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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Wishbones opportunity

Not sure if any one has seen this it’s time to clear out my dad’s workshop where he’s been reconditioning and manufacturing midget and sprite wishbones for nigh on 50 yrs https://ebay.us/m/plZneg
bp king

Wow. I do hope somebody takes that on.

anamnesis

Anamn, the King family made concerted efforts to sell the business as a going concern some years ago. I think we discussed it here at some length. In the end no one was sufficiently interested to take it on. So other than these few old stock ones we are condemned to accept the second rate offerings and poor quality of the main suppliers.
Hopefully the tooling will now be bought and put back to good use.
GuyW

Surely this is just the sort of enterprise Ashley Hinton would take up.
Philip Sellen

Many years ago, there would have been much higher demand for replacement or reconditioned wishbones, with many more cars - Spridgets and A30/35/40 - in daily use.

It’s now very much a niche market, with fewer cars travelling fewer miles. Many of which won’t even be MoT tested.

Probably not viable as a standalone business, with the cost of premises and all the equipment. Possibly could be incorporated into an existing business.
Dave O'Neill 2

How do wishbones fail?... catastrophically or wear in the 'threaded' bearing that takes the fulcrum pin. With regular greasing these should last a while. I replaced mine several years' ago. If l have to replace one/both l won't be too concerned where they come from...they'll outlast my Sprideting days...my guess is that as these cars start to get as old as their owners, as it were, their number on the road will naturally diminish anyway....Dave
David Cox

I have known Ashley Hinton for many years and have been privileged to be able to take people for guided tours of his factory. I doubt that he could squeeze any more machinery into the building.

My wishbone pans & kingpins are now over twenty years old on both of my Sprites. Failures are often due to lack of servicing. The early lubrication chart says to grease at 3000ml intervals but mine probably get greased at a lesser mileage than that.

Many people don't understand that old cars need maintenance.
Alan Anstead

Years ago when on holliday in Scotland my reconditioned wishbone pan just suddenly cracked...
Luckely it was helped at a lokal shipyard who welded it up for me so I could resume my trip.
While on holliday my mate Matt ordered new ones from Barry King.
Better lubrication and made stronger by welding in an extra bracket.
As soon as I heared Barry stopped producing I bought another pair as spare.

Its a pitty small buisnesses who deliver quality are dissapearing.

Like Guy says: we are condemned to accept the second rate offerings and poor quality of the main suppliers.






A de Best

"All the equipment" is what is on sale so you just have to have somewhere to put it. I was curious as to how it worked and found a MG Experience advert from when the setup was in regular use:

https://www.mgexp.com/phorum/file.php?3,file=139508,filename=Advertorial_1_.pdf

AdrianR

This thread was discussed between 14/06/2026 and 17/06/2026

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