PAINT:
As opposed to looking around for crash damage, take a second look at the condition of the finish.
Besides the obvious problems associated with an inferior paint job or poor previous bodywork, the outside of the car is what most other people will be seeing.
A good paint job will have even color over the entire car. Mismatched color is a sure sign of a respray and you can have a good time figuring out why it was done. In the lucky case where you suspect you have original paint, if there is no sign of rot or damage, you can add a few brownie points to the value of the car. In the case of a quality paint job, you should have a very hard time finding evidence that it was ever done.
There should be no over-spray on the underside, at the boot or bonnet edges, or around the doorjambs. Look at the edges of the rubber seals, the door handles and the like for evidence that they were simply masked off, versus being removed. In the case of a color change, the engine should have been pulled and the entire car stripped of all fittings, so that the new color is everywhere the original color was. Then, once everything is replaced, it would look as though it had come that way from the factory.
TRIM:
Look at the chrome and stainless trim.
Do the bumpers match the curve of the body, with no high or low ends, or have they been bent? How are the over-riders and their little rubber packings? The cost of parts, even when simple and inexpensive, can add up quickly, and should be taken into account when determining price.
Check the stainless trim along the waist of the body. This is one of the few really economical parts on the car. An entire set of trim, with new hardware is less than $50.
Look at the lamps. Are the lenses cracked? Are the trim rings and bases pitted and bent? All of this stuff is available new for quite reasonable cost, but it does add up and should be considered when negotiating price.
Check the rest of the chrome: the door handles, badges, motifs, vent grillle and wiper escutcheons. Most importantly, inspect the window trim. Again, all of this is available new for very modest cost, but window trim can be a biggie. Later cars had stainless frames, which are easilly buffed up, once they are all torn down. Earlier cars had brass fittings, which lends them to re-chroming. Either road will lead to beautiful frames, but do think about the time and effort to remove them, tear them down, and most likely replace a few rusted and broken fasteners. Then they must be assembled again with new seals and installed back in the doors. I have done lots of them, and building and setting up a pair of doors can take an entire day.
WEATHER EQUIPMENT:
The MGB roadster offers many options for the all-weather driver. In clement weather, the car can be left open to the world, door-glass lowered. The hood (convertible top) can be folded up, or in the case of early cars with “stow-away” hood, completely removed, along with its bows. The open car can be covered with a tonneau, which snaps over the entire cockpit. Tonneaus allow the driver to unzip only the front portion on his respective side, folding and snapping the open flap neatly out of the way behind the seat. With a passenger, the entire front can be folded and snapped behind both seats, forming a nice cover for the rear compartment, and making do as a hood cover for the folding top. There should also be a two-piece bar that slots into brackets behind the door, to hold up the open tonneau behind the seats, and to support the tonneau in the event of a downpour. (Look in the boot. It should be inside a padded bag.) Lastly, for the folding top, there is an optional “short tonneau” or “hoodstick cover” that just covers up the folded hood for a neat, trim appearance.
When erected, the hood does a fair job of keeping out the weather, but there will always be some ingress in driving downpours. Factory hoods were top-notch . A quality hood is much more pleasant to work with than a generic aftermarket “discount” one, and will stand up better over the long run. Robbins makes an excellent replacement hood, in both Bison vinyl and many cloth options. I am also pleased with those from Prestige Auto Trim, including the excellent “cabriolet”-style ones with a small headliner.
A well-fitting hood should be easy to hook onto its various attachment points at the rear and pull down snugly onto the top of the windscreen. A shrunken hood is almost impossible to put up without tearing, though a borderline one can sometimes be persuaded to behave if left in the sun on a hot day, or by putting a small space heater in the cockpit overnight to soften the vinyl. The “pull snaps” on the little tabs in the front corners should snap onto the windshield posts without requiring a Herculean effort. The door corners should clip into the little stainless catches, and the metal tabs on the corner of the hood should not be bent or torn loose. Verify that all of the Lift-a-Dot fasteners at the rear edge snap on easily when pressed onto their studs. If they do not, the little internal springs are bent and mangled. One bad snap per side you can live with, more than that and the hood will flap in the wind.