Earning My Stripes
MG Enthusiast|December 2019
MGE reader Mark Rouse, from Australia’s Fraser Coast, promised his wife that he would not need a second MG. Then he found a cheap project MGB for sale with gold-finished wheels and unusual go-faster stripes...
Mark Rouse
Earning My Stripes

A few years ago I had fulfilled a boyhood dream to own a classic car. I purchased a 1967 MGB roadster which had just undergone a full restoration. It was British Racing Green and in lovely condition. The chap that I bought it from said: “Watch out, these cars are an addiction. You will buy one then you will want another.” I assured my wife that this wouldn’t happen because this MGB would be enough to satisfy my boyhood want.

Joining the local MG Car Club was a great decision and we met many nice, like-minded people and participated in some great activities. Looking at the many variations of the MG marque fed my interest. I noticed a lot of the members had more than one MG.

To assure myself that I had made a good deal in purchasing my MGB Roadster I searched on eBay for cars similar to mine, just to check the prices. After around one year I was satisfied I’d paid the right price but I also noticed a few MGs that needed a little TLC and they were tantalisingly inexpensive.

I noticed a 1975 MGB GT, rubber bumper, with fantastic gold wheels. I had thought about owning a second MG and a GT would mean I had an all-weather car. This was something other Club members did, which meant they could attend club runs in any conditions; a good reason to buy one?

The car was a lighter shade of BRG with a Webasto and vinyl roof. It had some gold sticker stripes on it that I thought might have been placed there by a car yard, to make it look faster. Even from the pictures I could see that this car would need at least a full paint job. First job would be to get those silly gold stripes off.

After convincing my long-suffering wife that it would be a good idea to own a second MG I managed to win the car on eBay. It was in a lock-up in Tuggerah, NSW, just north of Sydney. This 2246 km round trip (or 1395.6 miles) was quite a trek from Burrum Heads in the Wide Bay, north of Brisbane.

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