Sunday 23 June 2019

Pressing on

As the weeks continue to fly by I am doing all I can to maintain work on the MG Midget. The list of jobs to do on the chassis is coming down and I think I am nearly at the point where I can potentially list them here! I am still just trying to get as much done as possible.

There are still a number of little jobs that seem to take as long as the big jobs.

For example, this little hole has been staring at me for months!



I have been putting it off partly because there was bigger and more important sections to complete but also it is in a really tricky location, right down in the engine bay before the transmission tunnel.

Thankfully I am still a little flexible, so got on with it, but it was not easy to get the welder torch in there and with the welding helmet and a light source!



Tuesday 28 May 2019

Making progress on the floor

Recently I have been pushing on trying to complete the whole underside of the MG Midget. This has included finishing welding in the left hand floor panel which has been going well. One of the jobs was to reattached the transmission tunnel reinforcement plate.




It is certainly looking more complete now!



Next up is finishing the triangular support in the engine bay, and then the plate underneath the front chassis frame which is all bashed in from some accident years ago.



Depending on its condition on the inside I'd like to straighten this out and weld it back in. But who knows what lurks behind! I am also thinking of removing the underside of the chassis legs to see how bad they are, especially as they were quite bad when I removed the old floor panel. It will also allow me to see how far the damage to the front of the chassis legs which do need to be replaced.


Saturday 27 April 2019

Passenger Footwell Update

It has been a few months since my last post. Life again has rolled its dice. A new job and a big push to finish the house has limited my time in the garage working on my MG Midget.

There was the odd time I managed to grab an hour here and there to try and keep the progress going.

Here's an overview of progress so far:

Footwell Side Panel:



After cutting out the old panel the new one fitting perfectly.

Inner Sill:



The inner sill also welded in very nicely. There was some small adjustments at each end but all in all a very smooth fit.

Test fitting the out sill:



I wanted to make sure the outer sill aligned correctly and thankfully it did. I checked with the end caps and like the off side of the chassis they fitted well. Looking forward to getting this panel in place.

Offside Floor:


Think this looks so good compared to the last time I took this photo


After nearly an hour of test fitting I was ready to start welding in the passenger floor panel today. It will take me a good few sessions to complete this large section, but again the alignment is looking good.

On a sad note my grinder packed in today, oh well, over six years of hard work took it's toll. Kind of excited to get a new one though!

Offside Triangular support:


Originally I thought this side wasn't too bad compares to the other side. I was wrong! Again!

Sunday 10 February 2019

Passenger Footwell

Been soldiering on with cleaning up the passenger foot well in the MG Midget. Overall the metal is in quite good condition when compared to the drivers side. With a couple of small rust holes that are easily dealt with by the usual process of cutting out the rust and welding in a small piece of metal.

The point at which the inner sill makes contact with the end panel though did need to be sorted out though.



Once the new section was welded back in it allowed me to check the alignment of the inner sill, which thankfully looked good to me.



Also good to check the alignment of the floor panel as well



Next job will be to sort out the foot well side panel and the A-post that looks in as bad a state as the drivers side!



Monday 4 February 2019

Cross Member Completed

After a few recent cold days that brought some snow it has been a balmy 6 degrees in the garage so I was able to finish off welding in the cross member. It is so important to take loads of measurement beforehand to tackle this properly, but it also handy to have a good eye for a straight line as well.

Before that thought I need to make good some of the flanges on the box sections. This was were the rust had penetrated a little too deep into the metal.




It didn't take too long to cut out the old and weld in the new. Certainly looking much better than when I first uncovered this box section.



It took a while to make sure all was straight. After a short time it was in!



Ready to move on to the next area, the end of the foot well.






Tuesday 15 January 2019

Cross Member Repair

With the rear bulkhead now finished (YES!!) I have started on the cross member. I needed to remove the rest of the floor which was very satisfying.



But on closer inspection it wasn't looking all that good...



Once the loose rust was brushed away I set about with the flap disk and wire wheels to clean up that rusty metal which mostly turned out ok in the end.


So I applied my first coat of rust converter which I will then remove and reapply a second coat once I have made sure there is no more rust hiding under the surface metal.


Should be able to get the cross member in soon.

Monday 7 January 2019

Rear Bulkhead nearly finished

Over the festive holidays it did turn quite cold but I have been determined to keep pressing on with the car. 

At times I considered my madness working in temperatures hovering just above freezing, but usually with hard work comes reward. I have managed to get the rear bulkhead welding on to the MG Midget. This restoration has its high moments and this is definitely one of them. There are just so many panels that come together at this point and I also needed to make sure the spring will fit properly at the same time.

Nearly ready to move on to the cross member!





Then I had to check the springs fitted ok with the floor panel in place which is a testing moment I remember from last time.

Thankfully I needn't have worried.