on Jan 6 2025 i picked a not rusty, starting and idling yellow 76 midget 1500 for $500 with a clean MA title
Wish me luck.
Goal
i figured i better do "my project" before i ma too old after talking to friend about aches and pains and deferred wishes on boxing day
I am handy, i have lots and lots of hand tools, home owner power tools + half inch cordless impact.. on other cars i have done ...shocks struts, starter, intake, manifold gasket, plugs wires ,distributor, lights, lots of audio and electrical on cars and boats , bolt on mufflers, seats light upholstery (replaced factory seat covers) carpets, subwoofer boxes, beauty panel in vinyl... small engine E36 M3 bondo, fiberglass spray paint.
I DO NOT WELD this is why i needed good floors and no rust,
never pulled an engine, never did brake work
you don't see the 5 boxes of parts in the tow vehicle
it has been sitting the the garage waiting for warm weather in Boston and honeydo list completion
i have gone through all the boxes and cleaned identified and cataloged everthing in them..
the "rust" you see is primer. floors are solid
good
MIXED
BAD
PLANS
IF the engine,the trans / clutch and balljoints / suspension "good enough" i think i get it on the road on goal.
that means. all lights runs stops shifts tunes
so i am hoping
add chrome bumper and early grill or something if i need a bumper
tunes. i have a lot of this in the garage already
enought white or yello spray paint to be less ugly
I would love more than moral support from Boston area GRMers especially if i need to pull the engine and trans.
Looks like a great project - start now - not everything is outside - clean a small part at the kitchen table while hanging with the wife - I've even cleaned small parts in my hotel room as I travel for work.
Schedule every Friday night in the garage. Do your honey do projects early Saturday morning and get in the car at 2-3:00pm.
You've got the easiest and lightest engine to pull - (if needed). Enjoy the process.
SWMBO said not until i finished X, Y, Z. some are things in the list needed some warmth. the last one on the backlog will be done tomorrow.
it was part of the reason i got the car.
actually i do a lot of "inside work" when i am on teleconferences i don't need to pay a lot of attention to. I have cleaned everything in the boxes or trunk, emptied everything not connected to the car. (wired bolted etc) SWMBO told i could not paint inside, that's why the wheel is stripped but not painted
i know the engine, trans is small, but i cant lift it out by my self without a lift 
if / when i need to rebuild the carb, i can do that on teleconferences
My local rental place rents for $32/day - I don't have room to store a lift so it's best I rent the beast for the day.
I found a guy on FB that sells rebuilt Z SU's for $450/pair. I think it's more of a retirement side hustle. I ask; you pay for cores?
He credited me $150 a set and he bought two grungy old sets I had. I bought rebuilt carbs for $150 plus $30 shipping. They run great!
Find an MG club to join - the Windy City Z Club is helpful to me. It's a ton of old guys that are willing to help the youngsters - they are bored in retirement.......
thanks for the rental reminder
I will look for the boston club
some progress
scooterfrog said:on Jan 6 2025 i picked a not rusty, [snippage]
Umm, that's not rusty? I'm interested to see what rusty looks like. Apparently my rust metric is all fouled up having lived my entire life in California...
That said, have a ball with this. The A-series BMC sports cars can be lotsa fun, especially with another 50 ponies at the rear wheels.
I live near Boston and can maybe help out (depending on where you are exactly). I also have an engine hoist and a MIG welder if needed (although I may be pulling my Porsche's engine at some point this spring). I had an MGB GT for a while (that I never did get running), so I'm not afraid of British things.
I'll shoot you a PM.
Welding, anybody can use a spot welder, and with some practice you should be able to use a mig welder. You don't need a heavy duty expensive MIG welder, everything on a car is fairly thin. The best MIG welder I have had, amazon S-7 it is even cheaper than harbor freight.
Should be a fun project, lots of parts support and lots of peaple will be willing to provide info.
In reply to rdcyclist :
In the North East that's not Rusty. No structural rust. Solid floors. You are seeing red primer mostly. The paint is all crazed and it had a bad respray. It's been off the road since 91. Mostly kept in a garage
Oh and it's a triumph 1500
Nice progress! I will admit that after your first thread I did do some travel down the Spridget rabbit hole.
