Our Midge!! (1979 Midget)..
Posted: Sun Oct 02, 2011 3:10 pm
Hi all
Here's our Midge, I 'won' her on fleabay for £450..
The car was local to me so I arranged to view it first, all the floors, boot and underbonnet were rock solid but most of the panels had tinworm at the bottoms..
Our Midge..
I started the welding but was stopped by the onset of winter (there's no room in the garage to work so it's on the drive for repairs
)
The following spring (last year), I was eager to get stuck in but an accident at work saw me in a bit of a state for about eight months- back to work for month or so, then another accident saw me incapaicitated for another month (hot steel tube through my boot and well in to my foot
Hopefully, no more accidents now though the first accident (a fall from height) has left me strugglinmg to kneel down so cushions will be the order of the day
Anyhow, I still have 22 days holiday left this year so I may get some work carried out before the weather starts to deteriorate
A few pics...
The n/s rear wing was shot so I bought a replacement and the panel that goes just inside (can't remember the name!)..
Both sills are in excellent order luckily..
I tried taking the roof down without reading the handbook and in sub-zero temps, result was no windows left
, the ragtop needed replacing anyhow as it had shrunk!!, I have a hardtop sitting on it at the moment!!!
No windows
Leading edge of the o/s inner wing was bad so I chopped it back to good steel and welded a plate in..
The 'orrible lumps of rubber aren't going back on so the big holes for the indicators are being welded over along with a few patches applied!!
It looks like there's a dent in this pic but there isn't in reality..
The leading edge of the bonnet is riddled with rot so I managed to buy a load of spares, there was a bonnet included, it too had some rot but not as much as the original so I set about cutting back to thicker steel and patched it again!!, i've not done too good of a job filling and undercoating it as my brother is going to paint it for me when the welding is all finished..
HOLEY BONNET BATMAN
Patched and fettled..
A bit of filler applied..
And a bit of primer laid on, it was aerosol so pretty thin and still wet in the pic..
The hardtop that came with the car, it's in need of a paint and new window rubbers, the windows are acrylic sheet and are opaque but can be brought back to their original condition with T-Cut or Brasso or any other metal polish..
I've just been and stuck a gallon of petrol in her and she took an age to start, I checked for a spark- that was fine so I removed the fuel feed to the front SU and turned her over- there was petrol there so what could be wrong??
It just turned out to be that the patrol took a long time to get dragged through the system
After the car had warmed enough to take the choke fully off, i dipped the clutck, went for first... it was totally solid
A few minutes later when there was some heat in the clutch, I pumped the pedal a few times and tried again- it engaged with a bit of a clunk!!, it's totally fine now so I went forwards a little, the brakes weren't siezed so all was fine- I must rem,ember to start the car more often than once a year though
More to come as I do stuff to 'Our Midge'
Cheers, John
Here's our Midge, I 'won' her on fleabay for £450..
The car was local to me so I arranged to view it first, all the floors, boot and underbonnet were rock solid but most of the panels had tinworm at the bottoms..
Our Midge..
I started the welding but was stopped by the onset of winter (there's no room in the garage to work so it's on the drive for repairs
)The following spring (last year), I was eager to get stuck in but an accident at work saw me in a bit of a state for about eight months- back to work for month or so, then another accident saw me incapaicitated for another month (hot steel tube through my boot and well in to my foot
Hopefully, no more accidents now though the first accident (a fall from height) has left me strugglinmg to kneel down so cushions will be the order of the day
Anyhow, I still have 22 days holiday left this year so I may get some work carried out before the weather starts to deteriorate
A few pics...
The n/s rear wing was shot so I bought a replacement and the panel that goes just inside (can't remember the name!)..
Both sills are in excellent order luckily..
I tried taking the roof down without reading the handbook and in sub-zero temps, result was no windows left
, the ragtop needed replacing anyhow as it had shrunk!!, I have a hardtop sitting on it at the moment!!!No windows
Leading edge of the o/s inner wing was bad so I chopped it back to good steel and welded a plate in..
The 'orrible lumps of rubber aren't going back on so the big holes for the indicators are being welded over along with a few patches applied!!
It looks like there's a dent in this pic but there isn't in reality..
The leading edge of the bonnet is riddled with rot so I managed to buy a load of spares, there was a bonnet included, it too had some rot but not as much as the original so I set about cutting back to thicker steel and patched it again!!, i've not done too good of a job filling and undercoating it as my brother is going to paint it for me when the welding is all finished..
HOLEY BONNET BATMAN
Patched and fettled..
A bit of filler applied..
And a bit of primer laid on, it was aerosol so pretty thin and still wet in the pic..
The hardtop that came with the car, it's in need of a paint and new window rubbers, the windows are acrylic sheet and are opaque but can be brought back to their original condition with T-Cut or Brasso or any other metal polish..
I've just been and stuck a gallon of petrol in her and she took an age to start, I checked for a spark- that was fine so I removed the fuel feed to the front SU and turned her over- there was petrol there so what could be wrong??
It just turned out to be that the patrol took a long time to get dragged through the system
After the car had warmed enough to take the choke fully off, i dipped the clutck, went for first... it was totally solid
A few minutes later when there was some heat in the clutch, I pumped the pedal a few times and tried again- it engaged with a bit of a clunk!!, it's totally fine now so I went forwards a little, the brakes weren't siezed so all was fine- I must rem,ember to start the car more often than once a year though
More to come as I do stuff to 'Our Midge'
Cheers, John
