I've been reading a few books, looking on the 'net etc. and as far as I can gather, the only different component in the front suspension between GAN5 (1275) and GAN6 (1500) is the spring itself.
Does this mean that, aside from the spring, I could take the entire assembly off a 1500 midget and fit it to a 1275?
...and the same for the back? Not that there is much beside the spring, mind!
Actually, cutting to the point of the question, I'm looking at getting a heritidge bodyshell for a 1500 midget and was wondering if I could retro-engineer it into a 1275 bodyshell without too much trouble, as I much prefer the look of the earlier cars.
The front suspension components are the same, the springs are different.
But - The front suspension brackets on a rubber bumper car are lower on the chassis than a chrome bumper one. The cross members are different, I'm not sure if the front damper mounts are lower in relation to the chassis on a RB car than a CB one, but I would suspect that they are in order to preserve the suspension geometry. The steering boxes are different The front wheel arch on a RB car is not as deep as a CB car. The side light/indicator light are mounted differently. There is an extra pair of pressed steel 'beams', one on either side of the engine bay to hold the rubber bumpers that protrude through the grill space.. The front valence is different. There are no mounts for a front chrome bumper on a RB body shell
The rear valence is different, RB valence does not have fairings under the tail light assembly. The part where the rubber bumper bolts on to the rear valence is flat. There are no mounts for a CB on a RB shell.
Now having said all that, a conversion can be carried out, I am doing one now, but the resaon I am doing it is because both the front and the rear of the car suffered crash damage, and by the time I had cut my way in to the areas that needed fixing, it was just as easy to use CB panels etc as it was to use RB ones. I was able to locate a couple of CB wrecks and get the parts that I needed from them
The front suspension mounts were a later discovery, and I have yet to decide to convert to CB specs, (although I probably will)
For a wealth of more information go to
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join up (free) and you will be able to search the archives. A RB to CB conversion question comes up quite often.
Excellent - I couldn't find anything that said they were different, but you know how these things can go sometimes!
[snip]
Aah... must have been alseep at some point. I had missed this.
This is pretty much what I suspected.
Aah. Oops. First post was slightly ambiguous.
I've been looking at getting a Midget for some time, but I weld like a drunken platypus and whilst I'm happy replacing the odd floor panel, the idea of cutting out and replacing an inner sill for instance gives me the total screaming heebie-jeebies. Mechanics are a different matter. I'm perfectly happy up to my elbows in engine.
I think the rubber bumpers and the raise in ride height ruined the midget - I know they had to do it and I know why, but, well... I don't like it. There do however seem to be more 1500 midgets available cheap "for restoration" than 1275.
So, in order to give me a car that will give long service without me having to visit heebie-jeebie land, I was thinking of buying a new bodyshell and then finding a car with a knackered bodyshell and transplanting the components.
Now, the bodyshell I would buy would be a 1275 one, and what I'm investigating is what I would *need* to change from a 1500 midget in order to get it to fit the 1275 bodyshell. So far I know that the springs need changing. I know that lights are rarely re-usable so was accounting for these being replaced anyway. The steering has caught me out - I wasn't aware of that, but I guess it fits (will investigate). As far as I'm aware, everything else fits. Even the engine I believe (miraculously) had the same mountings. It all seems a bit too good to be true and I'm suffering a little paranoia that I'll end up with two half cars with nothing quite fitting as it should do.
Ooh... yes... I can see me reading that for some time!
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