• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.

    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Found a Midget - or it found me

Jack_Long

Jedi Hopeful
Country flag
Offline
Well, I added a Midget to my (now) MG collection. It's a 73, real nice and solid but not currently running after being parked 2 years ago and left under a pile of boxes.

It sort of found me; I wasn't really looking for another MG but a lady saw me washing my B in the driveway last Sunday, stopped and introduced herself, and asked me if I knew anyone who wanted to buy an MG. She didn't even know what model it was. I went and looked at it, checked it out as best I could without it running, and we agreed on a price. I dragged it home Sunday and now the fun begins. The car is real solid, with decent paint that will come back with some color sanding and buffing (As an experiment I wet-sanded the trunk lid last night with some 1500 grit, followed by 3M 3000 grit rubbing compound on a wool pad buffer and 3M Finesse II on a foam buffing pad and it came out great - smooth and shiny with all the orange peel gone). It needs a passenger side sun visor, the seams on the drivers' side seat bottom are separated, and there is about a 3 inch tear in the top that may or may not be repairable.

It has 4 almost-new Sears 155-80 x 13 radials, a brand new stainless exhaust, a decent half tonneau and a full tonneau in great shape. I rooted around in the seller's garage (it was her ex husband's car) and found a box with the original SUs, still on their manifold, with all linkage and the Cooper cans (it currently has a Weber DGV on it). They will probably need new bushings but seem OK otherwise. Does anyone here have experience with a DGV on a Midget? They seem to be polarizing to my MGB friends; some love 'em and some folks say that SUs are the only thing to run.

This is my first Midget although I did help a friend rebuild a wrecked '69 Sprite about half a lifetime ago. I'm looking forward to a new challenge.

If anyone here has a black passenger side visor and driver's seat bottom they'd like to sell, let me know!
 

Attachments

  • 4803-B_and_Midget_small.JPG
    4803-B_and_Midget_small.JPG
    92.4 KB · Views: 129
I've heard the Weber DGV does not work well with the A-series, but worked well on the 1500. But, I have no personal experience.

So...now that you found a real sports car, will you be selling your MGBarge?

/bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif
 
MG-Barge, I always thought that stood for MG-Beast /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif
And yes the Weber DGV does not work well on the 2 port intake of the A series engines. Same setup on a 4 port 1500 intake makes a world of difference. On the A series, it's just 2 steps down from the SUs but it never needs fussing with where the SUs need some TLC now and then.
Sun visors? I rip them out and throw those useless things away. I never knew anybody who wanted them.
Good luck with the new Midget. If you like your MGB, you're gonna love the Midget.
 
A pair of SUs and make it sing.
 
Jack_Long said:
If anyone here has a......driver's seat bottom they'd like to sell, let me know!
If the seat bottom you are referring to, is the webbing, let me know, I've got two sets of them laying around, no charge.
 
Thanks, Barry, but I have several membranes left over from my B. I am looking for the vinyl upholstery for the seat bottom - seams are split.
 
Right, I have a spare one but it is also split along the seam, it can be repaired I guess.
Keep us posted!
 
Trevor Jessie said:
So...now that you found a real sports car, will you be selling your MGBarge?

/bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif
No, my beer belly fits into the B a lot better!
 
Nice find. MGs do seem to have a way of finding us, and that's a good thing. One more will see the open road!
 
Nice Find!!
now you will understand why Midgets are Better than B's
Make the SU's work. Ebay the weber.


mark
 
I have a DGV on my 73 A-series that came with the car. The car did run poorly when I first got it buy after a ridiculous easy carb rebuild and a heated manifold from Rivergate it runs nice and smooth.
 
Back
Top