Restoring OPP 199D
The car was by this time getting rather tired again, and was already on SORN, and a full restoration was clearly called for, especially as the new owner wanted to take it back to 1966 specifications. So the dilemma was, should the existing body be restored - clearly the preference - or would it be better to replace with a new Heritage shell.
After much discussion with various MGB restoration specialists the overall feeling was, this is a 50 year-old car that has had at least 15 owners and had probably not been pampered by all of them. The decision became easy when one MGB specialist, who always tries to retain the original body, was quite honest when he said “we cannot know what horrors we will find when we strip down, and it is impossible to guarantee that we can eliminate all rust given this car’s background.”
Therefore it was decided to go for the new shell, especially when CCHL in Kingston-upon-Hull promised to arrange to use as many panels as possible from the original car. In any case for 1966 and ‘67 cars the transmission tunnel from the donor car has to be provided to Heritage, as they do not hold the tooling for this. So, doors, wings, boot and bonnet were salvaged.
So OPP 199D was sent to Hull for total restoration. The original Bermuda hardtop was also restored ready to go back on to the car. Exterior paintwork and the interior were returned to the original factory specifications. All the original running gear was retained and restored.
“Farewell old friend” wrote previous owner John as OPP 199D left him to go to Hull
This photographic record by CCHL is worth more than thousands of words.
