My 1957 Mineral Blue MGA Coupe

By Jim Cheatham

As with most of these cars, this one was a rust bucket, basket case but I could see potential. I found the car in the eBay classified ads and made a deal with the owner in March 2013. The car was a non-running car but very complete but had not been registered for the road since 1972. My wife and I drove my pickup truck from Richmond, VA to Queens, NY, rented a one-way U-Haul trailer and headed home with my new purchase. On our way home, the U-Haul car-carrier trailer had a flat tire somewhere in New Jersey. Not a good start to this project.

Over the next four years, I went through two paint and body guys (the second one was great) and lots of money. I did most of the disassembly and reassembly trying to keep as many original parts as possible and taking it back to its original Mineral Blue color with gray carpet and trim. All of the glass, gauges, switches and knobs, dash mirror, gear shift knob, radiator (re-cored), spare tire cover and many other parts are original that I restored. I rebuilt an 18G 3-main MGB engine, installed a T9 five-speed, converted the front brakes to disc brakes, added a sway bar and installed LED brake lights. Finally, the car was able to move under its own power for the first time in four and a half decades! What a great feeling of accomplishment. I had spent countless hours researching MGAs in general and MGA Coupes in particular and was thrilled to finally have a running MGA Coupe.

Over the last four years, I have driven this car approximately 16,000 miles to British car shows near and far including places like GT-44 in Dubuque, IA, South Central British Car Gathering in Dobson, NC, Southeast British Car Festival in Dillard, GA and most recently to MG 2021 (GT-46) in Atlantic City, NJ. I am very appreciative of the award my car was given at GT-46 and I look forward to many more GTs in the future.
Thanks
Safety Fast!