Project MG Midget

This issue, we assess the condition of our new project and start to plan a schedule of work for what could be a major restoration.

Having driven our new Midget project home from Gloucestershire to Lincolnshire, we knew that it was running well. However, we also knew that it had quite a few underlying issues that would need sorting. Our next job was to try and draw up a provisional list of jobs to be done.

Last issue, we learnt about this Midget’s history in the hands of David Irving, who had bought it in 1975 when the MG was just five years old and had 14,777 miles on the clock. He finally decided in the summer of 2019 that it was time to move on, and advertised the Midget for sale. I saw it in Safety Fast!, the magazine of the MG Car Club, and gave him a call.

David and I had a long chat about the car, and I was interested enough to pop down to Stroud for a look. Before travelling, Dave told me: ‘I checked the MoT – the last one was 10th March 2017 and she’s done 130 miles since then. She passed without any work, but they gave warnings about the fuel pipes being in poor condition. I took her out a couple of days ago and did about 20 miles. She was a little smoky at first, but appeared fine by the end. It was a good reminder of how much fun she can be.’

When I arrived, the Midget looked better than I had expected, though obviously at an advertised price of just £2750 it was far from perfect. Perhaps the biggest concerns were the previous repairs to the sills – it was not at all clear how far back the restorers had gone when doing this work, and so how many layers of steel or how much filler there was in the sills, arches and A-posts. Certainly there was a worrying amount of what looked like glassfibre in both front inner wheelarches where they closed off the sill panels.

At my initial inspection I was thinking that maybe we would get away with some relatively localised repairs and tidying up, but that was certainly not something I was going to count on. However, there were no holes or obvious structural issues that the previous MoT inspection had missed, and from 10 yards away (well, maybe 15!) the Midget actually looked pretty sharp. Unfortunately, when you got up closer you could add some poor panel gaps around

the bonnet, doors and bootlid to the mix.

Upon opening the bonnet, my enthusiasm did dip a little though. On the bright side, what had looked in the pictures like extensive surface rust on the inner wings and bulkhead was in fact largely just the remains of the original orange paint. Another plus was the 123 distributor that Dave had fitted, as detailed last issue. However, the slam panel had clearly taken a knock in the past and been beaten rather unwillingly back into shape. As a result, the front wings had been tack welded to it rather than bolted, and nothing lined up perfectly. Again though, it was not terrible – I personally could have lived with things as they were for a while, even if I pretty much knew that as a project car we would end up investing some time and money into this area.

The interior was all present and correct, with a decent enough vinyl roof. Dave had taken off the seat covers which had been fitted in the original advert’s photos, after a friend had pointed out that any prospective buyer would assume they were hiding problems. I must admit that thought had occurred to me, but the original seats were OK – the covers had been put on them because the vinyl could be too hot in summer and too cold in winter.

At some point in the past Dave had fitted three extra gauges below the dash, along with a stereo. One of those gauges was a temperature gauge, because this had been cheaper than buying a replacement for the combined oil pressure/ water temperature gauge as fitted by MG.

Such are the decisions you make when you are an impoverished student!

Having inspected the Midget as carefully as I could, including those suspect fuel lines (it turned out that the steel braiding was frayed, but the rubber hoses underneath looked fine,) Dave took me out for a spin.

The Midget no longer needs an MoT of course, although that will be on my list of jobs to do. The run went really well, with a good turn of pace from the 1275cc engine, no crunches from the gearbox and a surprisingly crash-free ride. I was letting Dave drive because I did not yet have any insurance. He could, of course, have used his knowledge of the car drive it in such a way that certain serious problems remained hidden, but I trusted him to be better than that – we’d hit it off well, and he was not only a genuine enthusiast but also a club member. None of that meant I could count on him being a saint, but I was confident enough to make an offer of £2500. We quickly split the difference and shook hands on £2625.

My next task was to get the car home. Dave kindly agreed to carry out an oil change and replace a cracked fan belt, then a week later I cadged a lift back to Cheltenham and caught the train to Stroud. I had taken out insurance, and my ambitious plan was to drive it 153 miles at night home to Lincolnshire – further than it had been driven in the previous three years! The odds did seem stacked against me with torrential rain forecast and the M6 motorway closed for the night, but in the end it was an enjoyable drive and I rolled onto the driveway at home around 2am.

That journey did give me plenty of time to start compiling a list of things that needed to be done, but the good news is that apart from the bodywork, I did not identify anything too drastic. This is not to say that a lot of little jobs don’t add up to one big bill, but at least in this case I can pick and choose to some degree. Not everything is optional of course, and so I made out a list and divided it into sections – those jobs that would have to be done

prior to getting an MoT, those that I wanted to do before driving it regularly, and those that would be nice if time and funds allowed. The revealing thing about these lists is how few items there are on the pre- MoT list, though it is also telling that this still leaves a long list of items I want to do before driving it. I fully expect some of these items to migrate from one list to another as the project develops and for new items to be added, but to start with the work sheet looked like this.

1. Required for the MoT

Fix the offside front sidelight – it is not working and the rubber seal has glued the light unit to the wing.

Grease and service the suspension and steering, which felt a little stiff.

Service the brakes, which felt a little spongy at times.

2. Fix before driving

Investigate why the headlights get brighter as engine revs rise. Stabilise the idle speed.

