John Lang's MG Midget Restoration

My MG Midget Adventure
by John Lang

About Me:
I'm 32 years old. I'm married, my wife's name is Michele and we have two daughters, Kelly and Jordan. I live in southeast Wisconsin. I work for John Deere & Company at the Horicon Works. This is where the lawn and garden tractors are built. My current MG Midget is my second. My first was a '75 I acquired in 1987. I no longer have that one. When I finish the one I'm working on now for Kelly, my plan is to start on one for Jordan or one for myself, depending on what I find and in what condition. The adventure will continue...

Hey again! Sorry it's been so long since my last update (How long has it been? It's been so long that Adrian got one of his cars running. Ha?). But seriously, so much has happened the thought of documenting it chronologically makes me dizzy, but I'll try. I have to start off by saying I'm beginning to understand the term "Midget Adventure." You see, I went to my friend Mike and asked him to do a paint job for me, that's all I wanted. What I got was much more.

We started out about a month or so behind schedule. Mike had to finish some work he had started on his Chevelle. That was about two weeks. Then, the timing belt went out in my Cutlass, stranding me in the middle of Horicon National Wildlife Refuge. To make matters worse, for me anyway, it was the last weekend of gun deer season (if you don't think that's a problem, you know better than me where to put a big buck in or on a Midget). So I had to drive the Midget into the middle of December in Wisconsin, not cool. However, by the time Mike was ready for the Midget and my other car was fixed, it was Christmas shutdown at John Deere. That gave me time to get started.

Despite those setbacks, Mike felt he could be done in time for me to have the car back on the road by Memorial Day. Here I am telling you this in the last week of July and I'm still not done. Well, therein lies the adventure.

Disassembly was easy. I labeled everything, took notes, and took pictures. I did everything I thought would make the whole process easier. Nothing, though, could have prepared me for what Mike found when he sandblasted the sill panels. I knew they weren't clean, but had no idea how bad they really were. On the good side, Mike convinced me to replace the rear quarters and he added a gusset between the inner sill and the floor pan for extra strength. All that added another four weeks.

After that, I had to put all the parts back on the engine. First, my solenoid was bad, or so I found out after about a week of checking everything else. After replacing that it would start, but it wouldn't stay running. A new fuel pump and another week later, it runs perfectly. I also had to sandblast and repaint the wheels. That amounted to two days of sandblasting and one day of masking and painting. I also had to do some creative plumbing for the oil pressure gauge. 79's have a cretin light (idiot light doesn't express my disdain accurately enough) rather than the 2-in-1 gauge. So, I hooked it up so the light and the gauge function.

Today's adventure involves the temperature sensor. When I pulled the electric sending unit and put in the thermocouple sensor, there was no flange in my housing to seal when I tightened the nut. The fix was simple. There's an adapter that screws in, but to get it I had to drive to Milwaukee and straight through the eighth circle of Hell (that's road construction; it's in the revised edition of "The Inferno"). Four hours to get the part, ten minutes to install. But now it works.

Random Thoughts
I've been trying to sort out how I got myself into this. I've come to the conclusion that it's Adrian's fault. You see, I had been looking for an MG for about 3 or 4 years, even before the Cadillac came along. That was just an extremely expensive, gas-guzzling diversion. Somehow I had gotten the idea in my head I had to get an MGB. Don't know how or why, so don't ask. I looked at some nice ones that were priced right, but something about the B never felt right to me. Then, one day while surfing the net, I came across Midget Web. Everything I saw and read there reminded me of how much I had enjoyed my first Midget. Not long after that, I found a '79 Midget for sale in Milwaukee. Two days later, I had it home. I believe without Adrian and his site, I would still be trying to justify a B to myself and still wouldn't be enjoying the adventure. So thank you, Adrian.

At times it seemed overwhelming and the time constraints I had to deal with almost kept me from getting finished this year. I was fortunate to have a friend work on the car who let me do a lot of the work myself and who could walk me through things I wasn't sure about. Dropping it off at a body shop and picking up a finished product would have been nice, but doing much of the work myself has given me a greater appreciation for what goes into a project like this. I would encourage anyone getting started to do as much as they can themselves, or at least as much as they shop you're working with will let you. Just remember, the professionals know best, and when they don't want you in the way, don't be in their way. However, no matter what anyone says, never rebuild panels with body putty!!!

