LFC 434S – Buried Treasure

If my experience is anything to go by, it is certainly worth while taking time to check the history of your car, which may surprise you with some interesting facts from previous owners. LFC 434S certainly opened an interesting history file for me.

The story began in 2003. Having had great fun for a number of years with my MK3 Midget, I decided that I needed more room with all the clobber I was carrying around when camping at race circuits as a volunteer marshal. So, an MGB was the choice.

My wish list was: Chrome bumper, Red, Roadster with wire wheels and overdrive. The trouble was that I only had around £4000 to spend, so it would unfortunately put me into the lower sector for MGB’s that would no doubt require some upgrading. Whilst I was confident that I could cope with any general mechanical work, body and paint would probably require professional support due to my limited facilities at home.

The search began – I looked at Safety Fast, Thames Valley Trader, Exchange & Mart, and covered hundreds of miles viewing numerous MGBs, that were either too expensive or wanted too much work that would blow my budget. It soon became clear that my wish list was unachievable, which required a re-think. Rubber bumper MGBs were very much underrated and well within my budget, so I thought, ‘why not consider a rubber bumper MGB and fit a chrome bumper conversion?’

A new search began – I was fortunate to see an advert in the TVT with the owner living in Swindon, and as it was only a 30-minute drive from Abingdon, off I went. Driving along the A420 I did think that this MGB was nowhere near my original wish-list, but hey, the budget was the driving factor now and a fresh look at the market was required. The Inca Yellow roadster looked very smart parked in the owner’s driveway, particularly with its new contrasting vinyl hood. The rubber bumpers and rostyle wheels were not in great condition, together with the interior that definitely needed upgrading, but this was all doable within my budget. Overall, the car was exceptionally clean, and the bodywork was very straight, and I was pleasantly surprised with how tidy the engine compartment was. Looking underneath the car, it was very solid, and had obviously had some serious work carried out to the sills, etc to a very high standard, with no corrosion anywhere to be seen particularly around the usual places to the tops of the front and rear wings. On road test it drove great, with the overdrive working as normal. Oil pressure was about 45psi although the engine was puffing some blue smoke from the exhaust. I viewed the registration document, which confirmed the matching chassis and engine numbers (at this point I didn’t grasp the significance of the chassis number GHN5UJ…, that would come later). The service file with all the MOTs etc, was as thick as a doorstep sandwich, so plenty of bedtime reading.

The deal was done, and I became the proud owner of a Yellow MGB!!

My first task was to complete a shopping list of parts, and then contact MGBHive who were absolutely brilliant, and gave me some useful advice regarding the chrome bumper conversion. Following the trip to Wisbech, I now had all the necessary parts to start the upgrade. When removing the old carpets, I happened to notice that the scuttle panel had been replaced (the panel that locates the windscreen wiper wheel boxes) as I could see the BL part number sticker on the underside of the panel. I immediately thought that this had been replaced at some point to overcome the usual rust where the panel joins the front wings?

Next was the chrome bumper conversion. The kit supplies you with all the necessary parts, nuts bolts etc for the installation. There are two adapter plates for the indicator/side lamps, and the inserts below the rear light units. These need to be welded in position and then painted and blended into the front/rear wings. This was beyond my capability at home, so I discussed the situation with my good friend Andy Meader, who was the Service Director at Freeborn Garages Southampton, he said, ‘get the car to us and we will sort it’. Andy’s Body & Paint Team did a fantastic job, and all that remained for me was to fit the front and rear chrome bumpers, new carpets and door trims. The car looked great.

I began to look through the document file, which had an interesting service sheet from John Chatham Cars of Bristol, who was a well-known MG aficionado. Amongst the general service work It commented on how well the conversion had been completed? This made me think? so I applied for a Heritage Certificate that I thought may shed some light on the John Chatham comment from the original production data.

When the Certificate arrived, I was completely blown away, as it stated the car was built as a Development LHD Roadster for the North American Market. I then realised the significance of the chassis number and the reference from John Chatham Cars. The jigsaw puzzle started to fall into place. The scuttle panel was replaced not due to corrosion but to return to the RHD two-windscreen wiper system rather than the three-wiper system that was used for the US Market. I inspected the inner front and rear wings, and could clearly see that metal patches had been welded in place to cover the side indicator locations. The engine gave no indication of being an export version, as no emission equipment was evident, and the cylinder head had no blanking plugs for the air injection manifold to the exhaust valve tracts. The trouble now was there were more questions than answers, and therefore thought it would be very interesting to try to build a timeline of the previous owners and identify when and who converted the car to RHD. The body number plate (located n the front panel) coincided with the year of manufacture, and the commission plate confirmed that the body was fabricated at Body Plant Swindon. The original monocoque was therefore intact.

The registration letter prefix made sense, as LFC was registered in Oxford due to County boundary changes in 1974 for Abingdon.The Development Department had the car for 10 months, then it was sold to a lady employee.

BUT this posed the question as to why LFC was registered to the MG Factory/Development Department in the first place? At the time and on separate occasions, I spoke with Mike Allison, Don Hayter, and more recently with Geoff Clark who worked in the Department with Don Hayter. All confirmed that without question the vehicle would have been removed from production, rather than building the vehicle from scratch within the Department, for the specific purpose of evaluation and test to ensure that the ‘production specification’ was maintained for the US Regulations, particularly in relation to the exhaust emission standards, suspension, lighting, etc.  Geoff said the department was a hub of activity where cars would have extended road tests to ensure that performances were maintained and evaluated for any future development.

Don added that sometimes additional equipment may be fitted within the Department for test and evaluation, but would then be removed when the car was eventually sold on.

The third owner of LFC was Paul Thomas. By luck, Paul had left a sticker on the windscreen at MG Live Silverstone, saying that he once owned the car and if I wanted any information, please contact him, leaving a contact telephone number. Paul worked at the MG Factory when he owned the car, and has been extremely helpful in supplying me with information and photographs. I asked Paul if any of the emission equipment was still on the car when he purchased it, he said that the only remains of the emission equipment was the small air injection manifold screwed into the cylinder head, although the ends of the pipes to each cylinder had been cut off and crimped. Going through the DVLA information of all the other registered owners, I was able to build a complete timeline of the car, plotting a geographic location of the car’s registered addresses, and it was clearly obvious that the conversion from LHD to RHD was completed by Glenross Garage Monmouthshire in 1987.

My MGB journey has been an extremely rewarding and interesting exercise, and hope that it may inspire others to research the history of their car. LFC 434S started its life on the road at the MG Car Factory, and after many years has now returned home.

David Cato

Please Note: David made his previous owner enquiry to the DVLA in February 2008. This was before GDPR kicked in and the DVLA no longer supply this information unless it is for legal purposes.