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MG Midget and Sprite General - Restoration cost?

I know This isnt the best question to ask especially for someone who hasnt got much know how but i would like to plan a restoration for my sprite and i was just wondering what sort of budget would be a good amount. Depending on if i do a restoration course which would mean the car is a rolling resto the majority of work would be done by me the car doesnt really have big problems but I wouldnt have the benift of being able to paint it myself or removing engine and gearbox before painting. any opinion on the subject would be greatful. or at least how much did you spend.
D Sartain

how long is a piece of string?
looking at your car profile pic it looks mint - so what exactly needs doing to it, that you call it 'restoration'?
David Smith

rebuilt engine/gearbox
paint job
all small rectifications
all small parts needed

between 4000 and 4500.

And that is a low estimate with no welding
Onno Könemann

Take a wild guess then multiply by 8...
Prop

its the sprite not the dart haha. but it does have hidden problems damaged sill drivers door inside is practically falling apart front wing being wrong bonnet seems to have dents boot doesnt seem to fit right under the bonnet looking abit worse for wear and its more jobs that can do damage the windscreen is badly pitted but did pass mot had work done on it and at least 3 colours on the car and just more the fear of a colour match but thanks for the comment and it may stay that way for a while but it is many the problem of matching the colour and if it is gonna get a respray then might aswell give it abit of work at same time.

more me being picky and a perfectionist. i always say id rather have a car thats a state that i can do abit of wrok on it and wount matter or mint so doesnt need big jobs not best place to be sitting inbetween.
D Sartain

this is more at the back of my head thought by the way.
D Sartain

D
I would rebuild all mechanicals piece by piece as a sort of roling resto.
Once these are all flawless (and I mean totaly flawless) then start collecting body bits you need.
Get a pair of wings bonet etc.
Get these blasted and etched.
And once you have all this ready strip weld and spray.

You might end up with a pair of wings or bonet surplus but you will be able to sell them and recoup part of the investment.

Onno Könemann

Sills are not a good thing to restore - you're looking at about £350 if you don't do your welding and that's ALL that's wrong - but, chances are, if the sills have gone - the first bit of the floorpan have - and possibly the front inner wing and back - so, I'd probably budget at least £1k for that.

There are the odd second hand parts as well, as Onno said, but, they are getting fewer and, therefore, more expensive!

However, it's all worth it in the end - so I'm told - but, I don't think that there ever is an end!!!!!!!
rachmacb

Dan,

Before you consider what you WANT to do, consider what NEEDS to be done.

Also, I would STRONGLY suggest, if you haven't already done so, that you hook up with at least one person who has owned one these cars for a while and knows the ins and outs of them. Especially bodily wise.

I only say this as you write "especially for someone who hasnt got much know how".

You could save yourself a lot of heartache and money, by knowing the true picture of how bad, or indeed GOOD, your car really is.

And, PLEASE PLEASE, take this in the spirit it is intended, which is to be helpful. :) OK?

Could you please use a little more puntuation in your posts? It will make them far easier to read and understand, which in turn will help you, as it will help others in their replies to you. :)

Now that's me being diplomatic and polite, so if anyone takes offence at that, --- #$##$#$#$ :):):):)

And PS. Can I have your wheels, they are juicy and exactly what I want for my own car. :)

Lawrence Slater

my girlfriend thinks I have spent 3 grand so far (dont ask me how she has arrived at this number, she doesn't have a clue what I have bought, nor have access to my bank account). But actually she is probably about right!

However, this figure does include the cost of the car (300) transporting the car (100) garage rent (12 x 100) tools such as a welder (200) other tools and consumables (200?). So actually spent on the car is probably near a grand so far (that can't be right, I have only bought a few panels, oh well!).

My car is in tiny little pieces and having a HUGE body restoration.

Dunno if this helps... It depresses me!

Malcolm
Malcolm Le Chevalier

My take on this subject is that a fixed budget would be a misunderstanding about what is involved. Especially with a rolling restoration if you use it much. There will always be the next bit that needs fettling / improving / replacing, and eventually redoing (again!) The only jobs that work to a fixed budget are if you are doing it up to a pre-determined standard, and then selling it on.

