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MG MGA - Teenager looking for a project car

I met these people at GT-33. Father restoring MGA he bought in 1975. Daughter, age 15, helping "turn a wrench" and she is now such an enthusiast she wants her own - on a very limited budget. Here's their story:

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Want to keep MGA interest alive?!?
Need to get rid of an old MGA?!?
I am searching for a MGA to restore!

My name is Kelsey Kallapos, I’m 15 years old and helping my father restore his 1958 MGA, his first car. While helping him, I fell in love with this beautiful classic car. I am now a MGA enthusiast and I would love to restore one for my first car.
Like father well… like daughter!

Do you have or know anyone that has a good project car to sell?

If so, please contact me through my parents, Keith or Kathy Kallapos H:703-830-5998 or KKallapos@verizon.net
Ken Doris

Here's a picture of father Keith and daughter Kelsey working on Keith's car

Ken Doris

Here's my 17 year old daughter who put in some wrench time on "her" 57MGA. It give me great joy to see her drive this one-time basket case around town.
David Holmes

oops

David Holmes

abd one more. Good luck Kathy and also Ken as patience is a virtue.

David Holmes

My daughter too was very actice in mine and I very much enjoyed her help. I found that she had more intrest in the restoring were my son just wanted it done. Ken, you do want to be careful of getting your daughters hopes up to high obout driving it because your insurance company limits anybody under 25 from driving a vintage car.
Cheers!

WMR Bill

Dave - great that your daughter is also into the MGA fan club!

Just to clarify - this isn't my daughter - it's the daughter of a couple - Keith and Kathy Kallapos - I met last week at GT-33.

I thought it was an interesting story as the gal is helping her Dad restore his very first car - a '57 MGA he bought as a teen in 1975. She wants to buy and build her own and is working and saving her money to do so. Keith will help her build it, but isn't paying for any of it, including the insurance!

- Ken
Ken Doris

The way I understood it was that nobody under the age of 25 is allowed to drive our vintage cars with the big vitage car insurance.
WMR Bill

I admire this young lady for her enthusiasm, but with a limited budget an MGA isn't the best car to tackle. Hopefully someone will have a starter car for her that's not too bad. Dad may have to kick in some funds somewhere along the line. Getting the basic car will be the greatest hurdle to clear. I wish her luck. She and her dad should join us here on the board.
Bill Young

I agree, having been there, done that. I saw that poster at the GT, too. Hopefully her dad will get her a solid car to start with, or she needs to just save up $7000-$8000 and buy a driver that she can spin wrenches on and keep it alive until she can do a proper job. That's what I had to do, and if anyone has seen my car, that's the reason it looks the way it does. Only now am I ready to do a frame-off. I admire her parents' desire to make her earn her car, but at 15 with no financial help from mom and dad, it would be hard to "restore" one. A solid driver is the way to go for sure, because then she can enjoy it as she works on it, and it won't sit in the garage while she accumulates money for restoration parts. That happens too long, and interest could be lost, then it's off to college, etc. I'm betting dad won't be able to help himself, and he'll end up springing for a shiny new part or two.

In any case, I hope she gets one. As far as I could tell, the only registrants at GT-33 under thirty were myself, Paul Gaylo and his sister. I didn't see many 30-somethings, either.
Mark J Michalak

Great to see some younger people getting interested in the Cars. We need more of this if the species is to survive after we are gone. To this end the MGB Register has just started a new Register for the younger crowd - those 25 and under - to foster interest in the marque - it is called the Next Generation Register. Ownership of an MG is not required just an interest - please see the web page at http://www.mgcars.org.uk/namgbr/nextgen.htm

The coordinator of the Next Gen Register is 19 year old James Woolf.

Perhaps NAMGAR can do something similar?

Rick
Webmaster http://www.mgcars.org.uk/namgbr
Rick Brown

This thread was discussed between 20/07/2008 and 22/07/2008

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