Yeah the black one's body condition is tatty!

Just been reading an article about a blind man who fully restored (and I mean from a shell and some bits) an orange one. Thing is, he can't drive it.

It's the undercarriage that concerns me. Replacing sheet metal panels is cheap 'n' easy. You really need a pit and be handy with a MIG welder to deal with underbody corrosion-way out of the limits of a DIY enthusiast.

B GTs rust badly in several critical areas, you can get all the panels / repair sections easily but it's the time taken to repair it all, and it's always worse than it looks from the outside.

The sills, upper inner wing box-sections and rear spring hangers are all rot-prone. The sills especially are complicated, comprising 4 sections, and on an older car can often need taking right back to the floorpan before being built back up.

I reckon you're better spending more in the first place.

Yeah it was to tinker with. The MX-5 is a given next year (unless someone can persuade me that I would enjoy an Alfa Brera more).

The insurance I looked at through Lancaster classic car insurers and I put basically weekend tootling - the EU ruling levelling off women's and men's insurance will sting if I go with regular insurers!

I had gone with MGB as, like you say Avant, it's reasonably easy to get spares.

I really just wanted other people's opinions on these two to confirm my own suspicions that they're tatty - save myself the petrol of driving out there to look at them!