Can I just put a battery on and see if it starts?

No — this is the mistake that turns a recommissioning job into a rebuild. Starting an engine whose oil has drained off the bearings, whose fuel has turned to varnish and whose loom may be chewed risks bearing damage, a carburettor fire and a wiring fire, all at once. Drain the fluids, inspect the loom, pre-oil the engine and prove oil pressure first. Nothing is lost by taking a fortnight over it.

How long is a 'long layup'?

As a rough guide, anything beyond a single winter needs more than the usual spring check. A year or two off the road means fresh fluids, careful brake checks and stale fuel. Five years or more means treating the brakes and fuel system as needing rebuilding rather than checking. Twenty years means assuming everything rubber has perished, and budgeting accordingly.

What is the most expensive surprise?

Usually the bodywork rather than the engine. XPAG engines are simple, well supported and rebuildable at a known cost; corroded chassis members and rotten ash body framing on a TD or TF are what quietly consume budgets, because they are hidden, labour-intensive and cannot be judged from photographs. Get underneath before you commit.

Should I rebuild the brakes or just bleed them?

Rebuild them. After years standing, the master and wheel cylinders will have corroded bores and swollen seals, the flexible hoses will have perished internally, and the steel pipes may be rusting from the inside where you cannot see it. A T-type has drum brakes all round and no servo, so there is no reserve to fall back on. This is not a corner to cut on a car you intend to drive on modern roads.

Is it cheaper to buy a barn find or a running car?

Almost always cheaper to buy the running car. A recommissioning job costs the purchase price plus the work, and the work is nearly always more than the difference in price between the two cars. Buy a barn find because you want the project and the provenance, not as a way of saving money.

Do I need specialist help?

For most of this, no — it is careful, methodical work with ordinary tools. The exceptions are worth naming: hydraulic components that need honing or sleeving, any engine that will not turn by hand, and structural chassis or ash-frame repair. Those are jobs for a marque specialist, and the money spent there is the best-value money in the whole project.

Recommissioning an MG T-Type After Years Off the Road

Waking a T-type that has stood for years is not a bigger version of a spring check. The winter lay-up guide assumes a car that was put away properly and is coming back in a few months; this one assumes the opposite — a car found in a barn or a lock-up, with stale fuel, seized hydraulics, no oil on its bearings and a loom the mice have been at. Almost all the damage done to such cars is done in the first hour, by an owner who could not resist trying the starter. The whole job is a sequence, and the sequence is the point.

What you are actually taking on

Recommissioning is not restoration. The aim is a car that is safe, mechanically sound and usable, with its patina and its history intact — not a car returned to better-than-new. That distinction is worth holding onto, because it decides what you fix now, what you fix over the first season, and what you deliberately leave alone.

Three areas are non-negotiable before the car goes on a road: brakes and hydraulics, fuel, and the electrical system. Everything else — the trim, the hood, the chrome, the paint, the odd oil weep — can wait as long as you like. Be honest with yourself about which list a job belongs to.

And build in time. A methodical recommissioning of a long-stored T-type is measured in weekends over a winter, not in a single enthusiastic Saturday.

