Here are Members Modified Cars
K Series Midget: Builder Owner: Neil Thomas
From A to K - the story of a MkII Midget transformation
I bought FEV 235B, a 1964 MkII Midget, from a friend who had bought the
car for his son to restore. His son, having stripped it down to a shell,
lost interest and the project ground to a halt remaining in this state until
I bought it in 2002 (photo 1)
Thankfully when the car was originally stripped everything had been carefully
labelled and boxed up. This was to help later. Having collected the shell
and its boxes of bits I was able to fully establish what had to be done
to restore the car. I was no stranger to extensive Spridget restorations
as I had owned a number of MG’s and particularly loved Spridgets.
As many of you will know, Midgets can rot quite badly and this one was no
exception (photo 2)
The door gaps had already been braced to prevent the car from folding. I
started with replacing the inner and outer heelboards followed by the floors.
I then moved on to the inner and outer sills and inner wings, the A posts
and lower hinges. Next came the repairs to the front and back, of both rear
wings followed by repairs to the bottoms of both front wings. The front
valance also required replacing as did the bonnet. Lastly I re-skinned the
doors. All relevant areas were seam sealed (photo 3)
Whilst I was doing this I also began my research into previous owners of
the vehicle. This didn’t take long as I quickly established that there
was only one previous owner registered with DVLA as my friend had not notified
change of ownership when he purchased the vehicle as a restoration project.
With the help of BT enquiries I soon made contact with Esmond the original
owner of the Midget. Although living in West Wales when I contacted him,
he was living in Essex at the time he bought the car new and then owned
it for the next 30 plus years until it failed its MOT and it was basically
abandoned. He was not aware that the car had survived and was very pleased
to hear that it was being restored and kindly provided me with the original
service book, MOT’s invoices etc. It was at this point that I decided
to restore the car to its original condition as a standard 1098cc MkII.
The next stage of the restoration involved me taking the car to my friend’s
body workshop. I took a week’s annual leave and spent some 60-70 hours
preparing the bodywork for spraying. With the shell upside down I painted
the underside, first with rust prevention paint followed by a stone guard
application. The underside of the car was then sprayed in the finished colour
of tartan red. With the car back upright countless rounds of priming and
rubbing back took place until I was happy with the finish (photo 4). The
car was sprayed first as a shell ensuring all the door shuts were painted,
insides of the wings, bonnet, boot lid and doors and then after all the
panels were replaced, the whole car was painted in 2 pack Tartan Red and
then baked. The final finish was stunning (photo 5).
The restoration then halted for a while as I became preoccupied with the
purchase and restoration of a MkI Sprite. With this finished, I returned
to the Midget. However my original plan of restoring the car to original
specification took a turn when I was presented with the opportunity to buy
a new but old stock Rover 1.8k series engine. Already being aware of the
MG Enthusiasts BBS site which catered for 16v twin cam Midgets, I began
to research the feasibility of using this engine in my MKII. Would this
be sacrilege? No, it would after all provide me with an opportunity to have
a car with outstanding performance yet still retaining the old style charm
of a classic 60’s sports car.
My mind was made up. I would go for it. I spoke with Tim Fenna at Frontline
who was extremely helpful in providing advice albeit I had made it clear
that I would be undertaking the conversion myself. I began sourcing the
various bits and pieces required for the conversion but not forgetting that
I still had lots to do to complete the other aspects of the restoration.
This would not be a quick job.
My first task was to acquire a gearbox and bellhousing to mate to the k
series engine. New, these items can be expensive however whilst browsing
the Lotus owners website I saw a Caterham bellhousing and a Ford type 9
close ratio gearbox advertised for sale. This had been joined to a 1.4 k
series that had been used in a Caterham but which was no longer required.
Having contacted the seller, who was from Oxford, we arranged to meet at
the Spares Day in Stoneleigh and the deal was done.
With engine, bellhousing and gearbox now attached I could work out how to
make it fit the engine bay. This was the hard part as I had to take the
angle grinder to my shiny restored Midget shell. What was I doing? Having
removed the front wings and front nosecone assembly I first cut the heater
tray back. I was determined not to lose the heater and demister function
and so re-fabricated the ducting to allow its continued use but at the same
time it would allow me to move the engine back so that it fitted within
the front cross member (photo 6).
The next piece to go was the cross member in the tunnel that originally
supported the A series gearbox. As this plays an integral part of the strength
of the shell this would have to be strengthened in other ways later. Anti
crush tubes were fixed into the ends of the remaining cross members before
being closed off.
As the engine was to be mounted on the engine bay chassis rails I strengthened
those rails with steel plate (photo 7).
Once these initial stages had been completed I began to trial fit the engine
and gearbox to the car. Having worked out where the engine was eventually
going to be positioned I cut a hole in the gearbox tunnel from the cockpit
which would allow the gear lever to be fitted. This is because the type
9 gearbox is longer than the A series one With engine held in situ I calculated
how to make my engine mountings bearing in mind the fact that the K series
engine has to be fitted on a slant to ensure that the gear lever is upright.
