Chris Dalrymple

Around 4 years ago I bought a 1975 MG Midget 1500, complete with rubber bumpers, from a garage near Keighley. It was a slightly spur of the moment buy but turned out to be suprisingly practical (for a while at least).

My MG Midget on the garage forecourt (the white one). What do you mean I was ripped off?

Amazingly, I was able to use her as a daily driver for my short commute to work, and even more amazingly I had virtually no problems with her whatsoever, aside from needing a new alternator, prop shaft, reattached exhaust and some upgraded halogen headlights (positively trouble free for a 35 year old car). It even survived a 1000 mile winter tour of Scotland without so much as a grumble.

As I suspect is often the case however, as soon as I stopped using her daily she began to complain a little. This wasn’t helped when I woke one morning to find the aftermath of a failed attempt to make off with my little MG – a slashed soft-top, ripped out alarm and a crushed front right wing where she’d been rolled down the hill into a lamp-post. Thank god for my £15 Halford steering lock (and I suspect reluctance to start) which stopped her from being snatched away completely!

Garaged MG Midget sans bonnet and wings. Note feeble attempts at rust treatment.

After that, things went downhill a little – I had less and less time to work on her, and she dutifully moved house with me twice on the back of a trailer. Very little work was done for the usual reasons (not enough time/money/inclination), save the damaged front wings and bonnet being removed, and a brief attempt to remove some of the surface rust under the wheel arches.

Truth be told, I’ve done very little with the white MG since and she’s now tucked up in Helen’s dad’s garage down the road. The two Bank Holiday weekends in the UK have been a great excuse to wheel the old girl out and try to get her started again.

We had mixed results. A new distributor cap helped to get a spark going, but it looks like in the process of the local yobs ripping out the alarm, some of the electricals need looking at – she’ll start merrily on turning the key, but as soon as the ignition moves back to position II she goes quiet again. Another weekend with a wiring diagram and a lot of patience is needed.

My MG Midget in better days, and me with a few extra pounds...

I’m still relatively undecided as to what form I’ll bring her back to her former glory in, but I suspect either way those heavy rubber bumpers won’t be making a reappearance (sorry purists…). I’ve already got hold of a fibreglass bonnet and fibreglass wings from a 1275cc will need to follow next. After that a respray, new pads and discs, polybush kit, minilite style alloys, electric ignition, K&N filters, sportier exhaust and various other tweaks until my money runs out! At the moment I’m thinking I’ll keep her *ahem* rubberless rather than converting to Chrome bumpers but I’m not completely decided. Something like this example looks pretty good I reckon (minus the gaudy stripe).

And then? Well the ideal would be a spin around the Harewood House Hillclimb, and providing she survives that in once piece, then she needs to take me to my wedding in 2013!

I’m aiming to keep updating this blog with my restoration efforts, as much for my own record as for anyone elses. I’m very much a novice when it comes to cars, but hopefully with the help of Helen’s dad and lots of trial and error I can get my little MG back on the road.