The day finally arrived when I borrowed a car trailer from a friend so Mary & I headed off, across the Pennines, to Manchester to collect Maggie, the MGA. Once we found the address (with a challenging house numbering system) we could see the car looking forlorn in the drive, with another immaculate MGA in the garage and an E Type under restoration - we'd take her to a better place. The journey home was uneventful (once the ratchet straps were readjusted) and she was introduced to her new home in Chatton.
The condition was as bad (but not worse) as I'd expected which was a good thing. Mary wasn't so sure. On the plus side, the right hand side (still not sure whether to call it offside when it's a LHD car in the UK) looked in pretty good condition - the wings and door seem fairly straight with correct gaps between panels. The act that the door capping is missing makes me think this has been replaced. The sill, although a bit rusty (it will be replaced as a matter of course), looked as if it would hold up.
The other side lived up its (low) expectation with a virtually non-existant sill with dented, filled & coroded front & rear wings. As well as a bit of rust on the wire wheels, a few of the spokes are broken.
The disappointment was, although the description said the gear lever was missing, I hadn't realised the whole gearbox remote control assembly was missing.
The engine bay (with the box of bits) seems fairly complete but time will tell. There is a lot of work (but I knew that before) so let the fun begin!
