This one unfortunately has had a hard life with significant damage to the paintwork and lots of chips and breaks to the chromed plastic.

The orange & white number below is an MGC, which is identical to the MGB except for some bulges on the bonnet (to accommodate the 6 cylinder engine from the Austin Healey 3000). This one came to me in a mixed lot and was effectively free - I sold most of the lot on at a profit and kept some good ones from it - you should never sell mixed lots. Good models make more when sold singly with clear photos and accurate descriptions, wrecks like this should go for parts or be given away. However the chrome on this model is better than on the red one, so I think I'll break it for spares. I can strip the red one, replace the chrome, give it a thorough clean, but no repaint and have a smarter model - I might even be able to fix the suspension. I intend to use the wheels from the MGC on a real wreck of an MGA which I am going to repaint.

OK - so I did it. Before pictures on the left above, after lift surgery pictures on the right. There were a number of surprises along the way. Number one was that I was not the first to take the bottom of the red MGB. Someone had tried to repair the suspension with little bits of wood! What a mess. Inside it is surprisingly complex. There is a sort of plastic chassis which runs front to back. it has the bumpers on the ends, vertical grooves to locate the axles as they articulate, little plastic tongues which sit over the axles to act as springs and some location lugs for the interior moulding. Pictures 1-3 show the inner chassis from the red MGB. The front end complete with bumper has broken away and all the plastic 'springs' have broken off and are lost. You can see the remains of the wooden replacements a previous owner had glued in place. The black interior unit is from the MGC.

1	2	3

The plated grille is part of a separate piece which goes right back to the cockpit and has pieces which run on the door hinges and act as dampers and a 'snap shut'. Picture 4 shows the grille piece in place sitting on the front bumper. Picture 5 shows the door dampers, 6 shows the broken unit from the red MGB next to the repaired one from the MGC.

4	5	6

The MGB chassis was broken over the front axle and all the spring pieces were all broken off and the grille piece was also broken. It was very messy where my predecessor had glued it all together. The chassis components were almost, but not quite as bad in the MGC, so I decided to use the bits from that one. The interior moulding fits snug to the plastic chassis which gave me an idea for suspension. I took the bottom off a completely wrecked Land Rover and removed the spring wires using the Dremel - very tough to do, took ages, and then shortened them slightly. There are a couple of lugs on the plastic chassis which locate into the front seats and both locate the interior and retain the seat backs. I made cuts in these which allowed me to lay the suspension wires along the plastic chassis correctly located to act as good suspension.

Picture 7 shows the Land Rover base plate after I had ground away the pressed over bits holding the suspension wires in place. In pictures 8&9 you can see where I've ground slots in the seat locating lugs on the inner chassis and glued the Land Rover's now shortened suspension wires in place. The glue is just to keep them in place. The interior moulding will hold them down in use.

7	8	9	10

Now the interior would not sit properly on the plastic chassis. I cut longitudinal grooves into the underside of the interior moulding using a cutting wheel on the Dremel to allow space for the wires (picture 10) which I had glued in place on the plastic chassis with Superglue. I made a neat job on the drivers side and a mess on the passenger side. The pieces now sit together and hold the wires in place. We have suspension!

I was able to give the interior and the windows a good clean and for the sake of realism put the black dashboard from the MGC into the MGB, leaving the rest of the interior duck egg blue. Its all gone back together rather well and sits properly on its (working) suspension. Photos to follow once the glue has gone off.

The MGC became a donor vehicle. I used its headlamp jewels on a pair of Competition Model Mini-Coopers who were both missing one, and also from the MGC a set of wire wheels are soaking in vinegar ready to go into the MGA. This car did not die in vain... Even the Land Rover wheels will go to a Volkswagen Karmann Ghia, a Mercedes 220 and a pair of Bentley Continentals, all of which should have a spare in the boot and all of whom are missing it... Now, anyone want a window unit, a body shell and a set of three doors for an MGB/C rebuild?