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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - No spare wheel / tank in boot

Hi thinking of moving to an in boot tank set up and just wondered if anyone had and wether you carried a spare wheel ( was thinking under boot floor) or if people didn't bother and just carried tyre foam ?
Thanks
Andy
a chaffey

Meant to add she'll just back from soda blasting cleaned up really nicely
Thanks
Andy


a chaffey

Car looks good Andy. I presume that is a primer - or is it an acid etching primer? What did you use? And do you mind saying how much it cost to soda blast the whole shell.
Guy W

Hi Guy
Yes back in primer, the blaster primed it for me and think he said zinc primer.
Cost was 800 for shell inside and out (no doors or boot / bonnet) all I had to do as prep was take the worst of the underseal off.

Got a few repairs to do, 2 new sills and a few patches but all in all not a bad shell and a good base for the project.

Thanks
Andy
a chaffey

Why were you thinking of doing this?
Daniel Stapleton

Hi Daniel
Converting to fuel injection and just started me looking at other tanks so considered moving it
Thanks Andy
a chaffey

Nice andy... I like it.

Ive considard using a plastic fuel cell in the boot, and there are several in ebay for reasonable price

As to a spare wheel/tire... I think that option is out dated for what we use our cars for and the type of roads we travel compared to the 1970s

I only pack just a tire and no wheel when I drive longer then 200 miles outof town and even that is over the top extreme as there is some tire shop in a big town that.will have at least one tire that will fit

Locally I dont carry any tire /spare, its to much wieght for the rarity it will actually explode

I normally carry green tire slime but its so old I need to throw it out

The direction I am going is to get a mini air compressor that runs off the cig lighter and a tire plug kit... and thats for only if im out of town, otherwise im calling a mate with a jack and pull the wheel and take it to a tire shop,

The thing about a full spare tire is they weigh a lot and take up alot of room, and its rare to see a car broke down along the road with a flat tire

This may be differant if its my daily car, but because I drive the car occasionally, the odds of a blow out or full flat are rare to non existant...it may happen once maybe even twice in my life time but not more then 3, to be that prepared of a flat tire that may occure twice in your life owning a midget is just a bit out there

If you carry anything,.and extra set of points condenser and rotor would be more probable

Prop
Prop and the Blackhole Midget

BMW used to sell a tyre repair kit intended for motorcycles. It had the tools and plugs in various sizes plus CO2 bulbs and an adaptor to inflate the tyre. The whole shebang would fit in plastic coffee beaker or a tobacco tin. I wonder if they're still available.

Prop makes a good point, now I think of it. It's been at least 20 years since I was last sidelined by a popped tyre. Are tyres tougher than they used to be?
Greybeard

Large battery in my boot so no spare otherwise boot full. Carry an in date tyre inflator and have for nearly 3 years. Never had a problem with the Midget tyres. The low profiles on my wife's modern are another story. At least two tyre fixes in that time.

I measured MGB tank and apart from being either rather low or needing to raise the boot floor between the chassis rails by a couple of inches I reckon I could make one fit. :-)
Dave Squire

I run a small tank in the boot and there is still room for a spare wheel. When I say small I mean 1.5 gallons so not much range! I think you could have one made quite a bit bigger and still get the wheel in though. I've considered making a longer range tank for mine which would be the same LxW but higher and I think it worked out at 3 gallons.

One thing to consider though is fire/fuel proofing. A rear end shunt could be nasty with a tank and wheel in the boot. I know the original set up has only a rubber pipe but at least all the fuel is outside the car. With a small tank like mine it would have to be a big shunt to get to the tank to rupture it and the boot is also completely fire walled. A bigger tank plus spare wheel and no firewall might not be such a good idea.

Still, most cars from the 60's and 70's had fuel in the boot, spare wheel and limited firewall so maybe I'm just being a bit of a wuss!
john payne

Here's a neat boot:




john payne

This thread was discussed on 04/10/2015

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