My project fleabay Midget!!

[Powder Keg]

My sister used to have a Triumph Spitfire that had all 3 tops. It was a fun little car. Emphasis on little

[PeeWee]

Looking very good, brings back memories of my restoration of a Triumph GT6 Mk3.  like everyone says, small but huge on the fun side.

[madjackghengis]

Hi Andy, it's a bit interesting seeing the wheel on the other side, but from the looks of the metal work you should have it fixed up and ready to go for that get together.  As far as the unleaded and engine issue, I wouldn't worry about it at all.  I have been doing engine work for forty years now, and it was a big to do over the unleaded valve seats and doing a complete job before your Harley engine blew up, but after a little bit of experience, I found valve seats and valves last about half as long as they would with leaded gas, and once they've gone bad enough to not clean up and still have proper seat height and stem clearance, new seats put in, and new valves and guides puts them right back in order, quickly and fairly inexpensively.  I pay about seven or eight dollars a seat from the manufacturer, here in the colonies, not from Harley, but a company that exclusively makes seats, and a pair of valves is about fifty bucks, but that's because they're made for Harleys, and everyone knows Harley riders have cash falling out of their pockets.  If you've got adjustable lifters, you will know when the seats need replacing, as the stems will have gotten rather tall, taking the head from a spare engine and having it ready is a good idea, lets you do the job when you have the time and the money, not when the engine demands it.  I think the standard British sheet metal is a bit thinner than American, at least it always seemed so when I was welding it.  I know that Triumph, Norton and BSA had some rough times a couple of decades ago and their quality control got to resemble Harley's for a while, so rust was pretty common.  Taking off the hunking blocks of rubber was the biggest fix as far as looks, and having the choice of transmissions sounds like a real good change from my own experience.  I hope you enjoy your midget as much as I enjoyed mine.  I still miss it occasionally.  So far you've done a nice job on getting the metal back where it belongs, it's going to look good when you've got her back inspected and all that rot, and are driving it.  I'm enjoying the pictures of the rebuild. mad jack

[andyf]

Hi Andy, ....

Jack, I think that should be "Hi John". My only contribution to this thread and the Midget is the old steering wheel which will be on its way to John on the next day or two.

Cheers,
Andy

[NickG]

Just found this John but glad I did!

My first car was a 1977 midget 1500 - it was almost half the price (believe it or not) to insure that when I was 17 than the other offer on the table which was my grandads 1.0 litre skoda! I actually ended up driving the skoda too for a short while but that's another story!

I am now thinking of getting another classic. I was thinking of changing my car for something like a porsche boxter, so a modern, quick roadster but the insurance is still so high it made me think, why not work out some costs to run a classic as well as an every day car. There are many advantages, insurance is under £200 a year with a small excess rather than around £8-900 with a £4-500 excess! If I get the right year it will be tax exempt, parts will be cheaper and I can do any work myself! I also get to keep a normal every day car.

It's nice to know that there are a lot of like minded people - David, nice looking MGB GT - I really fancy a C GT. I have grown to love fast cars and think the extra poke of the C would give me enough excitement despite their faults! Peewee .. I also love GT6's, TR6's or maybe even a BGT V8 at a push. It's a different kind of enjoyment driving the older classics though, am quite excited at the prospect of looking for one soon!

Great work on the Midget John, am sure I'll learn a lot by following this thread. I always wanted to remove the rubber bumpers from my midget too. I often cursed the 1500 engine too but with hindsight, it was smoother than the A-Series and I didn't realise the benefits of an 8 port head at the time but dare say it must be at least as, if not more tuneable than the a-series too?

Nick

[andyf]

Nick, I still yearn for a Lotus (or more likely these days, Caterham) Seven. They can be surprisingly cheap to insure as a second car, if you have a clean insurance record and are willing to restrict yourself to a low yearly mileage.  I suppose the mileage wouldn't be a problem with one as a second "fun" car used only on nice summer days. What would be a problem is clambering in and out, given my advancing years, and perhaps a certain snugness once seated, given my similarly advancing girth
 

Then again, maybe an Ariel Atom http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariel_Atom , though I doubt if I'm streamlined enough to achieve the advertised  0-60 in 2.7 secs.