The sequence

01
Assess before you turn anything
Do nothing mechanical on the first day. Photograph the car as found, note the chassis and engine numbers, look for the paperwork, and check for rodent nests in the airbox, under the scuttle and around the loom. Look underneath for the state of the chassis, the brake pipes and the ash frame. A car that has stood for twenty years will not be harmed by another week of looking, and a great deal can be harmed by an impatient first turn of the key.
02
Make it safe to move and stop rolling away
Chock the wheels before you release anything. The handbrake may be seized on, the brakes may be seized off, and the car may be on flat, perished tyres that will not take a road load however much air they hold. Treat every tyre over about ten years old as scrap regardless of tread depth, and plan to move the car on a trailer rather than under its own power.
03
Disconnect the battery and treat the electrics as suspect
Do not fit a charged battery and start switching things on. Rodent-chewed insulation and perished rubber are the two things a stored car reliably produces, and a positive-earth T-type with a shorted brown wire has no fuse between the battery and the fire. Inspect the loom end to end first, and identify the circuits before you energise them.
04
Drain every drop of the old fuel
Petrol left standing for years turns to varnish, and modern ethanol-bearing fuel additionally attacks the older rubber and fibre in a T-type's fuel system. Drain and inspect the tank, drain the float chambers, renew the flexible hoses, clean the filters, and strip the SU carburettors and pump rather than hoping stale fuel will simply flush through. Refill with fresh E5 super unleaded.
05
Assume the hydraulics need rebuilding, not bleeding
This is the part owners most often underestimate. Brake fluid absorbs moisture, and years of standing corrodes bores and swells seals; wheel cylinders and the master cylinder seize, and steel pipes rust from the inside. Plan on stripping the system: new flexible hoses, cylinders honed or renewed, shoes inspected for oil and glazing, drums checked, and fresh fluid throughout. Bleeding an old system and calling it done is how a recommissioned car ends up in a hedge.
06
Drain the old oils before turning the engine
Drain the sump, gearbox and rear axle. Old engine oil is mildly acidic and full of combustion by-products, and after years of standing it has long since drained off the bearing surfaces. Fit a new filter and fresh oil of the grade your Workshop Manual specifies, and take the chance to look at what comes out — water, sludge or bright metal changes the plan.
07
Free the engine by hand, then pre-oil it
With the plugs out, turn the engine over slowly by hand on the starting handle or a spanner on the crankshaft nut. It should turn freely. Many owners put a little oil down each bore first and leave it to soak. Then get oil around the bearings before combustion loads them: with the plugs still out and the ignition disabled, turn the engine on the handle or spin it on the starter in short bursts until the oil pressure gauge shows pressure. Do not fire an engine that has not shown oil pressure.
08
Stop and investigate if it will not turn
A solid engine means stuck rings, a rusted bore or worse, and no amount of leverage will improve it. Take the head off and look before applying force. This is the single decision that separates a recommissioning job from an engine rebuild, and it is made with a spanner in your hand, not with the starter.
09
Cooling system, then the ignition
Flush the cooling system, check the hoses and the radiator, and refill with the correct antifreeze strength — the inhibitor matters as much as the frost protection. Then clean and gap the plugs, check the points and cap for tracking, and confirm your timing and clearances against the figures for your engine number before you ask it to run.
10
The first start — short, watched, and ready to stop
Have a fire extinguisher to hand and someone watching the engine bay. Start it, and watch the oil pressure gauge before you listen to anything else. Run it for a minute or two only, looking for fuel and oil leaks, and shut it down. Let it cool, re-check for leaks, re-check the oil level, and only then run it longer. Do not rev a freshly woken engine and do not leave it idling for half an hour to warm up while you admire it.
11
Grease everything, then re-check everything
Work round every chassis grease point — a stored car has none left where it matters — check and adjust the wheel bearings, look at the steering and kingpins for play, and go round the whole car with a spanner. Then take a first drive of a few hundred yards on a quiet road, testing the brakes deliberately at low speed, and go home and look underneath again.
12
Sort the paperwork before the first proper drive
Confirm the car's registration status, get it insured on an agreed-value classic policy, and check whether it needs an MOT. A car that has been off the road for decades may have a dormant record that needs reviving before it can legally be used, and that is a job to start early rather than the week you want to drive it.

Figures, grades and capacities

Every fluid grade, capacity, clearance and setting in this job varies across the TA, TB, TC, TD and TF, and several changed part-way through production by engine or chassis number. Rather than repeat approximations here, take them from the workshop data page and confirm them against the Workshop Manual for your own car.

Ordering the parts

A recommissioning list is mostly consumables and rubber, which is the happiest end of T-type parts supply: hoses, seals, cylinder kits, plugs, points, filters, gaskets and fluids are almost all still made or remanufactured. The awkward items are trim, instruments and anything model-specific, which is where knowing your chassis and engine numbers before you order saves the most money.

Common questions

Can I just put a battery on and see if it starts?: No — this is the mistake that turns a recommissioning job into a rebuild. Starting an engine whose oil has drained off the bearings, whose fuel has turned to varnish and whose loom may be chewed risks bearing damage, a carburettor fire and a wiring fire, all at once. Drain the fluids, inspect the loom, pre-oil the engine and prove oil pressure first. Nothing is lost by taking a fortnight over it.
How long is a 'long layup'?: As a rough guide, anything beyond a single winter needs more than the usual spring check. A year or two off the road means fresh fluids, careful brake checks and stale fuel. Five years or more means treating the brakes and fuel system as needing rebuilding rather than checking. Twenty years means assuming everything rubber has perished, and budgeting accordingly.
What is the most expensive surprise?: Usually the bodywork rather than the engine. XPAG engines are simple, well supported and rebuildable at a known cost; corroded chassis members and rotten ash body framing on a TD or TF are what quietly consume budgets, because they are hidden, labour-intensive and cannot be judged from photographs. Get underneath before you commit.
Should I rebuild the brakes or just bleed them?: Rebuild them. After years standing, the master and wheel cylinders will have corroded bores and swollen seals, the flexible hoses will have perished internally, and the steel pipes may be rusting from the inside where you cannot see it. A T-type has drum brakes all round and no servo, so there is no reserve to fall back on. This is not a corner to cut on a car you intend to drive on modern roads.
Is it cheaper to buy a barn find or a running car?: Almost always cheaper to buy the running car. A recommissioning job costs the purchase price plus the work, and the work is nearly always more than the difference in price between the two cars. Buy a barn find because you want the project and the provenance, not as a way of saving money.
Do I need specialist help?: For most of this, no — it is careful, methodical work with ordinary tools. The exceptions are worth naming: hydraulic components that need honing or sleeving, any engine that will not turn by hand, and structural chassis or ash-frame repair. Those are jobs for a marque specialist, and the money spent there is the best-value money in the whole project.

Last reviewed 2026-07-17