calling all midget oracles

[JT]

Hi

a friend is selling his midget for £200. He's pretty non mechanically minded and has been told by a local garage that a floor pan needs replacing (they offered him £200 hence the price). The car runs well and is reasonably tidy inside, I havn't had a look underneath yet (will post again when I have done) but everything is telling me BUY...

I've looked on the PH classifieds section and it is nowhere near as bad a condition on the exterior as the one going for £575

Any thoughts?

jake

[JT]

sorry i should say that my old man is a dab hand welder so that shouldn't present too many problems

[gtr-gaz]

JT said:

Hi

a friend is selling his midget for £200.

Any thoughts?

Yeah, what's your friends phone number?

[JT]

hmm think i'll keep that one close to my chest. Any one got any tips on what to look at chassis wise on these midgets.

[Coco H]

rust! sills, wings, inner wings. Having said that mine was due a re-shell and out came the angle grinder and it's still going. Admittedly we cut chunks off that we didn't need. Our car had lots of filler in it when bought too.
The body is expensive to replace - I can't remember how much - MGOC does them - something like 3500 and you need to add the spraying on top I think. However I think you can often repair

[Talkwrench]

Sounds like a good buy to me....
Just remember when replacing sills etc on a midget that it is critical to support the shell properly, preferably with the door in place, so you have correct gap and door alignment with no sagging.
Midgets bend like cardboard with no sill present!

[pikeyboy]

Talkwrench said:

Sounds like a good buy to me....
Just remember when replacing sills etc on a midget that it is critical to support the shell properly, preferably with the door in place, so you have correct gap and door alignment with no sagging.
Midgets bend like cardboard with no sill present!

This is so true, assuming the door gap has already closed up and the car is begining to break its back, puta trolley jack under the trasnmission tunnel and raise the car to acheive the correct door gap then weld on a brace across the inside of the door gap ie a post to b post, before cutting anything off. I always remove the sills first, both inner and outer on one side at a time and replace these first before cutting the floor out and doing that. I've used this technique loads of times and it always works, and avoids the nasty looking shut lines seen on so many badly repaired cars.