Reawakening an MG: 1958 ZB Magnette: In the beginning...

I first saw an MG Magnette when I took my MGA to a GT gathering in Welches, OR in about 2004. The style and practicality of a four door with solid top appealed to me. My good wife Cindy was impressed with them too, especially a nice two-tone. I remained naive about Magnettes, not knowing the difference between a ZA, ZB or ZB Varitone (the two-tone with larger rear window). This changed after I saw a reference to a Craiglist Magnette for sale in California. I somewhat foolishly bought the dormant car based on its pictures. I was lucky though, and the rust free car was delivered and restored over a couple of years. It is not a Varitone, but since "we" were set on a two-tone color scheme, it is painted like a Varitone.

It has been very good so far, as always there are refinements and finishing details I could do but I don't always get to those right away.

The "new" Magnette, the subject for future posts, came to me by adoption from the original owner and her son. This is also a 1958 ZB, it was a wedding gift. The young couple arranged delivery in England and used it on a 6 week tour of Europe. It remained in the family as a daily driver until, most unfortunately, when parked to pick up the mail it rolled down an embankment and was disabled. In about 1990, the intrepid son, finished with college but not yet employed, embarked on a repair and restoration. There was some body work and rocker rust to do. The project went well through the re-paint in the original Birch Gray, but then a new job, family and life terminated progress. The car languished for another 23 years. I learned of the car on the North American Magnette e-mail list. As I was just finishing a year and a half mission for my Church, I was looking for a project. We were able to arrange transfer of custody and I am now beginning to assess how much to do and how much to leave alone.

My approach with past cars was to not worry about originality too much and to restore with an eye to reliability and modern function where possible. This time, given the state of this car and it's remarkable history, I am more inclined to leave as much original material and function as possible. This relates to matters such as keeping the original engine, front drum brakes, not adding a front roll bar, etc. As we go along practicality, improved performance, and availability of original parts will all factor into decisions.

The car was trailered from Mercer Island to my garage in Eagle, ID. It fit nicely on a U-Haul trailer, the center gap was not a problem (I did have to order it for a Toyota Corolla as they wouldn't allow the Magnette to reserve a trailer). The following pictures illustrate some of the work to date. I have changed for a rebuilt SU fuel pump, water pump, rebuilt distributor, new coil and cleaned the carburetors.

The car was stored in the carport with a car cover.

A steep driveway with a curve added interest. The wheels turned fairly freely and a simple come-along worked well.

My grandson, Amos, had a lot of fun helping us.

Here is a link to a video after I washed everything in my driveway. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KObjzl4pJoU

Here is the engine at first start up, two days after I thought things were ready to fire. I discovered leaking fuel line connections and a rotted lower radiator hose, minor delays on the road to glory. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qWzEDHP_II

A Magnette is defined by certain characteristics that make it unique. Some of these are illustrated below. I don't have a picture of the Trico vacuum bottle window washer yet, but all parts seem to be there. Lamentably the clock doesn't seem to be in the boxes. Otherwise many of the original accessories are present, like the jack and hand crank (which I used during static timing of the distributor). Ed. note: The clock was later found in with the dash gauges!!