 
Andy

[HS93]

Looking very good, brings back memories of my restoration of a Triumph GT6 Mk3.  like everyone says, small but huge on the fun side.

I did some work with someone on a GT6, the owner had taken the engine out but got stuck so we hadto tow it to where we worked on cars to sort the engine was in the back in bits , I got the job of being towed, as you will prob rember the vision out the front is not that great if you are short, but with the engine in the boot it was a fun 20 mile tow.

the only other car with worse vision was the Marcos even with the engine in  

I am helping out with the wiring on a westfield with a Toyota 16v twincam, why can they not just have points. instead of a box with 40 + wires

     peter  

[NickG]

Andy,

I priced up a Caterham 7 Kit and even the most basic one with optional extras of a windscreen, 'wet weather gear' and a heater came to around £14500 which is unfortunately out of my price range at this time! Obviously you can get older ones cheaper but with one of those a lot of the fun would be in the building too!

I always used to want a Lotus Elise until a colleague at work got one, for some reason if I'm going to buy a novel type car I can't bring myself to get something anyone I know already has! Therefore a Vauxhall VX220 is still on my list - essentially the same car but looks a bit different. The issue with that is, could I live with it every day for 50 miles a day? As with the Boxster, that would have to be an every day car.

I'd love an Atom but they're still around the £30k mark so it'll probably be always out of reach for me!

why can they not just have points. instead of a box with 40 + wires

     peter  

My wife's Citroen C5 is full of technology (or stuff to go wrong) - on Monday I got a warning on the dashboard "Engine Anti Pollution System Fault" and it's restricted me to about 10% power! It's going in on Friday to hopefully find out what's wrong and sort it out, £65+VAT just to connect to diagnostic computer then I'm sure it'll tell me whatever is wrong is not covered by the warranty! This is making me want to buy a classic even more, I can deal with a  coil, distributer, points, plugs and carbs!

Anyway, sorry for going  

Great work on the hard top windows John, I think that is the style of hard top I had too - the only thing wrong with it was some sort of flock on the inside that was peeling off - didn't really know what to replace it with. Are you going to spray it body coloured?

Nick

[Bernd]

Nick,

Fixed the slight boo boo with the quote from Peter.

Bernd

[NickG]

Thanks Bernd, I've never been able to do that properly!

[johnbaz]

Great work on the hard top windows John, I think that is the style of hard top I had too - the only thing wrong with it was some sort of flock on the inside that was peeling off - didn't really know what to replace it with. Are you going to spray it body coloured?

Nick

Hi Nick

The head lining has been stripped away from the hardtop before i acquired it, it's a case of buying some 1/2" foam, some cotton material and a can of spray glue (i hope )

I think i'll have it painted gloss black though that's up to my brother, he has a better idea of what goes together colourwise, he may even put some murals on the thing (he did that on my old Mk1 escort that i had years ago!!, from memory it was Jim Steinnman and was taken from a 7" record sleeve!!


John

[NickG]

Yeah that should do the trick John, just some careful cutting out etc. Looking good, I can't wait to see it progress!

I've got a load of cars saved in ebay, favourites etc. but not quite in the position to buy one yet!  I don't want another project though, I need something I can jump straight into and drive, just don't have time to do a lot too it but maintain it.

Nick

[HS93]

Nick,

Fixed the slight boo boo with the quote from Peter.

Bernd

If that was me thanks I am a bit shall we say (dont go near moving parts or drive ) at the moment ill get used to them  so sorry..

peter

[Brass_Machine]

Nick,

Fixed the slight boo boo with the quote from Peter.

Bernd

If that was me thanks I am a bit shall we say (dont go near moving parts or drive ) at the moment ill get used to them  so sorry..

peter

Wasn't you Peter 

Eric

[Bernd]

Nick, Peter,

Sorry to confuse you. It was just a small error that I fixed. Part of my high paying job here. 

Perhaps I should keep my mouth shut as to what I do. 

Bernd