Topic: I found my late father's 1969 MGB last week

[Bankerdanny]

I was looking on Facebook Marketplace last week for MGB parts when I stumbled on an add for a '69 B in NE Iowa.

My dad had restored a B in the late 1980's when I was in college and sold it around around 2010 when living in Dubuque because his Parkinson's meant he couldn't get in an out any more. Sadly at the time I couldn't afford to buy it from him.

He had bought it as a parts car for another resto, but decided it was the one in better shape. John Twist did the carbs (we drove up to Grand Rapids to get them) and a local shop the transmission and engine. Dad did the body work and painted the car Black Tulip. In 1994 or 1995 I gave him a Grant wood steering wheel from Trak Auto for Christmas that I installed while I was visiting. The car also had a chrome luggage rack on the boot lid.

So I clicked on the ad and up popped a dark purple '69 B with a wood steering wheel and a luggage rack located about 30 miles from Dubuque. The seller couldn't confirm the name of the seller, but did say he bought it from a man in Dubuque about 10 years ago.

Sadly a long-term unemployment situation keeps me from buying it today. But I was very happy to hear that it was still being driven and appears to be in pretty good shape, especially considering it was painted in dad's garage using a air brush gun size compressor.

[Kevin]

That's pretty cool

Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

[Bankerdanny]

That's pretty cool

Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

I thought so too. When you look at all the photos the car needs some TLC and a repaint. The rear deck lid doesn't look great and there are big chunks of missing paint on the bonnet (this year B has an aluminum hood, which I know for sure this car had, so the damage I see can't be rust, but could have been filler under the paint my dad used to fill dents, which the aluminum hood is prone to). Overall though it appears to have held up pretty well.

[Alan F.]

That is a find. It's nice to learn the next owner was good to it.

[newday777]

Yes Cool beans you found it and at least got to talk to the owner.

[Kelly E]

Thanks for reminding me that I have two 10 to 1 compression hotrod MGB motors to put together. I spent two years rounding up the parts. They got put on the back burner when I got diagnosed. I need to get the GT's back on the road.

[34barab]

I’ve read that year was the best in quality and style for the B.  If it’s appropriate, I want to ask what the car is worth in today’s market? 

Short story:  in my late teens, my girlfriend had a 69 MGB.  Great car, although she wouldn’t let me drive it.  One day we were driving home from the shop (new tires), cruising at about 45 mph, when there was a sudden bang as the right front corner dropped, and we watched the right front wheel speed ahead of us as we slowed to a stop.  Apparently the shop didn’t tighten the spinner enough.

[Alan F.]

Thanks for reminding me that I have two 10 to 1 compression hotrod MGB motors to put together. I spent two years rounding up the parts. They got put on the back burner when I got diagnosed. I need to get the GT's back on the road.

Build thread? Time to show off a a little.

[Bankerdanny]

I’ve read that year was the best in quality and style for the B.  If it’s appropriate, I want to ask what the car is worth in today’s market? 

Short story:  in my late teens, my girlfriend had a 69 MGB.  Great car, although she wouldn’t let me drive it.  One day we were driving home from the shop (new tires), cruising at about 45 mph, when there was a sudden bang as the right front corner dropped, and we watched the right front wheel speed ahead of us as we slowed to a stop.  Apparently the shop didn’t tighten the spinner enough.

Values are all over the place on MG's. The seller of my dad's car is asking $3,800, which isn't too bad, although with the paint issue I see and needing the seats re-covered I would have been thinking more like $2,500-$2,800. A clean sorted driver sells for around $5k or so. Super clean early chrome bumper cars are selling for $10k.

I had a wire wheel strip out on my car in 2013. I hit the brakes and heard a weird sound that turned out to be the wheel continuing to spin while the hub was not. It was also on a side where the spinning wheel loosened the spinner. Fortunately I caught it before it can completely undone. I had to have my brother-in-law come get me with his double axle trailer and haul it back to the house. I had a couple spare wheels, so we swapped the tire and tube to one of those and I was back on the road.

