Romeo Oh Romeo, an Alfa Story

I spent this weekend in Columbus, IN. Attempting to help my friend Graham put together an Alfa V6, that had the poor fortune of having to come apart. For more on the Alfas and Graham himself you can visit his site at blythbros.com. Well to greatly summarize and condense the weekend, little got done, but a great time was had. Overall it was great to see and old friend again and his exploits with his cars are another great motivator for me to keep cracking along with the Midgets. Normally I would write more, but this keep this short, If your interested in learning more on the Alfas visit the bros at their site.

The 'Trans' formation of the Midget

One of the many burning question of vintage British car ownership: why is my gearbox so bad? So I have been reflecting on what I want the 72 to be when she is finished and although I don't dislike the BMC 'rib-case' gearboxes that came with the 1275 cars, I know that I would have a better and more enjoyable time with a more modern and robust transmission. As much of a fan of character in cars as I am, I will admit that an synchronized first gear is no fun.

So it looks as though a 5 speed conversion kit is in order. The two common flavors of kits that you see either used the gearbox from a Datsun 210, usually the B310 body style, or the Ford Type 9 box. Being a fan of Ford, and the fact that the Type 9, or Sierra box as some call it, is still a widely used and well loved trans and the Datsun is best known for being found at junk yards and not having parts readily available, it looks as though a type 9 kit is in my future. I will keep all of you out there updated on what I find and I would love to hear any input that you might want to add on this subject.

Until I post again, keep on motor'n

1275 Work - Part 1, But Not Really

This past weekend I headed back up to Geneva to work on the original midget, ol' 72. I had pulled the engine and trans, and everything else out of the car long ago. The car is in moderate shape with a lot of rust damage on the passenger side floor from a botched repair many years ago. You can't just drop in sheet metal over rust hole and expect it to get better, especially if you use aluminum rivets on steel panels.

Due to the basket case that the car ended up being, after slightly less than a year of ownership I bought Midget #2. This was a 1976 car, in primer, not really but is suppose to be and its a long story that you will hear more of later. 76 had the benefit of coming without the original engine or trans, or much else. It was a very clean body, and the seller had been planning on swapping in a Ford 2 liter and Type 9 trans. This sounded pretty great to me so I continued with the project and took it one step further. I came to the idea of making the car a coupe, with a roof from a donor Volvo P1800. As it sounds this quickly became the project of the century, and without the necessary resources I decided to go back to original car for awhile. So now I begin again on the 72 1275.

Over the weekend I was able to tear the engine down, 40+ years of wear, use, and abuse have taken a toll somewhat on the engine, I'll have to replace a lot of stuff, a full list will make its way on here at some point. But the short version is that 3 out of 4 cylinders have broken rings, compression, so the block will get an over-bore to clean in up, I will probably go to a 4 bolt center main, its a 3 main bearing engine so the center sees a lot of stress. Also I thinking about balancing the crank and maybe having everything cleaned up. But as a must it looks like I'll need:

Pistons

Rods

 Cam - Strong street to mild race

Hardened Tappets

Valves

Springs

Retainers

Crossflow Head - Car deserves it

Different Oil Pump or Transfer pump

Electronic Ignition

New Alternator

So as you can see, its becoming a bit of a money pit, but it should be pretty neat when its functional. More to come as parts start to be ordered!

Some Photos for you to Enjoy

Going through the archives I've come across some photos that I have taken that you might enjoy. I shot all of these myself, so no infringement is meant.

 

More to come...

- Jay

The One That's Starting It All

Hello All!

This is the first post on this blog.

I will try to capture and share my experiences working on and around cars.

I have grown up around cars and have a deep and eclectic passion for them, this

blog will celebrate this and showcase the projects that I am working on and the events that I

am participating in.

As a quick background, I am an Engineer by training and profession who lives in Peoria, IL

The majority of the work I do concerning cars centers around the suburbs of Chicago.

At the moment I am the owner of two MG Midgets, a 72 and a 76

Neither runs or is anywhere close to usable condition, but soon I will start on the journey of bringing

the 72 back to life. Please keep an eye out for updates on this.

Thanks for reading and I should get more interesting soon.

Cheers,

Jay