JAMADOR's 75 Midget

[JAMADOR]

Really hated having to sell the Rotus when we moved, but just didn't have anywhere to put it where it wasn't going to rot away before I could work on it.

Always surfing Craigslist & happened upon a decent looking Midget.
Wife has always wanted one, and the price seemed decent.

Drove down 2 weekends ago to take a look. Ran pretty well once it was started, but was on 10-12 year old tires, and had a couple minor fluid leaks (engine & trans) underneath, so we decided it'd be best to trailer it home rather than risk the 65 mile drive in the dark.

Went down last weekend & brought her home. It's currently sitting in my dad's shop until we can go over it & get it road-safe.
Ordered 5 tires for it last night.

Need to address the brakes, hoping they just need to be bled. Took a fair amount of effort to get decent stopping performance at neighborhood speeds.
Choke (electric/water) need some work, car was very hard to start when we trailered it home. Pulled the air filter & held the throttle shut & it started up fine. Need to do some research, it's got the ZS carb, not sure if we want to rebuild it & keep on as-is or look at a SU or Weber upgrade.
Top has a small tear/separation on the driver's side 1/4 window, may try to repair/patch it, since the top is pretty much just for when it's parked & it'll be covered when it's at home.
Driver's seat needs a bot of attention, sagging a bit on the right side.

Cat already removed, need to look at gutting the rest of the smog stuff under the hood. Exhaust is a bit rusty, probably re-do most of that as well.

A few shots from the ad, first look & trailering it home

[Lonnie-S]

Kewl! A big, new adventure.

Best of luck.

[RTz]

I dig it

What are the long term plans, mostly stock or something big, or?

[JAMADOR]

It'll be mostly stock/original for the time being.
Get it running well & dressed up, and just enjoy it for a while.
Long run, if the drivetrain gives any major problems, maybe something like a Miata or 4AG Silver/Blacktop 20v swap. Nothing too crazy

[ccrunner]

Always exciting when a 'new-to-me' vintage car comes into your life

It doesn't look too bad really.. Some TLC and hopefully not too much money and she should be roadworthy again soon.. Bonus that your wife wanted one of these.. Very cool

--ccrunner

[JAMADOR]

Yeah, body wise, the LR quarter is the worst, but that is mostly accessible via the trunk.
No rust that I've seen other than a tiny by where the paint has chipped on the hood/fender in the front.

Luckily, Moss Motors has a pretty extensive parts catalog & the majority of it is shockingly cheap.

[RichardSIA]

Working on gathering a set of Split rear chrome bumpers for you.
I do have a couple of the light weight front but both need some work.
Beware sending too much power to the stock rear end!

[JAMADOR]

Working on gathering a set of Split rear chrome bumpers for you.
I do have a couple of the light weight front but both need some work.
Beware sending too much power to the stock rear end!

Not opposed to a bit of work. It's a nearly 50 year old car, didn't expect it to run like a Honda.
Need to pull the rubber bumpers & see how it looks underneath.

I think we noticed that they didn't pull the bumpers when they repainted it before. We'll see how far we can get with some compound/polish to get by until we're ready to repaint for final.

[rx7locost]

Congrats on your new purchase. And welcome to the MG family.

There are alternatives to the Moss giant for parts. Some are competitors. Some are Moss distributors that sell at a discount. There are some very good UK sources too that usually beat Moss on both price & shipping. Sometime they have access to oarts and sources that Moss does not.

[JAMADOR]

Congrats on your new purchase. And welcome to the MG family.

There are alternatives to the Moss giant for parts. Some are competitors. Some are Moss distributors that sell at a discount. There are some very good UK sources too that usually beat Moss on both price & shipping. Sometime they have access to oarts and sources that Moss does not.

Good to know, any in particular you can recommend?

[BostonWill]

It looks like a really nice find!

It reminds me of the 69 Midget I had after High School and before I went into the Air Force. All black.

Had a lot of fun with it until the rt front shock bolts broke in the middle of a high speed turn one night. The whole upright folded over (outward), snapping the brake line. Back then, there was not a dual brake system, stepped on the brakes- the pedal went to the floor as well as my heart! Managed to steer into the curve, onto the soft shoulder and it slowed down without a real problem of spinning or flipping. At 17, my driving skills were a lot less than I believed and I just got lucky!

I agree with you, the bumpers have to go!

[300D50]

Good find!
Needs a 13B-MSP with a 6 speed...

[rx7locost]

Congrats on your new purchase. And welcome to the MG family.

There are alternatives to the Moss giant for parts. Some are competitors. Some are Moss distributors that sell at a discount. There are some very good UK sources too that usually beat Moss on both price & shipping. Sometimes they have access to parts and sources that Moss does not.

Good to know, any in particular you can recommend?

LBCARCO.com is one. Jeff is a Moss reseller with other parts that he sources himself mostly from the UK. He is typically ~15% lower than Moss and ships from Michigan.

bpnorthwest.com are good too. They do not use the Moss numbers on their website, so it is a bit cumbersome. They are independent company and not a Moss reseller. They do not charge sales tax and shipping is free on orders over $149. They are located in Oregon. Unfortunately, they do not sell body sheet metal.

UKMGPARTS.com is the website for "Brown and Gammons", a decades old UK provider of many, many MG parts. Always less expensive than Moss even including international shipping. I have used them a few times and are very happy customer. Keep the orders under $800 to keep from being charged the US Import duty. I'm not 100% certain on that last part though. Do your homework.

Rimmerbros.com and moss-europe.co.uk are also reportedly very good suppliers in the UK. I have not purchased from them so cannot relate anything.

Don't forget Rockauto.com for some common maintenance and repair parts too. You know the manufacturer when you buy from them and can sometimes select which one you want.

I believe that most anybody will be less expensive than buying from Moss USA. Moss is good, has many parts, and has good support. They have that going for them. Their prices.... Re not their strong suit.

Then there are a number of other smaller Moss distributors that will take your Moss order and have Moss drop-ship from their warehouse. I haven't dealt with them for over 20+ years. And also some smaller independent sellers too. I do check eBay sometimes.

Join the MG experience website if you haven't already at https://www.mgexp.com/forum/mg-midget-forum.3/ for an MG Midget focused site.

[JAMADOR]

Thanks, I'll be looking into those & bookmarking them
Joined MGExp already, took a bit because I registered at work & got a VPN moderation alert.
If Moss is considered pricey, the others must be near free
I thought, compared to my other mor modern cars, the Midget parts were extremely reasonable.

Now to find the time to get up to my dad's & start working on it.

[rx7locost]

I understand. Yes. MG's are relatively inexpensive as far as modern cars and other old British cars go. But everything is relative. If I can save a few benjamins or a c-note, here and there, I will.