MG Midget

[Rob Bell]

I have a pair of MGF seats in my garage - black cloth, green piping. The piping has some minor damage, but they're otherwise good.

Yours for free if you want to collect?

[Renrut]

Perfect colours!

You have PM!

[Rob Bell]

No problem. I'll take some pictures and post them.

[Renrut]

Quick update:

Drivers seat mounting point welded up:


Drivers floor stripped of underseal and paint ready for prep. Still need to do rest of floor but this is the standard I'm aiming for:


Drivers footwell and sill done for now. Might need to tidy up a couple little bits where I've noticed a couple of pinholes but as the saying goes 'good enough for pit work'. It'll get a skim of filler to tidy it up later.






In between underside stripping I'm beavering away on the front of the car.


First I chopped out the old rubber bumper mounts. I might cut them further back some point in the future. These were cut out using a sharp chisel and a hammer, couldn't get a grinder or saw in there and just need capping off.




Then I made some progress fixing up where it had rusted out after the front end damage.




Next to clean that bit up and weld on the replacement front valance I picked up a few months back at a bargain price.

So its coming along. I did find another hole on the inside of the rear wing when I was stripping off underseal earlier so that will need doing at some point but it'll be easier to get at when its on the drivers side because of the angle. I've also got some drivers side inner wing repairs to do, but again they'll be easier with the car in a different position.

Once the front valance is on it'll be strip off the remaining floor plan then a change to sitting on the passenger side.

[Renrut]

Front valance is now on!



Not the best photo but my only camera is the one on my phone.

A few odd jobs on the front area still to do - inner arch on drivers side plus capping off the bumper mounts where I've cut them down. I suppose I could have just left them be but I'm planning on a mesh grill and it would have looked very untidy.

I might get that done today or not, we'll see how the evening develops.

The list of bodywork jobs still to do on Frankenmidget stands at:
Drivers Inner Arch
Passenger Inner Arch
Passenger footwell
Passenger Sill
Cap Bumper bars
Make up brackets for holding the front bumper (no idea what these should look like!)
Modify heater tray to accomodate K series - does anyone know how far back this needs to go? Without putting he engine in the car I've estimated it at 100mm.
Weld up hole in Drivers rear inner wing.
Weld in brackets for the rollbar to mount on.
Strip underside fully

[cheaproject]

Its coming along. Have you looked at fitting your rollbar yet? Ive noticed theres not a lot of info out there on how to do it.

[Renrut]

I put it in place when the car was the right way up. Its the cheapy dual bar one but it should do the job.

Its got feet already welded on for bolting down. Plan is once I've done the underside welding I'll flip it back upright, put the rollbar in place and then do all the holes for the mounting bolts.

Once they're in I'll make up some spreader plates to go on the underside of the car. Bolt them in place with a helper. Tack them in place and fully weld the nuts. That should give me a nice simple system for bolting it in and out if I need to. It appears to bolt in by 2x M12 bolts on each of the 4 feet.

Main concern is brakes tbh, with an extra 50bhp it won't stop as quickly as it can go and thats not good. I'm not sure what to do about it though. Definitely braided brake hoses but beyond that I don't really want to spend £600 on a 9" big brake kit.

[mjslonergan]

From a bit of thinking myself and a friend did a while back about his MG, I thing we discovered that some of the Daewoo range had MG PCD, initially just for cheap alloys, but then we were looking at investigating robbing brake bits, but we never got further than the thinking stage, so might be a blind alley...

[Relentless Rob]

Alloys?



Superslots fit well (hint) and you can fit Viva GT, Firenza, Magnum, Chevette, Cavalier brakes.

[Renrut]

Yes, yes, I know.

Yesterdays progress was finishing off the front welding, then the fun shuffle of moving the car from one side to the other.

Ended up dragging it out onto the drive, lying it on its roof, spinning it round then pushing it back up on the drivers side. Then finally pushing it back into the garage.

My back is a bit sore today, I probably should have enlisted some help

[Renrut]

I spent the weekend helping my parents lay a garden path - they've been planning it for 10 years and I achieved more in 10 minutes by picking up a mattock and laying waste to the weed covered tarmac.

I also welded up the cutting deck of my dads ride on lawnmower, he's promised to take some pictures and I'll upload them. Its a 36V electric one with a 6 speed gearbox!
So result was no midget progress since last week however I have uploaded the photos!

Capped off bumper bars:




Fixed inner wing


Car out into the sunlight




I can happily report my bracing is good as it hasn't moved at all when I dropped it on its top


Passenger side sill didn't look too good though


From the other side


And shuffled back in


A good inspection of the passenger side says I'll need a new sill. Simples if it wasn't for the fact that the previous bodger had seam welded it to the A post and the B post!

So I'll order a new one, along with closing panels and then see what I can do with it. Total cost under £60 inc postage. If I feel up to it I'll go and do a rust survey of the passenger side now I can see all the nasties.

Before I disappeared up north though I popped the flywheel back on the 1.4K along with its pressure plate and the 1500 flywheel then offered up the gearbox. It looks ok. I've discovered from my reading that the single rail triumph box is fairly strong but its not that light ~ 30kg inc bellhousing, about 10 more than the A-series box. This isn't much different to the ford type 9 without bellhousing. BUT! I've discovered that early triumph heralds which used this gearbox had aluminium bellhousings! This would drop ~5kg off the weight. If anyone hears of one going let me know!



They look ok together but I'll still need to cut back the heater tray to give room for the dissy.

[Relentless Rob]

When I restored my Vitesse Canley Classics sold Aluminium bell housings for Heralds. It needed a an extra couple of holes to fit the Vitesse but would also fit the Spitfire just as easilly. This was nearly fifteen years ago though.

[Renrut]

Yeah but the Canley classics ones are £284! I'd rather spend £50 on a second hand herald box that just happens to have one and blow the rest on suspension/brake upgrades

[Relentless Rob]

Have you tried Robsport? They might be breaking one.

[Renrut]

They only seem to do TRs. I'll drop them a mail but its really not a high priority right now as it can be swapped in later once its built.

Getting the sills finished, the engine and gearbox to get jiggy, and doing all the million of suspension jobs that need doing are way up the list from reducing the overall weight.