Moss Motors, Ltd

Just wondering how other people get hooked on the little cars.  I happened to see a sad little wreck sitting in some guys front yard with a for sale sign on it. I drove by it every day for two weeks and finally stopped by to see it.  Everything that could have been wrong with it, was.  Floor pan rotted out, major body rot every where, windshield cracked, windshield frame broken, engine rusted and siezed, and all the tires flat.And of course, no clear title.  Didn't even know what it was, and had never seen one like it before.  Naturally, I had to buy it.  Spent two years rebuilding in, until I ran out of money and had to get it running.  Drove it everywhere and had more fun ( and breakdowns) than on any other car I owned.  Went through a very messy divorce and the car sat for several years.  Moved to Texas and am in the middle of a second, and proper, rebuild, this time with the right attitude and enough money to restore it to like new condition.  And I have a second project car under wraps that I bought for parts- but it was so good that I'm planning to restore it for my new wife.  What could be more romantic than his and her MG Midgets? And we'll have room for  the two new babies ( one 15 months, the other -8 months). 

Got mine from my mother, was her first car!... check out my website for the whole story.  www.mgtd.co.nr

cheers

Rich

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www.mgtd.co.nr

Got for you Ron, well saved.

I got mine from a friend who had 2 B's already, in need of minor repair but in otherwise great shape, fell for it as soon as I saw it.

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74 MG Midget
BritishCarForum.com

I was looking for a Miata, and my father told me of a friend that had a bunch of MGB's and Midgets in various states of disrepair.  I picked one that was a botched restoration because it had a strong motor and little rust.  It had some accident damage, but I was wanting to get back into the auto restoration hobby(after a long absence) and the car looked like a good challenge.  Fast forward many years, and I'm starting on a bugeye project that will use my existing Midget drive train, and then the Midget may be getting a Toyota engine or just another A series to tinker with.

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BritishCarForum.com

A friend of mine had one for quite a while, bought it for his GF, it sat and sat,,,well ya know the story. One day he says he is going to have it hauled off, i says how much ya want for it? he says 50 bux. i say i will have a flat bed there in an hour.....

 

mark 

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Britishcarforum.com
mgaddict.com

   I was looking for a rustbucket for a donor car for my kit project. All the cars I could find on ebay, craigslist and autotrader were too nice and too expensive. Finally found a lein sale car @ a towing company, stripped it for my parts and cut it up (today) with a sawzall & tossed it into a dumpster. FYI it was a '67 wire wheel car and was from New Mexico not a bit of rust on it. I tried for weeks over at the Yahoo list to get anyone to take useable parts, but had no takers. I only discovered the British car forum today. I did sell some parts including the factory hardtop, but finally had to get rid of the carcass due to being in violation of neighborhood CC&R's. And leaving town early next week for a long holiday. I just ran out of time......what a sad waste!

One of my first memories of a car was my parents 59 "Bug-Eye". This was in about 1962 when I was 6 years old. I loved that car. About 6 years ago I ran across a deal on a 70 Spitfire. No motor or tranny. It's still sittin'. Now I have almost completed restoring a 75 Midget I got about 1 1/2 years ago. As a meter reader for the electric co. I looked at it sitting in a back yard for 13 years--never being touched. Finally I asked about the car and the owner said "For Sale". That was all it took. After getting to drive it a lot this summer--I'm now REALLY hooked. Someday maybe I'll find an affordable "Bug-Eye", until then, I'll ride my Midget and probably look at the Spitfire.

I read a review of the '73 Midget back in '73 and would have bought one but shipped out of the country in the Air Force. About 30 years later I was lucky enough to get some "found money" and my wife and I agreed it was time to fulfill that old dream. I bought my Midget on Ebay and had it shipped in sight unseen. After a few repairs with my son and some neighborhood friends  (new brakes, new carpeting, pull and repair the engine for minor fixes) it's mine and I love it. I'm on sabbatical and the car is being driven by a colleague who owned one back in the sixties. So the wheel does come around again.

I'm a policeman, and patrol the same neighborhood everyday.  I got to know a guy with three running  spridgets and several parts cars.  One day he "casually mentioned" a friend of his had one in need of adoption.  I went to look, and $300 later it became a member of the family.  Now both my teens and my 3 yr old all want one of their own!  Time for a bigger garage

i had owned a porsche 914 when i was younger and decided to look for another hobby car....so off to ebay i went. while search for something to play with i found one in decent shape, in my area and decided that i was going to own this one. i even began ordering repair and shop manuals before the auction was over.

My first Midget was bought from a local car lot it was traded in on some type of Buick, it was bought "as is" it had a cracked cyl. head. I picked up another Midget with a bad trans. took out drivetrain and a few other needed parts an sold it for more than I paid for the whole car(what a deal)! My next Midget some twenty five yrs. three kids later was a barter deal for working on a customers Triumph (interior, clutch, carpets,trans tunnel kit) it was in pretty decent shape although it needed a trans. which I later  found out the PO grandkids learned how to drive a clutch on so far I've replaced the trans. painted the engine, detailed it, painted the wheels, replaced tires, frt. shocks and some interior work its not a show car but a great driver, have put about 2 thou.miles on it in two yrs of driving so far

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1974 MG Midget

I and some others sold a video game to a larger company so had a bit of cash in the pocket.  Always wanted to get a LBC and started searching around on the web & found one down the road.  I've never been a motor head or worked on cars, so I knew I couldn't get a "project" car.  Walked into the sellers garage and knew I found my car.  All the tools lined up on the wall, everything clean (including the car).  Perfect!

 

The 74 is (in my opinion) a great year.  Last of the chrome bumpers, has the rounded wheel well (stylish) and hopefully late enough in production so some flaws have been figured out.  I'm guessing the first year of the 1500 engine had a few issues that got worked out in the next few years for example.

Way back in 1972 I was living in Chicago. My sister was married to a guy who was from Indianapolis. He was able to tickets and pit passes to the Indy 500. A friend of his had a '64 Midget. All it took was one drive and I was hooked. I bought a '66 Sprite which was in pretty bad shape and rebuilt it and used it as a daily driver. I even drove it back to Indy for the 500 race is '73. The car came with me to Texas in '78. Well, I still have the car and now my son and I are rebuilding it again. Although since starting the rebuild he has moved on to higher tech F15 fighters in the Air Force.    

After a 30+ year hiatus I found mine on Ebay.

My very first car was a '65 midget that I drove to high school my last two years, '68-'69 (there's a picture on my web site www.raysmg.com under the "My First Car" link). I had to sell my Midget for college tuition money and regretted it ever since.

Two years ago I decided to go shopping for one and watched Ebay for months...along with other on-line ads, newspapers, magazines, etc. One day an ad popped up on Ebay that seemed to good; the ad and photos are on my web site. The original owner was selling the fully restored, low mileage Midget rather than see it go to a property settlement in a divorce. He interviewed prospective bidders and narrowed the field.

I defined a sure fire bidding strategy: "Bid more than anyone else and you will win." I did. I thought I would have to keep the car for life as no one else would come close to paying what I did...and that was OK with me. One year to the day after purchasing it I was offered within $1K of double money...I still have it...and likely always will.

Ray

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Ray McCaleb
ray@raysmg.com
www.raysmg.com
'60 TR3A (driver)
'60 Bugeye (vintage race car)
'73 Midget (show)
'62 Sprite (future project)

A friend of mine told me about a friend of his that had a "tiny little English sports car" that he had to get rid of. 1 week and $450 later, I am the owner of a 63 Sprite.

 Don

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63 Sprite (in work)
60 Bugeye (Waiting in the wings)