Practically Classics Forum

The Owners' Club had some new lever shocks produced .. they are Midget bodies with A30/5 arms fitted. We send in the old ones to get the arms needed.

The Club does extensive testing on all new parts before offering them for sale which is why the front quarter light rubbers took over a year to get to the point where they would sell them .. or was it two years? A similar process is happening with the rears at the moment.

One of the benefits of being a member I guess!

One reason for going telescopic is the idea of having adjustable shocks .. but no-one makes a kit yet and Midget kits may not fit off the shelf. They have a longer arm on the levers which could mean the mounting points are in different place. But I have "a name" at a known kit manufacturer and am just waiting for the opertune moment to contact them .. ie when I've got the shell welded up and the suspension back on. A front conversion kit is already available ... I'll just be down to one kidney to buy a set!

Only one kidney? You'll be fine

Gazza if you go to The MG Experience website and look up The MG Midget forum, you will find out just how much of a cult following the little car (A35) has on the other side of the pond. https://www.mgexp.com/forum/mg-midget-f ... 5.2502486/
That link takes you to a thread, titled: "Midget engine swap into an A35." It's a load of technical questions and know how that goes right over my head but what caught my eye is that the O/P, one Thomas C, tells us that he is disabled. How impressed I am when someone doesn't let a little thing like disability get in the way of an engine swap.

A couple of years or so ago I saw and Austin, can't remember whether it was an A30 or an A35, into which had been fitted a 1275cc A series and an automatic gearbox, for its disabled owner.

Think some of the club know that one .. might have been a Marina engine & auto box. Would have meant some mods to the floor/tunnel as the bellhousing is larger.

Progress update:

I've found out each front wing is held on with 15 bolts/screws. 8 run along the top edge and are large self-tappers with hex heads, then four nuts/bolts (one above and one below indicator, one on bottom edge through valance and one at the bottom under the rear corner), plus 4 philips-headed screws down the rear edge (behind the door and into the a-post area).


I have 8 in a marked re-sealable bag .. 7 of the self-tappers, one nut and bolt .. oh and the one through the valance snapped. The heads in the 4 screws are made of Brie obviously! 9 down, six to go. All the screws/bolts have been liberally dosed in penetration fluid.

I know my o/s wing has been replaced at some stage (it's dark green under a number of layers of primer/paint) .. which is probably why they replaced the last self-tapper with a nut and bolt and in the most inaccessible place where the inner wheel arch means the top of the inner wing. Although I can just get a ring spanner on it, the contortions mean I can't get any leverage.

By this weekend I may have solved the remaining six ... (manic laughter as I contemplate the 75mm angle grinder!). Then to do the same on the nearside!

I'll have to get some pics up ... at the moment they are all too large. (And yet I know I could use imgur hosting or something similar)

In between working on migrating the club's website and forum to a new ISP I've found some time to get the wings off. That means both doors are off too! Also spent time emptying the boot of parts that I'd taken off as the car was a bit tail heavy and starting to rock on the axle stands under the rear floor .. surprising how much just the heater unit weighs.

I was sure I had some rust in the n/s A-post (which is pretty much just a thin panel!). I could feel it was a bit "bumpy" just above the top door hinge .. and now it's all off I can confirm that there is a rust patch/hole. Justified the purchase of a new A-post panel last year! O/S is nice and strong and both have now been cleaned up and have been given a good coat of Hydrate 80. I'll need to weld in a small strengthening patch to the hinge support as well.

Spent time today scraping off the sound-proofing that Austin liberally spread all over the interior. Most came off in lumps as after 61 years it has gone very hard and the rest needed a tickle with a brass wire brush on the angle-grinder. That showed up a hole in the driver's floor which was in a very similar position to the n/s hole I found months ago. I've realised that this is where there is a "jig-box" which was used in the factory. No doubt sometime in the past they have been used a jacking points and crushed ... my n/s box is completely missing and the o/s isn't actually a box .. just two sides. The rest has rusted away. I'm not looking for originality so they will get cleaned off when I get around to weld in the floor patches. If the contents of the dustpan is anything to go by after clearing up the driver's floor pan there is going to be a considerable weight saving once all that carp is off the interior panels It will be replaced with a more modern product.

The n/s door didn't shut properly and I did think it was the rust in the A-post, but it is more likely to be down to the top door hinge brass cone being half the height of the other three!!

Sounds like good progress, while finding more grot can feel like backward motion it needs to be done.

For image hosting I've used ImgBB for the last few years. It allows you to just copy/paste a BBCode link with a suitably scaled version which the viewer can click to view the full version.

It "just works" which has always been the biggest thing I've come to like.

After the photobucket fiasco I'm just not that keen on hosting all my pics externally ..

Just need a bit of time on a windows-based system or find something that works on my Android tablet

gazza82 wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 15, 2021 5:13 pm

After the photobucket fiasco I'm just not that keen on hosting all my pics externally ..

Just need a bit of time on a windows-based system or find something that works on my Android tablet

What's happened with photo bucket? Id like to find another free service but i always get confused with it all.. even i could manage photo bugger with a lot of help from Terry... come back sòon mate...