MG Midget

[Renrut]

Bit more of a meagre update but a few more photies. I'll deal with the carbs first.

I'd taken them off the car already so I decided to give the sludgey one a clean. Here they are looking very fetching (thats fetching not felching)


Popped top of sludgey - yuck!




Popped top of oily - empty



Oil I had lying around that I filled both the carbs up with to see if they would still damp properly when filled:


Which worked well although oily still leaked all over me.

Then gave sludgey a going over with some Gunk which worked well although I probably needed some additional brushes and to leave it for a while to work. Result after 5 minutes scrubbing and 10 minutes flushing out the float bowl:


Then I attacked the ignition system. Low tension side = good. Resistance of coil = good. Volts on coil = good. No spark though. Suspected HT lead to dizzy so I'll pick one up on the way home tomorrow.

[Renrut]

Now for more photos of the rust - this time I went for some sexy interior shots!

Drivers footwell




Not too bad but it does look like the patches were welded on without even cleaning the paint off first.

Passenger footwell


Not sure how best it will be to handle te bit of rust down in the bottom corner there, anyone got any good ideas besides chopping out from below to get access?

Is it better to cut out all the rusty bits including the bodgey welded panels then weld back in fresh or just treat them with stuff until they get to the point it needs it badly and weld in repairs around the crap bodges? I know which I think I should do but I'm interested in opinions on it.

After that assessment and still no real space to work in the garage I took my pen and pad of paper and did a list of what works and what doesn't, so here it is:

Engine - seems to have compression and turns over freely now and at speed so fingers crossed is ok.
Ignition Switch - Works in all positions
Starter - works
coil - works, probably
dissy - works, might need new cap/rotor but ok for now
plugs - probably ok but no way to test right now
alternator - spins and stops as it should but no real way to test but it does make the light come on the dash if its connected which is correct.
Heater blower - works
wipers - works
carbs - cleaned out, topped up but slightly leaky and can't test properly yet
Lights
- interior - works
- sidelight - no
- dipped - no
- headlights - no
- indicators - no
- hazards - no
- rear - no
- reversing - no
- brake - no
Rev counter - appears to move a bit when on the starter so we'll assume that works
Window winders - work but I don't have any handles. Suppose I could keep a 32mm spanner in the car instead
Speedo - no idea.

washer pump - works, I was amazed to find that the button on the dash is actually just a hand pump - thats bloody genius!!!

[Relentless Rob]

"Why do English people drink warm beer?

Because Lucas wire the fridges".

If the loom's complete, you can use it as a template and use better quality cabling.

P.S or better still...

http://www.mgbhive.co.uk/electrics_wiring_looms.html

[Renrut]

£179 for a cable loom!

The loom is complete as far as I can tell but I haven't really had a nose at the rear end part of it yet but thats only lights so it won't be that difficult. I'll be redoing it myself if I do, new wires, new waterproof connectors, none of those pissy bullet connectors.

I have a far better way of spending £179 on this project, and one linked from this very forum!

https://www.europaspares.com/product/149/15508/DRIVING_APPAREL/DRIVING_APPAREL/COLOURED_LEATHER_DRIVING_APPAREL_BOX_SETS____CHGGS.html

Just call me Biggles!

[jnoiles]

A lightweight modern ish revvy engine sounds like ideal and preferrably one that won't kill the standard gearbox and diff.

Lightweight modern and revvy you say?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FIAT-500-TWIN ... 1c23cf7410

[Relentless Rob]

I have a 620ti engine loom you can have if wanted to go the Tomcat and Type 9 route.

[Renrut]

See what you've done! You've gone and set him off again!

[Relentless Rob]

Is it hair or hare trigger?

I was thinking you could use the wire to piggy back the naff Lucas stuff and only made reference to a previous suggestion.

[Relentless Rob]

[TeamTotalWankel]

Just had a quick look at the pics, I can see your welding has improved

How did the welds get so rusty, so quickly tho?

I thought he'd bought it off Rob

[Renrut]

Not much to update. Despite 3 days off work I've been ill so only got a bit of work done on the Midget.

