tops and engines

I spent all last winter checking around looking for a vintage, classic sportscar. Now that I'm working 50 to 70 hours a week and helping my wife and father-in-law with some health issues my mother-in-law is having there are two 1980 MGBs and a 1969 Datsun roadster for sale locally. Oh well enough bitching. I've got two questions on the cars.
How easy/hard/simple/complicated are the tops on these cars? And I'll bet none of the owners has any maintanence records so how long can these engines go without needing rebuilding, assuming normal servicing? Thanks for any help and/or advice.

Are you asking how difficult are they to use, or replace?

I'm not all that familiar with the Datsun roadsters, so I'll let others comment on those.

Operationally, an MGB top is like putting up a pup tent. It's not that it's difficult, there's just a lot of steps. They also have to folded properly, and a lot of people don't know (or care) how. Replacement: not hard to do, but hard to do well and make it good and watertight. Depends on your patience, attention to detail and aptitude.

On either of them, "regular servicing" is quite an assumption.... but assuming it has been cared for, an MG 1800 is very robust and will probably still run long after the body rusts and the suspension is shot because people didn't realize "regular servicing" includes some very important grease fittings. Unless it's been overheated... then you can bet the head is cracked. Usually, especially on the late heads, you can see where it's cracked by the #3 sparkplug (or is it #2?)

Failing engines don't kill MGs, rust does.

As with any classic, buy the best you can find, preferably from an enthusiast owner who knew what they were doing.

My best wishes for your family's health and well-being.

Is that a '69 Datsun 2000 or 1600? I'll be jealous either way, those are nice sports cars. I wouldn't be able to resist installing an SR20 in it ...and then the turbo would be almost impossible to resist...like this one

Tim that was exactly the info I was wanting. Nick thank you. I will not call about the Datsun until things settle down so I do not know. But I don't think it will be as nice as the one pictured above.

I woudn't bother with the late rubber nose MGBs - gutted ill-handling shadows of former glory.

The Datsun is harder and more expensive to get parts for, but they are interesting and peppy cars - I raced against enough of them!

An MGB built from 1974 1/2 through 1980 can be easily set to mostly pre-smog performance and handling (or better) with the exception of the weight of the bumpers, IF you live somewhere that allows the conversions from an emission testing standpoint. Buying a 1974 or earlier MGB of course makes a lot of sense. Either way, parts are readily available a decent prices.