I've also found that ordinary tools, you know, hand wrenches, sockets, duct tape, etc, won't always get the job done. Working on the wiper motor, I need an AK47 front sight tool to put it back together. I hope you never find yourself in that situation.

Zen and the Art of Tonneau Zipper Maintenance
Are the zippers on your tonneau getting corroded and sticky? Or do you just want to keep them from getting that way? I found a simple solution. Get a .44-.45 caliber bore brush and a bottle of gun oil. I use either Outers or Rem Lube. The bottle has a pinpoint applicator. With the zippers closed, cover off the car (on cardboard is the best), put some oil all long the length of the zippers. Open and close a few times. If no corrosion is evident, wipe off any excess top and bottom. If you have rust or corrosion, let the oil sit for a few hours. Then, with the zipper closed scrub any corrosion with the bore brush, being careful not to poke yourself with the wires. Try to hold the threaded end. Clean the top and bottom. After you've gotten as much off as you can, wipe it down with a cloth and oil again. Mine were so bad that when I would unzip it, the snaps would pull off the dash and windshield. Now it's smooth! I wouldn't recommend cleaning your weapons with those brushes afterwards. Also, bore brushes for black powder guns are less stiff than those for metallic cartridge firearms and may suit your individual needs better. I didn't have any of those around and didn't use them, so I can't evaluate their worth.

Dash Pad Covers and You
Dash pad covers are reasonably inexpensive and easy to install. I, however, didn't feel like spending the money. That would have cut into my beer budget. What? I'm from Wisconsin, remember? Anyway, if you find yourself taking your dashboard out and want to clean it up and make it look like new again, here's what I did. First, I scrubbed it with a mild abrasive cleanser, Zud or Bar Keeper's Friend would be good. After that, I filled in the crack (seriously, there was only one) with Permatex Ultra Grey. It's more pliable than RTV Blue. Next, I sprayed it with Plasticoat. The Plasticoat is compatible with the silicone and won't cause fish-eyes. After that you can spray paint whatever color you want, or clear coat over it at that point. For reasons I won't go into, I cleared over the Plasticoat and then sprayed gloss black, then cleared again. All together, I put on 10 or 12 coats and the grain is still there. Most of what I needed was around the house. I don't think I spent more than $5.00 on the whole job, not including what I already had. If you have to buy everything, maybe $10.00 to $15.00.

Broken Hardware
Another annoying problem I had to overcome was broken hardware. First the pressed fit bolts on the front sidemarker lights all snapped when I took them off. At first I thought the whole assembly was scrap, after looking at it closer I realized what a simple fix it is. First, you have to take off the lens and remove the light. Turn the housing upside down or wiring side up and on a flat surface use a British Leyland Multipurpose Tool (at Sears they call this a 16 oz ball peen hammer) to pound out the remains of the broken studs. Do it gently, extreme force is not required here. At this point there are two possible solutions. The first route I tried to take was to pull apart all my old useless Delco solenoids and take out the small bolts for the accessory wire. Some have two, some only have one. These bolts fit the square hole in the light housing. Unfortunately, I didn't get four usable ones and I didn't want to pull apart any good starter/solenoids, so I went to Plan B. Plan B is: go to the hardware store and buy four 10-24 carriage bolts about 3/4" to 1" long. Get the required nuts and washers, too. The carriage is slightly too large to engage the hole for the marker, or at least mine. If this is the case, simply file on each side until they fit. Keep in mind you don't want a clearance fit, or in other words, it shouldn't drop in the entire way. The goal is an interference fit; it should go in about half the distance of the carriage and be pulled in with the nut the rest of the way. When purchasing hardware, stainless or brass would be best, but in a pinch galvanized will do. I should also mention, in order to save you the phone call, Moss doesn't have the bolts in question.

