Spridget Tech Talk (MG Midget & Austin-Healey Sprite)
...so this car popped up on CL just a little while ago. The guy is offering to part out the car and I guess will take offers. Anyway, since I'm so new to this, I don't really know how much a lot of this stuff is worth. If you were me, how much would you offer him for the roof (judging by the picture). I can't really say anything more than what the picture says...
$100 in nearly perfect and pliable condition with clear windows to NIL for a stiff old one with foggy windows.
If it seems to be OK, buy it with the frame and header rail attached so you just have to screw it to your pivot points (MUCH easier).
Mind the year too since later tops will not fit earlier cars and vice-versa (small body alteration).
Heck, how much is the whole car? He may just have an exhaust manifold for someone on the board!
that car looks too good to part out :spinning:......................................'course looks can be deceiving.:hot:
What the other guys say on the top tho', except the frame will be an "erector set" rather than the folding one with the pivots Michael mentions.
Thanks for the help, guys. I'm not sure about the seller... at first, he only seemed to want to sell the body panels and the windshield. He didn't want to part with the roof. ...? Anyway, I just got an email from him a few minutes ago letting me know that he'd be willing to part with the top + frame for $50. Doesn't seem too bad to me...
Anyway, the car that he's parting out is a '64. My car is a '66. The top would fit, wouldn't it?
It's a shame, really... if I had the extra cash and oh, maybe the space for the car, I'd offer to buy the whole thing as a parts car...
If he's got a 1098 its a Mark II and should have side screens nor roll ups and the door looks like it has possibly been swapped, yours I recall is a Mark III with a 1275 and roll up windows. I don't think the tops are interchangeable between the two...That is a pretty rare and desireable car IMHO and doens't look that bad...FWIW.
Okay. I'm not sure if mine is a Mk II or a Mk III, but I've got a 1098.
Roll up windows or side screens? That is the determining factor.
Vehicle ID HAN 7 = MkI 1098
HAN 8=Mk II 1098
HAN 9=MkIII 1275
Okay, thanks. Mine has roll-up windows. Mine is also a form of a ninja, I think... it has no ID. I've been told its a '66, though, and it has the 1098, so I'm going with Mk II.
-Diet
Seth
All 1275's came with the fold down top and roll up windows, the fold down top being just one of the many other "improvements" Spridgets got at that time.
Early early cars had the 948 or small bearing 1098 and side curtains. Later 1098 cars had the larger bearing engine and roll up windows with the new style windshield and vent windows, doors etc. Like the first 1275 cars that followed, this car also netted a number of other significant improvements over earlier cars. 1098's with roll up windows occupied the '64-'66 period.
So your car can have roll up windows and a 1098 no matter whether it's a '64 or a '66, it just shouldn't have a fold down top and a 1098, all of them have been 1275's until the rubber bumper came with the 1500.
Basically, there have been 4 different style tops for Sprites, and 3 for Midgets through their history. Obviously the Bugeye is the reason for the extra Sprite top.
Sorry if all this seems a bit repetitive, but many of us have either used MG or Sprite vin #'s to distinguish the different Mk's, but to the uninitiated it can get a bit confusing. Robert is bang on with the Sprite numbers and descriptions, but to someone looking at Midget's the numbers are different, so perhaps this helps, at least as regards top's.