My car (a '72 B-GT) has been off the road since late 2014 for sill replacements and some other body work that was supposed to take 6 months max. Last year I picked up a GM 2.8 V6 from a Fiero to replace my very tired original engine.

[Bankerdanny]

Thanks for reminding me that I have two 10 to 1 compression hotrod MGB motors to put together. I spent two years rounding up the parts. They got put on the back burner when I got diagnosed. I need to get the GT's back on the road.

I'm going to V6 swap my car. I picked up a 2.8 from a Fiero. I really went back and forth on engine swap vs rebuilding my original engine, but I found the engine with 80k miles for $100. Even factoring in the cost of the swap kit and a T5 to replace my stock transmission, the total cost is about the same as a rebuild with a fast road head and hotter cam, and the Fiero will still make more power.

Another factor is that I can sell my overdrive gearbox to cover most of the cost, plus I have the original engine plus a spare from a '73 that both have the factory 2923 big valve heads, which I can also sell for decent money. In the end the engine swap should cost me nothing and I will go from the original 95hp gross (probably more like 50hp in the current condition) to 145hp SAE net. Nothing I could afford to do to a stock engine was going to get me near that level of power.

[RAFster122s]

Danny, you can reply privately if you do not wish to share publically...
What's the story for your job situation since losing your job to SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 at the bank?  Still driving Uber or have you switched to food delivery like some friends who used to drive some for Uber/Lyft?
David

[Kevin]

I've always loved the B-GT! With a 2.8 L V6 that car is going to be awesome.
I bout a '91 Honda Civic Si used in '93 with 30K on the odo. I still have it, and it is my daily driver.
I bought it because in some way it reminded me of the B-GT.
Good luck with your job and ongoing mechanical projects!

Side note about the 2.8L V6:
The intake manifold is a weak point as the water jacket runs through it. Also, the manuals do not show a gasket at the base of the distributor, it will leak like a sieve with out it...
Lessons I learned from my '85 2.8L Jimmy 4x4.

Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

[Menno]

Why are those luggage racks always mounted backward?

[BigJimG]

Side note about the 2.8L V6:
The intake manifold is a weak point as the water jacket runs through it. Also, the manuals do not show a gasket at the base of the distributor, it will leak like a sieve with out it...
Lessons I learned from my '85 2.8L Jimmy 4x4.

Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

THIS... went through two different S-10's with the same issue.  On the truck intakes (TBI) the rear coolant crossover is blocked off, by design.  There is a small pocket cast into the intake, as the coolant ages and gets acidic, the pressure and corrosive properties, along with that area being stagnant eventually causes an intake manifold failure that dumps coolant into the crankcase... The intake manifolds are NLA the last time I checked, but reparable with a wire brush to clean the corrosion and some JB-weld. 
Due to the layout of the Fiero motor, I don't recall this being a problem with them, but something to checkout before stabbing it into the MG.

Edelbrock did make a few performance parts for that engine and may still be available, GM Performance did as well, but that stuff is as rare as hen's teeth anymore.

[RAFster122s]

I passed a Fiero (4 cylinder) today on Grant Road in Tucson, typical sun faded/bleached paint typical of many old cars here in the desert SW. It was red as I think they must have painted 90% of them...
I actually test drove a 6 cylinder GT version new back in the day and being a G force junkie the salesman who road along extoling the benefits and features of the car I think made him wet himself as he put me on a curvy mountain road and I grew up in similar and love g forces in corners. I did not let up much on the gas and accustomed to driving "briskly" he is clutching the door handle tightly and tells me to take it easy that I might wish to slow down some. I ignore his cautions and pushed the car hard through the road. I am a pretty good driver and know how to take apexes of corners staying in my lane and I had already figured out how wide the car was and where my tires were on the roadway. Clearly the salesman drove like an old man already.
Other than having awful interior ergonomics and styling along with anemic real performance the V6 version was a vast improvement over the four cylinder. But, like many so called sports cars out of GM's engineering department...by the time the fixed some of the performance issues with the V6 the car had been thoroughly trounced by the press and sales were down.
Sporty looking cars may sell for a little while but the limitations catch up quickly, like when you start to pull out of the car lot...

