traffic lights, but I still prefer just hearing the exhaust notes.

Its was one of those dark overcast days with intermittent rain, as I drove down the street, the sun suddenly broke through clouds and I looked to my right and saw her sitting in a parking lot of a condo complex and with a for sale sign. A quick u-turn and a few disgruntled drivers, I was parked next to her. She had a good body with a few small rust bubbles (smaller than a dime) on the front fender, No bondo, no major collision (a small hard to see body repair on the passenger door), a very straight body with shiny paint and the color I wanted Green (not BRG, but close). I called the number and the owner was home. He had just that week sold his house and moved the car from a garage to the condo parking lot and only that morning put up the sign. We went for a test drive, he was honest about the car and was afraid the rear end needed replaced, what with loud clunking & thumping when driven along with being hard to start and no acceleration. The interior was very faded & worn, several gages didn’t work, but she had great potential and a GOOD price. After I had bought and paid for her, I thought it best to ask my wife, she was not overly enthusiastic about the car until she saw it and remembered the good times we had in the MGA & 1978 MGB.

We drove her home and into the garage, that night I found the rear end noises were a bad u-joint and a loose shock. In the next few weeks I found the rear brakes were binding because the hoses were clogged (that was the loss of acceleration), I did a total brake job with all hoses & rebuild both brake & clutch master & all slave cylinders and put in electronic ignition along with a good tune up (that cured the hard starting) & oil changes for engine, transmission & rear end. I then started to clean 30 years (was 1975 that long ago??!!) of dirt, grime and accumulated crud off the car. With all that gone I was surprised to find she was in better condition than I though, with good compression (150 on all cylinders) and very little rust. "Bea" looked great at "10feet", ran & drive good, just what I wanted, a good driver, but that interior was VERY faded!!!!

In 1986 I did own a 1969 MGC-GT for about a week. The car was mine if I could tow it away, I was able to get her home and found that the only reason she didn't break in two was the carpet held it together and the doors were locked, then I found someone had replaced the engine with a 4 cylinder and nothing was salvageable, It went to the junk yard.

As for the 1978 MGB, I bought her in 1988, she was a bit rough with a few rust spots in the usual places and original paint (tartan red) that was polished down to primer in several places, but she ran good and was great fun to drive, but I needed something larger and I bought a 4 door Cadillac when I sold her in 1992. I had been without an MG for over 13 years and always looked longingly at any seen on the road. I had been looking for several years, (I have always been able to spot LBC's from a distance and behind buildings) but everything was very rusty and / or they wanted too much $$. I had almost given up when I found her, a 1975 MGB.