Project Zippy (Midas Mk1 Coupe) Engine In!

[VR6_Wherry]

Yes i've bumped this Mr Bounce! I found the thread on another forum that you posted in the Hobbies thread. After reading all of it i thought it would be unfair not to keep us lovely folk here not up to date!!!

Awesome work so far!

How or why you haven't just given up i do not know!

[richw911]

 

[MrBounce]

Oops I haven't updated this for absolutely ages on this site so this may take a while... Will copy and paste from the other forums I'm on so the dates will be a bit out.

Well I've managed to get out into the garage for an evening; my first job was to strip the spare engine that came with the Midas. It is believed to be an 1100 (no engine number), which apparently smoked and might have needed a rebuild. The main thing is, this engine is in the way and needs to be gone. My friend Shaun wants the gearbox casing, so I will cannibalise the engine for what I want (Non-verto clutch & flywheel bits), Shaun gets the whole gearbox and the rest will go up on Ebay at 99p start (buyer collects!). 

I began by draining the oil. My mate Matt and I manhandled the lump onto some handy concrete blocks I have (easy as we're both built like rugby prop-forwards ) and after some persuasion with a 3ft bar and socket the sump plug was removed. What came out was not pretty and was darker and thicker than a molasses vat at night. :shock: My guess is it didn't taste as good.

http://s511.photobucket.com/albums/s353/MrBounce38/Midas/?action=view&current=Midas017.jpg

Time to remove the flywheel. Off came the cover and it was clear that this would have been undriveable as the oil seal had failed big time - so much oil spray in the cover and also on the pressure plate and backplate. Amazingly the flywheel gave up without too much of a fight - there was an extremely satisfying "crack!" - and then I set about removing the flywheel housing. There was of course, a bolt which wouldn't move and naturally it had a chewed head thanks to my pitiful attempts to remove it. So I got angry produced my hammer and a 12mm socket and had it off and in the bin within seconds. :twisted: Just now got 6 bolts to remove the box and I will split them. 

Cover off...



Clutch pressure plate...



... and ugly clutch (note awesome use of a shelf bracket as a flywheel-locking tool. I used to use a table knife but couldn't find it...)



Almost ready to split



Would have done it all but have a wedding to go to tomorrow so need to be ready for that!!

Well the gearbox is now off the block and has been put to one side for Shaun to take away. It was a bit reluctant to come apart at first. I thought this was a bit strange as the last 3 times I'd split an engine and box it had been easy. It was then I realised this was because I'd had an engine hoist to help... So rather than drive 15 miles to my friend's house I laid the engine on its side and beat the hell out of the join with a rubber mallet until it started to come apart. Gravity then took control and helped the box off 

The crank and pistons turned nicely in their bores so at least it's not seized. It's now on Ebay if anyone on here fancies rebuilding it? http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Small-Bore-Classi ... 45fb77363d

So here it is, upturned on the sackbarrow ready to be taken to its new owner once the auction's over.



Close-up of the crank



Gearbox showing a rather alarming amount of sludge in the bottom... :shock:



Once the engine and box go I'll have a bit more room in the garage so may be able to get started properly! 

Well the gearbox is still here but pushing it under the rear of the car gave me a bit of room to wander round. Thought I had better clear out all the stuff that was in the boot (bags of spares such as a complete set of new brake pipes ready for bending, poly bushes for the tie-bars and engine steady, a top arm, two front hubs, a couple of lights, springs, an LCB, a gear selector and some small fibreglass panels). These have all been carefully stored away so Mr Clumsy here doesn't break them.

Someone had put an aerial on the roof at some point. I will need to replace it as the whole thing is a rotten mess. Lovely.

I then turned my attention to the interior. Oh dear. It is not pretty. The boot area appears to have lots of paint peelings in it but from what I am not sure. The front carpets are hideously damp and one of the mats in the car has what appears to be a new species of plant growing on it. All the seals are perished and need replacing - the sunroof being a case in point!! The dashboard is something I am really unsure about: as it's an early Midas I kind of want to keep it, but I don't really like it that much. Am tempted to modify it or make my own. The steering wheel is truly hideous and will have to go. As for those seats, they do tilt forward. I've never seen ones like them before and I do not know what they're out of - possibly an unusual 2+2 late 70's coupe. Mazda RX3? 260Z? Maybe even something like a Renault 17? Whatever, they're hideous and need to die. 

Underbonnet is not so bad. The radiator is supposedly from an Allegro according to the previous owner but I'm not so sure. It looks like it's had a leak at some point so it'll come out and I'll hopefully get something newer from the scrappy which is about the same size but more efficient. Fusebox looks relatively new but I'm looking to move this inside the car so will probably replace it with one that'll take blade fuses. For some reason the choke cable exits right next to the battery area. That is going to be completely re-done as it's likely to get crushed where it is. My favourite though is the washer bottle and pump. Looks like it came from an early 80's Mitsubishi - I've never seen one before but it looks like a well designed bit of kit and one of the few parts I will definitely keep!

Boot area now clear:



It's nasty under those hideous seats 



New species of plant! 