I like to remind myself that had I bought a small cheap 3 year old car such as a Fiesta / Corsa / Saxo at a similar on the road value, it would subsequently depreciate at maybe £1500 a year, AND need maintenance. As the Spridget doesn't effectively depreciate that is a very good rolling resto budget to work with. I don't spend anything like that on mine in an average year. And frankly if you enjoy doing the restoration work it is not an expensive pastime compared to many. Have an idea of any major repairs needed but then do the rest of the stuff just as it crops up, or the fancy takes you and enjoy it!
Guy

Sorry grammer isnt my strong point. Also the wheels do have rust around the valves, also the hubs need to be replaced. But I like them so sadly they wount be going. Not a big fan of minilites.

Hope grammer was bit better this time. Im a teenager though not the great users of grammer. And I will try not to use text speak.

And the wing it isnt due to it rusting its due to damage. Has a dent on it so it isnt a straight line if you get me. If I can il try to post a picture of it.

im sure we all have bits that people looking at it wount notice but other members in the club might and you always do.
D Sartain

Hi dan,

Perfect. Thanks for dumping the text speak :). I used to be a teenager once upon a time. LOL.

OK. Wheels. I agree with you. I prefer the steels too.
A bit of rust around the valves, no problem. As long as they hold air if tubeless, and probably are, again no problem.

I doubt you need to replace the hubs. Why? Back or front? I suspect you mean bearings, and are you certain?

A bent wing can be straightned out. If there is no rust on it, you're on a winner. A chance to learn the art of panel beating. You can buy a basic set of tools for way less than the price of a new wing.

http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalog?q=panel+beating&hl=en&cr=countryUK%7CcountryGB&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=17562736635030963591#

And you can't get a much easier wing to work on, than a spridget front wing.

Yup you might be your own worst enemy if you yourself are your biggest critic. That's the price you pay for being perfectionist.

Forget what others think of your sprite, they don't matter unless you allow it. You are the owner, and you decide what's acceptable as far as looks go.

Don't get into a trap of feeling compelled to bring your car to the "standards" of others cars.

May I ask why you bought this car?

Was it for the purpose of learning to be mechanical, or to take on a restoration project, or simply because you like the looks, and wanted to drive an old 2 seater car?

And now having driven it, do you get a buzz from it?

If you were close to Kent, you could take a drive down and look at my sprite, and have a drive.

By the standards held by some on the bbs, mine is still the wreck that I bought in a breakers yard in 1977.

By my standards, it's a sprite that I bought for 40 quid almost 34 years ago to the day. It's carried me all over central Europe, around the med, and into north Africa. I've slept in it, eaten in it, practically lived in it for weeks, and even shagged in it.

I doubt I've spent more than 4000 quid on it in 34 years of ownership. (apart from petrol/oil consumables etc) Say 5k tops. That's less than 150 quid a year.

What do you want FROM your sprite?

What do you want FOR it?

What's your prime reason for owning it?

If like me, you only want the fun of driving a go kart, with a body a heater and a roof, then you can get away with a pretty small budget.

If you want a heritage standard, K series work of art, then unless you can do the work yourself, get a job as a banker, you'll need the annual bonus to spend on the car :)

Lawrence Slater

Adding up all of the receipts for a full mechanical rebuild (no body work) came to $10,000 in 1995 dollars, that is every bearing, seal, bushing, new dampers, springs, new brake cylinders, clutch system and all rubber parts in the engine/brakes, rebuild the engine, carbs, trans, front suspension and rear axle, rebuild several of the gauges.

that did not include any body work, trim or wire harness, or labor

That was on a car from a junk yard with 135,000 miles on it, so it was easy to decide that everything was ready. On a car in better shape, the dilemma is deciding about, "as long as I am in here, should I also spring for the additional expense of ______, just in case?".

The benefit of rebuilding an old car from nose-to-tail like that is the likelihood of the next 10 ~ 15 years of trouble free motoring, and no re-dos. The down side is the investment all at once, and the time, all at once.

Watch out for people who didn't keep the receipts making rough estimates about what their work cost them, because the human mind has an amazing ability to estimate things pretty far off. I was shocked, shocked, when I added everything up, what it had really come to. It was far more than what I had "remembered" (because I remembered the big items, but its harder to remember all of the little things that can add up to so much more).

It sounds like your car is in decent shape to start with, so your expenses might be much lower than the work I was referring to above.

My general advice is to agree with Prop, take any estimate you come up with (time, or money) and at least double it.

Norm
Norm Kerr

I agree with you Norm, and that's why I added an extra 1000 quid to my estimate. I have most receipts, and I know it doesn't add up to 4K, but just to be safe I added the 1K extra. But then I have never done a nose to tail rebuild on mine, and nor would I. Also, I have never had to pay anyone to work on the Sprite for me. That's a huge saving.

