“I Guarantee It Is All There”

“I Guarantee It Is All There”

“I Guarantee It Is All There”These are the famous words of someone who took apart an MGA, got in over their head, then let it sit for a number of years and now are trying to sell the car. It is my experience, that although they say it is all there, I am sure it is not.

I have bought four cars that were dissembled when I purchased them. I have just finished restoration on one of these cars and believe me it was not all there. In addition to owning thirteen MGAs I have accumulated a lot of parts along the way. I also don’t throw anything out. You never know when you will need it. The question is, will you be able to find it when you need it? I seem to spend a lot of time looking for something I had in my hand five minutes ago.

I have often wondered how many of our little cars are resting in someone’s basement or garage. I think there are a lot of them out there just waiting for some TLC. Here is a story of one.

I got an email from a NAMGAR member in Arizona who was at a conference in Chicago and met a women who had an MGA for sale in Pittsburgh. I contacted her and went to look at the car. The car was in a rent-a-spot place outside of Pittsburgh. It was good thing I owned an A or I might not have recognized it. The car was totally dissembled and in a big pile. I did not want to tear into it until I got the story of how it ended up here. She said that her husband was a teacher and they took the car apart at the auto restoration shop at school. He had passed away seventeen years ago and she saved the car for their son. The son was now out of college and he did not want the car. I asked the question, is it all here? She assured me she was very careful when she moved it here from the school seventeen years ago. My next question was do you have a title? That answer was “no”. At that point, I told her that although she thought it was all complete, I thought there would be pieces missing. I made her an offer that she did not accept.

About two months later I got a phone call on the last day of the month and she said if I could get the car out tonight I could have it for the price I offered. She did not want to pay another months rent. I went over with three friends and a car trailer. First I paid her the price I had offered and then we started to carry the parts into the trailer. At the time I took a quick inventory and when we finished I explained to her that there was no rear end for the car and no A arms and king pins for the front end. In addition to that there wasn’t a single nut and bolt. The point to this story is that it is never all there.

“I Guarantee It Is All There”

“I Guarantee It Is All There”

13 thoughts on ““I Guarantee It Is All There””

  2. Comment by: George M. Kress

    I am kind of sad to say that the car in the picture has been sold. I did not even get a chance to drive it. My partner sent some pictures to a person we had bought a disassembled A from and he asked my price and when I gave it to him he said he wanted the car. My comment was that I had never driven the car on the road. What I wanted him to do was wait till the weather broke and I would drive the car for about a hundred miles and work out the bugs in the car and then he could have it. He did not want to wait so off the car went. I will not say here what I got for the car but if we meet we can talk about it. What are our cars worth?

  3. Comment by: Carl M Grady

    Great story Georhe.By coincidence my MGA is almost identical to yours in the picture albeit a 1960 1600. I agree with you collecting cars is an addiction limited only by money or space to store them. I am now waiting on my “5th” delivery

  4. Comment by: Robert A Pilat Jr

    great story,,,,I have been collecting mga parts for a while, it seem like every one has extra party hanging around,,, . save what you can that’s the best part of the story! my baby may be on the road soon, Hope to meet you some Day Keep saving cars!!!! Rap

  8. Comment by: George M. Kress

    The blue car in the picture is not the one in the story. The car in the story is still in pieces and all I have done to it is steel parts off it for other projects. The blue car in the picture is the car frame that I was sitting in for the picture that went with the last story that I wrote called how not to down size. So you will have to go back to that story to see what the car looked like. I think it took about six months to complete that project and it is sold to a classic car dealer in Medina Oh. We bought another basket case off him a while back and we sent him a few pictures and he said he wanted it. He met my price and off it went. I did not make much money but after all it is a hobby.

  9. Comment by: Jeff Becker

    My MGA was bought from my uncle’s Foreign junk yard. It was brought down from another car with a fork lift. It had no engine or transmission and was missing all types of parts. My deal was I paid him $125 for the car and all the parts needed to get it running in 1971. Just like this beautiful car, it took time and money and a lot of figuring out how to put this puzzle back together.

  11. Comment by: Michael Tooke

    Good story and an equally good comment from David Holmes. I assume the car that accompanies the article is the one that started as a pile of parts. Now I want to hear the story about the transformation!

  12. Comment by: David W. Holmes

    My “it’s all the there” story is that it really was except for the steel blanking plate over the steering column hole on the right passenger side US. Ever try to source one of those that tend to never be missing? I had a friend with a machine shop make one for me out of stainless steel. He actually made two so if anyone is missing one give me a shout. The price I had to pay was to listen to his life’s story, the divorce, the kids, the undedicated employees, the dog, the tortoise and the home renovation. Still worth it!