New Forum for the Spridget!

[tony barnhill]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr> The Midget itself sold until almost the very end of MG's existence, with the final models appearing remarkably like the first non-frogeyed Sprites. <hr></blockquote>
Really? I never realized a rubber bumper Midget looked like a frogeyed Sprite!! However, I agree there's no such thing as a 'Spridget' though we've all called them that since the frogeye went away...Now, that car I consider completely separate from 'Spridgets'!

[ 11-05-2003: Message edited by: tony barnhill ]</p>

 

[aerog]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by tony barnhill:

Really? I never realized a rubber bumper Midget looked like a frogeyed Sprite!! However, I agree there's no such thing as a 'Spridget' though we've all called them that since the frogeye went away...Now, that car I consider completely separate from 'Spridgets'!<hr></blockquote>

read it again Tony... I said non-frogeyed Sprites

 

[tony barnhill]

ooops, apology....yep, they did look a lot alike - the NON-frogeyes....did you know that even the frogeyes had the same basic 'chassis'/mechanical setup?

 

[aerog]

Yup - they didn't change all that much. The 'real' Spridget (scroll up and find the link to the picture) is kind of neat to see too. Clearly it's an MG (look at the back) with a Sprite front end.

Another goal for me is to have a late Midget eventually, probably will wait for when I come to my senses and move somewhere that doesn't require A/C most of the year.

 

[Gary Lazarus]

I'm really pleased to see this Spridget section it should go down well with the Spridget owners on my side of the pond (the Spridget homeland)

Gary L
1958 Frogeye (mostly)
London

 

[aerog]

Welcome to the forum Gary!

 

[spritenut]

Well we managed to tell Basil what a Spridget is, but nobody mentioned anything about "Spitfidgets".
Who wants to confuse him a little more?

Basil, a Spitfidget is a Spridget poiwered with a Triumph Spitfire engine. Wanna make a Spitfidget forum?

 

[spritenut]

A Spridget, not a Sprite, not a Midget.

 

[aeronca65t]

One of the neat parts of the Sprite Mk. 1 legacy to all Spridgets is the shape of the side sill at the front. This is the area under the front fender. As can be seen from the picture above, it curves up.
This shape was chosen so that the nose of the Mk. 1 (Bugeye/Frogeye) could be lifted without having the fenders fouling the sills (keep in mind that the first Sprites had their noses hinged from the back....many have been converted to flip forward, but this is non-original).
When the "box Sprite" was introduced (the Sprite Mk. II and Midget Mk.1), the front sill no longer needed this "sweep clearance" since the front fenders were bolted on.....but I guess they didn't see the need to change it and the curved-sill tooling was already in place at BMC. The "box-Sprites" inherited the Mk. 1 "sweep" probably to save manufacturing costs.....they could have just as easily been built with straight sills and straight-bottom fenders. Since they never changed this part of the car (or the overall width of the cowl) a 1958 Mk 1 (Bugeye) nose can be easily fitted to a 1979 rubber-bumper car. In fact, if you wanted to do it, a 1979 rubber-bumper nose could be fitted to a '58 Bugeye, with little difficulty.
Another example of this convienient mix-and-match is my own '78 Spridget with a '62 right-front fender, a '77 left-front fender and (as of this morning) a '67 left rear fender.

 

[tony barnhill]

aeronica....while I agree with you about the bottom rear of the fenders...the early & late fenders are different in other ways (parking light placement or rubber bumper bracket openings, side marker holes, etc)...wouldn't it just be easier to get an early fender fro an early car or a late fender for a late car? I know, I have lots of them hanging on a wall or still on cars....
...&, I'd never thought of converting a round wheel arch car to flip front - would be a neat project!

 

[aeronca65t]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by tony barnhill:
aeronica....while I agree with you about the bottom rear of the fenders...the early & late fenders are different in other ways (parking light placement or rubber bumper bracket openings, side marker holes, etc)...wouldn't it just be easier to get an early fender fro an early car or a late fender for a late car? I know, I have lots of them hanging on a wall or still on cars....
...&, I'd never thought of converting a round wheel arch car to flip front - would be a neat project!<hr></blockquote>

Tony:

My two front fenders are different, but it's no big deal to me (I hate to admit it, but these may not be the last two fenders I ever put on this car anyway)....to make them look sorta the same, I cut out the parking light hole on the older fender to match the newer one. Both holes now act as brake ducts (and I have parking lights in the grill as part of my lastest repair). I hid the side marker hole on the newer one with a stick-on decal. It might not win first place at a concourse event, but that's OK with me....it's more of a "working car" anyway.

