This
web site is intended primarily as a photographic documentation of the
restoration of my 1958 MGA. This 1958 MGA was purchased in
August, 2004. It was literally a basket case. The vehicle had been
disassembled in
about 1985 with the intention of being restored. To complicate things,
there were parts from many other British cars in the barn. It
turns out that the son of the individual I purchased it from repaired
British cars to make a little
extra money so he had parts from other cars he had acquired. My
purchase price included not only the MGA and all its parts, but all the
other parts, too. I spent about the first six months figuring out what
I had, what belonged, what didn't and so on.
I tried to do as much of the work as I could myself. I learned
the basics of welding by taking Carl Heideman's MGA Restoration course
at Eclectic
Motorworks.
However, I learned that my welds were not going to be pretty enough to
be on the outside of the finished car. So I did end up farming out the
exterior body work and the painting to someone I found locally. I've
been very happy with the results.
I began taking short trips in the fall of 2007 with the
interior, carpeting, top, tonneau, & side curtains yet to be
finished. All but the side
curtains were completed by January, 2008. The photo at the upper right
of this page was taken at that time. The side curtains were completed
in April, 2008, making for a total restoration time of 3 years and 8
months.
So take a look if you're interested by clicking on a link above or on a
picture below. I'll warn you that
I didn't take as many pictures as you might hope for in many areas,
because I probably just wasn't thinking about pictures at the time.
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