N Dentressangle

but actually yes, it's one of these: As everyone knows, Midgets are only really bought by those who can't afford a Spitfire. As ever, the parts industry understands this and makes sure MG parts are affordable for the impoverished hoi polloi who have to drive them. This leads to some pricing anomalies, meaning that an oil cooler kit for a Midget 1500 is usefully cheaper than the same kit sold for a Spitfire 1500. Obviously I had to use the right BMC part number, demonstrate an unnatural knowledge of real ale and lie about knowing any real live women, but they eventually let me order it and here it is. Fitting as soon as it gets a bit warmer.

You're dead to me

Never mind. Something else exciting has turned up: But I don't have an MGB 🤔 So what could it possibly be? 😉

Remember thinking how fugly the Visa was when it came out. Now they look interesting and different - shame so few survive.

Deffo. This guy likes messing with nasty Barrywagons even more than they do:

Yet more superb RL spannering action. Enjoying the resourcefulness and familiar hunting through bits of crap saved 'just in case' to find the right bit of hose or metal for the job. Always knew I kept that shite for a reason. Most of all, thanks for putting me off ever buying a Jag. That rear end looks like something Bob Ballard would get a stiffy about

Somewhere like this? http://vw-specialists.co.uk/ Local, VAG specialists, do wheel alignment and could sort it out if it goes tits up. No experience but they've got plenty of positive reviews.

Made a start on the other side and the law of Sod decreed that this was the moment I spotted a tiny hole in the rack gaiter Better get a pair ordered. The gaiters that is

Quick update, just because. I'm aiming for this car to pass an MoT, either real or just going through the motions with my friendly tester. That means a good sort out of the brakes / suspension etc. O/S track rod end was last week's little job, because of a split gaiter. Whilst I was there I noticed the top ball joint one was just notional. New bits ordered from James Paddock, and here's a top ball joint replacement in 20 min: Old one: No play in it, and moved well enough but deffo an MoT fail. Ready for the new one: One of the PO's painted the springs red, badly, coz its faster, innit? And on with the new: They're cheap enough that I'll do the N/S top joint and track rod end whilst I'm in the mood, then take it down ATS to have the alignment checked. Trunnions have already been cleaned out and pumped full of EP90, and wheelbearings nipped up too.

Definitely needs a little tickle on the bulkhead: Knowing @SiC's methods, we'd be buckling in and doors to manual for a full body-off rebuild within days 😉

Mine lost £2400 on what he was originally asking

Makes perfect sense. I always find the right cars turn up in the wrong colour. Having said that, the paint job looks much better than mine. I can't tell what colour that blue Spit was originally, whereas anywhere they could get away with on mine is still white - behind the door trims, for example. BUT! DVLA have that blue Spit down as red! The numberplate is your destiny... 🤣

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/531843165448098/

Blimey. The dealer says he works on "small margins" 🤣 Prefer the later cars too - my ideal was an X reg 1500

Absolutely. You've got the camera out already, and take good pics, so not much extra work really. Anyway, this looks reasonably priced for a pretty Mk3: https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/877490200244551/

I like LR products, but with the exception of the FL2 most of their stuff in the past 20yrs has had a crap reputation for reliability and problems. Major stuff like broken cranks and stuffed Ingenium engines, and minor things like electrical glitches and air suspension naughtiness. FL2 aside, the Disco 1 is probably as late as I'd go. Selling it used and giving any kind of warranty as a dealer would have to must be a nightmare. Why not specialise in something less likely to come back?

Hands off mine! 😉 Seriously nice work going on, and thanks for being brave enough to show your crap welding as well as your good - makes I feel better about my disasters. That door looks to fit really well, and shows what a good job you've done. Great to see the car being properly restored 👍

Winner!!! I've heard from the owner who did (ie paid for) the restoration in the late 90's that it's Aston Martin metallic green. Which looks to be what they call 'racing green'. Currently mulling over what the exact paint code would be 🤔

Great to meet you too @Matty My daughter is now envious of your accent! Maybe we need to move to Haslingden 😉

Jaguars just seem to attract naughtiness for some reason. Nice one getting it sorted. I'd have set fire to it.

