This picture was taken at Whistler, BC in September 2005 after my
Winter 2005 exterior and cockpit refinish
In May of 2004 I bought this 1976 MG Midget on eBay. (I know, I know... it was risky. But I did as much homework as I could.) Marsha and I flew down to Southern California to pick up the car, and we drove it back home (with very few problems) up the coast highway through California and Oregon. We joined Interstate 5 at the Oregon Washington border for the balance of the trip home.
Since that time I have spent innumerable hours (and dollars) on restoring, modernizing and generally bringing it up to snuff.
The first winter I completely refinished the cockpit of the car myself, which involved stripping everything out, removing the paint down to the bare metal, and re-priming and repainting everything, and then re-installing what I had removed, some of which was new replacements such as the panels and the carpets. During the spring of 2005 I had the body professionally stripped to the bare metal, and repainted.
During the winter of 2006 I removed the engine, transmission and all of the bits and pieces from the engine compartment. I then stripped the engine compartment down to bare metal as well as the four wheel wells. I then had the engine compartment and the wheel wells professionally painted. While this was going on I refurbished the engine, installed a newly rebuilt transmission, and all of the bits and pieces of equipment and hardware I had removed. Upon receiving the repainted car back I re-installed the engine, transmission and all of the gear I had taken out, with some bits being new. I also cleaned up all of the wiring and recovered it all and installed some wiring for a few little additions I had made.
The winter 2006 project was completed on March 10th, with the exception of a few very minor bits I wanted to think about for a while.
One remaining project is to refinish the wheels in their original paint
colours of silver and black, which I will do in a couple of weeks when we return
from a Mexico vacation.
Redoing the engine compartment - Winter 2006
At the beginning... wrong colour... big mess
Everything removed - ready for stripping to bare metal
All stripped... ready for the paint shop
Primed and ready for colour
Painted... ready for re-installing everything.... phew!!!!
Refurbished motor and newly rebuilt transmission... my father in law is the helper
All done and ready to go!!!! Phew indeed!!!!
