1968 MG Midget

[christine]

I ran out of gas yesterday too.. Lashed up a fire extinguisher to finish the job ..And now i've read in todays paper there's another shortage of Co2 ,so i hope the factors have some tomorrow .

[SiC]

I hope too. Even if a different sized bottle to what I usually use.
I go argon mix as works well for me. Never tried co2 but the argon isn't ridiculously expensive for the amount I use.

[christine]

Oh i'm a numpty ,i thought my argoshield was 5% Argon 95% Co2 .... It's other way round innit ! Anyway the co2 fire extinuisher weld great . In fact i prefer it ..

[SiC]

Yeah I ought to give straight co2 a go. I'm on SGS gas as cheaper without the cylinder rental as I'm not getting through enough to justify BOC. Plus SGS I can pick up at a local motorfactors. rather than driving into the centre of Bristol.

[christine]

I was on Hobbyweld 5% but they pulled out of the local factors ,so I'm now on SGS too. I bet it's gone up loads now . Plain Co2 burns a lot hotter , and brighter (i can see what i'm doing !)

[SiC]

SGS put the deposit price up. What does the label on your bottle say? I was on 2021 but had to pay the difference for 2022 which I am on now.

[dean36014]

Another SGS user here too. The pickup from motor factors is really handy for me. I treated myself to a lovely new inverter mig this year but other than a quick repair to the roof frame on the cx I've not been able to use it again. Maybe next year now.

[SiC]

Didn't get much done this bank holiday weekend. Visiting family events scuppered most of my free time. Today I had spare time and after a midday snooze in the garden, I decided that early evening I needed to do something on it.

Connected the regulator to my fresh bottle of argon (£78 for this refill FFS - may need to consider CO2 soon) and it gave me a chance to clean up the wire feed roller & torch shroud.

Puddle welded up the final patch. Then welded up the pin holes and cut marks that came through from grinding + cutting discs. I turned the gas down in an attempt to reduce my usage. This just led to welds with higher pinholes. So ended up turning it back up again!


I didn't take a picture after grinding all that back again. But you get the idea.

Then set on the boot floor outrigger section. This strengthener piece is not properly welded to the floor. Poor welds again.

Ran over the wire wheel to get the rust and paint cleaned off.


Then welded along. Quite hard work as the underseal on the bottom kept catching fire. The fumes from this mess up the welding arc as it engolfs the shielding gas. Also the metal is very thin on top, so had to turn the power down a tad so it didn't melt through.

This is after grinding. Might need another bead or two where I didn't quite weld along properly.


Then cleaned up again. Next was to start lining up this outrigger piece and clamping down for welding.



I still really need to make a decision on this offside outer sill. Heart says I should replace it all. The head says that's a much bigger job and I should just patch the rear section that has rusted through.

[Guest]

20220830_154221.jpg (309.35 KiB) Viewed 423 times

Oi SiC, would you like this book? I'm still clearing out stuff after my move and found it. You have first chance as resident Midget botherer, otherwise up for general grabs.

[SiC]

20220830_154221.jpg

Oi SiC, would you like this book? I'm still clearing out stuff after my move and found it. You have first chance as resident Midget botherer, otherwise up for general grabs.

I would absolutely love that book! How much did you want for it?

The more I learn about them, I'm quietly becoming pretty obsessed with Spridgets at the moment. Not quite to an Invacar level but give it time maybe.....