On one of my previous box-Sprites, I bolted the hood and fenders together as a unit and made a one-piece, flip-forward nose (since my 1500 is sometimes used as a racer, I'd rather have the fenders bolt-on for a little added chassis stiffness).

 

[Basil]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by MGA Steve:


<snip> -a now-retired-to-Florida friend is an XK150 owner <snip><hr></blockquote>

You will, of course, bug him relentlessly until he joins the forum, right?

Basil

 

[MGA Steve]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Basil:
Now that I've created a forum for you guys, will someone be som kind as to explain exactly what defines a Spridget?<hr></blockquote>

Wow, Basil, you mean all Jag owners don't know everything there is to know about LBCs? Just kidding--a now-retired-to-Florida friend is an XK150 owner (he used my Hemmings' subscription to find it--too cheap to pay for his own subscription)!

Thanks for the new forum, it should be great fun.

Steve

 

[bugimike]

Now this is what I was looking for! A real spridget forum with real spridget people. Matching no.s? original configuration? If god (Lucas)had wanted that he wouldn't have let Donald Healey pen a design that stood up so well that basic changes in design mainly consisted of engine displacement, tranny & rear suspension, body, etc. Most of which were accomplished still allowing virtually full interchangability between all versions (actually, the toughest change, and one which I never understood the rational for, was switching from those lovely, tight 1/4 elliptic rear springs to the softer, mushier semi-elliptic spring on the "square" cars) With as many small things that are different on these cars it is really quite amazing that so many of these parts can be as easily adapted to different years. I (as I think most spridget owners are)am not a "purist", my love for the car derives from driving it. It is a daily driver (mainly because I hate driving anything else, or is it love driving it so much?) and has been for most of the 18 years I have owned it. Over that time I have made modifications in order to maintain its daily driver abilities. Having owned an "original" and correct 58 bugeyeand several "square" ones, the first thing I did to the daily driver was install a 1275cc for the extra umpf, which then eventually required a ribcase. In the hot south the cooling was inadequate for this daily driver, so the radiator was changed out with an aluminium one out of a VW Scirocco that I was retiring and it has never given me an overheating problem since. The other major modification on the path to daily reliability involved minimizing the influences of the Prince of Darkness with the major change here being the switch to negative earth and a Nissan alternator to provide current.

Well I only wanted to express my delight in this forum and I have probably gone on way too long. Just my way of saying hi to you all! Watch out for me. I grew up in the rumble "seat" of a TC (new at the time), the third (back)seat of a Morgan three wheeler and have been a car nut in general, and LBCs in particular ever since and obviously love going on and on about them.
mike

 

[littlecars]

This is by far the most user friendly place to get info about little Healeys and Midgets. I thank you Basil for seperating spridgets from the other Healeys

 

[DesertSprite]

Aloha,

This is pretty sweet! I disappear for a while and come back to find this forum. Even though I don't own a Spridget, I was always looking for threads that had Spridgets as the topic.

 

[JoeV]

Thanks Basil
this new forum will be great! I've also been away for awhile,but will be back often to this group
Joe v
77 midget 1500

 

[Crash]

Yous guys got this all wrong. There is the Austin Healey Sprite (not Mark 1). Then the Sprite Mark 2, Midget Mark 1. and all the rest of the spridgets. Mark 1 was never used until the Mark 2 came out on the Sprite. If you don't believe me just check a factory workshop manual pre 61.

 

[tony barnhill]

I dunno, the "Original Sprite & Midget" calls it the Sprite MkI (AH5)

 

[Bugeye58]

Mk I Sprites are commonly referred to as "Frogeyes" or "Bugeyes", depending on which side of the pond you are from.

If it is an HAN5, it's a Sprite.

If it's an HAN6, or any GAN number, It's a Spridget.

"Spridget" was a term coined to encompass both the Sprite and Midget, as they were both "badge engineered" versions of the MII Sprite.
Jeff