Replace the indicator stalk, which has lost its end.

Find and fit an original steering wheel, as this one obscures the dials.

Fit LED bulbs to the instruments so they can be read at night.

Fit new tyres as while those on the car look fine, they are time- expired.

Dig around in the sills and wheelarches to see what lies underneath the filler.

Replace all coolant hoses as the heater hoses are cracked.

Replace fuel lines with new ethanol-resistant pipes.

Investigate a weep from the radiator. Sort out the heater tap and its cable.

Would be nice to do

Fit hazard warning lights ( just in case!). Investigate a rattle from the gear stick. Fix broken quarterlight bracket on driver’s door.

Refinish the Rostyle wheels. Rebuild the seats, as the driver’s back rest is far from comfortable.

Get a second set of keys for emergencies.

Fit a new boot handle as this one can be pulled out of the bootlid.

Investigate broken bolt on driver’s door handle allowing it to flex.

Improve fit of front panels, including getting the safety catch to latch automatically rather than requiring assistance to position it manually.

Paint engine bay.

See if fit of rear lights can be improved. Straighten or replace bent NSR bumper. Straighten front number plate.

Fit audible warning for the indicators. Replace driver’s door seal, which is badly split in places.

Fit correct oil/ water gauge and remove additional gauges as they make the cabin feel more cramped.

Now, I do realise that this is a pretty long list, but it helps to have everything written down even if I end up deciding not to do all of the jobs. However, of them all, it is the bodywork investigation that has the potential to be the most arduous and expensive. There is little point in fitting shiny new handles or fresh tyres to a rotten body, so I have decided to bite the bullet and tackle the metalwork first.

Dave later dug out some of his records and told me: ‘ The last repair to the sills must have been 2001-2002. The remit to the welder was to remove the debris of what should have been an original and an over-welded sill, and replace them with new ones properly. I visited in the middle, and seem to recall there was nothing attached to the edges of the floorpans; I suspect some fill-in work between the edge of the floorpan and the new sills was needed. After fitting, there was some filler work needed at the bottom of the posts.

‘Previous to that it would have had sill overplating – I guess that must have been around the same time as the replacement gearbox was fitted, so in 1980 give or take a year. The remit then (because I was an impoverished student) was ‘make it pass the MoT, and keep it cheap.’ It was still orange at that point, and I think the repaint was about a year later.’

Next issue we will start by taking a sander to those worrying areas on the sills and wheelarches. Do wish me luck, as I suspect I might need it!

The nearside front corner has clearly suffered from impact damage in the past – the slam panel is misshapen, and the bonnet catch does not latch without some manual help.

The engine itself pulls well with good oil pressure. Note that it is MGC green, a colour used by MG on the Midget engine for a very short while at the end of the 1960s and start of the 1970s. Previously they were BMC green, and after the round wheelarch cars arrived in 1972 they were black.

ABOVE: When the car was resprayed from Blaze Orange to a Renault red, the engine bay was not stripped and sprayed at the same time. As a result, lifting the bonnet really lets the car down.

RIGHT: However, like virtually all working classics, the area under the brake and clutch master cylinders is devoid of paint and will need some attention. The master cylinder will need checking over too.

The sides of the bonnet do not sit level with the wing lines. Part of that may be down to ‘that’s how they all were, sir!’ but previous damage and repairs will have played a part.

Also at the back, the Midget has quarter bumpers rather than a full width affair and the nearside one is bent, but replacing this one piece only with new chrome would look wrong.

ABOVE: Loose-fitting seat covers came with the car, but were soon discarded. The original seats were not the most comfortable though, and will probably need rebuilding with new foam. LEFT: The Midget still wears its original Rostyle wheels, the early kind. These needed refurbishing and a new set of tyres, but the refurbishment was actually featured last issue, such is the magic of publishing!

LEFT: A curious issue at the back is that the rear light covers do not seem to fit their lamp bodies properly, leaving a gap through which water can get in. This will need investigating.

Bodily, the most worrying aspect (worrying because it is also potentially the most expensive to fix!) is how the font ends of the sills have been blended into the wheelarches with fibreglass. Not very nice at all.

A minor problem is the bent front number plate, apparently caused by being snagged on Dave’s trouser legs as he moved around the car in his garage.

The non-standard steering wheel obscures the main dials, and the extra dials and stereo below the dash make the cabin feel more cramped than it needs to. Both will probably be swapped.

The rear ends of the sills also display evidence of previous repairs that may not have been done perfectly. It might pass an MoT, but only because the tester can’t see what is underneath.

The panel problems continue with the variable gaps around the doors. This might be down to cover sills being fitted, but it could also indicate a bodyshell that is out of shape.

Also on the relatively minor list is the fact that the indicator stalk is missing its end. We did find this in the car later, so will have to decide whether it should be repaired or replaced.

After the worrying questions to be answered about the Midget’s structure, it is a relief to move onto more trivial issues such as this broken hinge on the driver’s door quarterlight.

At least the hood looks to be in reasonable shape. It may not be perfect, but certainly adequate given that the hope is it will spend most of the time folded away.

There is still a lot of fettling to be done though, as these cracked heater hoses show that a number of items are time-expired. The list of mechanical issues will no doubt grow!

The fuel lines are past their best and will be replaced, but overall the engine and gearbox drive well. Hopefully we will be able to save some money on the mechanical side.