Now that the big party is past and champagne is off our lips it is time to report on the progress of the 50 Silver Anniversary MGB models. If you want one you better hurry. They’re almost all gone. About a dozen remain as of this writing. With the exception of one very special piece.

Bill Mennell and I did truly disassemble 50 of the beautiful Minichamps MGBs for use as anniversary models. And every one that we’ve sold and/or brought to the meetings is just what we ordered. Perfect. The plating process on the bodies that you’ve seen or purchased is just like the bumpers and grilles on the models, a vacuum plating process, common on model cars in hobby shops for almost 50 years now. It’s no secret, each car cost us $10.00 apiece just to plate alone. In addition each car netted the Club $10.00 profit.

But Bill and I wanted more. What if we stripped the bodies to the metal and Silver plated them with Real Silver from a silversmith. Well, we did. We sent three to a silversmith in Winnetka. This was back when we weren’t sure if vacuum plating was the way to go. Bill and I each have kept one for ourselves and a third one is available. But only one. And is it expensive? Yes. It’s no secret that silver plating isn’t cheap. This type of metal must be copper plated first, then nickel, then silver, then polished, I believe he told me. And so each one cost $48.00 to plate (plus shipping) and naturally he thought we would have him do all 50 for our Anniversary! Must’ve mistaken us for the Jaguar or Ferrari Clubs!

But I sure wanted one and Bill had to have one. Which we do and they’re beautiful. And now the one and only will be the perfect Christmas gift for some one out there. Real Silver. Let me know. I don’t know whether to raffle it off or auction it. I could put it on eBay. But I want our Club members to have a crack at it before I do. Call me. Deadline is the Club Christmas Party.