Blimmin' 'Eck, it's been a long time!

Well well, a whole year has passed!
What's happened in all this time? Well, my 17th birthday, that's what! Managed to pass my driving test 20 days later, and both MGs are now on the road!
Thanks to Footman James insurance, each car costs around £600 to insure, which is a darn sight cheaper than any modern piece of junk!
The Midget has become my 'dry weather car' and is great fun. The car has just managed to get a new MOT, after needing a set of front wheel bearings.
Anyway, have some pictures!

I don't think there's much else to report, everything is swimming! Check out my other blog on Meg the GT for more exciting pictures! hahah! Albatross!

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)!