It all comes down to how you want the car to be. Perfect or otherwise.

Let's say you do it all. From day 1, following completion, it will start to wear out again. Unless you are one of those that keep it dry and warm, and trailer it to shows, you'll be doing something to it from time to time. Objects wear out if they get used.

Dan, you're under 20. Do you even know how long you expect to keep the sprite? I didn't. When I bought mine, I was 23. I expected to drive it into the ground or wreck it within six months. I had no plans to keep it for life :) But I have ---- so far. Along the way, I did things to it as needed.

It's just my opinion, and it's your's that counts. But for what it's worth, I suggest that now it's running ok, drive it ---- a lot ---- for the next year, only spending on essential repairs. Drive it winter and summer, wet or dry, and long distance if you can.

Then if you haven't got some bird preggas, and are still in work, and still interested in a 45 year old car, then decide if you really want a perfect example of AH sixties motoring, or if by then your just happy to thrash it around as it is.

What's the rush? You've got 70 plus years in front of you to decide. :)
Lawrence Slater

Excellent advice Lawrence!


":o)


Norm
Norm Kerr

sorry hub caps leaving off words now.

its more the jobs that may come along and removing parts with seals i wouldnt know how old the paint work is, some of it is over the seals so is it going to crack the paint work. but shes a fun little thing and im happy for now so it is likely to be in the distant future.
D Sartain

Ah, hub CAPS lol.

You'll find sadly those will cost you 20 plus quid each for new with AH in the centre. Less for plain chrome.

I'll gladly have your old ones, post a pic and I'll make you an offer.

Lawrence Slater

Lawrence
What part of kent are you ?
Andy Chaffey

does that mean you have looked for yourself and said im not paying that much aswell lol. at the minute they will do so sorry but not up for sale if they ever are il let you know.

It would seem a previous owner got quite a deep scratch on one wouldnt know how.

As much as id love her to be perfect for now the restoration is on hold. but if it ever gets to the stage where it needs a main part or big bits painting i may change my mind only beause of which colour do i match it with.

the bonnet and boot is an old english white only off old english white. both sides are more snowberry white ish (i think its called that) and the back where the hood goes onto is leyland white.
D Sartain

As far as I know, the only white for sprites of 66 ish vintage, was old english white. The good news is that you can still get it in cellulose. The bad news is the cost. About 30 quid per litre. But you don't need that much for a respray, unless you intend to do a total strip back to metal and apply multi coats.

You could do it with 2.5 litres easily.

Yep, I did indeed look at the price of hub caps, and keep missing them on ebay. I missed a prety good set recently. But I'm in no hurry, caps or not I can drive the car, and don't have to worry about some dork stealing them if I park somewhere. :)

Andy, I'm in R'T'Wells. Are you nearby?

Lawrence Slater

I know but the people who did the work apparently couldnt do better at matching it. and its more like snowberry white which i think moggies had.

and im in merseyside so it might not be the hubcaps but find the car on bricks thought id get it in first before anyone ha. and no carm down carm down please lol.

the leyland white was trying to do a better job than them as they seemed to mask upto the hood and didnt do the best job ofkeeping that tidy either. but of course all the excuses under the sun comes out then.
D Sartain

Andy Chaffey,

What part of kent are you?
Lawrence Slater

If you get a specialist to do a full resto with a few mods you're looking at a bill of £20,000+.

(Please don't ask how I know this!)
J D Smith

Dan,
as I have experience paying others to restore cars I can say from actual experience that it could well better financially and for experience and for your mental health for you to accept your present car as one to own, enjoy and learn from rather than restoring to any great level, rather keep it reliable and scruffy

that way you can save the money you would have spent on the full restoration to put towards your next Spridget which someone else has spent a great deal of money restoring

basically I'm saying unless you can do most of the work yourself it's a lot cheaper to buy a restored car than to restore yours

enjoy and learn from the one you have now
Nigel At

Here here Nigel. :)
Lawrence Slater

I would actually say that even if you do all the work yourself it would be much cheaper to buy another car that someone else paid for the work on. But there's also nothing like building the car yourself the way that you want it, if that's something that you want to do.
AndrewF

yeah, too right, thats why I'm repairing mine myself , I specifically wanted all the panels to be sligthly squint and the chassis geometry to be suspect :-D

Thats my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

Malcolm
Malcolm Le Chevalier

This thread was discussed between 13/09/2011 and 28/09/2011

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