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As weather and time permits i will be checking out the engine further,and keep you guys updated.Nice to have such a pool dedicated lbc car nuts to turn to.Talk about disapointing.Didnt get many good chances to take the midget out this past summer.Made plans to go to the british car show near us in richmond Va,in october,loaded the car grabbed the wife,top down and away....Got about 3 miles when overheating started #~!!%#*&!!!!....Took us back home still determined.Had to go in the mini van.The show had some nice cars though only about 4 midgets.I guess i should have went home... MORE


G'day Bob The bush inside the spring has a central steel sleeve, and if the bolt wasn't lubricated liberally with grease when it was last fitted, there is every chance it has rusted and seized along it's whole 3'' length. I had exactly this problem with a customer's car about 3 years ago. Fortunately the customer was hanging around the shop at the time, since he wouldn't have understood the 3 hour charge to remove one bolt!. Yes, it took him and me and the gas axe just under 3 hours to remove it. You're right - you just... MORE


Hi folks, My previous post rather prompted this. Thinking about two-pack and classic cars, I simply don't understand the sense of people who paint concours classic cars in two pack. Surely concours is about 'originality' and 'condition' first and foremost? These same concours contestants who would howl in derision at someone plopping a non-oe engine or gearbox into a classic car - think nothing of painting their classic in two-pack! Um hello - classic cars were mostly painted in cellulose and not two-pack originally! Personally I'd deduct substantial points for this 'non-original' faux pas - but does it happen?... MORE


Nigel, I am sure David's advice is good. When I did mine, I stripped to bare metal, (grit blasted) and used acid etch primer. I then welded in all the replacement panels. There were a lot, I think most people would have definately scrapped this car. Mark's car that has all the black goo on the doors looks almost immaculate by the standards that mine was in! The cills on mine had been injected with expanding building foam and were rotten through anyway. I used weldable zinc based primer on all the new stuff, particularly on the seam surfaces.... MORE


While I have never restored a car with concourse in mind I have restored many other items such as classic radios and other mechanical antiques/collectables. In my opinion the greatest mistake made by amateurs is to "over restore" I have seen what were beautiful wooden radios stripped and painted with high gloss varathane that were transformed into gaudy, glitzy babbles who only impress those who think everything that shines is golden. I bought a new 63 Sprite in 1963. I am not into concourse, but I sure know what they looked like when they came off the factory production... MORE


Glad you landed safely Captain. It gets kind of slow on the list without you around. :) I am trying to be very thorough with the car so it will be something worth keeping. The engine is great and the body is not bad. But the interior, that is something else. Glad I started there first. I think all the roofing cement I have had to scrape off everything is probably the worst part. Man, what a pain. I have a pretty good method now. Take a heat gun and warm up the roofing cement just enough to make... MORE


when I painted my '74 (the first 'proper' respray I'd done) I used the beige stuff, which isn't exactly primer filler, more a high build primer - it just gives you a bit more meat to go at, to sand it to get a flat surface; if there are any slight surface blemishes, you run the risk of sanding through a thinner layer. I used this for the whole car (I didn't take it all back to bare metal and I never bothered with etch primer for the few bits of new metal) and it still looks pretty good... MORE


Hi guys I'm now getting close to the stage where I'll need to start putting on some primer, but have some questions about this so any and all advice appreciated. First off whats the difference between the standard grey primer and the beige primer filler? I understand you need to put down an etch primer coat on bare metal, thats fine as my outside panels will be bare metal, but my inner panels will only be cleaned and sanded and will not be taken back to bare metal - presumably these only need to be primed with either the... MORE


Hey! You talkin' to ME?! I was "off" flying allright...(apt description, actually!)..... last night...great band at the local pub... lotta Jim Croce, "old" James Taylor and Eric Clapton, Beatles stuff. God I love a good electric guitar (s)........good company.....a good dinner, a coupla' beers....flying about as high as a Concorde, Mark. Well...here we are bright and early!! :) Man...that is a helluva lotta rust. Hardtop or not, this car got rained in and maybe just not once or twice, either. Lotta work! But it will last about forever now, Mark, and I can understand how you got hooked by... MORE


Alright, I HAD to get one. Getting ready to take the paint off to do some body work and couldn't find anyone I knew who owned a welder. Fortunately I had a 10% off coupon at Lowes. They had a Lincoln Pro-Mig 135 that I bought. Time to get some crap metal and practice, practice, and practice more. Kim Yuchol 18485... MORE


Managed to free up all but three nuts on the rear 1/4 elliptic springs. No luck on those three with PBBlaster, blow torch and force so I took out my trusty Dremel and a fine abrasive disk and cut a deep grove in one and snapped it off with a cold chisel without damaging the U bolt and if the others don't come free tomorrow at first attempt that will be their faith also. No mercy. So the new driver side spring is in place. Forgot who asked but I did check the spring mount box and the rubber... MORE


