Project MGA
Growing up, my wife Sonia always wanted an MG, but her parents convinced her to save up and buy something "sensible". So this year, because we can, we decided to buy a lovely little 1962 MGA.
Here is what (I hope!) it will look like when it is finished:
We are fully restoring it ourselves – removing all the body panels, stripping them back to bare metal, painting it, replacing all the wiring, adding power steering, and making a number of improvements and restoration details along the way.
About the only thing we aren't doing ourselves is the upholstery, which we are getting made by a small family business in the UK and sent over, but we will install it ourselves. Otherwise, all body work, painting and mechanical work is being done by us and us alone.
We started the restoration in July 2024, and so far we are 3 months in. We've disassembled most of the car (I'm told this is the easy bit) and stripped, repaired, welded, and primed the 4 front and rear fenders.
Here is a timelapse of the journey so far:
Here is the car when we bought it. We bought it from a lovely gentleman in Sydney and drove it back to Brisbane. She ran fine, and from the photo she looks good, but photos are deceiving. The paint was cracked and bumped and generally calling out to be re-done. We'll be changing the outside to Mineral Blue, a rich navy blue colour, and the inside to a tan leather.
We didn't originally intend to restore it ourselves. Honestly, we knew nothing about restoring cars. We shopped around for some quotes from local restorers, but each one was worse than the last.
"$50K and 18 months" - this is the general ballpark of the quotes we got. Ouch!
"How hard can it be?"
At this point, I started going down the web/YouTube rabbit hole.
"How hard can it be? The paint is probably $2000, and if we do it to our schedule I reckon we'll get it done in 6 months!" said I. Oh, was I naive!
But the "how hard can it be" mindset is my superpower. "How hard can it be?" enables you to take a leap of faith and jump into something without over-thinking it. At both the macro and the micro level, it allows you to climb the stairs one step at a time. "TIG welding... how hard can it be?". Watch a few YouTube videos, bet on yourself that you can figure it out, get the equipment, and have a go. Accept you'll fail, and keep going.
This mindset is how I started the adventure of building Octopus and also renovating our house, where I did everything from framing to plumbing to electrical. I'd never have done any of these things if I knew how hard they were!
In fact, here's a whole list of things I've learned over the last 20 years that started with "how hard can it be" and a few YouTube videos and Google searches:
- Learning C/C++, Python, then C#, plus a bunch of other programming topics along the way (I didn't go to university)
- Building Octopus Deploy, and all of the big and small things it took to get to $100M in revenue / 300 employees around the world
- Framing a garage, installing windows, roofing and cladding
- Building a fence with a sliding electric gate
- Replacing a toilet
- Driving a backhoe
- Cutting a hole in my roof and installing an air conditioner
- Installing a solar battery bank
- Wiring electrical outlets, lights and EV chargers
- Towing, launching, and driving a boat
- Drilling holes in the bottom of said boat to install trim tabs
- Building 3 different IKEA kitchens
- Building a deck
- Installing a security alarm system
- Building beds and furniture for our kids
Until now, though, our cars were black boxes. I learned to drive in modern cars where if an alert pops up you "take it to the shop" and get it fixed. So this project has opened up a whole new world.
It's also forcing me to accept that good results take time and, instead of rushing to finish the car, to relax, trust the process, and enjoy the journey. For most other projects, about 50% of the way in, I regret taking it on and wish I'd paid someone else to do it. I don't think that's going to happen with this one. I'm deeply enjoying every minute of this project.