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January 21

So...How, Exactly, Did You Get Started In MGs?

John and Nancy Brickell
Reprinted with permission from the MOWOG

My love affair with the MGTF goes back to my high school days.  Although I tried to be the kind of son my family could be proud of, I eventually fell in with the “wrong” crowd.  I mean, the guys I ran around with were into Brit motorcycles and Brit cars, of all things.  It’s difficult to imagine now how such a thing could have happened to me, as these were the years of 1957 to 1960, when cool guys on campus rode around with their steady girls in their souped-up, decked-out, lowered (front ends only, please),  Chevys, Fords, Duce Coups, Corvettes, T-Birds, and don’t forget the Plymouth Fury.  Case in point: You’ve seen the movie, American Graffiti?  A movie about that period of time, a movie focused primarily on guys and their cars, and secondarily the girls that rode with them.  Now, is there one British car in that movie?  No there is not.  I rest my case.

Oh, but for me and my buddies, MGs, Triumphs, Austin Healys, and the like were the cars for us.  As I said, definitely the “wrong” crowd for that time. My friend, Mike, was the first to purchase and he bought a Triumph TR3.  Next, his brother John bought an MGA.  We spent all of our free time riding, cleaning or working on those cars.  I remember how we watched Mr. Pitchard, the bachelor architect who lived down the block, ride by in his immaculate MG TC, and I and my buddies would look on with envy.  Honestly, it was the MG TC we envied, as much as what we perceived to be his swinging life style.

We would drive these cars out into the desert, up into the mountains, and even take our chances cruising downtown in the evening, among the other so-called “cool” cars.  Oh, did I mention that I went to high school in Palm Springs, California.  We could cruise every night of the year - top down.

Love at first glance.  I was a sophomore when I saw my first MG TF and I thought it was the perfect blend of classic design and emerging modern lines that were becoming smoother and more sloping.  I was still attracted to that classic look rather than the new MGAs and Healys that were coming on the market. Whatever it was, I knew from the beginning that this was the ride for me.  It’s like the person you see and get to know and before very long, or maybe even instantly, you know this is the person for you….for all time.  You know what I’m talking about.  She, or he, may not be the most popular, the best looking, the one with the latest style, but for whatever reason, you know that this one has touched your heart and you’ll never again be the same.  That’s the way it happened; the MG TF was the only car for me.

Now I must fast forward through the college years, marriage, career(s), children and all of the blood, sweat and tears that go into those years.  Throughout that time, I would occasionally run across a TF and think about how nice it would be to own one, but for multiple sets of reasons, never made the purchase.  Fifty years passed and as I approached the year before my retirement I was determined to find and buy a car on which I could do a complete restoration, from the frame up. It should come as no surprise that I eventually went looking for a TF to purchase. 

Now, logic would suggest that before making such a purchase one would do extensive research, join a club or two, talk to folks who know about MG TFs and once armed with that accumulated knowledge, then and only then, make an informed decision to make such a purchase.  Well, not me.  Oh, no, for me,  it was buy the car first, then learn about all those pesky little important details one needs to know about car restoration in general and TF restoration in particular.  Irrational, I know, but that’s the way it I did it.  Stupidity, or perhaps a bit of rebel, still.

Together at last.  On July 24, 2008 I made the “winning” e-Bay bid on a ‘54 MG TF.  The car was located in Georgia and had been with the family that was selling it for all but the first six months of its existence.  So, for all practical purposes, this TF was a one-owner.  I figured that any car that had been in a family for 54 years must have received very good care.  Plus, the pictures displayed in the auction showed the car to be in very good condition.  Also, it was advertised as a “running car”.  Note to the uninformed: things that are not shown in pictures, are things one should be concerned about.

The TF was shipped by covered truck, after the woman selling it informed me that the convertible was nonfunctioning; this being only the first of the surprises I would discover.  The TF arrived at my door on August 17, 2008.  Immediately after that beautiful baby rolled off the truck, I got in to start it and it actually fired up!  So far, so good.  My son, Adam, who was there for the “birth“, got in the passenger’s seat and we headed off down the street.  I can report that it ran, stopped, shifted through all gears, and after a 20-minute ride, we returned home, drove it into the garage and immediately started the process of taking it apart.  It didn’t take me long to find extensive wood rot, oil-soaked carpet, rusted body parts in the rear wheel area as well as most of the chrome pieces needing re-chroming; basically a car in serious need of restoration.

I won’t recount here, all that has been done to the TF since August of 2008 as I have created a website that documents the arrival, the step-by-step dismantling and restoration phases of my beloved ’54.  Feel free go to visit the site by clicking here to view the sequence of these activities documented by photographs combined with commentary on the errors I have made and the successes I have enjoyed.  The resources I availed and accumulated are listed there as well. The projected date of rebirth is summer - 2011.  I hope by that time Nancy and I will be riding handsomely to MG events in our perfectly restored MG TF.

For the record, this TF is registered as: Chassis No.:  HDP 46/0781, Engine No. XPAG/TF/31141, Build date:  October 21 - 26, 1953, dispatched to the US:  October 27, 1953.  My sincere thanks to those in the Club who have been so helpful and supportive as I work toward the full restoration of this car.  Sans your assistance, I would not have made this progress by this date.