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Sadly EKA has moved on to pastures new in Stourbridge, I hope that Ray will have as much fun with her as I have had. I now have a Triumph TR4 - more info on that page.

My latest project is a 1971 MG Midget

This was an eBay purchase for £2,550

Overall I have been very pleased with it, the car does seem very sound, the upholstery is like new and the paintwork is excellent. However I have had to dismantle the engine and rehone the bores, replace the piston rings, and decoke the head which was severely carbonised. A lot of blue smoke was intermittently erupting from the exhaust. A mixture of issues of leaking head gasket and crankcase compression. The engine was described as reconditioned!

I finally bit the bullet after I got tired of making smoke as though I was re-enacting the Battle of Jutland and fitted a fully reconditioned unleaded head. Much better now.

There have been lots of small and enjoyable tinkering jobs. Like getting the rear lights to work, installing cabling for the fuel gauge, re-routing brake pipes from potential chaffing - like the steering column pinch bolt knocking against the pipework, and the pipework being unsupported from the front to the rear of the car.

The steering column would not clamp onto the rack spline, so the steering wheel would move in and out alarmingly. Increasing the slot that the pinch bolt closes up with a dremel has fixed that up.

The engine seemed somewhat pedestrian, investigation showed that the throttle barely opened to halfway.

One of the nice things about the Midget is that spares are so cheap (apart from connecting rod bolts...), and it does not burn terrible holes on ones pocket in sorting out its foilbles. Tax is nil, and insurance about the £100 mark.

Still to do is freeing off the rear brake adjusters, then maybe the handbrake won't come up the vertical before it does anything.

Brake adjusters done, I was lucky and managed to loosen them off and take them out. New ones are now installed with copper grease. However the clevis pin holes are worn on the handbrake linkage so are now being replaced with oversized ones.

Twin SUs replaced by single HIF44, more economy and revs more freely.

Front disks, pads and calipers have now been replaced, and the car sailed through it's MOT first time.

Front springs now replaced so car now sits more level.

Decided I wanted a grille more like an MG

Have replaced the twin SU carbs with a single HIF44. The result is fuel consumption has improved from 30 mpg to 40 mpg.