I have stripped out the dash, removed the windscreen, removed all the wiring and dropped out the fuel tank. The chassis is now bare from the A pillar back, discounting the suspension.

I'm glad I decided to do this properly as I've found a big lump of rust under the windscreen on the passenger side. Similarly all the seals around everything are shot.

I've removed the front bumper bars too as I wont' be going back to the rubber bumpers.

I've picked up a few things from a guy local to me who is breaking a 1500. I got a full brown interior, passenger side quarter glass and rear split chrome bumpers for £75! And he's sending me over the They all need a good clean and the chrome is starting to have rust spots but it'll be good enough to get it on the road and running around.

The rear bumpers allow me to see what I need to do to the rear to get it looking right, the area under the rear lights needs to be modified to get the correct look but as I've gotta sort out some rust around there anyway its not too big a deal.

Plan is to have the chassis completely stripped by the end of the weekend to start the welding up next week. The GF is talkign about getting a new mattress for the spare room so I might rob the king size one thats on there to roll the midget onto. If I weld in a brace I could probably just turn it completely upside down on it.

[owelly]

Don't forget, mattresses like to burn with a couple of sparks!

[Renrut]

I'll bear that in mind. I could put some cardboard over the top to stop sparks getting to the mattress?

Continued stripping stuff off the Midget. It now looks like this:



So all the removable panels are now stored in the attic. I removed the rad yesterday too after the photo was taken. Seems to be good and leak free as it was still full of manky (black!) coolant. So thats also stored neatly away for the rebuild.

Drained the oil out as the plan is to whip the engine out this weekend or early next week to get full access to the engine bay and underside for the cleanup.

The oil was worryingly thin/watery when dropped. No mayonaise to speak of but the oil filter appeared to be full of water but it wasn't giving the usual mayo look. Could it be old (i.e. unsmelly) petrol?

My first replacement door arrived too! £15 bargain.





Worst bit:


As you can see a bit of rust on the bottom of it but otherwise sound. So I gave it a good clean up with that Marine Clean stuff, then filled it up with Metal Prep& Ready http://www.frost.co.uk/automotive-rust-products/por15-rust-solutions/por15-prep-ready-946ml.html I'll keep topping up and scrubbing it until it's taken care of the rust on the inside. I'll probably give the inside bottom of the door a coating of POR15 Paint too once the Prep and Ready has done its thing as the Midget door seals aren't the greatest and will inevitably let water in.

And just to protect my sanity I offered up the new door to the old chassis. Perfect fit once gapped using some thick cardboard.

[Renrut]

Time for an update!

Nothing worth showing on a picture at the minute. I've been stripping the shell of everything. A lot of the suspension needs renewing as its rotten, the list is something like this:

Rear:
leaf spring binding straps rusted through so the leaves were separating in places
retaining straps perished

Front:
steering track rod ends wobbly
lower kingpin to wishbone bush perished
upper kingpin to lever arm bush perished
Wishbone to chassis bushes perished
ARB bushes perished
Kingpins have a bit of slop in them, maybe a mm or so. Definitely can be felt by hand . Does anyone know if this is due to not being greased recently or if they're just worn out?

Luckily there are full chassis polybush kits available from about £60 so I'll be getting one when it comes to rebuild time. Similarly refurbed kingpins are £50 a side on an exchange basis. So suspension could be sorted for ~£160 and some graft and I'll probably just do this.

In terms of stripping progress I've dropped the rear axle off the car. There was strangely no brake fluid in the rear pipes, only those to the front of the car.

I've loosened up all the nuts and bolts on the front suspension so tonight I'll be ripping the fronts off too. That will leave the shell with only the heater, engine/gearbox and steering rack to remove. They will come out once the bike engine has gone which should be early next week.

Looks like a brake rebuild will also be necessary as, in complete contrast to the rear brakes, the fronts were locked on hard. The pedal had gone floppy but the rear axle was completely disconnected and the reservoir was still full I suspect the master cylinder might be at fault and it wasn't releasing the pressure to the fronts.

[owelly]

The kingpins are fubar so need reconditioning. I did these myself but I had a press and reamers to play with. Why not fit coilovers on the back?