New midget owner

Hello,

New to the site, New to the MG experience. I recently purchased a 1977 Mg Midget. It was a complete car not running but mostly rust free, $500 How’d I do. I do not plan on running any of the stock drive train. As a matter of fact I have already sold the engine and gear box. This will be a street car mainly for play. 22r engine with 5speed transmission and a ford 8” narrowed. I do understand that there is a v8 thread trust me I will spend plenty of time over there to. I am planning to maintain the stock suspension style, but upgrade the springs, sway bar, and shock levers. I’m even going to make the rear shock levers work on the 8”.

Now this is were I need you guys. I HATE THE RUBBER BUMPERS. What do I have to do to make this car look right? Also is the sheet metal at VB quality or junk? Are there prices fair? My wife calls me a tight a--. I prefer frugal. I will spend more for quality.

Question # 2
If you were to go through the front suspension and steering? What parts do I need to replace. I want this car safe and reliable. There are many parts on this suspension I am not familiar with.

Also you guys there is a lot of this car I am not using. Not running a top, No door glass,
Every piece I can replace with fiberglass will be replaced. Stock rear end for sale, wheels for sale, gas tank out of here, who needs heat there no top, building a custom dash, I really like some of them racing seats out there. You all keep that in mind if your looking for parts. Oh ya I need a straight driver side door. Maybe some trading for parts. Who knows.

I'm a pretty new owner as well ('73). I've ordered from VB and had good luck, but no body parts yet. A lot of folks have removed the rubber bumpers - I think that's a good call. There's a couple of doors on eBay at the moment for a '70, I don't know if they'll fit.

How are your seats? I need seats and the brackets.

Dump the bumpers and their mounts save a lot of weight that sits in the wrong place.

Look for a set of used front fenders and parking lights/turn signals from a chrome bumper car: 1962-1974...

Make sure you get a matched set.. the early (62-69) fenders have the parking lights set higher than the later ones do. Dont end up lopsided.

Any used Midget/Sprite doors with roll up windows should bolt right on (1965-1980). I have a few, but I might be too far away for the shipping to be cost effective. Ask the seller to gut the doors (all window glass, frame and mechanisms) to keep the shipping weight down.

Try ebay for poly suspension bushings, that is a good start.

Joe, welcome to the world of modified Midgets. Toyota engine should be good choice. You'll have to set it back a bit to clear the hood at the front, but that shouldn't be a problem, just try not to get so far back where you'd have to cut into the footwells. There's hardly enough room there already if you have large feet. Ford 8" is more than you need and somewhat heavy, have you considered any other axles? I used a Chevy 10bolt out of a Monza/Vega which also matches the stud pattern of the Midget so wheels would fit. Plenty of ratios available as well, although a bit harder to change than the Ford.
You're pretty close to John Mangles in St.Louis. http://www.themgdoc.com/
He usually has a bit of sheetmetal around for sale, might have what you want or at least know of someone in the area. Also several Midget owners near you as well, they'll post on this board as well as the MG Enthusiasts board.
I've no complaint with VB. All sheetmetal usually has some 'shipping damage' and will need some gentle work to make perfect, so don't think this is the suppliers fault. This stuff comes from GB and damage is almost part of the shipping process.
As far as suspension parts go, if you can wait a few months both Moss and VB usually have a winter sale around the first of the year when you can save a nice few pennies on things like bushings.
Several Midgets also featured in the British V8 newsletter, worth a look. http://www.britishv8.org/index.htm

VB is not bad, but from when I last checked things can get pricey, its worth the time in my opinion to spend a little more time searching for "used" stuff.

You'll find a lot of modifies Spridgets here, too.

http://www.ntahc.org/modifiedhealeys/

Hey Bill,

Your car was one of the cars that got me interested in modifying my car. I didn’t see much point in mess with this car unless you could get well over 100 ponies in it. Some questions I have for you are. How do the factory front brakes handle that V6 under the hood? Are there larger front disks available for the stock set up? Also does anybody know how much a stock 1500 weighs with the gear box? I neglected to weigh it before I sold it. As for as the rear end goes, I have thought about how heavy an 8” or 9” is. But it is also affordable. This car is being built just for fun. Tire roaster! I would love to find a lighter rear end that could handle the torque I am going to throw at it. I hope to see 160hp and a 170ftlb from the engine not to mention the blue bottle in the trunk. I have talked to the guys at spridet.com and they said the stock rear end would not handle that kind of hp nor the abuse I plan to through at it even if, I put the high dollar moss axles in it. The axle I would love to use is a Toyota 8” but I can’t find anyone who will narrow it for me. Did that Monza axle fit or did you have it narrowed? In a couple weeks

I have to head to Colorado for work I would like to look you when passing through if that ok. Maybe looking at your car might answer some of my questions.

Oh as far as an update on were the car is. 100% disassemble and get ready to go to the sand blaster. So much for rust free I can already tell a new drivers side floor board is in order oh well. That’s why I got a welder.

Hey Bill

Your car was one of the cars that got me interested in modifying my car. I didn’t see much point in mess with this car unless you could get well over 100 ponies in it. Some questions I have for you are. How do the factory front brakes handle that V6 under the hood? Are there larger front disks available for the stock set up? Also does anybody know how much a stock 1500 weighs with the gear box? I neglected to weigh it before I sold it. As for as the rear end goes, I have thought about how heavy an 8” or 9” is. But it is also affordable. This car is being built just for fun. Tire roaster! I would love to find a lighter rear end that could handle the torque I am going to throw at it. I hope to see 160hp and a 170ftlb from the engine not to mention the blue bottle in the trunk. I have talked to the guys at spridet.com and they said the stock rear end would not handle that kind of hp nor the abuse I plan to through at it even if, I put the high dollar moss axles in it. The axle I would love to use is a Toyota 8” but I can’t find anyone who will narrow it for me. Did that Monza axle fit or did you have it narrowed? In a couple weeks

I have to head to Colorado for work I would like to look you when passing through if that ok. Maybe looking at your car might answer some of my questions.

Oh as far as an update on were the car is. 100% disassemble and get ready to go to the sand blaster. So much for rust free I can already tell a new drivers side floor board is in order oh well. That’s why I got a welder.