A 15-year-old saved this rustbucket MG A

There are lots of different paths young folks can take to their first cars. Daniel Harrison probably took the hardest one when he and his father picked up a crusty 1958 MG A with a plan of restoring it. It may have taken nine years, but now he has a car most enthusiasts would be jealous of. There is more to the story, though, as Jay Leno finds out.

It’s always interesting to hear how Leno discovers about the cars featured on his show. More often than not, folks reach out to him and pitch their stories, but other times, Jay hears through the grapevine a story worth telling and makes it happen. Daniel Harrison’s story is the latter. While out at a show, this silver MG A snagged Leno’s eye. Once the comedian and all-around car nut began talking to its owner, he knew the pair would end up in his garage one day.

Harrison is and was like many young enthusiasts; the thought of having a vintage car and rebuilding it themselves is nearly all encompassing. That fascination often leads someone to dive into a project most would consider foolish—in Harrison’s case, a bright yellow MG A with measurable amounts of rust showing and only 15 pounds of oil pressure. After years of work, however, he not only has a beautiful car but also a wealth of stories to tell about the build process.

Now Harrison is a mechanical engineer with a masters degree from Cambridge rather than a teenager with unfulfilled dreams of a fun, old car. He hasn’t completely traded wrenches for computers, either: He is currently in the middle of restoring an MG TC. Sounds like this MG A might have been just the start—and we couldn’t approve more.