It's Been Awhile

Hello again, so in the time since we last were together some interesting things have been going on. The farm is now home to a milling machine, it recently arrived and is in the process of being set-up and hopefully we will be milling over the up-coming holiday.

In car news I am focusing full steam ahead on the 72. The engine is at Auto Machine in St. Charles. I am going with a 72.5 mm bore with a low compression piston. This should produce a 1350cc, which if all goes we will be fitted with a supercharger. I am going back and forth on what blower to use, I am thinking the vintage centrifugal vane will win out, but I am keeping an eye open for a small Eaton.

With this development I think I will switch the driveline: wheels, hubs, and axles off of the 76 so that I will have the hopefully more reliable and robust alloys on the blown car. Also I'm looking at cams for the forced induction car, so if anyone has some insight on this, please let me know!

Well there will be more to come!

- Jay

Completed Cart C(K)arma

Hi Everyone, this is just a quick post to show a few photos of the welding cart that I've been working on the last few trips to the shop. We here it is!

I'm rather proud of the cart and I think it'll last me well into the future, if you would like one, I'll make you one to your own special requirements for about 12 grand. Well happy tinkering to all you and hopefully there will be Midget posts soon.

A Taste of Things to Come

Hello All,

Sorry that I have not posted in the entire month of May, you might be happy about not hearing me rant on for a month. I have been rather unsuccessful in my attempts to work on Spriticus and Lord Peter Whimsey, what I think I'll call the midgets. Second to last trip home I got a chance to sand-blast some of the suspension components, I came to realize that my 40+ year old supplies were no match for 40 years of road grime and gunk. So I acquired a new blaster from Harbor Freight, however due to the fact that last weekend was Father's Day, I spend the weekend planting 500 vegetables, instead of praying in the church of carburetion. But some good news is that the welding cart is 98% complete, I'm just waiting on getting some hooks painted and then I will have a multi-page layout on what I have created.

In other news my trusty beetle is for sale, see below:

http://chicago.craigslist.org/wcl/cto/4527348175.html

So if you want a car that makes people punch each other in the arm, buy this.

Peace Out!

- Jay -

Built not Bought

Hey Everybody! I'm back with a small little update on my continuing adventures in fabrication-land, not actually a really place, but it'd be sweet if it was. With the addition of okay Thursday on to Good Friday, I had a nice four day weekend back at the ranch where I accomplished pretty much nil relating to the Midget. However I did under-take the construction of a super-mondo-heavy-duty welding cart for my new welder. After a trip to Harbor Freight for some wheels and a stop by a local welding supply store to see what was commercially available my dad and I decided to try to use up the tons of material that is laying around the shop and build a welding car...poor choice on our part, we spent close to a full day planning out the defining, no-compromises, ultimate cart, went through, multiple design changes, style re-imaginations and other manufacturing disputes before successfully starting on the project and cutting eight sections of angle iron, before we exhausted our time.

Now I am slightly factious on this, the design is well along and by the time I return home we should be ready to weld and fabricate the cart together, but it's always interesting to see how much time can be consumed seeking perfection on a project. The real crux of the situation is the question of weather or not this is wasted time or if 'genius' really does take time and thus you can not rush the process if you want the results. I am in this camp and I happy to take the extra time if it yields superior results down the road. When I get back to the shop in a couple weeks I'll make sure to get some pictures for you guys! Until then whatever you do, do it well.

Get Blown (Away)

After an interesting and productive weekend at home, whose got two thumbs and a MIG welder, this guy!, I am back in Peoria plotting away on what to do to the 72 Midget. Over the weekend I dropped off a load of BMC engine parts at my local auto machine shop, anyone from the Chicagoland area will immediately know the place I'm talking about, Auto Machine. There seemingly endless knowledge of engines and performance engine building has unfortuately put a damper on my thoughts of having a high revving, high compression motor in the Midget. Three main engines are not suppose to rev to the moon and supposedly you don't want to even try it. So now on to (side)step two... Forced Induction.

Now I have always been a turbo guy, from the 1.8T that was in my Beetle, to dreaming about the twins in a 993 911. However due to the fact that I am without fuel injection and don't want to inject the Midget, it looks as though a blower is in order. I have found a couple of almost Vintage correct kits that should provide the perfect mix of usable power and affordable cost. I will keep all of you up to date as I move down this road. So if you hear the whine of a supercharger coming from a little red car, just know that I'll be coming through.

Take care for tonight, more news to come soon!

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