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Gmoto Silver Member Gregg Wagner
Sunnyside, NY, USA   USA
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Hi group,

Just wanting to introduce myself since I am new to owning an MG, and new to this forum.

I bought a 1976 Midget last week off of NYC Craig's list. It's a non-running, but mostly complete project that had been sitting for 10 years. I started digging into it and will focus on making sure it will run before doing anything else. I'm stoked.

I have already found the forum to be very helpful. One great thread is about the custom wrench used to get the carb off!

Looking forward to getting to know you and be a part of this group. Here are a few pictures:

Gregg


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hoggie Silver Member Mike Hogan
Oklahoma City, OK, USA   USA
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Looks nice. How bad is the rust damage? Common areas are the bottom of the A post, rocker panel ends, and rear fender area.

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Abington, PA, USA   USA
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1976 MG Midget MkIV "Rodney"
Welcome Gregg,

This link is from our Tech Library, which you should reference often. First, don't even try to start the car until you've read this proven guide. I have a '76 I bought brand new and just finished awakening it from a 30 year sleep while properly mothballed.

See:

https://www.mgexp.com/article/awakening-a-sleeping-mg.360

Have fun,

Richard

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angliagt Doug Milota
Roanoke, VA, USA   USA
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1967 MG MGB GT "The MG"
1974 MG Midget MkIII "The Midget"
Welcome!

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ice Larry Ice
Lawrenceville, GA, USA   USA
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Merry Christmas Greg and to all!

Like Senatore mentioned, we have a decent library of questions and solutions on our site, good to use. Suggest you purchase a manual and start reading up before you tackle wrench work on the car. It's difficult to control the desire to dig in and get a bunch of projects going only to find parts are slower than expected to arrive and other things in life pop up. That's when you lose desire, time and money and the car becomes someone elses 10 year project. Shotgun repair is not the route to go. Get one system completed and move on to the next, you won't regret it!

If you want to get the engine running and that's a great place to start, dump, drain, blowout any old gas left in the fuel system. Check the engine fluids, good time to dump and change the oil. Depending on your carb type and ignition system the engine, if luck holds, will start up.

Since you have a 1500 engine and a later car than I do I will turn you over to some of the other site members to help you. My cars engine is a 1275 and somewhat different from yours.

There is universal work that must be done on all our cars. You will prob have to redo the brakes, that's lines, calipers, wheel cylinders and master cylinders. Next prob will be the clutch, lines, master and slave cylinder. Everyone tears out their hair when working on the clutch but it's something you just have to master!

Get a manual for your year and you will find it is your best tool in your toolbox!

Good Luck!



Iceman

Atlanta GA

71 MG Midget

62 AH MKII
67 Midget
71 Midget

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bleteaches6 Silver Member Lee Orphan
Bonney Lake, WA, USA   USA
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Welcome to the madness Greg! It looks like you have a good project there.

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Gmoto Silver Member Gregg Wagner
Sunnyside, NY, USA   USA
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Thank you all for the welcome.

I have read and printed out the "waking" to-do list; excellent. I am focusing on the fuel system first. The gas tank is out and empty; surprisingly clean inside. I will clean up the outside and give it a coat of paint. I will replace all the fuel hose sections. The carb is apart and I have ordered the stuff I need to get that in good shape. The ignition system has been altered and I will be looking at threads on that topic to get that sorted.

It is a California car. I was told that, but verified it by the sticker on the front body panel under the hood. There is minimal rust. It has some on the driver side at the seam between the fender and lower body panel behind the wheel. One rust spot behind the rear wheel. Surface rust underneath and in some spots under the hood; that's pretty much it.

There are some electrical issues like: the instrument lights don't work, the reverse lights don't work, the turn signals and hazard flashers don't work, wipers and windshield washer don't work. It had an alarm system in it that was not complete; I ripped that out; don't need to make things more complicated than they already are.

My last big project was rebuilding and modifying a 5.0 to put into my 1989 F-150. I also installed a programmable ECU/EFI and all new fuel system. One of the more challenging parts was the wiring! It came out great, and unless you were familiar them, you would never know it was modded. It was quite the project; I learned a lot and am proud of what I pulled off.

I also used to rebuild 80's vintage Japanese motorcycles, so I have lot's of experience with carbs!

Again, glad to be here and thank you for the welcome.

Gregg

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