Car Thread

[sarge]

An update from Comfy Mayhem Motorsport, home of "Piddles" the MGB and "Blue Peter" the Midget and gathering place of local survivor-hobby petrolheads and other worthies (such as Rufus, the other day).

Some of you might remember the Midget sort of fell in our laps a few weeks ago, a '79 in keeping with what now seems to be a pattern started by the MGB of examples from the last year of production (never a good sign- Grin!). The Midget has been asleep in a garage for many years, so a wakeup exercise was started by the previous owner and continues in earnest here.

Whilst the MGB has been holding down the road duties, the Midget has had several obvious things dealt with as we waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited for Penndot to issue paper so we can actually road-test it and survey the remaining tasks. Paperwork having finally arrived, a good hard drive reveals several niggles to be dealt with better done on a lift.

Yesterday morning we headed down to Merryman's for a morning air-time appointment and survey (Jack is an encyclopaedia on little British cars). Not an unpleasant drive, but not without it's notable "opportunities for improvement". So we've now dealt with the dodgy brakes (lost bits out of the off-side rear adjuster!). Steering was flighty and you could wiggle a wheel about up front, so wheel bearings or spindle bolts. Once in the air we could determine the latter so they are ordered up to be here next week. Then we'll line it up, for I suspect it's 'way out of whack beyond just the kingpin/spindle-bolt issue. Some other things like an exhaust support missing and such we found when we walked underneath and will do whilst still in flight. Lastly, we need to spin up the packing nut on the tailshaft a little; the gearbox leaks a little back there and the shaft moves enough to want to draw it up but not enough to warrant pulling the dam thing (yet) if it won't draw up.

All in all, though, many pleasant conclusions. Hard to determine until you actually get it up in the air (a mirror on a stick helps but isn't definitive) but solid all the way across underneath with no cracks or holes. Someone had converted the car from oil dashpots to gas shocks (probably the major cause of alignment changes we need to chase down now, but a good thing overall), opened the exhaust a bit, and fitted a Weber carb, so I suspect there was a little autocross or rallye action intended.

It does need some new shoes, which we already knew. The tires are just a little too large; they touch the front wells when hard over and the suspension is compressed, and the bad alignment has done two of them a bit of a mischief. The evidence does have me rather wonder if the car had been pushed by enthusiast's pursuits, what with the Weber, exhaust, shock conversions, and the tyre wear (which might be from repetitive intentional oversteer, shall we call it). No-one will admit anything, of course, but it all smells ever so suspiciously of the "prepared" classes in Solo-1 back in the late '70s.

Even so, the bones are good and the tasks at hand are quite a bit less involved and numerous than I thought. The direction has changed a little; we'll keep all the mods but revisit them to do them "right" and the result should be good. Where the B is a cheerful laid-back comfortable B-road cruiser in comparison, this little shit is an eager tailwagger jumping up and down at the door wanting out to run around and pee on every bush.

So, action follows planning with the new member of our little stable, and the evening saw a shower and a scrub under the fingernails followed by a pleasant drive in "Piddles" who continues to give the pleasure that comes from an honest survivor in good nick, which is the goal with the Midget.

You might wonder why all this tawdry detail, so an explanation is in order. Some here are already serious petrolheads/gearheads and will hopefully enjoy the yarn for what it is. Others who have interest but think of the car bit as the lovely restorations and street-rod builds seen at the shows (and shown here, much to my enjoyment) might appreciate a glimpse into the survivor side of the car world we discussed a little earlier.

[The Dirt]

Sarge, though I have never been a 'petrolhead' (other than motor and brake repair), and know little about car-history (other than I love old vehicles for their visual feast), you have such a gift for words and sentence structure and description, that I enjoy reading everything you write if for no more than the art of the words alone.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

If either could be rented by the day, I wonder which would be the higher rent?

More likely by the hour.....

[rogruth]

Sarge,

Ditto The Dirt.

The third paragraph from the bottom of your last post broke me up.
You have had a dog like that.

[healey36]

Sounds like the Midget got a thorough once-over at Merryman's, and you've escaped with just a few issues to be dealt with...hooray! Looking forward to hearing of the blue bomber's first foray into the Adam's County country-side.

Keep notes for the book...

Healey

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Okay, car thread guys. What are the 5 cars you would love to drive or own all things being equal.

After considerable deliberation......................

In chronological order:

'37 Cord 812 SC

'57 DeSoto Adventurer (there is a Packard that I might find suitable, )

'71 Buick Skylark GS Phase I

'78/'79 Mercedes 450 SL

Sesto Elemento (I'd have to live / sleep in it, but..........)

[healey36]

My tastes don't run quite as exotic or lethal...my top five are:

1930 Invicta 4-1/2 Litre Type-S
1936 Dusenberg SJ Speedster
1962 Ferrari 250 GT SWB
1957 Mercedes 300 SL "Gullwing"
1971 BMW 2002ti

Put those in my garage and I'm good. Sarge, you can have the Sprite.

Healey

List revision...I'm dropping the '57 Gullwing for this:



An early-to-mid-1960's Westfalia. I've been threatening the ball-and-chain that I'm going to blow a chunk of the nest-egg and get one of these...somehow, in a weak moment, I left it off the list. The Gullwing was too pretentious anyway...

Healey

[webenda]

Okay, car thread guys. What are the 5 cars you would love to drive or own all things being equal.

After considerable deliberation......................Sesto Elemento (I'd have to live / sleep in it, but..........)

The value of the euro is dropping fast. You may be able to buy one and keep your house by the end of the year.
Lamborghini Sesto Elemento => https://youtu.be/zRT1hw_-0a8

[Mitch]

How about one of these, Healy?

Picture 035.jpg (146.61 KiB) Viewed 7899 times

[webenda]

A Chevy Greenbrier Mitch? What did Healy ever do to you that you hate him so?

[healey36]

Haha, Mitch...I've been up to my elbows in my neighbor's '64 Corvair enough to know I want no part of that. I'll take the VW air-cooled over the GM air-cooled every time. Still, a sharp conversion...looks a bit like a quonset hut...

Healey

[rogruth]

Sesto Elemento.

OMG

Where do you drive it besides race tracks?

Cost is nearly 2 or 4 million dollars?

OK. Now what's its MPG?

And how about its front hit rating?

Can you get insurance for it?

Yeah, I know all of those questions are unimportant if you are able to actually own one of these.

If I had one it would be displayed under glass like those $3,000 locos.

A beautiful machine.

[Mitch]

I always liked Corvairs back in my younger days. I though the Spider Convertible was the tits, despite what Ralph Nader said!

The one pictured was at R & T last year.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Sesto Elemento.

OMG

Where do you drive it besides race tracks?

Cost is nearly 2 or 4 million dollars?

OK. Now what's its MPG?

And how about its front hit rating?

Can you get insurance for it?

Yeah, I know all of those questions are unimportant if you are able to actually own one of these.

If I had one it would be displayed under glass like those $3,000 locos.

A beautiful machine.

I think that they only made ~20 of them.

Drive it???!? For what that costs, I'd have to live in it!

[rogruth]

I knew two people that had Corvair Spiders.

One was my 60 year old aunt who never drove it out of town or over 35 MPH.
The other was a fellow teacher of my age who bought it new. He rolled it seven
times when he went into a 90 degree turn a little too fast. He scratched his knee
and bruised his shoulder and destroyed the car. His comment was "I'd almost like
to try that again".