MAIN
Restoration
Previous Page | Next Page
1. Advantages 2. dis-advantages 1.You know how your Spridget performs with two people aboard? OK...take one out. There you have your "increase" in terms of a lightened flywheel as it appli es to lower gear acceleration, very generally speaking, more or less. 2. Depending upon state of tune and your touch with the clutch...slightly increased clutch wear (depending upon how you drive) due to less rotational inertia o f the idling motor. IOW, you may have to "slip" the clutch a little more to get away from a stop without stalling. There are mildly lightened steel flywheels for the... MORE
I just applied for the Heritage Certificate for my sprite. After I sent my request I noticed that they cannot provide the info for cars made in Warwick. My car is a Mk 2 that I bought in Warwick from Donald Healey in Jan. 62. I'm wondering if it might have been made in Warwick and my certificate request will bounce or were sprites made elsewhere? Nelson - cleaning the pieces "witstock7" 35905... MORE
Hi All, As i slowly rebuild my 76 Midget, i have come across a slight dilema. I am about to put the Outer sill on to the car but when i line it up and clamp it in place the top of the outer and inner sills meet up perfectly but at the bottom the sills are apart by about 2 cm (3/4" in old money). It just does not seem right. Should they meet up at the bottom? When i removed the sill there was not this gap. I am unsure whether the previous owner had the sill... MORE
I've been thinking about getting a Heritage certificate for some time but just haven't gotten around to it. Was just on their web site and found out that on March first there will be a ten dollar increase in the price. Anyone considering getting a certificate for their set of wheels might want to get in their order before the price goes up. The ordering URL is http://tinyurl.com/55hy9 Nelson Dismembered Mk 2 Sprite "witstock7" 35862... MORE
I should introduce myself. My name is Jim and I live in the great pacific northwest, near Seattle, WA, USA. I have a '73 Midget that I have owned since 1987. It has seen little use since the mid '90's for a number of reasons but it is currently in the "state" of being rebuilt (well, it has been in this state for a couple of years now). I've been accumulating parts and slowly working on my beast. I'm finishing up the suspension rebuild (poly bushings, new springs, Spax shocks in the rear, new lever shocks in the front)... MORE
Dear Virgil and all, I have a block. I am not sure what it is but I am sure those on the list can tell me. It is very available in San Diego. Here is the hard part, get ready to laugh at me or yell names etc. It had been setting out in the rain for god knows how many years. There is surface rust inside and outside. The rust is not bad but it looks like hell. I am sure sand blasting or hot tanking it would make it ok. It has a pan, quite a bit... MORE
Recently I have unearthed some pics of my teal blue 1500 midget (that does not exist apparently) taken just after I started to strip it for rebuild in 1988. They have been scanned and have been uploaded to the 'Stewarts 1500' section of the groups web site. Stewart General Reality Failure : Reboot Universe "Ford Prefect" 35821... MORE
"Did it make the job better or save you money?" Both, Bob.... Assuming decent paint/technique, the paintjob is in the bodywork/prep, not the paint. The paint won't cover lousy bodywork/prep....any imperfections will show. If not immediately, then within the first year. The actual spraying takes maybe 20 minutes, the bodywork many, many hours.. it's all in the prep. Ratio is about 1000 to 1 (more or less) depending upon how much bodywork/prep has to be done to ef fect a decent job. Cap'n Bob '60 Frog "Robert E. Shlafer" 35802... MORE
You'll get a better job if you do the prep, at least to the point of removing all the trim, lights, windshield, etc. they're not going to do that; they just mask around, and you get a nicer job if the car is has everything reasonable removed. I think you'd be well advised to take the paint to them, along with the appropriate hardeners and reducers. Good paint is expensive, and may cost than the entire cost of a MAACO job. They should be able to do the rest of the prep, masking and spraying okay, but they're not... MORE
Affirmative, Clarance.... these are franchises, however. I might not trust them to do bodywork but their paintwork on my PO'd VW Bug and '74 Midget was excellent from the franchise I used in Stamford and later, Norwalk, CT. Closest one now is Bridgeport, CT and I will give them a shot after I do all the bodywork required, this coming summer. Because the Spridget is so small (and cool) they ususally go out of their way to do a very respectable paint job....at least, this has been my experience with MAACO so far. But I do all the prep.... MORE
Hi, Has anyone used "MAACO" to paint a car?????? Mac Mac's Pack Club House http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/macsclubhouse "Clarence McMillin" 35793... MORE
About how much did it cost? Do you save anything by doing the prep? Or does it just make the final result better? I am thinking about having them paint my old Honda plug around car. Bob in San Diego "Robert D. Gardner" 35797... MORE
Aside from Margaret's suggestion of the Heritage certificate, you can probably find the original colour on hard-to-get-at places such as up underneath the dashboard top area, inside the transmission tunnel or inside the heater ducts in the footwells; all places that are unlikely to get repainted in a casual paint job. For the factory colour code, there's pretty much only one of each shade for any given year of manufacture, and this year can be obtained from the chassis number. There are tables of the codes available in various books, or http://www.teglerizer.com/mgcolors/ has a good visual indication of most... MORE
