MG Midget 1500 Restoration - A-post hinge and skin

[@tiddlers5]

I'm enjoying the care you're taking in restoring this little beaut! I have a 69 (more, or less) with whom I wish I had taken the kind of care you're demonstrating. Cheers!

[@frankish5314]

When I rebuilt my '66 back in 1982 (with an arc welder!) there were no panels available apart from the outer sill.. It took 3 weeks of full time work to get to this point on a single side.

[@ethan8r153]

Love the vids! You totally need more subscribers!

[@VisionAutoGarage]

Thank you!

[@jptoro2007]

Hi Rob. Excellent video. Quick question. I have a 1970 Midget. As I was screwing the bolts to the hinges and the back plates i noticed that both doors were crooked. I realized that when the welder came over to help me fix some of the rusty spots and weld others, the bottom plates where the lower hinges are attached to the body happen to be misaligned. That is, the plates are about 3mm out. This causes the door hit the lower back of it with the body of the car. If I grind the hinges by about 2-3 mm I think I will be ok. I rather add shims if needed to adjust the doors. Any other suggestions? Thx

[@gordonnash6096]

Really enjoying the episodes bit can't find the one specific to repairing the B post?

[@garrybestwick3525]

Hi Rob. Great videos, wish I had them when I did the bulk of the work on my Midget. Just going back slightly and thinking of doing something I should have done in the first place, the a pillar and hinge replace. I did do a lower hinge replacement but the door doesn’t hang very well and the skin at the front edge to door jam, is pretty poor alignment vertically the gap widens at the bottom. Have adjusted for hours and no luck. My question is this, if I was to totally remove the upper and lower hinge and also the skin, how could I align the new hinge set and skin to the door as I will not be able to hang the door as you did for the lower hinge only? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Cheers. Garry

[@VisionAutoGarage]

+Garry Bestwick Hi Garry. In your case I would out the door in the door gap using the latch to hold it, and shim the bottom edge to sill and rear to B-post to hold the gaps. Mount the hinges, then the a-post skin.

[@garrybestwick3525]

Vision Auto Garage Thanks Rob. I’ll try to create some packing shims to position door in correct place. To achieve an equal gap fore and aft/bottom surface. Thanks Rob. Will let you know how it goes. Cheers. Garry.

[@timnixon10]

Great video, I have a 1965 midget with badly repaired A-post and rear wing from previous owner, this has showed me how to address the problems ... thank you.

[@VisionAutoGarage]

Thanks Tim, there will be more videos soon!

[@NatsWorkshop]

I saw you left the engine in like me I’m having to do this but all the purists are telling me I’ve made a grave mistake please put my mind to rest did you have many problems with chassis flex?

[@VisionAutoGarage]

Correctly braced, there should be no issues with keeping the engine in if you're methodical and only do one side at a time.

[@NatsWorkshop]

@@VisionAutoGarage yeah I’ve braced it as much as I can but I’ve braced it in a way I won’t be able to do the outer footwell and a post

[@brianbrowne206]

great videos.

[@VisionAutoGarage]

+Brian Browne thank you!

[@parrotraiser6541]

I'm beginning to wonder how much you'll be making per hour on this project. :-)* Seriously, it's looking as though it would have been easier to strip the vehicle down completely at the start, then replace major chunks of it, rather than constantly finding rotten metal just where you needed to weld.

[@VisionAutoGarage]

There's very little money in any Midget restoration because their value is so low. This one is a personal project, so it's not so much of a consideration.

[@CharltonLatchford]

Why do you cut out sections and not just replace the entire A-post skin? You have bought it anyway. You're obviously sponsored by your bodywork supplier. It"s fair to promote them. But do you prefer them to Moss? Tell people your videos are also a good guideline for MGB's to increase your subscribers.

[@VisionAutoGarage]

These videos aren't sponsored at all. The links are however ebay affiliate links, so I would get a fraction of a penny if someone purchases an item via those links. I use AH panels because I genuinely think they are great. They are good balance between cost and quality. I think its better to keep as much of the original panel as possible, so I only remove whats required.

[@CharltonLatchford]

Vision Auto Garage And you deserve every penny you get (and more). Great job!

[@VisionAutoGarage]

+CharltonLatchford thanks for watching 😁👍🏻