Milwaukee Midget

[Freud]

If you upset the apple cart make cider instead of beer.

FREUD

[Milwaukee Midget]

If you upset the apple cart make cider instead of beer.

FREUD

Glenn, it's funny you should mention apples - especially since you bought so damned many of them at Salt Talks.

Kate's mom passed away last February, and we've been chipping away at cleaning the house out for the last few months.  Kate grew up on a 10 acre orchard west of town, and when we finished today, we took a walk through the farm - might be the last time.

I've known Kate for 28 years, and was always welcome at her parent's house.  In all of the 28 years I've been making the trip, I have never seen this orchard as prolific as it was this year.

Two of the trees are Northern Spies, a rather uncommon tree for Wisconsin.  Jim, Kate's father, had picked them out and had moderate success with them, but they had not been tended to or pruned for probably 12 years.  They are very old, and even 5 years ago, we were convinced they would need to come down.  They hadn't produced anything but cider apples for years.

Yet this year, both trees were absolutely loaded with fruit.  Before we left, we filled two grocery bags full of apples.

I won't be pressing cider with them - her brother Dennis is on that one, and he won't be hurting for work.  But after I throw a second coat of paint on the undercarriage of the Midget tomorrow, I will be cleaning and processing these extraordinary apples for pie and probably some applesauce, and remembering Kate's parents.

For this year, I'll skip the cider.   

[Seldom Seen Slim]

PM sent, Chris.  It's about apples -- that's why I'm not putting the story here.

[Milwaukee Midget]

PM sent, Chris.  It's about apples -- that's why I'm not putting the story here.

Come on, Jon - it looks like a tantalizing recipe for a fine autumnal dessert - one that could easily be had as a breakfast.

Fine - be that way - I'll post it  

APPLE DUMPLINGS


Do you have a metal 9" x 9" x 2" baking pan?  Why not?  6 apples fit nicely in one; otherwise, adjust recipe to fit the size of the pan you do have.  Make sure pan is at least 2 inches high.  Try using a bread loaf pan and smallering the recipe.


Peel and core 6 cooking apples (Jonathons stay firm, McIntosh cook up softer, and never use Red Delicious!).  Make certain all nerds are out of apple centers because they offend one's tongue or at least my tongue.


Mix 2 cups Jiffy biscuit mix with 2 teaspoons baking powder, a couple of tablespoons of cooking oil, a couple of scratches of fresh nutmeg (1/8 teaspoon is plenty), and enough milk to make dough – about a half-cup or so, but experiment to make a dough moist enough to hold together but dry enough not to be so sticky that you swear when rolling it out.  Using a rolling cloth, roll out pieces big enough to wrap one around each apple.  [Note:  Consider putting an extra "patch" of crust on the bottom of the apple (covering the hole) to help hold the juice in while baking.  You'll learn to appreciate this tip when serving the dumplings!]


Put a teaspoon or so of cinnamon sugar and a little pat of butter (Parkay!) in the core of each wrapped apple and fit them snugly into the chosen pan.  It isn't necessary to spray Pam or rub lard on the pan – the dumplings won't stick much.


Pour over the whole affair a syrup made of 1 cup of water, 1 1/2 cups of sugar, a stick of butter (more commonly known as margarine), enough cinnamon (to taste – about a half-teaspoon is a good place to start), and a couple of scratches of fresh nutmeg (again, 1/8 teaspoon – if you use store-bought ground stuff) which has been boiled and stirred for a couple of minutes.  Pour carefully so you don't splash the cinnamon and butter out of the apple cores, and let each of the dumplings get that nice, shiny gloss.


Bake at 400F for 15 minutes, then lower heat to 300F for at lest 15 minutes – but maybe as long as 45 minutes, depending on how done you decide you like the apples.  Serve with decadent quantities of 1/2 & 1/2, or maybe large blobs of sweetened fresh whipped cream, (certainly NEVER use Cool Whip!) or maybe even "pour" cream, which is just whipping cream straight out of the container, or even vanilla ice cream, although I think that's a heck of an insult to two fine foods that deserve to be enjoyed separately.


