MG Midget  1500 5 speed conversion

THIS...is how it started...

It was June 2003 and I was at the Newark Kit Car show with a friend (on a bit of a summertime  jolly). I hadn’t gone to start an affair, but all dressed in immaculate white, she just looked at me with those sexy eyes, and I was smitten. True, her bottom end was rumbling a little (something she ate?), but a set of shells would soon  sort that out. At least there’s plenty of oil pressure thought I.

And so I bought  Bridget, (my second 1500 MG Midget,) in June 2003, 20 years after my first lemon  yellow, rubber bumpered chariot. She was (is) an absolutely immaculate GAN6 1500  in White. 55,000 genuine miles with the last 18 years MOT’s and lots of history.  Welding in panels isn’t a problem, metal is cheap, BUT spray painting afterwards costs an arm and a leg (or even more) and I am not a painter. I wanted something  which didn’t need welding and/or painting. I found it...

The important  thing is that the trim, paint and body was (and still is), brilliant.

So I dropped the sump to cure her rumbling tum. Well, the idea WAS to have something to play with and so I was just playing. My regular Ford Mundano, just goes went on and on I was getting bored. (If the Mundano needed fixing, I stick it into the garage!). Besides I just bought (a  new tub of hand cleaner and needed to try it out. Bridget did get a bit hot in traffic, so perhaps flush and clean the radiator and block too. It will just be some sludge...won’t it? Won’t it????

Well the shells  were like new. (I guess the previous owner had tried the quick already).  So out came the motor. Crank reground, unleaded seats, re-ringed (after thorough  deglazing of course). The bores are still cross hatched from the original  honing. Rocker shaft like new. Oil pump like new. Inside of motor really really clean (witness lots of service receipts and oil changes).

The coolant was  like new. The inside of the water passages are seriously like new,(grey cast iron like the day it came out of the foundry) so how the  heck does the radiator get full of scale then? It beats me. I had it recored.  That saved me a whole £10 on the cost of a new one, but I did get the LH inlet  moved to the top. It beats me why the radiator in the 1500 is like it is.

She always felt stressed, particularly on fast A roads or Motorways. She needed an overdrive  really....oh well, they (MG) never made one. What about Spitty overdrive then?  No, I discounted that as being unavailable...and then I found....the MG Enthusiasts site and that was it. A Ford Sierra  box. 5  speeds. Cheap as chips. Growing in every garden. Last forever. I read lots of  info which I found on Google. I visited my local breakers. “Sierra gearboxes? 5 speed? How many do you want?”. I ended up buying 2 at £40 each (the story of trying to move the gear lever mechanism forward by 4” is a website by itself. The cut and shut box showed a reluctance to use more than 3 gears. it is still on my garage floor. Maybe in 2005...).

I looked at the Autogear ,Frontline and Waterloo sites and read some other peoples  experiences. The problem was that the recognised conversion kits cost 2 arms and 2  legs (at least). I will make my own, I resolved.......and so it started.

I shall put more info on the site as it arrives, but meanwhile..... follow the links on the left.

More to follow......all in good time.......

Bridget the Midget

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