My original post about how I was chasing history in an attempt to replicate a part of my married life that dated back to 1967 had some downsides before I requested professional help from the Rusty Moose Garage in Grand Haven, Michigan. For some five months I shared a secret with family and friends until almost four dozen people up and down the coast knew about the BRG MGB Roadster that I had purchased during a momentary lapse in martial judgement. Heck, I had not seen an MGB for at least fifteen years, when I suddenly decided my wife just could not live without one just like our first purchased car in 1967!
As previously related I bought a useless rust bucket sight unseen from an Italian car restorer in Illinois that assured me I had bought a strong MGB that just needed some work. When it arrived it had football sized holes in the body, as much rust as paint, no engine, no seats, and offered no hope! I did appreciate the two transmissions that were thrown in along with an assortment of used parts. When that report reached me I knew my MGB buying days were done.
I located the Rusty Moose Garage and they took over. All I had to do was provide a credit card! That was not the easiest thing to do but it is amazing what a besotted husband might do for the a wife that had stood by him for fifty five years. That is one year longer than the car we ended up with.
Again I did not know much about the Rusty Moose but I loved their promise to “make British Cars great again.” Conversations with Mike Blackport, the office manager, Forest the boss of bosses, and Kurt and Nadiya from the technical staff. The web site under the supervision of Mr. Blackport, (still incomplete) clinched the deal! After more money than I thought it might cost the day of reckoning arrived! The entire team conspired to surprise my wife with the car at a decent Mexican Restaurant in Brooklyn, Michigan! When I saw the team come into the restaurant I realized my moment of retribution at my wife’s hands was neigh.
We all went outside to find the finest looking MGB Roadster you can imagine. When my wife turned the corner and saw the car she realized what I had alluded to as her alternate investment actually was. Her first reaction was shock! Her second was to think aloud where did the money come from? I later sent out texts and emails to various friends and relatives afterwards, allowing that she had received her surprise and yet I still lived. The warmup phase to the purchase was of short duration. She drives it and she loves it as I hoped she would. While behind the wheel she appears to me to be the same radiant coed I had married back on April Fool’s Day of 1966.
The car, the money, and the wait, were oh so worth all of it! Forest, Mike, Kurt, and Nadiya have made a friend for life. The deal is that we are to drive the car for a few weeks as the football season wanes on, and they will correct any flaw that we might find and then deliver the car to Austin, Texas in a covered trailer. Forest has to earn a living but his charges were fair and not as high as they should be for the product delivered! Now Blackport keeps referring to a mirror adjustment fee but I have learned his bark is far worse than his bite. I think he could do standup and make a living at it,
I hope that out there in the great American Heartland there are other Mike Donnelly’s that are moved to do their part in making a British Sports Car Great again! Oh what fun and oh what great people at the Rusty Moose!