1970 MG Midget 1275

[spiny]

History:
My dad bought this car sometime around 1973, he is the second owner. We used it as a family car right up to about 1981ish I think, when me and my sister got too big to fit in the back. It was then parked up in my Grans external garage. Presumably my dad expected to tinker with it and use it at weekends but for whatever reason just never got round to it. I remember sitting it it most weekends when we used to go and visit my gran and pretending to drive it, and also managing to burst a brake line at some point ...
My gran died about fifteen years ago and as the house got sold the MG was moved to my parents garage - this involved me and my dad taking a number of hours to free up the brakes and snapping a few wheel studs in the process ...
It then stayed in my dads garage, slowly getting covered in lawn movers and other garage cruft.
Fast forward to just over three years ago and my dad asked me if I'd like the MG, which has only one answer really So transport was arranged and it got moved to the house I was renting at the time, where work began.

As found:



hmmm:


moved to new garage for work to commence:


I have been taking plenty of pics of the work I've done and to save duplicating them, they are all posted here:

www.spiny.org/van_progress/

it says 'van progress' as it was initially about my bus, which is currently 'on hold'

the pics are organised in chronological order, newest at the bottom.

I'll use the thread here to add recent and future updates

[spiny]

current status:

it moves and stops under its own power







still loads to do, needs panels fitting, switchgear looking at, lights sorting and so on.

[spiny]

not planning ahead:

I fitted a fuel regulator a few weeks ago as the facet pump I'm now using is a bit 'strong'.
I mounted it on the inner wing where it looked good alas, it fouled the outer wing, so had to move it a bit lower. This then meant I had to 'trim' the stock air filter:



the old mounting holes are the three you can see on the flat bit.

[spiny]

panel mock up:





bonnet fitted

[Nathan]

EXCELLENT MATEY.

Looks wicked, and has spurred me on to get in the garage now and weld my sill on LOL.

[spiny]

just popped over to Moss to get a few bolts for the wings as I'm fed up of wirebrushing the old ones I have and still they bind

scored a choke cable too as I can't find mine

[Keefy]

love these, good luck with the project! looks like you've a bit of work on your hands there!

[spiny]

managed to squeeze in a few hours tonight.

choke fitted (took about 10 seconds)


but making an 'end' for the cable took about an hour I carefully drilled holes in all manner of bolts, tried claming the cable in washers and considered welding a blob on the end like a bicycle brake cable, but in the end the simplest thing worked, an electrical connector block, squeezed a bit in the vice to make it 'flat' at the bottom:



then spent some time fitting lights to the wings, the headlamp bowl and the indicator 'bowl' are pretty knackered, but in the interests of time, they are 'fix it later' - what I have works and fits, it just needed a few extra bolts here and there to stop it wobbling.



and

[lae]

Yes!

These cars are SO much fun, I really really wish I hadn't got rid of mine (although as a daily they are completely hopeless). Unfortunately going back to university for another four years mean I won't have the space or money for a project for a loooong time...

Are you keeping it stock? First thing I would do to mine is sort out the rear suspension, live axle + leaf springs + bumpy road = rear end jittering all over the shop. You can uprate the suspension and brakes quite cheaply. The engines are pretty easy to tune too, loads of books on them.

[Ray Singh]

Mrs Rav had one of these a few years back 1969 SWA.
These things very quickly turn from concourse to rust piles. Keep on top of it fella. It looks a good project.

[spiny]

as far as I can tell, I've sorted all the rust (that I can see anyway) and if I'm ever at a loose end, I paint a bit of the car with whatever I have lying about, which is why bits of it are different colours

previous repairs (not all of these are pretty, but I know they won't break)

rear arch:

[spiny]

same story on the other side:



sill fun:

oh dear.





braced the door gap just in case:


gah


patching inner:

[spiny]

i'm still surprised how thin the steel is on some of the panels - they have paint both sides so it's not rusted thin



more patches:


painted:

[DutyFreeSaviour]

Nice work so far fella. I loved the fact my MG was just like a big Meccano set....
Good luck with the rest of it.

[spiny]

rear panel:

[spiny]

other side:



[no pics of the welding for some reason]

ebay marina engine (bought in 2007 )

[spiny]

moved the battery to the boot:

sizing up: (tray is from a rover 200, they unbolt - very useful)


welded on some bolts




weled on


obligatory paint


fitted

[spiny]

finished fitting one wing this evening.

I think I must have damaged the valance or wing at some point over the last three years while moving them round various garages as the wing simply did not fit

in the end I fitted the highest bolts then used a long bolt at the bottom to pull it together.

fitted the other bolts then realised that i'd forgotten to drill a hole for the lower wing mount after plating the inner sill

so made a tiny bracket instead:



long bolt used:





looks ok though



can't do any more work on it for a week as i'm off to cyprus for a friends wedding, not sure i'm going to make the rr show deadline that i've set myself - i might trailer it there if it's not road legal

[spiny]

even if it's not ready for RR09, a guy I work with has said I can borrow his car trailer, so I might be able to bring it anyway

[spiny]

picked up some doors I bought off ebay this morning, only meant to bid on one, but you know how it goes after a drink ....



should be able to make a decent pair though