Road Trip Treasure

Ace auto restorer and all-round top bloke Mike Darby recently acquired a couple of project vehicles from a gentleman in eastern Mississippi. One car was fairly complete and the other was in (mostly) large pieces. There were more cars and bits than would fit on his trailer and in his truck so Richard Cunningham offered to tow a trailer as well. Robb Ogletree and I, seeing an opportunity to lend a hand, volunteered to ride shotgun with Richard and Mike.

We arrived at the appointed place in Mississippi and set to work getting the cars and parts loaded. The complete car took a little fettling to get it started but start it did and we got it on the trailer. The other car, a pre-war model, was in bits scattered over the warehouse where it was stored. We loaded boxes and bits into Mike's pickup and the overflow went in Richard's vehicle. The trailer that he was towing carried the chassis, body tub and other large pieces.

A similar top - I didn't bring a camera, either

As we were scanning the shop I noticed a couple of fairly nice works-style MGB hard tops. Since I never carry money of any amount (not by plan - it just sort of works out that way) I didn't bother to ask if they were for sale. Richard, however, did ask and they were - at a very fair price. Fair, but more than the lint I had in my pocket at the time.

A quick pocket check found that a couple of us pooling our resources had enough to buy the top. Money changed hands and we loaded the hardtop on Richard's trailer. And when we decided that it could possibly be damaged by the flexing of the body tub or other pieces rubbing against it, we tried to load it in Richard's GMC Envoy. It wouldn't fit. Mike then insisted that we remove some of the bits from his covered pickup and load it inside safe and snug. Robb and I transferred the offloaded items into Richard's car and we were ready to travel.

The top is in pretty nice shape -it needs a new rear bracket fabricated and the gel coat wants a bit up touchup, too. I am however, as pleased as I can be and I'm looking forward to driving the old girl through the winter months without hiring a team of circus roadies to erect the soft top. 

I need to dig around the sofa cushions for change to repay the loan...

Photo courtesy motorbase.com