This started as a parts car that I bought for $500 in 2000 just for the hood and trunk. It was left over from the previous owner’s restoration project, and I was told if was in a winter accident in 1980 (kind of verified due to snow tires still being on it) and been in a barn since then, and garaged the entire time I have owned it.
When I got it home and cleaned it out, not only did I have a good hood and trunk lid, but the car was in remarkably good shape despite the front end damage. Outer rockers were off course bad, but floor pans and all inner fender lips were solid. It also had a factory Overdrive transmission. So into storage it went!!
Georgia fell in love with it when she got ready to pick one for her project, and we started restoring it in 2018. And after digging into its history, we found that it was truly unique. Not only was it only one of 5 cars made in that color with an overdrive, but it was actually a kit car assembled in Belgium (which is why the commission number was BCTxxxxx rather than CTxxxxx). So it must have been bought by an American service member stationed in Germany and then sent here probably on an aircraft carrier (which was common for that time).
The engine was complete, but seized by the time we took it apart in December of 2021. There was a head leak between #2 and #3, and #2 piston was basically fused to the liner. Otherwise, like the transmission, it was in almost new state internally. Georgia is intent on using as many original parts, so we were able to reuse 2 of the original liners and 2 from a spare engine I have from “Larry car”. R&L Engine is boring to 86.5mm and having custom pistons and rings made for it. We are using a TR-Torque profile on the original cam that we sent to TS Imported. We also switched to the improved TR4A style dual exhaust header (had it ceramic coated) and a higher flow intake manifold mated to a set of HS6 SU carbs we had rebuilt at Joe Curto’s shop. Distributor is stock but rebuilt and profiled by Jeff at Advanced Distributor.
Please check out the daughter pages tracking our restoration. Below is a file photo of one that will look very much like Georgia’s when it is completed. (Hoping for Summer of 2023).
11/22/2023: Lots of progress in the last year or so. We were hoping to have it assembled by summer of 2023, but body shop delays moved this out to spring or summer of 2024. We should have the engine fully assembled by end of January 2024 (bottom half assembled and all parts just waiting on our time). We were slowed by an unplanned 1978 MGB restoration project with a friend of ours.
I finished a bunch of metal work and it went to our friends at British Body and Coach-works.(BBC). They did some more, wound up with new floor pans while doing the rockers. Getting painted the week of 11/27/23 in a custom color we made from what was listed as “Powder Blue” with a Pearl layer added on top. It came in very close to the original test panel.
Some of the side work that goes on in the background while we wait for the body to be done: Gauges cleaned and re-calibrated (very expensive), heater box rebuilding, and part cleanup and paint/powder coating.
