Continued from Home Page John has promised to write some accompanying text, but Ellen has told him that they have to go shopping first! So watch this space. You know what it's like - parking a fairly large truck (19 ' long by 61/2' wide) takes a bit of thinking about. Time of day, parking spaces big enough, oh the list gets longer ..... My Jeep restoration had hit a big obstacle, so when Pete said there was the possibility of a Mk I Midget for sale locally, I had a really good think about it, saying "yes" as I thought! Summer was looking up ........... but as with all good things we didn't get to see the cars until October (by which time the wet that was summer had gone by) but there it was. Well, the Mk III went to Pete, and Smidge came to me. The MOT had, unfortunately, run out in August, so she came home on the trailer. Harriet's 'new' Midget - 'Smidge' on arrival day   As she had been sitting under a cover and had not had chance to dry out, there were a few electrical problems. Time to call in the A team - Barry was volunteered, and then Pete joined him. The MOT was booked at 11:30 and we managed to button her up at 11! Off to my favourite MOT man after a reluctant start. All was well until Andy got his toffee hammer out, then we discovered two holes underneath, and a loose seat bolt. Ah, just get Pete to have a look, (after all, not only is he the one that got me into this situation, but he also knows about Midgets and can weld upside down!) and I was assured that not only was it no problem, but it would be done that very afternoon. So, back home for coffee and doughnuts and an afternoon of welding for Pete! Smidge was welded up and then pushed back into the garage to try and dry out a bit.   Sunday morning came, and she was still reluctant to start, so we changed the spark plugs - to good old NGK - and tried again. She roared into life, now 'all' we had to do was get the exhaust clamp tight - a case of two half inch spanners and a little blue air. I was making coffee at this time! I had forgotten just how much brass squeaks when you tighten it against steel! Monday, and I'm back from the MOT station - and the good news is that Smidge passed and all the lights worked well in the dark. The welding was inspected, and the certificate issued - whoopee, tax tomorrow! Just one more thing; a big Thank You to the 'A team' of Barry, Pete and Terry, without whose help I would be Midgetless! SOMETHING FOR THE WEEKEND! Well it's a 1967 MK111 Midget and we picked it up on the afternoon of Saturday 25th October and after running some other parts around Fleet decided to go for a beer instead of taking it back to West Sussex thinking that the weather on Sunday was going to be even better than Saturday. That turned out to be a minor technical error! After getting up and getting sorted (sausage sandwich) and a small delay getting Harriet's Midget to run we set off. Arriving home I opened the garage and put the kettle on and surveyed the mess the needed sorting to fit the shell into the garage. The general listing was: 2 steam engines; 1 Landrover engine; 1 Morris Minor engine and gear box; 2 front half shafts from L/R; 1 diff from L/R; 2 tool boxes and contents; big pile of overalls; various rusty bits (not sure what off but will keep them anyway) and general unidentified stuff.   Plan A fill trailer with engines and car bits then just pile everything to right hand side of garage allowing shell to fit -and it worked, only draw back, big pile of stuff to sort so I can locate tools and begin the re-build. Then as it was getting dark we thought bugger there is still the back of Harriet's truck full of boxes which we hope contain most things needed to build a Midget. Luckily it all fitted in a pile at the front of the shell. As to the contents of the boxes, we had a small rummage but will need more time to sort (think that 4 bottom wish bone pans might be slightly excessive) but that is another day. It all ended with Chinese and waving T&H off as they went home and to return the trailer.

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