Putting thst motor in a MGB-GT should be good if it is serviceable after the swap.
The Fiero motor being mid-engined was not so easy to work on the way they engineered it, at least from above.

[Kelly E]

My 85' GMC S-15 came with the 2.8l V6. The 3.4l version has bigger valves and more stroke. I built my motor using the stock block, the big valve heads and the stroker crank plus an Edelbrock intake manifold with the four bbl top and a Holley 390cfm four bbl. The heads are ported and polished. I am running a 272 cam with double row timing chain and roller tipped rocker's. I used .030 over Chevy I6 pistons on the stock rods at 9 to 1 compression and a stock distributor with a custom curve. For exhaust I have a set of shorty Heddman headers with a free flowing cat and a Flowmaster 40 series single in dual out muffler.
I've put 40k hard miles on it and it is still idling at 60psi oil pressure. It is around 240hp and I occasionally think about dropping it into the 72' GT but the high compression big valve B motors have ported heads and lightened rods so they will be fun to drive.

[Bankerdanny]

Danny, you can reply privately if you do not wish to share publically...
What's the story for your job situation since losing your job to SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 at the bank?  Still driving Uber or have you switched to food delivery like some friends who used to drive some for Uber/Lyft?
David

David,

Thanks for asking.

I stopped driving for Uber in mid-March. At the time it was just extra pocket money and wasn't worth the risk. After I was let go by the bank I didn't start driving because I was hoping a combination of severance, savings, and unemployment would last until I found a new job. As the jobless period stretched on and I exhausted my savings (and let my $1800/month health insurance expire) I really didn't have a choice and I started driving again on New Year's Eve.

There are clearly a lot less Uber/Lyft drivers right now, and almost no taxis (I see probably less than 10 on an average day in downtown Chicago compared to regular times when you would see 3-4 around me at any particular time), so business has been good and I have been making good money driving, not regular job replacement level of money, but enough to help me keep my head above water.

I have been interviewing with a large Ohio based national bank for a job basically identical to my last one since November. This morning I talked to my 5th person. Supposedly they are going to finally make a decision by the end of next week, so I am hopeful that the 11 month job search will finally be over.

[Bankerdanny]

Side note about the 2.8L V6:
The intake manifold is a weak point as the water jacket runs through it. Also, the manuals do not show a gasket at the base of the distributor, it will leak like a sieve with out it...
Lessons I learned from my '85 2.8L Jimmy 4x4.

Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

THIS... went through two different S-10's with the same issue.  On the truck intakes (TBI) the rear coolant crossover is blocked off, by design.  There is a small pocket cast into the intake, as the coolant ages and gets acidic, the pressure and corrosive properties, along with that area being stagnant eventually causes an intake manifold failure that dumps coolant into the crankcase... The intake manifolds are NLA the last time I checked, but reparable with a wire brush to clean the corrosion and some JB-weld. 
Due to the layout of the Fiero motor, I don't recall this being a problem with them, but something to checkout before stabbing it into the MG.

Edelbrock did make a few performance parts for that engine and may still be available, GM Performance did as well, but that stuff is as rare as hen's teeth anymore.

There are a couple of issues I will have to deal with regarding the Fiero motor. First the transverse version of the engine has the starter on drivers side when it is switched to longitudinal and the bell housing for the S-10 T-5 has it on the passenger side. So I will have to drill and tap the block to move the starter. Fortunately there is a guy who makes a tool for this that is for people putting Camaro 3.4L engines into Fieros and need to drill and tap the other side of the block.

I have also been told that the Fiero EFI intake is a bit too high to fit under an unmodified B hood. I really want to keep the fuel injection, so if I decide I don't want to modify the hood the solution is to find the intake from a 3.1 or 3.4L V6, which is a lower profile. I hope to kick the project off sometime in May.

[RAFster122s]

Danny, you get the job?

[Bankerdanny]

Danny, you get the job?

Thanks for asking. No, still looking. I picked up a temp job back in May that pays close to my normal rate, but still nothing permanent.