Austin healey sprite
Discussion
covmutley said:
Excellent 
Is it a Sprite or a Midget? (They were the same other than a few details, built on the same line).
Sprites finished production in '71 & I see yours is a '76 (ish) registration?
(although it's clearly not standard in any way with the Spitfire type bonnet
)
B'stard Child said:
Was the rust tackled in the normal way for the era of the car - chicken wire and boat loads of filler or was it cut out and new steel glued in with a welder?
I have fond memories of my old MG Midget (1500 rubber bumpered version) not so much fond memories of speed at which it rusted
Afraid so! Aluminium mesh stuff and fibre glass based then smooth filler. I have fond memories of my old MG Midget (1500 rubber bumpered version) not so much fond memories of speed at which it rusted
Over the winter, and following the front arch refurb, I did a number of other jobs including oil change and oil filter, regreased nipples, changed brake pads, changed gearbox oil, changed the rear diff oil, used carb cleaner on the weber and gave the engine bay a bit of a clean. I enjoyed working on it.
I got the car back out on the roads around April and have been using it quite a bit in the last few weeks now the weather has improved.
The car is running well and the oil service definitely improved it. It doesn't seem to be leaking oil any more (well, hardly any) so I can only assume that the previous owner had put some thinner grade in? The stuff I am using says it is formulated to help prevent leaks.
A minor and very recent cosmetic change is that i painted the front grill black. It was too shiny for me before (see photo in my first post), and drew the eye. I much prefer the look of the front end now.
Jobs on the 'to do' list are tappets, spark plug change just as maintenance, and a refurb on the rear suspension. I was checking the rear suspension the other evening and it's not looking great. Leaf springs are totally flat and rusty, bump stops and retaining straps are missing.
I got the car back out on the roads around April and have been using it quite a bit in the last few weeks now the weather has improved.
The car is running well and the oil service definitely improved it. It doesn't seem to be leaking oil any more (well, hardly any) so I can only assume that the previous owner had put some thinner grade in? The stuff I am using says it is formulated to help prevent leaks.
A minor and very recent cosmetic change is that i painted the front grill black. It was too shiny for me before (see photo in my first post), and drew the eye. I much prefer the look of the front end now.
Jobs on the 'to do' list are tappets, spark plug change just as maintenance, and a refurb on the rear suspension. I was checking the rear suspension the other evening and it's not looking great. Leaf springs are totally flat and rusty, bump stops and retaining straps are missing.
) 
Time for an update. Over winter I set about a project to sort the rear end. The leaf springs and axle were looking rather crusty and the leaf springs were inverted and the car was riding very low at the back.
I stripped everything off and gave the underneath a bit of a clean up, removing the odd bit of surface rust and priming and painting.
Axle was cleaned up and painted using bilt hamber epoxy mastic. I decided on grey just to brighten up the underside a bit.
Taking off the lever arm shocks, i found that one arm had completely sheared off the damper! No wonder it was banging over bumps!
I fitted new rear brake cylinders and shoes, new axle bearings and paper gaskets. On the suspension,I went for uprated lever arm shocks and pushed my budget to the Peter May 3 inch lowered leaf springs and alloy mounting brackets. Lovely bits of kit!
I finally got the car back on the road today and the suspension is much better (now I have damping!!) and it rides really well. Also, even though I went for the lowered springs the car is sitting a good couple of inches higher at the rear, which is much better.
Went for a 20 minute test run and all went well. Brakes still a bit spongy, so think I will bleed them again next week.
I stripped everything off and gave the underneath a bit of a clean up, removing the odd bit of surface rust and priming and painting.
Axle was cleaned up and painted using bilt hamber epoxy mastic. I decided on grey just to brighten up the underside a bit.
Taking off the lever arm shocks, i found that one arm had completely sheared off the damper! No wonder it was banging over bumps!
I fitted new rear brake cylinders and shoes, new axle bearings and paper gaskets. On the suspension,I went for uprated lever arm shocks and pushed my budget to the Peter May 3 inch lowered leaf springs and alloy mounting brackets. Lovely bits of kit!
I finally got the car back on the road today and the suspension is much better (now I have damping!!) and it rides really well. Also, even though I went for the lowered springs the car is sitting a good couple of inches higher at the rear, which is much better.
Went for a 20 minute test run and all went well. Brakes still a bit spongy, so think I will bleed them again next week.
Edited by covmutley on Sunday 12th May 21:37
Cambs_Stuart said:
Excellent. Any plans for road trips and events this year?
Not really. I just fit it into life at the moment, running errands to the shops, taking my boys to football training, picking them up from mates houses, that sort of thing. One of my lads likes the car a lot and we go out for more spirited drives together which is nice. I've also got a problem with the alternator currently which means I'm constantly driving on a battery losing power, so can't go too far! Not yet fixed it as hasn't really been in issue for me. Its near the top of the list now though.
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