Blue-sky tinkering
Tony Gurnhill hands over a selection of faded photographs that record the arrival of his MG TC some 30 years ago. “The body was basically there but it was a basket case,” he explains. “Most of the panels were just held on with only a nail or two.”
The completely knackered sports car, as captured in these old Kodak snaps, had formerly belonged to a family friend who’d had every intention of returning it to some semblance of its former glory. But, as is so often the case, “it just didn’t happen.”
By rights, Tony should never have found himself faced once more with the prospect of rebuilding a woodframed car. Having previously owned a similarly constructed Singer Super 10, even today this retired fitter and machinist recoils from the very idea of wrestling with rotten timber. “Metal is my medium,” he insists, “so at the time I wasn’t game to touch it.”
Thinking an MG Y-type, with its pressed-steel body, might be a better fit for his own particular skill set, the half-stripped Singer was duly sold on to someone more comfortable with chisels and wood shavings. The Y-type