Thanks Margaret, I am taking my wife to the Cotswolds this Weekend for her birthday. On the Saturday we are going to the Heritage Motor Museum, they have the last Midget of the line there so i will ask them for info. Ian "mandy716412" 35791... MORE
How can i find the proper colour for my Midget. I think it is Inca Yellow but checking the MG colours there seem to be a few yellows. How can i find which is the correct one. Where do i find the factory colour code? The V5 says yellow but is it? The car could of originally been green for all i know and repainted and changed to Yellow. "mandy716412" 35786... MORE
A Heritage Certificate will give you all the details of the car when it le ft the factory. British Motor Indusrty Heritage Trust are the people to contact. I'm not sure how mush they charge now, but mine was =A315 many man y moons ago. Margaret South Lincolnshire (UK) "May you be in Heaven half an hour before the Devil knows you're dead" mmbrock88@... 35790... MORE
Hi all Need some help on where to find and what to ask for. Broke the line from the clutch m/c to slave on a '67 Midget. Seems like 5/16" standard flare. But all the ones I have found at the auto stores will not fit into the adapter piece. Is it a special fitting? metric? It does not have the British bubble flare on the tube like the brake side which made me think it was just done that way so you could fit a standard steel line and fitting. Will be thankful for any help with this..... MORE
Duncan, I know a remodeling construction guy and I noticed that when he was working on a house, he would roll out some kind of thin plastic sheet, perhaps 4 or 6 feet wide, that had a light sticky glue on one side. It would stick to carpet and floors and not slide around but not sticky enough to be a problem pulling it up after the job was cleaned up. Kept the rugs and floors from paint drops and dirt etc. The backing was about as sticky as a yellow post-it note and I think it was clear... MORE
My Mk1 Midget, which I have just sold, left the factory as RHD, went to the USA, was converted to LHD, and 30 years later came home and was re-converted back to RHD. There appears to have been no alterations to the tunnel. BTW, when she reaches her new home in Austria, she will no doubt be LHD once again!! Margaret South Lincolnshire (UK) "May you be in Heaven half an hour before the Devil knows you're dead" mmbrock88@... 35739... MORE
Chuck...do not be mislead by compression ratios which could be had back when leaded ("manly") octanes were available . Today's unleaded "garbage" octanes require a little more thought in this di rection, assuming a cast iron head and the ignition advance curve you're probably working with, along with a "mild" cam with relatively little duration which will favor maximum "trapping" of the combustion gases in favor of the low end of the useable rpm spectrum (torque.. as in street application). With aluminum heads you can go about a point higher than with cast iron, all else being equal. Also,... MORE
FYI For any car addicts (british or non-british) in SoCal area needing a car fix this winter, there will be a Car Show (charity event) in San Juan Capistrano, CA this February 5th, Saturday. I missed last year's show but from pics it looked like a good turn-out of several hundred. Cars will be mostly classic, muscle & hot rod American iron, but there will be some British as well (pics show Big Healey, Jags, Cobra). I will be there with my Bugeye, & I expect a friend & his son to be there with their Bugeye & RB... MORE
The wheels were originally painted with silver (aluminum pigment) enamel. Some of them were a very bright silver, and others were a duller color, similar to MGA. I don't know whether this relates to the sequence, or the manufacturer, as there are two manufacturing methods also. Some BE wheels had the center spot welded to the rim, and some are riveted. In any case, shot blasting might be a bit coarse, and I'd use glass bead blasting. Modern auto paint (acylic enamel with urethane additive, or a base/clear system) would be nice, and powder coating would be even nicer.... MORE
I just found a 58 Bug-eye project in Concord (SF East Bay-area) CA. that I thought I'd pass along. I haven't seen the car and I'm real tempted to but if I do go there'd be a big chance that I'd also bring it home=85 so I'm not going. Besides, my wife would kill me if I brought another project home. Fell free to contact Charlie via email at WELLSC@... Good luck to whoever gets this car. I have no financial interest in this deal. -Drew Drew, I got the car through a neighbor about 3-4 years ago. I... MORE
Yeah... California has really gone over the top on classic car "emissions". It's all part of a political agenda in this particular respect, obviously. Has nothing to do with air polution really. I mean my Vizardized '74 1340 almost made it by CT emissions and was only "out" by 50 ppm hydrocarbons or less than .05 CO, depending upon which side of the correct ignition timing we chose to go. And this thing had a VP3 cam, 45DCOE and got 90+hp to the rear wheels. When properly tuned and maintained, most emissions non-equipped vehicles can get by the criteria... MORE
Jim... most people convert their points ign. system to electronic Crane, PerTronix (Lucas/Aldon "Ignitor") to get away from the maintenance schedule which must be followed to retain the intial efficiency of the stock points system when new points are installed and concurrently, dwell and timing are accurately set. For as you know, as the points wear, dwell and timing change. Thus, every 3k miles or so, resetting these values is the only way to maintain original efficiency of the points type system. Simply converting to the foregoing electronic systems while maintaining the otherwise stock coil does away with the... MORE
