NOS: New Old Stock,

Well I finally found a new tonneau cover for my MGB. Unfortunately the original one mine came with was quite badly shrunken and would barely fit over the steering wheel much less reach to the front corner snaps. So I've had my sights on e-bay for a long while and was considering buying a brand new tonneau from Prestige. But low and behold I struck gold again! I found a new old stock tonneau in red, complete with it's factory stowage bag!! Amazing!

I just got the tonneau in the mail yesterday and it's beautiful! Of course after being folded up in it's bag for 40-50yrs it will have to be installed and left in the hot sun for a few days to get rid of all the creases.

I've actually been very successful in finding NOS items for this car on e-bay. In fact I'm proud to say there will be hardly any non factory/repro parts when the car is finished.

In the past year I've also found such notable NOS items like my red tunnel carpet; found still in it's original BMC cardboard box! sitting on a shelf for 50yrs!

I also found a NOS starter motor with a date stamp of Dec '63 to replace the non standard repro starter someone had previously installed:

Same thing goes for the oil filter casing, someone had installed an aftermarket "spin on" oil filter attachment so I had to remove it and find a correct NOS one:

I also found a pair of correct original horns with a Jan '64 date stamp on them, and a NOS clutch master cylinder:

Of course the best part about NOS parts is that they're original, factory correct and you know that they're going to fit, be good quality and add value to the car.
In my experience the majority of repro parts available often have glaring visual differences, poor fit and often really bad manufacturer quality.
Original or NOS, though often hard to find, are usually a much better choice in the end.

Until next time...