In a bout of sensibility I have sold my Rovers back to the guy who sold them to me. My wife is extremely concerned.

There are a couple of machines in the “Past Indiscretions” column which (until now) have had no words spilled about them–mainly because they weren’t all that remarkable.
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This is the parts car which came with the red Rover. It looks fairly decent from the outside until you begin poking at it, and then you realize that it is rusted beyond repair. Too bad, I kind of like this color more than the red.

I think I will swap the wheels onto the red car, though, I think the chrome Rostyles are pretty smart on these cars. It also has an original radio and roof-mounted aerial, which is neat.

I finally got rid of the rusty body shell from the “parts MGB” today. I had to surrender the title to do so, which I guess is proper–but also flushes my idea of finding a decent shell to put the saved mechanicals in. (Not that I’m ever going to get around to that, realistically.) So, with that, I’m going to remove 1964 MGB #2 from my current list–a victory for common sense, alas.

Shown in the photo is the trailer I part-own with my neighbor. It’s a neat design, all aluminum, so it’s pretty easy to haul. Need to do something with the sleazy wheels that are on it, though.

I last had one of these 20 years ago, when I was 20. Too bad this new car doesn’t make me feel 20, but what can you do?

This is a fairly nice, straight car, a TC with a manual gearbox rather than the single-carb slush box I had back then. It’s a reasonably fun car to drive, and is in decent shape, if you don’t mind sun-crusted seats and original paint faded from the California sun. And a few dings. And a few minor mechanical issues. And…

In any case, this is now my “daily” driver for winter use and abuse, sharing duties with the Ford–the 10 MPG of the truck was wearing a bit thin.

I decided that rather than letting the Mk. I languish for years, I should sell it to someone who would be interested in working on it right away.

Nice guy named Daniel picked it up from me today. Interesting adventure to get to this point, though. Ran the ad three times on Craigslist and encountered every lame “buyer” you could find: people hot-to-trot who never pick it up, people wanting to hot-rod it, people needing to sell a car first, even a guy who wrote me a treatise on why the car was over-priced at $1,000.

In any case, I hope the car comes back from purgatory. I have high hopes.

I’ve decided to “streamline” and just use the ‘68 F250 and ‘63 MGB as my transportation, along with the Triumph. If winter rolls around and I think fooling around in the F250 is beyond the pale, I might consider something else–perhaps a decent MGB GT. I’m not really anxious to venture back into the world of black boxes…I prefer stuff I know how to fix with chewing gum and baling wire. That said, apart from the recent fuel pump failure, the Disco was a nice car, and very capable. I will not miss its fuel economy, however. 16 MPG is pretty tough when filling the tank costs $75.

The Discovery had to be towed to the dealer today–I was at Costco, refilling our larder, and drove from the main store to their gas pumps to fill the tank. And that was that!

I imagine it’s a fuel pump issue…but I think it’s time for the Disco experiment to come to an end. I like the car, actually, but this solid state stuff is hard for me to deal with. My F250 or my MGB are easy to understand and can usually be fixed with bailing wire and some gum. Hard to do that with sealed black boxes and the like.

We’ll see what the dealer has to say tomorrow. Sure hope it’s not hugely expensive…yeah, right.

Update: Fuel pump. $1,330 at the dealer. I could have fixed it here for less than half that. Bah.

Not much is left. All of the big pieces are tucked away and all that’s left is a moment’s silence for a terminally rusty shell. I suppose in the old country this would be saved (is that Lindsay Porter I see peeking from the blackberries?) but with the rust AND the crushed rear quarter, it would be easier to start from another shell.

This must have been a sharp car in 1963 when it was new–Tartan Red with a black interior piped in red. How it came to be parked in someone’s driveway without a top for 20 years is interesting to contemplate. How long was it cherished? Was it just another used car by 1965–or was it inherited by a youngster in the early 80’s after careful ownership only to be trashed and abandoned within a few years? Or did it just slowly decline, owned by increasingly hard-up owners until the 20th guy on the pink slip just couldn’t afford to fix it?

Golly, my collection looks better and better, doesn’t it? You can see a few more on Saloon Data.