1965 MG B Roadster

Our latest auction listing is one for the MGB enthusiast looking for an early ‘pull handle’ car to continue to fettle as they enjoy it. Not that this is a basketcase; fresh from a recommissioning from Abingdon Car Restorations and sporting an advisory free MOT as a result, it is running well and has an awful lot to commend it.

Not least its status as an early MGB; first registered on the 2nd of April 1965, it has many interesting features including those door pulls and the early gearbox. Just the one previous owner, too.

Being offered with no reserve, this charming old MGB is going to sell from the very first bid, so why not pop a cheeky one in and see if you can make it yours?

Our photographer is a very talented man; handsome too, and kind to small animals. But, his supernatural talent behind the lens does mean that he sometimes makes a car look a wee bit better than it actually is.

This is one of those occasions.

Not that it’s dreadful because it isn’t. It’s got good panel alignment and shutlines, and a decent sheen to the red paint. From ten yards it looks terrific.

It’s just that when you get closer you start to see its flaws. There are a few scabs that may or may not be caused by rust, a few rough edges, and a general air of regal decrepitude that’s still firmly at the patination stage but could easily slip into impoverished decay if it were left for too long.

Nor is the colour the original; somewhere between red and orange, there are traces of a deeper red in some of the nooks and crannies. Still, that’s the excuse you were looking for to justify getting it professionally resprayed, isn’t it?

The 15-inch wire wheels are in a decent condition too, and they’re shod with matching Firestone tyres, which we think is yet another encouraging sign because as we will never tire of explaining, our experience shows that matching tyres are an infallible sign of a caring and mechanically sympathetic owner who is prepared to spend the appropriate amount in maintaining their car properly.

The hood is serviceable but no more. It’ll keep you and yours dry and warm in the short-term but you’ll almost certainly want to replace it after that respray.

And the chromework is decent. Lightly pitted, we think a session with a large can of Autosol might revive some of it to a satisfactory standard.

The good news is that the MGB has the rare and much sought-after pull handle doors. The bad is that the Astrali steering wheel (there’s a blast from the past, eh?), seats and probably some other stuff is more modern.

Still, what do you care? Few cars are as rigorously serviced as the MGB, so sourcing new or secondhand replacements wouldn’t be hard and you could certainly live with what’s there until time and money allow you to refit something that’s period-correct.

The rest of the interior is tidy but given the car’s rarity and age we can see that the new owner will almost certainly want to work their way through it over the coming years, restoring its original condition while simultaneously increasing its value.

Known faults? Well, the fuel gauge doesn’t work and nor do the headlights, although the sidelights are good. The rev counter seems to be reading double what it should and the spare wire wheel is a 14-inch rather than the 15-inch that are fitted to the rest of the car.

However, it does have a pair of inertia-reel seatbelts, so that’s one less job for you to worry about.

The vendor is a conscientious man, so when he realized he wasn’t going to be using it as much as he thought (he’s since bought an even earlier, three-bearing MGB that’s dominating his time and thoughts…) he sent it off to Abingdon Car Restorations with the instruction to “make it safe”.

And, while there’s no receipt for the work the chaps there carried out, they went through it from stem-to-stern with sufficient enthusiasm, skill, and patience that the result was a clean sweep on its MOT in more than a decade.

When pushed as to the cost of all this work, the vendor admitted to having invested “more than £2,000” simply to make it safe for its new owner.

As enthusiasts will know, the early gearboxes lacked synchromesh on first gear. This is one of those ‘boxes. Sadly, the weak synchromesh on second gear is a fault rather than a design feature - but, the overdrive works, so swings-and-roundabouts, eh?

Other good news comes with the fact that it clearly had work done to it previously. We aren’t sure of the exact extent of this but there’s a receipt for a secondhand five-bearing engine in 2009 plus a list of work to do from 2014. The vendor rescued it, having found it “languishing in a garage” and it turns out he knows the chap entrusted with the fettling, so bought it confident that whatever had been done would have been done properly.

The underside looks to be solid and straight with plenty of evidence of expenditure including brakes pipes, what looks to be a new exhaust, and some neatly applied underseal and black paint.

It runs and drives very well; this is a car whose glitches appear cosmetic and aesthetic rather than structural and mechanical.

The MGB’s MOT certificate expires in July 2021 and was gained without any advisory points being raised. It also has a number of old receipts that hint at the work that has been done to it over the past few years.

Please visit the documents section of the gallery of this listing where you will find photos of this paperwork.

If you’d like to inspect the car prior to placing a bid – something we would encourage – then please use the Contact Seller button to arrange an appointment.

And please be reassured, we’ve undertaken a full COVID-assessment and put into place strict control measure to enable us to safely facilitate a no-contact, socially distanced viewing that includes disinfection of the vehicle before and after your viewing.

There’s a lot to like about this MGB, not least its recent recommissioning, advanced age, low mileage, few owners, advisory-free MOT, and general mechanical and structural condition.

It’s true that it does need some cosmetic work - but then we’re all a work in progress, aren’t we?

And, with a guide price of somewhere £5,000 and £10,000, it’s almost certainly going to be a cheap way of getting your hands on a solid, early model – and, perhaps best of all, the vendor has sufficient faith in you lot to offer it with no reserve, so it’s going to go to a new home no matter what.

Any reason why it shouldn’t yours?

Viewing is always encouraged, and this particular car is located with us at The Market HQ near Abingdon; to arrange an appointment please use the Contact Seller button at the top of the listing. Feel free to ask any questions or make observations in the comments section below, or try our ‘Frequently Asked Questions’.