My recent purchase

[Bone]

Okay, after 3 MINIs and 2 Miatas I've dived into the MG Midget world. I recently (2 weeks ago) drove down to Daytona and bought a 1976 Midget for $1500. I was able to drive it the 100 miles home with no major issues. The previous owner did a lot of work to the motor/mechanical side and didn't want to spend any more time with it (he has a Pembleton car he's currently working on). The only issues were a few oil leaks and if I got to 50mph or over it had a wicked shimmy. She's up on jack stands at home now and the seats are out, carpet is pulled and I'm getting ready to pull the dash. His son had chopped up the wiring harnes for an aftermarket stereo and then yanked it when it was put up for sale. I've got a new harness coming in the mail so I'll get that back to proper.

 

[Trevor Jessie]

Welcome.

Nice looking little car there. Midgets have a pretty quirky front suspension design. Let us know what you find and we can advise.

 

[Jer]

Hey Congrats !

Welcome to the Spridget world also, looks like a nice driver !
I'm sure you will enjoy.
So far I have had one high speed "shimmy" on my Midget, had the wheels balanced & that was cleared up, I notice you have spoke wheels, I'm not sure how wheel balance is handles with spoke wheels...

 

[bgbassplyr]

check for loose/broken spokes, worn splines on the wheels. Worn suspension bushings, ball joints. Alighnment. Any of these can cause shimmy.

Good looking car. Any rust issues? If none or minimal, I think you nearly stole it.

 

[Bone]

The driver side floor pan has been replaced at some point but other than a little surface rust in the passenger floor it's good. The little guy starts right up and runs strong.

I'm thinking the last alingment was botched as I took off one wheel and noticed two large weights added to it.

 

[v8mgbal]

Hello and welcome to the BCF. also make sure the wheel nuts are tight and not on the wrong way.

 

[bgbassplyr]

Bone,
Where in FL are you?
I did some of my growing up in Coral Gables and Jacksonville Beach.

 

[Bone]

I'm in Jax. Currently on the northside out by the airport but I did live in Neptune Beach for 4 years and basically every where else in this town (orange park, cedar hills, arlington, Ft. Caroline, Bay Meadows and now Ocean Way).

and on the hub nuts, yea on the wheel I removed I had to tighten it down to specs and getting that fricking cotter pin out was a P.I.T.A.

 

[bgbassplyr]

Bone,

I actually lived in Neptune Beach, a block south of South St, on the ocean. That was when there was still a sea wall from Atlantic Beach to the south end of Jax Beach. House sat about 40' back from the sea wall.

No better place, IMO, to come of age. Many adventures.

After they built the carrier basin in Mayport, I saw four, count 'em, 4 aircraft carriers on the horizon at one time (about '53 I think).

Jim

 

[Bone]

Jim, you probably wouldn't recognize the beach now a days. I'm in my 40's but I've lived in jax my whole life and watched it grow from a samll town to a big city, some good some bad with that. But the beach is still a great place to hang out and grow up in. My wife and I would still be out there if we could afford it but prices just went crazy about five to seven years ago (when we were looking).

On the carrier front, My wife and I are both navy brats and my dad did his 20+ all on carriers so I'm pretty familiar with them.

 

[DrEntropy]

:lol:

I'll be in JAX in a few weeks for a Navy wedding. Been 20+ years since I've been "up there". I'll be lost, certes.