MG-Cars.net

Welcome to our resource for MG Car Information.

Recommendations

Parts

MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG TD TF 1500 - TD/c-8151 is coming back home!

For those who have followed my posts over the last few years this may be of interest to some.

My father was the original owner of a 1951 SSG/Red TD/c which he bought from Oxford Motors in Sacramento late in the summer of '51.
He was an active member of the Sacramento Sports Car Club and actively campaigned the car in gymkhana, time and distance rallies, and road races. In 1954 he was returning from Mississippi on TDY and got caught in a sand storm in Nevada without air cleaners. The engine didn't fair so well and dad limped into Bakersfield Ca after crossing the Mojave desert doing 30 mph flat out. An inpromptu parking lot overhaul took place at the local motel. Once finished he headed for Sacramento. By the time he reached home the MG was once again running poorly and and he promptly drove it into Oxford Motors and traded it in on a AH 100-4. The worst decision he had ever made at the time in his words. He had nothing good to say about the new Healey.

Life goes on... He's a family man now who takes his young son to car shows and tells him about the good old days with his MG and points out the finer details to him. I'm only a lad but some of this stuff actually took root. I fell in love with these cars and vowed some day to own one. Through out dad's later years he would occasionally come back to reminiscing about that MG.

2014 rolls by and I finally by my first TD. A total basket case but thankfully the car was 98% complete after being apart for over 45 yrs with three prior owners managing to keep her pieces together. It was to be a son and father project so that I could experience firsthand all the things dad told me about and for him to grasp a piece of his past. Dad never got his chance to drive the car or see it finished. I lost him to the ravages of colon before that would happen.

I took TD-4834 to a British car show in Dixon a few months ago. Ended up buying TD/c-16920 without engine or transmission as a project. I have since found the original engine and in negotiations to try to reunite them. In the meantime, Dan Craig put me in touch with Mike Shea in SoCal. He has helped to assemble TD/c parts for the restoration. I met Mike and spent the day in awe of his collection. Our conversation would turned toward my dad's story as he was showing me a back burner project he has. A 1951 SSG TD/c sitting in the corner. I show Mike the picture I had of dad with his car ca. fall of 1951. He relates that he bought the car in 1988 from Jarl DeBoer near Concord. ( Jarl actually lives several miles from my girlfriend). Jarl had the car since at least 1969 (the last time it was registered). Jarl bought the car from a gentleman (yet to be determined) in Martinez. Martinez is 50 miles from Sacramento. The car was equipped with a radio and heater as was my dads. Given the date of the car, being a TD/c, the color combination, the added equipment, the provenance and proximity to Sacramento it is thought that this may indeed be dad's car. Further sleuthing of the car for telltale signs is in order and I am confident that I will find more information and pics of dad and the car as I sift through his belongings. Dad never through anything away and I still have quite a bit of archaeology to do here at the house.

I will be heading down to Mike's next week to help reassemble the car for transportation and take delivery of chassis
TD/c-8151 and its original drivetrain. Of Note this car is "THE LAST" to have the EXLU (US market) designator. All cars to follow would be assigned EXLNA (North American market). Thank you Tom Lange for researching the factory production data.

I'm very excited about this find that links me closer to my fathers past. Bringing TD/c -8151 back home where she belongs after 62 years is bittersweet!

Cheers

Bill Chasser Jr

TD-4834
TD/c-8151 (pending)
TD/c-16920
TD-24060


W. A. Chasser

I have car 8105 just a little older than your Fathers.
TRM Maine

Great story and hopefully, happy ending. What a treat it would be to find one of my dad's old cars. Best of luck.

Regards

Tim
TD12524
TW Burchfield

Lovely story Bill.....my big fear is that my dad won't be around to see his car finished also.

He had a similar story a few years back.

Dad as a young man had at least 4 MG's. 2 TFS a TD and a midget. It's the final TF I am currently restoring.

The story relates though to the TD that he owned in the late 50s. He was passing a petrol station here in Dublin Ireland when he say a red TD parked outside. He stopped to take a closer look and was admiring the car when the owner came out...someone he knew. It was only as they were talking that he looked at the registration and realised it was the TD he had owned 40 years previously. It's no wonder he didn't recognise it straight off as when he sold it the car was a light metallic blue with a tartan interior. A colour scheme he had come up with himself.

Lovely to see theses cars still around after all that time. It just goes to show how much they were loved and cherished by their owners.

A group photo of your car's Bill would be great to see...


D Lamb

A better quality pic from circa 1960 but doesn't show the tartan seats!


D Lamb

D Lamb. The only car that is finished is TD-4834. TD/c was bought as a basket case in primer and held together with bailing wire, TD-24060 though complete was sitting in the desert since 1969 and also shows neglect. TD/c 8151 will be much the same in that it will be loosely re assembled for transportation to Sacramento. But I'll try to post individual pics.
W. A. Chasser

Bill Your a brave man taking on so many. Out of interest what is the difference between a TD and a TD/c. Regards Darryl
D Lamb

Engine mods include bigger carbs and more compression. A blister on the right bonnet side panel to clear the air cleaner pipe, dual fuel pumps, four Andrex friction shocks on all corners, different distributor, bigger valves, different differential gear ratio, later cars had a TD3 designation after engine # 17030, later cars had an Appearance Package as std equipment which included black and white MB badges on the grill and spare wheel cover, hubcap MG badging had black backgrounds, Mark II badging on the bonnet top panels and rear bumper with plinth, round Lucas reflectors mounted on rear bumper inboard of the overriders, under dash grab bar, different speedometer to match the differential gearing. That's some of the pieces that come to mind.

Bill Chasser
TD-4834
W. A. Chasser

Cheers Bill I hadn't realised that the c stood for competition.
D Lamb

This thread was discussed between 23/07/2016 and 24/07/2016

MG TD TF 1500 index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG TD TF 1500 BBS is active now.