In a previous post we made some reservations about the Austin / MG Metro. AMK reader Johan Dekker thought the tone of that was clearly too critical. We contacted him and we found a lover with a big frame of mind. He has his Metro as 11 years, and the car is still not ready. And that is not meant to be a nuisance. Read what Johan said:
"As promised some more info and photos about the Metro"
“Officially this one is an Austin, but after the many changes I found the MG badges better looking. I bought the Metro in May 2007, and since then it has undergone a lot of changes.
The Metro comes from Germany, where a company converted it into a convertible. Via via the car finally ended up with me. The Metro was then purple, and according to license plate it is still me now.
The Metro quickly turned orange with a black hood
In that color combination he has driven around for many years, and has been in many places. I visited various shows, the Zandvoort circuit, and even the Nurburgring.
After the 2e gear of the 1e gearbox shattered (the most notorious ailment), I stopped the car for restoration. All rust has been ground away and replaced with fresh steel. The rain gutter was removed, and the roof neatly welded together. The Metro was then painted matt white, and the top was wrapped black.
Via Marktplaats I found a Valance complete body kit made from ABS
Originally the Metro had steel bumpers, but since I missed all the 4 corners, I bought a set of plastic bumpers and adjusted the front bumper so that the original flashing lights could be mounted. The flashing lights on the side screens were replaced with copies of a Rover 200.
The air intake on the hood comes from a Volvo 360 (an earlier project), and the 2 smaller grilles on the left and right of the hood are made of aluminum grilles from the hardware store. The bite and the right-hand grid are both functional, the left-hand grid is more for the optical balance of the overall picture.
The bonnet, the handles, the mirrors and the strip at the bottom of the rear bumper are wrapped in carbon foil. By placing the body kit there was no longer access to the original towing eye. That is why an 10 mm thick towing eye from Benen was mounted from aluminum.
The grill was stripped of the inside, and provided with mesh and an MG logo
The rims are an aftermarket set, a wider variant of the wheels that were available on the Metro turbo, surrounded by Yokohama's A539 in the size 175-50-13. I once bought the mud flaps at a parts market, no longer what they were for. But I found them so cool that I only made them for the Metro.
The entire interior was also redesigned
The seats and rear seats have been replaced by a Leather set from a Rover 200 Coupe. Not really practical, such a black set in the summer. But yes ... it looks nice. All interior are painted black or wrapped. The center console comes from a Rover 200 mk3 and has been adjusted so that it fits nicely on the original Metro dashboard. 3 flip switches are located in the center of the console. The left one switches the ignition on and off, the 2e controls an extra cool fan, and the right one (the red one) is a kill switch that takes all power off the car.
The dashboard is equipped with 3 extra VDO meters (oil temperature, oil pressure and battery voltage). I once bought the steering wheel at a parts market, and originally came from a Mini. The rearview mirror has a Union jack, simply because it was possible. Since convenience serves people, I made the windows electrically operable.
Work in progress
My Metro is now equipped with engine number 3, 2 gearboxes have already failed. Normally you would only change the box, but since it is very ingeniously incorporated in the crankcase of the A series, the block as a whole is cheaper, cheaper and faster. 2 Baking seems like a lot, but I have to admit that I didn't use the first tank enormously (Zandvoort and the Nürburgring are partly responsible for that). Box number 2 already turned out not to be in such a good condition when I bought it. Number 4 is happy for me.
The block itself is completely standard, but the peripheral equipment has since changed a bit. Ignition, ignition coil, water pump and alternator have all been replaced by new ones.
The entire inlet and outlet trajectory has been upgraded to stage 1 level, by means of a pipercros foam fliter, a thicker needle in the original Hiff44 carb, a Mini sports inlet, a Mini Maniflow manifold (shortened to fit on the Metro) , a custom made 2inch exhaust front to rear. 3 pipes have been added to the valve cover to bring the entire crankcase ventilation system together, and to remove the vapors and drops through an oil catch can.
So the bottom of the Bonnet got that custom paint job in the shape of the Union jack, which I deliberately painted with the brush to give it a rougher look.
Attention to the bottom
The standard 4 pot claws from AP are a nice overkill on a son's small car, but give an extra fun factor. so you can brake for a corner even later. To make the brakes perform even better, EBC discs and EBC green stuff blocks have been mounted. these remain usable up to such an 500 degree. Finally, the hydragas spring system was not left original. The pins in the spheres have been shortened, so that the car was 3 centimeters lower. A set of Rover sport shock absorbers from a Rover 100GTi has been added to the front legs.
It was, by and large, that. I have undoubtedly forgotten something, but the list has been around for a long time.
After 11years tinkering and building you would think that the car is pretty finished, but strangely enough I have plenty of plans left. One moment I play with the thoughts of selling the Metro, and the other moment replacing the A series with an 1800 vvc Rover K series. And we?
With admiration we tap with two fingers against the edge of Because of the power, and simply because it is possible of course ”.
And we?
We tap the edge of the hat with admiration with two fingers. Johan: our compliments and lots of fun with your Metro!