Whilst ideally the engine mounts would be made to attach to the suspension
turrets I did not think I would have enough room and so decided to make
a cradle which would be attached to the chassis rails and to these would
be fitted a silent block mounting. Having obtained two circular bushes through
which a bolt could be passed, I located some thick tubular steel and had
the bushes pressed into this tube. This then enabled me to weld 25mm box
section steel to the tube to form my mountings. Total cost of this was £15
for both (photo 8 & 9).
I then set about making my gearbox mounting (photo 10). I knew this had
to be strong as it would have to provide the strength that was taken away
by cutting the cross members. My rubber mounting for this came from a type
9 gearbox which bolted to the mounting plate. The whole mounting plate was
then bolted to the Midget floor utilising the anti crush tubes in the cross
members. The engine and gearbox fitted a treat (photo 11).
With the engine back out of the car I then set about relocating the battery.
As the heater tray had been cut back the battery had to be placed elsewhere.
Some place them in the boot but I wanted to keep that space for luggage
and so I chose to cut a hole in the passenger side top footwell panel, fabricate
a plinth and place the battery in there. I also cut another section out
in the same panel but closer to the firewall to allow the 1500 heater box
I was using to sit comfortably in its position on the heater tray. I fabricated
another plinth for this (photo 12).
Happy with the changes to the engine bay I masked the affected areas off,
primed them up and sprayed the area with two pack Tartan Red. The engine
bay looked good as new again (photo 13).
One of the issues I had identified earlier on was that the flywheel that
came with my engine was too big to fit inside the Caterham Bellhousing and
instead a flywheel from a 1.6 was sourced. These are smaller in diameter
and would fit. My next step was to obtain a suitable clutch plate and cover.
Whilst I considered utilising an off the shelf Ford clutch and cover, the
Rover flywheel would need to be re-drilled to accept the clutch cover. I
decided not to do this and instead purchased the clutch kit from Frontline.
This made life easier. I already had a clutch arm and bought a new clutch
bearing. One other issue that needed addressing was that the first motion
shaft on my gearbox was too long and so I shortened it by 12mm so that the
gearbox and bellhousing would mate to the engine. It was also necessary
to install a spigot bush in the end of the crank shaft. This was relatively
easy to do although I had to use a shim to make the spigot bearing fit correctly.
On earlier engines it is sometimes necessary to drill the end of the crank
which can present additional work and usually involves removing the crank
and have the machining done professionally to accomplish this. I was also
fortunate to have supplied with the gearbox a speedo angle drive which later
made it much easier to route the speedo cable to the speedometer.
My car had the early master cylinder fitted with the combined reservoir
for both brakes and clutch. I decided that I would use a cable clutch arrangement
for my set up as cables are much easier to change although a hydraulic concentric
clutch system could have been utilised. With the cable set up I removed
the piston rod from the clutch side of the master cylinder and made a link
to connect the end of the clutch cable to the clutch pedal and utilised
a return spring. I then blocked off the pipe outlet on the clutch side of
the master cylinder. Adjustment of the clutch cable was accomplished by
making a bracket and attaching it to the inner offside wing. The cable could
be adjusted at this point by loosening or tightening adjuster nuts.
I then fitted the engine into the car again and calculated the length of
the prop shaft I would need. Having taken the necessary measurements I contacted
Bar Prop in Neath, S.Wales and by the next day the prop shaft was ready.
Trial fitting however revealed that there was insufficient clearance in
the gearbox tunnel to allow the universal joint on the propshaft to turn
freely as it was catching on the reinforcing triangles adjacent to the handbrake
lever inside the tunnel. This was quickly sorted with a little redesigning
of the reinforcing triangles (photo 14).
Whilst I already had a Rover alternator I didn’t have a starter motor.
Enquiries with a local auto electrical engineers led me to buy a starter
that would be suitable for a Sierra 1.6/1.8 made by Magnetron and had the
equivalent Lucas part number of LRS743. To fit a starter motor with this
conversion requires some of the aluminium engine casting to be ground off
thereby allowing the starter motor to line up properly with the bellhousing.
Also required is a spacer that fits between the face of the starter motor
and the bellhousing. Frontline sell these or if you have the equipment and
skill you could make one. Some just use washers as spacers.
The engine bay chassis rails on a Midget do not allow the oil filter on
the k series engine sufficient clearance and so a remote oil filter has
to be used. This involves fitting an adaptor plate to the side of the engine
and from this pipes go to a remote oil filter head which I placed on the
nearside inner wing. Care needs to be taken here to ensure the direction
of oil flow is correct or damage could be caused to the engine when started
(photo 15)
The exhaust system was next on the agenda. Whilst I know there are companies
that can supply ready made systems for these types of conversions, I took
my car to a local exhaust builder and he custom built my exhaust and manifold.