In reply to nlevine :
I'm about a half hour north of Boston 93 and 95 intersect
my switches came today.
Fan works.
Headlights and tail lights work.
The stop and turn bulbs work
Swmbo gives me one weekend day and a maybe 4 hrs during the week
My goal was to have it inspected by July 4th but I just I need to have a corneal re transplant in late june
put the rear chrome bumper on. that felt good
rustoleum 2x painters touch yellow is a remarkably close to the yellow (chartreuse) of my car's unmatched bad respray. less ugly now, it covers the red primer.
my blinkers do not work. after i put the hazzard sw in
found a huge vacuum leak, car idles now (again)
In reply to scooterfrog :
Probable bad new switch. If you get it back out without breaking it, check it with your ohmeter. Test the circuit without the switch as well.
Deeper into the electrics.
now all marker lights work, turn indicators do not flash going left, and do nothing going right.
fixed. one head light is on low beam when the other is on high beam. swapped passenger side wires. (contrary to color codes, socket might be backwards)
driver side high does not work
fixed lots of yuck in the front harness...
slow going
In reply to TurnerX19 :
if the hazard switch is bad, then in the off there would be no power to the indicators when moving the stalk. the fact that it lights up at all means at least in the "hazard off" its not broken.
not flashing means the turn flasher might not be getting hot enough to blink
turn signals now work with incandescent bulbs. a new flasher or resistors will be needed with led bulbs.
The flasher is good; turn signal switch / stalk is good Headlight (driver high beam) is simply blown
added tail light ground(s)
replaced all marker light bulbs with led. brakes and tails (not turns yet)
more grounds fixed
horns are rusted shut
washer pump does nto pump.
only about a dozen circuits left.
You guys make this project car / build look easy.
I know many on the board HATE electrical. I don't, but progress is very slow (or looks slow)
sometimes i just feel liek i should put the chrome bumpers on. or throw some paint over primer
A simple fix for turn signals, try a incandescent in the front and a LED at the back, a normal flasher relay might work like that. Will give a brighter LED at the back and slightly reduced power load, but might not need a special flasher relay.
In reply to TED_fiestaHP :
That was my plan but backwards, i removed the rubber bumpers so i needed new front turn signals lights, I chose 2 inch round orange led lights.
With incandescent at the back and led lights at the front it didn't work. led compliant flashers are cheap $6 for 2, but i have led headlight load resistors, i may just drop one off the flasher output. i would like leds all around. small cars more safety :)
With my x 1/9 I tried LEDS front and rear for all the small lights, to reduce power load. Problem the turn signals didn't want to work properly. I tried a LED relay, which should have worked, but for some reason, that didn't work. I then tried LED at the back and the old light at the front, and somehow that worked. Adding a resistor should do the same thing, since the change in light bulb is a reduced power load, using a variable resistor, you could easily determine the min required resistor needed.
I have not looked into LED headlights yet.
With the twin carb's I could only fit a mini alternator, so made some effort to reduce power load.
One thing to check with older cars, they often didn't use relays, so a high power load will go thru the switch, not ideal. Things like the headlights and horn have a high load. Some fuels pumps can also have a high load, although you will have a low pressure pump so that load should be much lower than a fuel injection pump. Vent fan also will have a high load.
Wiring is such fun, old car, bad connections everywhere, and the original wiring might not have been ideal.
In reply to TED_fiestaHP :
so i ordered the 2 LED flashers (2 pin) one for turns one for hazards.
relays.
it has a mechanical fuel pump (even though the wiring diagram shows an electric)
i bought 5
the wiring is so bad its funny, id dont mind it its just time consuming for very little reward. i am checking every circuit. cleaddning connections. extra grounds sometimes. engine to body, tail lights to body
Also lots of de janking from prior(s) it hasnot been on the road since 91, before me the last time it officially change hands ws 85, rmv did not believe me i have owned it without transferring the title for 40ish years but he didn't have an alternative. i now have a clean title in my name. i paid no sales tax because it would not com up on the computer too old
4/14
horns work; turn signals work
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