When classic car enthusiast Brian Farrugia set eyes upon an MGB that had been stranded in a barn for two decades, it was love at first sight. He tells Ramona Depares how 12 months of restoration work brought the sought-after model back to its original condition.
As the eldest son of one of the first panel beaters in Gozo, you could say that Brian Farrugia had no choice. While other boys grew up playing with model Matchbox cars, Farrugia used to hang out at his father’s garage, surrounded by a variety of vehicles. Today, the smell of the thinner in the car spray mixtures takes him back to his childhood days.
The whole restoration cost €2,000 and some 400 labour hours. Farrugia estimates the car is worth €15,000, but in reality ‘she’ is priceless
“To make matters worse, my first house was a three-roomed apartment with an inter-connecting garage, so it was practically impossible for me to get away from cars. I was constantly bombarded by cars, to the point that I didn’t know which were my father’s and which were the clients,” he said with a smile.
The first car he remembers tinkering with was a blue and chrome Silvercross “buggie”. Eventually this was upgraded to a red pedal model by Ferrari, which was a gift from his grandfather. But he had yet to do any real restoration work. Aged 14, the breakthrough happened.
“I wanted my parents to get me a computer, which was quite expensive then. My father promised me that if I earned some of the money he would top up the remainder. At the time he was restoring an old Ford Prefect and I suddenly found myself taking on the role of official ‘sander’. I doubt my work was any good but hey, it was a start. And I got my computer.”
A couple of years later Farrugia bought a Triumph 1360 for the princely sum of Lm92 (worth €214 today) and decided to have a go at restoring it. Although he had been warned that the car needed “some work” before it could go back on the road, Farrugia figured it would just be a matter of unscrewing this and replacing that. However, further inspection of the Triumph revealed some interesting details.
“The back seat was smaller than it should have been. After showing it to my dad he told me it was an original convertible that was definitely worth saving and restoring. And so I spent the summer toiling on it.”
Suddenly, what started off as a job to pay for his computer developed into a passion. A short time later Farrugia bought a VW Beetle 1302. The car cost a mere couple of hundred old Maltese liri. Three months later, also thanks to his father’s input, it was as good as new.
Fast forward to 2000 and Farrugia was living in Hamburg, Germany. With cars still very much on his mind, all the cars he ever wanted to own were available in Germany, and at reasonable prices. While searching online, he found a Jaguar XJS for sale at an incredible price and decided that the 100 km train journey from Hamburg to view it was worth the effort.
“The lady who owned the Jaguar drove me to a barn where she had been storing the car for a couple of years. Sitting there I found the Jaguar XJS, a Mercedes Ponton, a Mercedes 380SL, two Spitfires, six Fiat 500, a model T Ford, a Chevy Impala and Christine.”
Christine was an MGB. Farrugia said that the name-giving ritual is quite common among vintage car lovers and that, once you find the right car and you “christen” her, then she is yours forever.
“When I first saw her she was lying on four piles of bricks and yet I decided she was to be part of the deal. I took the XJS for a test drive, went back to the barn and promptly informed the owner that I wanted to take the MG instead.
“Her reply was far from encouraging; apparently the car had been stored in the barn for the past couple of decades and she had no idea if it would even start”.
This didn’t deter Farrugia one bit. He promptly signed the transfer and got the MGB towed to Hamburg.
He got the car inspected by a British sports car mechanic and finally got Christine running for a mere 300 German Deutsche Marks (worth €153 today) and proceeded to use the car for about 10 years until he brought it back to Malta.
“When I first got Christine she had been stored away for 18 years, so there was the usual rust problem, a worn-out soft top, a couple of chewed cables, a rotten radiator and an old water pump.
“In reality there was no serious damage. Obviously the paint needed retouching and a good polish but other than that, it was in surprisingly decent condition.”
But upon returning to Malta, Farrugia – egged on by his father – decided that he wanted to carry out a more thorough restoration job. The next six months were spent hunting for all the “missing bits and bobs” needed to make this restoration unique.
As soon as he was satisfied, restoration work started in earnest. The job was to take a full year.
“The process practically involved a complete rebuild. We started by removing the body parts one by one and sanding them to bare metal. I don’t like sand-blasting and the glass pearl basting or soda blasting was too new to the market.
“After that we removed the tub from the chassis and sanded the chassis. Luckily, it needed no repairs at all. My father and I then prepared the chassis for spraying and filled all the cavities with a rust proofing compound. Where we found no access points we ended up having to drill and reseal once the job was done,” Farrugia said.
After that it was time to take care of the many little rust patches. Some panels had to be replaced, so new ones were moulded and all imperfections filed away.
“My father is a puritan so we decided to use the old lead and file method. This means you hammer the bumps almost to perfection and then you fill in the remaining imperfections with lead. Finally you get a metal file and file the lead down to get a smooth and perfect surface. With this method you are really putting metal on metal and no compound materials such as “stokk” – as we know it in Malta – is used. It is a tedious job but a very rewarding one as well.”
After the two managed to get the car back in shape, it was time to take a good look at the 1800cc engine. Valves, pistons and gaskets were replaced. The engine was repainted.
Once it was running, Farrugia mounted it onto the chassis and to the gearbox and eventually the tub was lowered in its place. The car was then prepared for painting and a couple of coats later, Christine was sparkling black again.
The whole restoration cost €2,000 and some 400 labour hours. Farrugia estimates the car to be worth €15,000, but in reality, for him, it is priceless and Christine is definitely not for sale.
“Next I have six different projects in line for the next couple of years. I am working on a Morris Traveller, an Esquire van, a Ford Prefect, a Mercedes 220D and... this week I also got my second Suzuki LJ80 and a 1970 Ural old Russian motorbike with a sidecar.”
Things are set to look busy at the Farrugia garage.