Ruined sunroof seal :shock:



What to do with that dashboard???



Rad of unknown origin



Battery Tray



Aerial Stub 



Funky washer bottle! 



The job list is getting longer... 

[MrBounce]

Ok, Mrs B has allowed me some more time to go and play in the Man Room 

It was time to get the horrible carpets, underlay and soundproofing off the floor and see what's under there. Once I got my hands on it I reminded myself why I'd bought something made of fibreglass. That's right: if this had been metal it wouldn't have had a floor left!! On one side the seat bracket had disintegrated into the carpet. Very nasty. There's - still a bolt through the floor - I will grind it off in due course - I gently cut around the carpet rather than the bolt itself so I could lift off the carpet.

It was clear from one of the first things I found that it had not been used for a while: The tax disc...



I also found one of these; a punch for the rollpin on the gear selector. It's a bit rusty but I have always wanted one of these and used a succession of cheap watchmaker's screwdrivers over the years instead! 



There was also a fire extinguisher fitted to the driver's side. Not sure how stable it might be I carefully pulled it off the bracket. Health and safety is paramount in the Manroom: this was the result so I think it had been wet a while... 



The main carpet is now out and all the crap on it has been removed and binned. Is there anywhere I can get replacements? I'm not hopeful so am more than happy to try my hand at using the old as a template. I thought I might be able to start with a Mini front carpet and go from there.



The steering wheel was covered in black insulation tape so I took it all off and had a look underneath: it's an Astrali wheel with a wood rim (which has split). Wonder if it's worth anything to anyone?



There was so much horrible nasty damp underlay & soundproofing, some of which simply turned to dust. This a small percentage of it...



Still it means the interior now looks like this after being attacked with the Manroom hoover: 8-)



Will now leave things as I'm off to watch Mr Haye vs Mr Klitschko. With Chinese food. 

Oh yeah I've still got the seats. Apparently they're genuine Midas items. They'll need a complete rebuild and retrim. If anyone can use them PM me as they'll be free. If I haven't heard by next week they'll be binned. 



I thought I'd have a look at getting the dashboard out as there was bound to be more than a few horrors behind it. Amazingly, the fibreglass shell (with the middle bit which looks like a failed Star Wars character's helmet) came off really easily leaving behind another piece of fibreglass. However, this bit is bolted on at the ends so I won't be taking this off until the doors come off. It's also riveted to the main metal crossbrace so I have drilled out the rivets to make extraction easier. I'm still not sure about the what/how of the dash I'm going to use but hey, I've got time 

I turned my attention to the rest of the interior: the sill carpets needed to come out. Got as far as the driver's side seatbelt mounting and as I removed this I was a bit shocked to find that once the bolt was out water poured into the car!  I thought this was down to the drainage channels being blocked but further investigation revealed something else. There were two speakers in rear three-quarters so I removed them. The driver's side was nasty: it was stuffed full of underlay and old newspaper which was soaking wet, probably from the damaged seal on the small window. It dates from May 1981, about 3 months after the car was registered. A quick delve in with my hand revealed a couple of inches of water in the bottom. Still not sure how I'm going to get this out without a Vax-style hoover. We shall see. I can't get a spanner in to undo the seatbelts which attach to the rear heelboard - I need to have a closer look to see how I can do this without destroying the belt housing. I'm not going to use them again anyway, as I don't really trust a 30-year old seatbelt that's been sat in a damp car for 10 years, but I'd prefer to get 'em out the proper way without damaging too much! 

The boot area was quite easy to get all the trim out of. The fibreglass side panels came out easily without a fight and even the big flexi pipe for the fuel tank was a doddle. I even removed the rear numberplate; Underneath is the cleanest part of the car. The seatbelt clips that bolt through the floor won't come out until I've got the Midas up on axle stands. I may be losing weight at the mo but I do not fit under there to get a spanner on the nuts. There's a random small hole in the boot floor, and I have no clue why. Any ideas?

I also removed the front bumper (2 screws!) and had a quick look under the bonnet again. I am definitely thinking of a new wiring loom - possibly taking a Mini one and bridging / removing where necessary as the front loom does not look that healthy. More later 

Dashboard under the fibreglass cover



Horrid 1981 Sharp speakers which went straight in the bin



Clean boot area



Random hole in the boot floor



Sodden underlay. This stank.



May 1981 Croydon Borough News (Wonder if they caught the thief?)



Clean interior but with seatbelts still attached



The cleanest bit of the whole car!



Bumper gone in about 2 minutes and still in one piece!

[MrBounce]

After 2 weeks enjoying the ridiculous amounts of pains au chocolat, Grimbergen Belgian beer and rain that Brittany had to offer, I realised it was time to head back into the garage and continue stripping! 

First up was removing the rear bumper. One screw was easy, the other of course had rusted solid. After 30 seconds with my trusty Dremel, it was off. I was mildly amused by the large amount of moss growing under it. I then turned my attention to the front lights. Headlight surrounds were not properly fixed so these came off easily. The headlights themselves were also easy, with just a couple of screws holding them both in. The surround on one is utterly shot to bits having rusted away. Finding a replacement may be tricky... I have discovered that they are different types; one has a sidelight whereas the other doesn't. Not too much of an issue as the car has sidelights and indicators below the bumper but these will need a freshen up too, given that the gaskets just fell apart.

