The Story

I was at a cruise in a small town south of Athens, GA on a Saturday afternoon enjoying good music, pleasant conversation with car folks, and a hot dog when a fellow walked up and took a look at my '73 and the Midget belonging to a friend. "You fellows buy MGs?" he asked...I responded "Well, I did this one" and my buddy John said "Yeah, me too...and two Bs at home". "You interested in buying another Midget?" the fellow asked.

To make a long story short, the Midget was a big step above the proverbial "barn find". The fellow, Bill, had purchased the little car in 1991 and done quite a bit of work on it over the years, not for show, but to maintain the integrity of the car. A 1966 Mk. II, not a lot of rust, running and drivable...except for the brakes,...oh yes, and a factory hardtop. The next Monday afternoon I drove back to the town and bought Bill's Midget. A bad day looking at little British cars beats a good day at work. This is what the '66 looked like when I saw it for the first time at Bill's.

Early impressions...

Needs a hood (bonnet), the one on it is from a sprite and could be drilled for the top chrome trim strip, but there's too much rust damage. Flintstone brakes, bleeding may help, short clutch, again, bleeding may help, a tune-up is in order and somewhere not too far out there, paint and an interior redo. Just what the doctor ordered...I was looking for a car that I could get my hands dirty with...like Bill did 10 years ago. Here's a few photos of the car when he got it.

Closer look...

Well, I trailered the car home the next Saturday and spent the next couple weekends going over it. A little soap and water, mild cutting compound, wheel cleaner, and vinyl cleaner and it's a "twenty footer". I did a quick tune-up, distributor cap, points, plugs, wires, condenser, rotor and it actually hit on all four! I pulled off the valve cover and checked the casting number on the head, "12G295", so it's a 1098 cc (photo below), correct for the car, a little less power than the 1275 which came out in the Midget the next year. Here's what it looked like.