I wanted my manifold to be in two pieces that could be easily removed and
this was achieved. The exhaust pipe is made of 2” diameter pipe with
a repackable silencer (photo 16).
With the main mechanicals now sorted I turned my attention to the first
stage of the electrics. I had chosen to buy an Emerald ECU to control the
running of the engine as opposed to using the original MEMS unit that came
with the Rover. Now electrics aren’t my strongest point however I
was determined to work this out myself (photo 17).
Whilst I bought the ECU from Frontline, Karl at Emerald was absolutely
superb in providing advice on how to wire it in. My k series engine was
the later type and as such the plugs that fitted to the MEMS unit consisted
of one plug with 28 pins and another plug with 52 pins. The Emerald plug
had just 36 pins. Therefore I stripped the engine loom, identified which
sensors I needed to retain and removed the wires I didn’t need (photo
18). I had decided that my Emerald was going to be placed in the cockpit
of the car rather than the engine bay. Most of the wires would reach and
those that didn’t I extended. For all my joints I used solder rather
than rely on crimping and used heatshrink to cover them. I also used a number
of relays for items such as the coils and injectors, the fuel pump and the
cooling fan. I also used a separate fuse block so that electrical items
could be fused separately. I covered the wiring in plastic sheafing for
protection.
Connecting the original wiring loom to the K series engine loom was straightforward
as the Midget fusebox effectively provided the interface between the two.
Of course I did away with the regulator altogether as I was now using an
alternator and had to bear in mind that my MKII Midget was originally positive
earth. I converted to negative earth. I drew wiring diagrams for my installation
for future reference in case, in time, I forgot how I had done it!
With the Emerald wired in I turned my attention to the cooling system. For
this I followed the layout for the Rover 200. I had been told that a standard
Midget radiator was up to the job for ordinary road use and so utilised
a 1500 radiator I had albeit I had the outlets changed slightly so that
they would line up with the new pipework. The header tank I acquired from
the scrap yard which came from a Rover 200. The local autospares shop provided
the pipe and MAFCO joiners. I bought the coolant rail with the tappings
for the original Midget water temperature sensor and the Rover electrical
temperature sensor from Frontline. Some had made their own but it was convenient
for me to purchase one ready made.
With water sorted out I turned my attention to petrol. Aware that injection
systems can suffer from fuel delivery problems if the fuel is swishing around
in the tank under sharp cornering I bought a swirlpot off ebay and fitted
this up under the rear heelboard. My original Midget SU pump would supply
petrol to the swirlpot. From the swirlpot fuel would be pumped through a
high pressure fuel pump, a filter and then to the injector rails. At the
injection rail the petrol would go through the injectors and a fuel pressure
regulator before the unused petrol would be returned to the swirlpot. From
here an overflow returns to the filler tube of the fuel tank. My high pressure
fuel pump, by the way, was from a local scrapyard and cost £10.
The car was now ready to be started and this was a very exciting day. After
a few hiccups with the injection rail and getting a spark, the problem was
soon sorted, thanks to lots of help from the BBS community. They were great.
When that engine started it was wonderful. A real achievement (photo 19).
Having now fitted the engine and got it running it was back to completing
the rest of the restoration. This project was more than a simple engine
conversion.
The following few months saw me fitting a Panhard Rod and big brake conversion
from Peter May Engineering. As well as bigger discs and callipers, Goodridge
brake hoses were fitted all round together with Mintex front pads. Silicone
brake fluid was used for the braking system. I also acquired a second hand
set of 175x70x13 centre lock minilites. I had been given the impression
that these wheels would not fit a square wheel arch car however they did
fit very well and with clearance. I put this down to the fact that I was
using a wire wheel axle which are narrower than the bolt on type. The diff
is the standard 4.2 fitted to the Mk II at the time.
Other enhancements I made included the fitting of an electric window washer
with two speed wipers, airhorns, a 12v accessory socket and a traditional
Lucas spotlight on the rear valance to act as a reversing light. The interior
on the car was renewed albeit keeping the original door cards but fitting
new carpets, cobra classic sports seats with white piping to match the door
cards and four point harnesses. I also fitted a roll bar. Not particularly
liking the black crinkle finish of the original dashboard I had earlier
painted that the same colour as the car (photos 20, 21, 22, 23)
Jobs still to do include getting a new hood, at some stage fitting the Frontline
front suspension kit, fitting an LSD with fine spline halfshafts and the
list goes on!!
My intention all along was to keep the car looking as original as possible
from the outside with its traditional chrome mouldings albeit I have left
the bumpers off.
I have found building this project a thoroughly satisfying experience and
now am looking forward to the enjoyment that comes from using the car. Help
for doing this came from all quarters, the list too long to mention, but
they know who they are and I am very thankful to them.
Neil (k series) Thomas