Junkyard Find: 1977 MGB
The steady march of MGB s into American self-service wrecking yard continues, with another black-bumper Malaise Era example today. In this series prior to today, we’ve seen this ’67, this ’71, this ’75, this ’79, and this ’79 with Toyota 20R power, and now we’ve got this ’77 with very-much-of-its-time custom paint. I found this car in a California wrecking yard, so of course it’s not rusty at all.
The MG octagon is gone, but the custom green border remains.
This paint job reminds me of the custom ’80 RX-7 Junkyard Find. Perhaps they were painted in the same shop.
So few horsepower from the 1977 pushrod 1800. No need to discuss numbers here. Hey, look, the nearly unobtainium smog air-pump is still there.
I purchased this car’s clock for my collection, and it works!
Very nice MGBs are worth OK money these days, but rough ones are worth bupkis.
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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Went to a nice " Boots & Bonnets " MG Club meet yesterday at The Automobile Driving Museum in El Segundo , Ca. ~ lots and lots of very nice MG's from 1948 to the end , mostly well kept or restored , plus my little raggedy thing parked out side where folks looking for the meet saw it and turned in . One nice guy with the MG TD he won new as first prize for the " Why I like my Bic Pen " contest..... I was kept busy answering Tech questions and was surprised to discover 2/3 of the MG Owners didn't actually drive them but for once a month or so . Wow . Many knew of my little red Met apparently it garners comments from folks who see it whizzing by ~ it doesn't go very fast so I like to drive it flat out most of the time . -Nate
Was it possible to buy these with engines and moving wheels? I've seen them parked in driveways-often under half rotted tarps-and backyards or riding on the back of flatbed trucks all through my 40+ years on this planet, but I don't think I've ever seen one moving under its own power. I always thought they were sold strictly as yard ornaments.