Just found a datsun 210 of 1981 vintage.It has a blown head gasket and a good 5 speed tranny.Any one know if this is a good candidate for swap into 1500midget? "stanley hill" 18445... MORE


G'day Don .............unless you have the very latest version of the slave cylinder, which has a "waisted" piston and the rubber cup fits over it. Did I forget to say that????? Yup, it was standard but not fitted to many cars. It would have a 7/16" fitting at the end for the flexible clutch hose? Colin "Colin Dodds" 18409... MORE


You always wonder what goes down in the Spridget triangle. Took the fenders off today. Passenger side . . . one Craftsman 5/8" deep socket, the original fuse block cover. a screw driver handle, and a couple of washers. Drivers side . . . on very rusty large pair of gas pliers. After I figured out where the rear bolts were located. Hayes and Bentley both did not have the common courtesy to put that in their manuals. I would have thought that taking the fenders off to retrieve tools and parts would be part of the standard maintenance... MORE


Subject: Thank the men and women of the U.S. military services If you haven't already done so, Please visit the Department of Defense web page below and sign in thanking the men and women of the U.S. military services for defending our freedom. The compiled list of names will be sent out to our soldiers at the end of the month. So far, there are only about 2.3 million names. The entire exercise takes 10 seconds...literally. Please pass it on to your email friends. http://www.defendamerica.mil/nmam.html Biff Jones '59 Bugeye 'Kermit' '61 Sprite 'Ole Gray' in "The Healey Book" '71... MORE


Five surgeons are discussing who makes the best patients on the operating table. The first surgeons says, I like to see accountants on the operating table because when you open them up, everything inside is numbered. The second responds, yes but you should try electricians everything inside them is color coded. The third surgeons says, no, I really think librarians are the best everything inside them is in alphabetical order. The fourth surgeon chimes in, you know I really like construction workers those guys always understand when you have a few more parts left over at the end of... MORE


I'm going to make a dangerous assumption that you are in the USA and not the UK as the gauge sizes are different and wire gauge is different again from sheet gauge, but this site has THE US Code that covers it. If you look at http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/15/206.html you can find the official standard for sheet and plate iron and steel (brought to you by the department of verbosely repeated redundancies). Unfortunately, there's an error in the HTML on the page, and the table comes out looking bad. If you do a [View Source] it's more(!) readable :-) "David Jacobs"... MORE


Well I need to rebuild the front suspension - so how do I do that without removing the steering arm? Nigel "amukdigiphoto " 18365... MORE


aerodynamics, I'd have thought. Or how much drag vs how much power. If my memory serves correctly, the standard bodied 1275 Spridget modified by Special Tuning in the early 70s did about 117mph flat out when tested by one of the motoring mags (can't remember which at the moment) Regards David "David Jacobs" 18323... MORE


Not knocking the car - it looks good and I guess is "interesting" to drive. Just questioning the claimed top speed. In my book, top speed is the fastest it will actually go, not simply a claculation based on the gearing and what it would produce at the second before it "blows" when redlined. Actually, the top speed of mine is somewhere about 120mph. This has nothing to do with gearing or engine mods, so what is it? Guy "Guy Weller" 18317... MORE


Don They're not Minilites they're standard later style Rostyles. Nigel "amukdigiphoto " 18312... MORE


The bit that would worry me was the front suspension. Appears to be pretty stock, except for the almost coil-bound spring. Now my Sprite begins to feel fairly airborne above 80 mph so I wonder just what this one would feel like at twice that speed! My guess is it has never been there! Guy "Guy Weller" 18305... MORE


I bet you're right, Guy Weller. We'd probably not be looking at it, had it!! :) While car does "appear" to be lowered all around and slightly low in front (and sports a front spoiler as well) this could very well be picture "angles" etc. My feeling is 160 is the theoretical top speed according to redline and gearing. With Datsun 5 speed and 3.7 diff, I have a theoretical top speed, too but, even with slightly modified suspension, wheels and tires, "no way, Jose"!! I think his point is (or should be) that what he's got is a... MORE


I'd imagine they are the same. I'm in the UK where the Metric virus has taken hold and over 5/16 would mean eaither UNF (Unified Fine) or UNC (Unified Coarse) or at the outisde Whitworth but we don't talk about that. As UNF / UNC are American standards I guess your standard 5/16 is probably one or the other, progably UNF. UNC is less common and tends to be used for threading into aluminium or other soft materials or where very high tensile stresses are involved such as the cylinder heads studs in the block. Take one of the... MORE


Hi everyone: New to the group. I have owned Triumphs, Lotus, MGB, Fiats...but this is my first Midget. Our MG is a 1979 US 1500. It is a 37,000 mile car but has been neglected. I am lucky as there appears to be no rust... I am anxious to get her running again. The engine barely ran; it turned out the ZS carb slide had gummed up, preventing airflow. But, I have a clutch problem: Even with the pedal down, I cannot get the car to go into gear (ie "clutch spin"). The trans I believe is OK since... MORE