Fender Removal
The next headache came from pulling off the fenders themselves. Well, only the right side. On the bottom near the wheel well there's a tab with a nut welded to it. When I took that one out, most of the bolt stayed right where it was. This wasn't too difficult to deal with either. More maddening than anything, really. What I did was sheared a piece of flat stock .032 or .036 (I think) to about 1-1/4" or 1-1/2" wide. The length didn't matter, as it would be cut to fit later. Then in one end, and centered (I don't remember how far from the top, that's not very important either) I punched a hole just over 1/4." I was lucky enough to find one over 1/4" but under 5/16." Either will work if nothing between is available. What I did next was a bit of a mistake, so don't do it this way. I had the nut heli-arc welded on to the flat stock BEFORE I put the 90 degree in it. The reason this is a no-no is because there is not enough room for the nut to clear ordinary tooling. When the punch enters the die it will start to bend it, but when it gets to about 30 to 45 degrees, the nut hits the punch and bends back resulting in two angles on the part. The solution to this was to form it on a split tooling. This is a punch with a section missing where the nut is for clearance. Having made a new tab, all I had to do then was drill two small holes into the what was left on the fender and the new part (making sure they would be aligned and the new part would remain centered). To pilot the holes I think I used an .050 drill then a 3/16" which should have allowed a #10 bolt to go through, but of course it didn't, so I reamed them with a 17/64" and that worked. I believe the hardware for attaching these two pieces is critical. A 10-24 button head cap screw will fit between the fender and the sill panel without any problem. Since then I have been able to evaluate what I did and how it could be done better. If anyone else finds themselves in that situation, contact me and I'll give you some other suggestions which may be easier.

Handbrake Headaches
The other problem I had was unique to later 1500's (182001 and on), I think, anyway. I know these have a different cable for the handbrake. The bracket which holds it to the axle may be the same. At any rate, I broke one of the bolts on the retaining plate for that. Taking into account the hole spacing on that, and the offset, I decided not to make another one. Instead I soaked the nut with penetrating oil for a few days, and afterwards heated it up with the fire wrench. There was enough bolt to grab onto with a locking pliers and pull it out. Sometimes the simple solution works the best. I normally don't count on that, however.

Diagnosing the Demons
The last two weeks have been an extreme test of my patience. The car WAS running perfectly. Then without warning, it started spitting and sputtering and couldn't make it up over 3000 RPMs. I found the carb was over feeding. So bad in fact, the fuel was pouring out when I turned it off. Now, here was my dilemma: pull off the intake or just the carb? Either way it's a total pain in the ---. I opted to go with just the carb since I only have one intake/exhaust gasket left and I want to save that for the SU carb conversion. There are only 2 nuts holding the ZS on, but they are nearly impossible to get at.

After taking it apart and cleaning it thoroughly, I went from running way too rich to running way too lean. All the black deposits on the plugs got cooked right off. Carb off again! Cleaned, soaked, cleaned, bent down the tab on the float, also found the piston was hanging up about 3/4 of the way to the top. Cleaned the inside of the damper cap and tube, ran some crocus cloth through, cleaned it again and no more hanging up. Reassembled the carb, reinstalled it. Ran better up to 3000, but then still wouldn't go any more.

Next, I went into the ignition. My distributor had been changed from the electronic type to the point type out of a 1275. Maybe a good thing, maybe not. My plug gaps were too wide, but after resetting them, no difference in how the car ran. Here's where it gets strange: while tapping the key to get on the high point of the cam in order to check the point gap, the whole distributor pedestal started turning.

At that point I had no choice but to take it out. What I found was one of the springs for the counter weights had a broken retainer. One more road trip through the eighth circle and I had it rebuilt and ready to go back on. I would have to say the most time consuming part of the whole job was getting the timing mark lined up where I wanted it (8-10 degrees BTDC). After keying past where I wanted it more times than I care to count I got it close and turned the crankshaft pulley by hand to where I wanted it. After that it still was missing and backfiring, but at least I could get my full RPM range out of it. I took a gamble and adjusted the bypass valve (on the front of the carb) in 1/2 turn at a time. That did the trick and it runs like new again.

...And that's not all!
But, wouldn't you know, now that I have it running it's down-pouring. I suppose that's all right, because now my parking lights aren't working. No bad fuses, good ground. I have no idea what else it could be. The dash lights come on, the headlights come on, the brake lights and directionals work. What the ----? It always has to be something, otherwise it wouldn't be an adventure, it would be a Miata!