1969 MG Midget Race Car Build

[Bustech_Design]

Welcome, So I purchased this 1969 Mg midget race car around august 2018 with the plan to clean it up a little where it was rough around the edges and compete in local hill climbs this plan soon got out of hands the deeper I got into stripping the car, having seen how bad the car actually was under the skin I changed my mind on the end goal for this car and decided to build a truly amazing Midget race car, using all the fabrication skills I've learned of my dad & grandad and also from working in motorsport. This cars build will hopefully be a fun and exciting learning curve, I'm sure you all will enjoy following my
progress

|https://thumbsnap.com/Y1Hczh8Q[/url]

Edited by Bustech_Design on Monday 11th May 21:28

Edited by Bustech_Design on Monday 11th May 21:35

[Rocket.]

Sounds like a fun project good luck.

[threespires]

Rocket. said:

Sounds like a fun project good luck.

+1

[df76]

Looking forward to reading this. Always fancied a Midget race car project!

[abzmike]

About 30 years ago I had a ‘67 Midget. Loved the thing, but I can’t imagine how to get it stiff enough to be be comfortable taking on a track! Good luck, will be watching with interest.

[lexspace]

I always enjoy watching other people’s projects like this , gives me inspiration to crack on with my own !

[Bustech_Design]

So here we have some photos from the interior its really not the best looking thing at all it was just a mess but my original plan was to strip the interior and paint it then go racing but once I start something if it's not perfect I just can't leave it so that's why the plan changed so much, as I didn't want a semi-good car I wanted it to be perfect. it looks like the previous owners had had a go fitting about 10 different seats without welding up any of the holes. so after removing the roll cage it showed how little it would do, the floors where so rusty they weren't even connected to the sill of the car in some sections, as you can see from the photo of the underside of the car. so the first thing I started with after removing the seats and everything from the interior was in the boot I started to strip out all the old paint which I do believe was wall paint probably something they had left in the cupboard after painting there living room it was horrible it had to go!


[url]

|https://thumbsnap.com/WL5qTLr9[/url][url]

|https://thumbsnap.com/1Tazhve7[/url][url]

|https://thumbsnap.com/ikeqwA3B[/url][url]

|https://thumbsnap.com/1ZQ5DZNy[/url][url]

|https://thumbsnap.com/a619WNUB[/url][url]

|https://thumbsnap.com/pYbbaKg4[/url]

[sixpistons]

Bookmarked. This looks like a great project. I remember seeing a track prepped one at Blyton Park a couple of years ago with about 140bhp and it absolutely flew

[D7PNY]

Love a track MG Midget!!

[Bustech_Design]

[url]

|https://thumbsnap.com/BNq78eGx[/url][url]

|https://thumbsnap.com/AybczDkb[/url]


Soo after removing the cage and finding it was not actually connected to the floor of the car, I started chipping away at the paint to see that someone had decided to use filler to hide these holes of rust where the main hoop connects it’s absolutely mental, this car had been raced in this state (luckily not by me) so this had to go and the more I cut away the more rust I found, I decided i was going to do a proper job and take out any old week metal and even some metal that wasn’t rusty I cut back to a point where I was happy I could start To re-fabricate this section and have no worry’s about rust coming back through.

[RobXjcoupe]

Pre lockdown I was thinking of modified midget as a daily but didn’t know too much about them. I’ll be reading with interest

[Bustech_Design]

It was at this point I decided to just rip out most of the metal and start fresh



This rusty plate is what the leaf spring bracket used to bolt up to this had to go it’s no good for this build



You can buy all the repair panels from moss Europe but I decided for the floor section I was going to make it from sheet As the moss floor repair sections don’t work with my plan for fitting my seat in the car. it’s a lot more effort making the panels yourself from scratch but it’s definitely more rewarding




After coating the bear metal with some zinc weld through primer this section looks night and day from the original rusty heap I had



I used 1.5mm sheet steel for my floor I wanted a nice flat floor you will see how my seat will mount to it in the next post


After welding the floor in I was very happy with the outcome I now have a very solid and safe drivers side, I great starting point for mounting the seat, my next job on the list was to get the drivers seat mounted which in these cars isn’t the easiest job let me tell you, I’ve probably got the safest and also the biggest seat I could possibly fit in this car but I was certain I could make it fit!

[RobXjcoupe]

Nice bit of sheet metal work sometimes when you start with a below par body the bigger replacement panels are far easier to fit than doing small patch repairs. I think it also gives a bit of satisfaction bringing the old car back to life again.

[Bustech_Design]

sixpistons said:

Bookmarked. This looks like a great project. I remember seeing a track prepped one at Blyton Park a couple of years ago with about 140bhp and it absolutely flew

I've got many good things to come I've documented the last 2 years of building it so I'm sure you enjoy watching the progress

[Bustech_Design]

So I actually test fitted the seat before I removed the cage to start the repairs to the floor to ensure it was going to fit and be comfortable, it fitted where it touched basically luckily this was a good driving position for my self I’m pretty tall at 6ft 3 so it’s a squeeze to fit in a midget even without a race seat in it. The cage was taken to a local powder coaters and finished in a nice dark shade of grey, I plan to do all the suspension in the same colour as well. The next thing to do was to fabricate my seat rail bracket this will be mounted under the car so the bolts that mount the seat are captive was also thinking the seat rail would double up as a side impact bar incase of a crash.
It was a pretty simple seat rail to make I turned up some steel top hats on the lathe that I drilled and tapped to M8 then welded into the box section.

[url]

|https://thumbsnap.com/fcXMmrTf[/url][url]

|https://thumbsnap.com/q8NMYA1E[/url][url]

|https://thumbsnap.com/7a4f9Xjn[/url][url]

|https://thumbsnap.com/GXiUDYPX[/url][url]

|https://thumbsnap.com/ejn9LvLh[/url][url]

|https://thumbsnap.com/HFgMbBm9[/url][url]

|https://thumbsnap.com/VXyMswuS[/url]

[RobXjcoupe]

Cracking bit of welding but those box sections will shoot straight through the transmission tunnel if something hit you from the side, and you as your seat is attached

[Bustech_Design]

So I made a start on removing the engine, gearbox and wiring loom so that I can roll the car over to access the other floors that I’m going to change

I made sure that I labelled all the loom and made an excel document to make it easier to be able to re install it. After washing the grim of the car I made a start on the drivers footwell

[TheDoggingFather]

Following this thread.

My brother had a mildly tuned 1275 Midget a few years ago, he offered it to me before he sold it, Shame I didn't have the time or the space to store it.

[Bustech_Design]

TheDoggingFather said:

Following this thread.

My brother had a mildly tuned 1275 Midget a few years ago, he offered it to me before he sold it, Shame I didn't have the time or the space to store it.

That is a shame as they are such lovely cars to own.

[lexspace]

Any updates on this ?