MG Magnette ZA
Tom is tantalisingly close to seeing his MG return to the road after more than two years. Maybe even in time for its 64th birthday…
OWNED SINCE February 2014 MILEAGE SINCE LAST REPORT 0 TOTAL MILEAGE 112,000 LATEST COSTS Er… lots
1956 MG MAGNETTE ZA
This 63-year-old MG Magnette, which was returned to my garage just before Christmas, might still be a non-runner, have no interior and be stuffed with plastic tubs full of parts, but it’s closer to its longawaited return to the road than ever before. The door bottoms and rear wheel arch tubs may not have been pampered with the same welding treatment as other tired areas – I had to draw a financial line in the sand somewhere – but I have a solid car at long last.
When I fling the garage door open I’m no longer confronted by a halffinished structure that looks like it might break in half if I so much as cough anywhere near it and though ‘skint’ is the politest way of assessing my bank balance right now, I can at least now hope for the day when this project is finished – I even started to think that it wouldn’t be unreasonable to dream of hearing it run by its 64th birthday in March. Body-wise, the ZA’s cause looked lost again when it first went back to the body shop following a prolonged rest last year. Seeing the passenger-side braced and a corroded floor pan and lower wing section on the ground was about as sorry a sight as I thought I was ever going to see until a gloved hand went on to demonstrate to how pretty much all of the sill could be removed by hand.
But we decided to persevere, not just because stopping now would have resulted in a huge waste of time (and money) but also because those of you who have been following this tale from the start will know that this car once belonged to my late father and contains a lethal dose of sentimental value.
Repair sections to the front inner wheelarch, front floor and passenger wing have been fabricated and fitted along with new sills, while corrosion
’This car once belonged to my late father, so it contains a lethal dose of sentimental value’
repairs and structural work to the underside have also been done. Once all this was finished the underside was cleaned, rust-treated and primed, with the odd filler repair for areas where the diminishing budget called for a ‘get it done and come back to it later’ approach. The rest is cosmetic – I hope.
I really would have liked the door bottoms to have had some attention, but as far as the rest of the car and its paintwork goes, it is 63 years old. And I’d quite like it to look 63 years old.
From here, a start has been made on putting various bits back together. The front suspension has been stripped, cleaned and reassembled along with the clutch slave cylinder, rear brakes and fuel lines. The engine, which was rebuilt more than a year ago, has also been reunited with the car, though it hasn’t yet been plumbed-in, so to speak.
I’ve also been busy gathering parts for the next stage of the restoration, so everything from a new exhaust system and brake master cylinder to oil filters and spark plugs are now sitting in boxes waiting to contribute to the project.
I have a list of jobs to get sorted before I can get stuck into the boxes of bits, though. Having made the effort (well, watched someone else make the effort) on getting the engine rebuilt, I’ll be taking the precaution of removing the fuel tank and getting that refurbished, and once that’s back and refitted I’ll be nipping to my mum’s to grab the interior. I’m sure she’ll be glad to finally have her garage space back.
Then I think it might be wise to have a look at the electrics from a safety perspective, given how much time and effort has gone into this car. Wiring looms for the car seem pretty easy to get hold of, but I’ve never fitted one before, which means that a few cups of tea will be made and some friends will be called upon to help with that day of swearing.
I also know from a stalled attempt at bringing this car back to life when I was a teenager that the fuel pump needs looking at – it required some gentle taps with a hammer to get it working back in 2002. I can’t see any harm in taking it apart and having a play with it – who knows, I might even learn something!