Good call. Did all the same to my Series 3 a year or so ago, having had the previous Shitpart exhaust rot faster than a tuna sarnie. I like the sharper sound the stainless exhaust gives it, although sadly it's no faster

No, we ended up cannibalising the poorer houndstooth seat base for its fabric. Looks like Newton can find the stuff: https://newtoncomm.co.uk/products/austin-mini-city-houndstooth-cloth-front-seat-covers-1

Time for an update! The aim with this car has always been to make it a reasonably comfortable daily driver, or at least something you could use as one. It's hardly been on the road in the last 12 years or so (maybe more) and this is partly because niggly faults haven't been sorted and jobs haven't been done right. It's also suffered from some shit modifications - to my eyes, anyway - and one of things I couldn't live with was this: No, not the swingball. The daft exhaust which some people refer to as 'wheelbarrow handle' type. When I was 17 I would have thought it was ace. It's really loud and snarly, but I'm 52 and just feel like even more of twat than normal making a noise like a bomber. Plus it's as boomy as you'd imagine on the motorway. Now sold on FB and replaced with this much more civilised stainless 'Stag' style jobbie: Still makes a decent growl but much quieter and uses the original exhaust mountings. I had to weld a bit more 2" pipe to the centre section so that it met my front pipe, but seems like you can MIG stainless perfectly happily. One of the original rear mount straps was still attached and usable. I made the other out of a piece of Land Rover axle check strap I had in stock. No pics, but the OS front overrider was falling off. Found it was cracked and broken so glued it back together and bolted the bumper, overrider and quarter panel back to the car properly, as it was hanging on by two bolts and a cable tie. Bodging twats. Gotta love em. The interior was a problem for me with this car from the start. The dash support, tunnel cover and knee pads were missing. The original seats were junked in 1998 for a hideous pair of what looked like cream leather ones, then changed again for vinyl buckets a couple of years ago. The buckets were OK, comfy enough but without much back support. They also wouldn't slide back and forth properly, probably because they'd been badly fitted. I decided to go back to original, and picked up these locally for too much money: They were as rank as they look. The driver's side frame had rotted through at the front right and the recline mechanism was seized, so I bought another two knackered black vinyl recliners for not much ££. The base foams were OKish, but the driver's seat had to be stripped completely anyway so I set to it and reduced it to the knackered frame on the left: Scrap, really. Luckily I had a good drivers' side frame from the black vinyl pair. I cleaned it up and welded the fabric tensioner bar back on: Meanwhile me and Mrs D set about restoring the houndstooth covers. Yes, those really manky knackered ones. New ones are about £500, so it's a good job Mrs D is handy with a needle and thread. I found a pretty good passenger side houndstooth seat base locally for a fiver, so replaced my own houndstooth base with that one and used the fabric to repair a mess like this: The seat back foam on the drivers seat was shagged: so I spent £50 on a new back foam from http://www.parklaneclassics.co.uk/index.htm and we got on with rebuilding the seats. The passenger seat back had been attacked by a cat which had used the base as its bed, but it started to respond to cleaning: Mrs D used some fabric to match and recover the damaged upper panel, and eventually we had it ready to fit: Getting the bucket out was a total cunt. It wouldn't slide, so I couldn't get at the bolt heads and had to grip them with moles and gradually loosen the nylocs. Filled the four superfluous holes in the floorpan with rubber grommets and worked out where the original seat would have mounted. Now slides and reclines as Triumph intended. Drivers' side took half the time once I knew what I was wrestling with: As you can see, they ain't perfect, but they're usable and comfy which is what matters to me. And they didn't cost £500... Here's how things used to look: Next exciting post - replacing the missing bits of interior

Not seen one of these for ages: https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/683313569943182/ My grandma made her final journey in a rather gorgeous metallic dark brown one of these, although I think it was a slightly earlier Granada.

Impressive commitment! I'd have been tempted to grinder flap disc that inner sill and then go over with a coat of but I guess with welds as shitty as what you found that option had to be ruled out. Having looked at a few old cars lately, I didn't see anything that wasn't far, far worse in the metal than it seemed in the pics apart from the one I ended up buying. But maybe my expectations were so low by that point I wasn't surprised 😉