By the way – the recipe is much simpler than six paragraphs makes it seem.  Practice. . .

[Milwaukee Midget]

If you're looking for dating advise, you can skip this post.

Part of what I need to do to get the Midget over the hump is to get it out of the wind.  A few weeks back, I determined where I wanted to have the front end sitting . . .



I think that looks about right.  In that position, it's sitting on the bump stops.

Since then, I turtled the Midget and started to work on the undercarriage, so everything is upside down and easy to work on.  This is as close to roll cage testing as I ever hope to get.

The height of the bump stops are ~2" from the top of the cone on the A-arm spring pan and the bump stop cone which locates the spring on the top into the spring perch.  Here's the assembly with the bump stop removed –



After talking to folks about cutting springs – nobody wanted to do it, and I don't have a torch or any way to reconstitute the end of the coil – I started checking into air springs.  If this were a Chevelle or an F-150, I could order a kit.  There are racing springs available for the Midget, but nobody could give me an exact height after installation.  Besides, I may want to make adjustments.

After going through Air Lift's offerings, on a whim, I pulled up the McMaster Carr catalog on line.  Well, shazaam!  Here's what I found –



1.5 to 3.6 inch working height, designed to operate between 2 and 3 inches, handle up to 600 lb's each (the Midget weighs about 1,500 – the stock spring rate is 285).  Yeah, they'll be a bit soft, and I'll still need to come up with some sort of bump stop, but it's not like I'm doing the Baja 1,000 with it.

And as I have said countless times before – it's all a grand experiment.

The bags arrived today.  I took one with me to the hardware store, and started putting things together in my head.  First thing I noticed was the base –



I need to evenly distribute the pressure over a broader area than just the bung of the inlet pipe and the boss for the stud.  But what could I use?  A trip down the electrical aisle turned up these –



Sure enough, the inside diameter is a perfect fit, and the weight will be much more evenly distributed to the bump cone.

The other end was shouldered, and I wanted to make a more solid contact with the A-arm cone, so a couple of large fender washers were epoxied into place –


From there, it was simply a matter of drilling holes in the top of the A-arm cone and bolting it all together –




I won't know for sure if it will work until I get the engine back in it, but if it does, I'll have bagged a Midget for less than $150.00.

[salt27]

Chris, how many PSI are those things rated for?

I like it.

Don

[Milwaukee Midget]

Chris, how many PSI are those things rated for?

I like it.

Don

Up to 100 psi.

[Milwaukee Midget]

Here's the chart . . .

http://www.mcmaster.com/#9538kac/=oyd6cq

If you go to page 2 of the pdf, there's a graph showing the force to height to air pressure levels.

By the time it gets down to 2 inches at about 65 lbs of air, I'm at about 375 pounds per spring.  Weight distribution is close to 50/50 on these things.

Might be a little stiffer than I think . . .

[kiwi belly tank]

Anybody remember the rubber cone suspension in the BMC Mini's?
  Sid.

[Elmo Rodge]

Anybody remember the rubber cone suspension in the BMC Mini's?
  Sid.

I had one. Wayno

[lsrjunkie]

Great idea MM! I love the way the car looks, "sittin in the weeds"!

[Milwaukee Midget]

Anybody remember the rubber cone suspension in the BMC Mini's?
  Sid.

Sid, I was looking on line for those rubber springs, and Graham sent me a bit of info, but I couldn't find dimensions for them.  With modifications, I probably could have made them work as well, but this is a surer bet, and is reversible if it doesn't work.

I also picked up a set of lowering blocks for the rear - should drop it about an inch - 1.5.  Still maintain some rake and make it lower - LOWER - LOWER .

[tauruck]

The amount of work you've put into your project is unbelievable. It looks great. 

[Tman]

Looks good, those bags should work well.

[wheelrdealer]

Chris:

That should work great.
I love how you don't need a rotisserie!

BR