The classics you love,drive and restore
‘It was a complete wreck when I got it’
I bought the car as a complete wreck.
It was laying on its side in a garage – a completely failed project at that point. I began the project over lockdown and had to start by making a jig and mounting the car to it to ensure all the metalwork went back in the right place before chopping out all the rot – and there was a lot of it!
It had new floors, sills and more and finally it was in a solid enough state to mount it to a spit for the rest of the welding to be finished. My dad, Alan, and I did all the welding ourselves and when, finally, it was in a good enough state to be painted it went to a guy in Nairn to have its colour coats put on. Under the bonnet, there’s a 1275 A+ engine with a 1 ¾in carburettor, Maniflow exhaust and a few other tweaks.
‘My family had one back in the Sixties’
We had a V8 Pilot as the family car in the Sixties, but I never thought I'd own one myself, especially as I've been blind for a number of years. Nevertheless, last year the funds were available and so I started to keep a lookout for a suitable car. It would have to be one that needed relatively little work as I wouldn't be able to do anything myself – I'd secured a willing driver in my daughter! Last summer we found one that fitted the bill, with it having recieved a 20-year restoration. It still needed some work, but very little really.
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‘I revived it for my daughter’s wedding’
Here's my daughter Hannah and me at Normanton church on Rutland Water during Hannah's wedding in July 2023. When my now son-in-law David proposed, and Hannah accepted, I had no idea that she would want to go to the church in my MG. After all, it's hardly the most practical bridal transport you can imagine. However, she's a determined lady, she's known that car for her entire life, and that was that!
I added David to the insurance so that he could drive them both away from the church to the reception. Then my wife and I set off from Yorkshire to Cambridgeshire the day before the wedding. The car performed faultlessly and David got his first ever drive of it that evening. Everything went according to plan on the day and we managed to get Hannah in and out of the MG without any wedding dress disasters, while the guests (and happy couple) all agreed that the MG suited the occasion.
‘My other car is a Micra!’
My son wanted a sports car so he bought this as a wreck.
He soon lost interest though, so I was saddled with it! He’d done the upholstery and a fe
