Steering and Suspension Parts

Over the last few months I have been trying to work my way through all the parts that need to be restored in order for me to get the Midget back to a rolling chassis before it goes to the paint shop.

Not wanting to post for each part I thought I would just share a photo of the main parts that were restorable.

I am not going to pretend this was easy to work through all of these parts. Some of which I had to purchase second hand, like the rear springs. For most of the parts they have cleaned up really well. Others sadly were beyond repair like the rear springs front mounts and one of the front brake dust covers that had been cut by a prior owner. 

In addition to this I have been cleaning all the smaller components, like the nuts and bots. That was fairly soul destroying, but again with the rotary wire wheel brushes most have come up clean and perfectly sound.

Here's just some of the many trays of cleaned up parts. Unfortunately for me there are still many more to work on! Hopefully this work will reduce my shopping basket at my local MG parts supplier!

Brake Callipers

Thought I would share my process of restoring the front brake callipers.

Both callipers were in a bit of a state, so I was unsure of how they would come up.

Fairly sure they were both ceased.

Only one way to find out and that is to take it apart. First off remove and inspect the brake pipes. Both were cracked and need to be replaced.

Need to be careful with this oil, not very nice stuff.

With the callipers secured in the vice remove the two pins.

Then remove the spring clip

The brake pads and anti-squeal shim can now be removed. Both of mine need to be replaced.

Now on to the tricky bit. Removing the pistons. If like me your callipers are not attached to the car then you'll need some way of getting the pistons out with damaging them. If like mine they are ceased and stuck fast then what I did might also work for you.

Mine were stuck fast and on reading on the internet others had suggested using compressed air to force the pistons out. Fortunately I have a small compressor, but you could always ask your local garage. There is a small rubber washer shown in the top left of the photo above that needs to be replaced as well. This seals the joint between both halves of the calliper.

I reconnected the pipe and connected that to my air hose and then turned on the flow. Nothing happened. It took a lot of heat, penetrating fluid and some gentle tapping with a hammer to get them moving. But once they did they shifted very quickly. I used a larger screwdriver to stop them coming out completely as I could only get one moving at a time.

Once removed you can see how badly the corrosion had affected the rubber seals. Fortunately these are replaceable.

First off you need to remove the outer rubber seal

Then the inner rubber seal, which wasn't in bad condition. But may as well replace.

This left the metal housing for the outer seal. This requires just a gentle tap with a screwdriver around the top rim to ease it away the it come off.

Just the clean up left!

That'll do!

Next a degrease and a coat of primer and chassis black. As with all these main parts there are usually plenty of smaller parts that also need inspecting and cleaning or replacing.

Blasting Chassis

After just over seven and a half years the time has come to send the MG Midget off to the blasters. It has been one of the most exciting points that I have been looking forward to during this restoration. The chance to see the chassis all finished and in one colour. 

The reason for blasting now and not at the start is because once blasted the car is primed with epoxy paint to protect it, but this is only for a short while depending on the weather conditions. So while I was working on the rusty parts, the good metal was protected under the old paint. It is though now time to remove everything back to bare metal and start the process of preparing the chassis for a new coat of old English white paint.

First off a big thanks to James Shopland of The Shopland Collection who helped me with transportation.

A second thank you goes out to Joe Williamson and his Dad at Avon Blast Cleaning who did a fantastic job on the chassis as the photo's will show.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back home, safe and sound. I mean that because there really are hardly any holes to weld up. Just a handful of pin holes which I am over the moon about.

Next job on the list is to start seem sealing all the panel joins to protect from rust and then I'll be painting the underside with chassis paint.

Bits and Bobs

Having now completed all of the main chassis components (can't believe I am typing this!!) I wanted to make sure that I had all the miscellaneous parts that I wanted to send to the blasters along with the chassis. 

This includes all the hinges from the doors, boot and bonnet. The bumper mounts and supporting brackets and splash guard brackets.

Most of these are rusty but thankfully require no welding. I did feel though that there were a few parts that I could get into my rust removal electrolysis experiment.

Here's an example of just how well it works.

Looking very rusty and ready for a dip.

All wired up

After 12 hours in the tub

And after a good go with the rotary wire brush, starting to get the shine back.

And finally primed ready for another 55 years!

Bonnet Repairs

I have had this bonnet since I won a bid on eBay back in March 2013. That's 7 years ago!! These are one of the areas that are prone to rusting out. Mine was no exception.

It still looks the same so no real deterioration over those 7 years. 

But what I really wanted to check was how bad was the metal behind these holes. 

Time to start drilling out some spot welds.

Which revealed unsurprisingly...yes more rust!

Now I could see behind here I notice that the this slam panel had a lot of rust that needed sorting, so there was no alternative but to remove it.

This was actually much easier than I first imagined. There are only eight spot welds on the outer skin and fourteen holding the slam panel in place and without the lip which needed replacing the panel just slid out.

I'm glad I took this out because it has given me the chance to be sure the rust will be gone for years to come. First job was to wire brush the surface rust off using the drill attachment. Amazing how it comes up really.

There is some pitting on the surface of the metal, but for the majority of the bonnet it is in good condition. Not bad for a £16 eBay win. Time to stabilise the the area with rust converter.

Looking better already!

So now for the slam panel. I have been reading a lot about rust removal via electrolysis and so set up my own experiment.

Items required:

1. plastic bucket - I'm using a 40 litre one, but for some parts you might want a bigger one.

2. car battery charger - I'm using a 2amp 12v

3. copper wire - stripped from main cable

4. Soda crystals - 1/4 of a 1 kg bag

5. 4 x steel plates

6. length of steel wire

7. length of wood

8. a rusty object

So hopefully the photo is clear enough to show the set up. Things to note are not to get the copper wire in the water. Use the steel wire to hold the metal in the water and wrapped around the length of wood and then connect the negative lead on the charger.

I have 4 metal plates to surround the rusty metal. Just improves the process.

Make sure the soda crystals are well mixed in. I put them into the bucket before filling with water.

Only things to really be careful of is the build up of hydrogen and oxygen, so needs to be in a ventilated room to avoid potential explosion and not to use this method on any steel that is normally under stress, like a suspension spring for example. Apparently there is a process called hydrogen embrittlement that can weaken tensile steel.

I left the panel in for only 4 hours and it came up really well after a small amount of wire brushing and washing in clean water. But due to the size of my bucket I could only get just under half of the panel in at a time. 

This gave me the chance to see the difference between this process and a wire brush.

I hope you can see from this photo that the pits that have been in the bucket (on the right) and subject to electrolysis are completely clean of rust, whereas the pits with the wire brush (on the left) still have a small amount of rust in the bottom of the pit. This is why rust converter is so useful as it stabilises the metal surface and prevents from further rusting. 

Time to paint the panel in rust converter and start replacing some of the metal.

Final clean up and coat of primer. Panel is now ready to go back in. I also made a new lower lip of the outer skin. 

Time to start welding up the holes on the nose of the bonnet. Finished off the preparation of the nose and slid the slam panel back into place. Went in perfectly.

Next up was to weld that in place and tidy the edges and align the new lip. 

All looking good so far.

and after some grinding and welding and grinding and welding and grinding and welding...

It will need a little bit of filler to make it perfect, but overall I'm really happy, especially as there is no rust behind that slam panel any more.