Really can't be bothered to think of a witty title...

Just thought I'd let you know the MG now has 12 Months MOT, thanks to Greenodd Service Station!

The car passed without any problems.

Here's a few pics, taken before the MOT:

Ooh - the Lake District in Spring! That's Black Combe.

Not the bst place to park your car, right by a bird feeder!

Still 'Tracking' my Progress?

Hopefully, my car should now struggle its way through an MOT!

It ran out on Friday, but the car needed the handbrake fixing along with some gaiters on the end of the track rods.

This was a simply enough fix: undo the bolt, hit it with a big hammer, and swap over the bushes!

Woooo : new gaiter! (that suspension needs a bit of a clean up!)

Give us a Hand(brake), will you?

Lots of progress on the MG side of things happened today.

As you know, the handbrake wasn't engaging properly, and the symptoms suggested that the cable was either stretched or the back brakes weren't adjusted correctly.

I ordered the necessary parts from Moss.

After they'd arrived, we went about adjusting the back brakes. There were no problems here, and so we moved onto the handbrake. For some reason, the handbrake was refusing to tighten up sufficiently enough to hold the car on a hill. We decided that the cable had stretched, so fitted the new one. This, however, did nothing.

New Next to old!

It was at this point we noticed that the support bracket that attaches to the back axle had been utterly bodged. There goes another £50 of parts ordering!

Note how the old part has been bodged, by cutting and welding to attempt to fix the problem!

However, this has been successfully fitted today, and the handbrake is truly shagadelic! (sorry, I've been watching too much Austin Powers recently!)

Woooo: Shiny!

Coping with the Caper

Well, as some of you may have heard, the Midget's first attempt at motorsport happened on the 22nd February (last Friday night!)

It all started swimmingly, with no problems whatsoever. By the end of the night, we'd damaged the front wing and nearly lost one of the back wheels due to wheelnuts slackening off! That was rather worrying, to say the least!

The lip of the front wheelarch has been bent due to the suspension compressing too much, and the wheel hitting the wing, causing it to lose paint and bend the metal... Nothing a bit of money won't sort - sadly, that's in short supply at the moment! I shouldn't have bought that Mota-Lita! However, the damage could have been a LOT worse...

Oh well, looks like I'll be putting the Rostyles back on until I've made the suspension a bit firmer... The tyres are just a bit too wide to fit under the arches at full compression!

With MOT time looming, the parts still haven't arrived from Moss, so it's beginning to get a bit desperate!

Lots more done since the last blog.

After a lot of 'Holts Gun Gum', the exhaust manifold blow is sorted, and the carbs are tuned properly. The proper sound of the Midget has now returned, and the exhaust note is truly fantastic!

However, Sod's Law says that whenever you fix something, another problem arises to balance out. True to form, the radiator developed a small leak... Afer 2 eggs, and a bottle of RadWeld, the leak has minimised, however it is still there! It's a new rad I'm afraid. While I'm there I may aswell replace all the hoses as some have begun to bulge and perish. That'll be another £100, then.

Talking of money, just ordered a load of stuff for the car this evening. Among other junk, I've ordered some sump seals, hardtop brackets, a handbrake cable (tried to tighten that up again at the weekend but it's at max tightness and still it isn't enough!), and a new back brake adjusting screw as the one that's in at the moment is knackered. With the MOT looming in the next few weeks, this isn't good!

Also found a cheap Mota-Lita steering wheel on eBay, bought that and fitted it - I think it looks OK but what do you think? It gives me that extra bit of arm-room as it isn't dished like my old Astrali one, and the boss is slightly smaller.

Mmmm... Wood-rimmed wheel...

The car is entered for its first 'proper' 12 Car rally next week. The bracket for the Retrotrip has been given to me, so that needs fitting. Bought some clip-on maplights to mount to the hood frame so I can actually see what I'm doing next week!

Got bored a couple of weeks ago while I was meant to be revising, and thought I might show you what I did (constructively)!

Who says Lucas parts are crap?

Well, most people, actually.

To be honest, they're pretty much right (seeing as we've just had to un-stick the Lucas starter motor for the third time in 2 months today), but some of them were actually OK.

For instance, take my newly fitted Lucas SLR700S flamethrowers on the front, and (fitted today), the Lucas 576 Reversing light. The reversing lamp needs a bracket making for it as it's currently lighting up the top of 20ft tall trees outside our gate, never mind the fact that it doesn't fit the original hole for the reversing lamp. That's not too big a problem though, can be sorted out when the other more important stuff has been done (see 'To-Do' list on the right!).

So, after 3 hours in the garage today, how many items off the to-do list have been done? That's right. None. I've just been sorting out other stuff, and fitting extra stuff to the car, not actually sorting out, say, the blowing exhaust manifold which will probably cause an MoT failure in March... Oh well, I'll get round to them soon!

You don't want to be behind this when I'm reversing at night...

Better pics arriving when I'm actually in and it is light! Quite a rare occurence, these days. Bloody school.

I must be going Poti...

(woo! snow!)

Lots of new things in the Midget since I last posted.

The Starter Motor is now fully working, and for this first time ever, fixing it was a '10 minute job' that really did only take ten minutes!

Also now fitted are a pair of 60-minute stopwatches, for use in Historic Rallying. They're budget Russian-made ones, but do the job very well!

Also fitted is a 'Poti', basically a map magnifier with a light inside it so the navigator can actually read the map as it's bouncing up and down in front of him down those country lanes.

Winging their way in the post to me currently are a New-Old-Stock Lucas 576 Rear-Mount reversing light, as seen on works Escort Mk1s etc, for use on those night tests on road rallies!

Along with that there should also be a flexi map light.

Still to fit are:

• Retrotrip Tripmeter, bracket (needs to be made!), Sensor, and power conditioner
• Cigar Lighter, to plug those accessories in, such as Poti
• Carbs still need tuning, along with the manifold joint sealing properly
• Sump oil seals, as it's leaving like a sieve!