I also removed all the clips holding the wiring loom to the bodywork in the engine bay so it "should" be nice and easy to take out. This of course will depend on how I get the dashboard out. It is more stubborn than Alan Sugar. I keep finding loads of hidden bolts (all seized of course) in really inaccessible places. Once I redesign this thing I'm gonna make it so it can be removed after undoing about 6 bolts. Poxy thing... I also decided to remove the heater which took the best part of an hour. Yup, you guessed it: seized and inaccesible bolts. It is in quite nasty condition so most of it will need replacing. I intend to replace the pathetic Mini blower with a Ford item (something I found on a GTM rebuild webiste) by removing the Ford fans and replacing them with the Mini items. The motor itself is much the same size so with a bit of persuasion (Hammer) I should be able to make it work 

Bumper off



Front lights off


State of front lights...



Rather knackered indicators and sidelights



Loom ready to be removed once bl00dy dash is sorted



Dead (ish) heater




I have turned my attention back to the dashboard area. The bolts that hold the door on also appeared to go through the dashboard. The dashboard also seemed to be attached to the large piece of square steel tubing with heater ducting attached that ran the entire width of the car. I thought I would start here. As the dash had been riveted to this I thought it was simply the ravages of time that was keeping them together. WRONG!!! Having prised the dash front away from the steel tubing, it was this and not the dash that fell away. It wasn't structural at all and it appears that it wasn't used as any sort of eathing point. It was just where the heater ducting was channelled; 2 large pipes attach from the heater and holes in the top of the tube allowed warm air to attempt to reach the screen. It looked rubbish, and I shall endeavour to improve monumentally on this when I make my own dashboard.

I looked closer and there was a reason why the dash could not be easily removed. It wasn't just bolts holding it in place. It was fibreglassed into the car. I don't know if it was the original or not, but there was certainly some amount of modification over the years (badly!). There was also only one way it was coming out. Power tools. I immediately thought of my jigsaw but it was too big and bulky and the manouevrability would have been restricted. Dremel plus cutting disc (well, 4 actually) meant that after 15 minutes of steady cutting, the nightmare dash was out! Woo-hoo!  The horrible extended switch section in the middle will need further work but it had got to past 9pm and I needed a beer! 

The dreaded dash, before things got ugly.



Weird way of ducting air.



It's gone! (Well most of it anyway...)

[MrBounce]

Before today, I was fed up with the inside of the car as I seem to have been making very slow progress. However, with a bit of elbow grease, my trusty Dremel and a lot of poking and prodding, I have achieved a fair bit this evening. 

I cut off the stupid switch panel in the middle of the dash. This of course was much thicker than the other fibreglass and I went through 6 Dremel cutting discs. Lucky I've got a pot of 30+  I then gave the dash area a hoover as it was gradually starting to look like a Colombian Drug Lord's "special" factory. 

I gave myself a challenge - to get the front wiring loom out and in a box without cutting any of it. First of all I pulled out all the underlay and soundproofing from the dash area. There was a shedload of it, and its condition was terrible - just like dead leaves as it fell apart in your hands.  I pushed out the heater pipes. These will be thrown away eventually but I will take measurements first - don't want to buy too little of it when I replace it! I then started to poke the wires through having unclipped the rear loom. I started pushing it back into the car rather than trying to pull it out as it was clear that was NOT going to happen given the amount of twists and tangles in it. The underbonnet wiring was surprisingly neat by comparison. I have decided that it doesn't need renewing - it actually looks alot better than I thought on closer inspection; it was just dirty and badly laid out before.

Of course the Alternator plug wouldn't fit through the crudely hacked rectangular hole in the bulkhead so once again out came my friend Mr Dremel and a small "extension" was made. I intend to cover all the bulkhead holes and start again so I can actually furnish them with grommetts. I don't know who wired this car but they know less than I do. And my knowledge of electrics is "Red to red, green to green and blue to bits"  Close inspection shows there was a hole in the middle of the bulkhead originally - this had been filled in and a couple of rectangular holes butchered on either side of the bonnet catch.

I finally have a clear dash and engine bay. I've now got Master cylinders, Wiper Assembly, Bonnet Catch and Radiator to remove in the engine bay. I've also got to finish stripping the interior of old glue and the remains of the underlay (yum what a nice job!! as well as take the rear lights out. Then it's glass and seals before starting on body prep. It's gonna be a long summer. I'm going down to Southern Mini Days soon so will scour the autojumbles for dashboard bits amongst other things. My wallet is wincing already 

Front Loom now out. Yay!



Clear dashboard area 



Modified hole (new bit to the right). Lousy hacking job by the person who did it before!



Cleaner engine bay




Managed to find half an hour this evening to take a look at the heater and establish whether it could be saved. I hoped that there was just a bit of surface rust and that the matrix was usable. Some hope...

I undid the screws on the outlet side of the heater. I say undo - I had to drill off two which had seized solid and already had chewed heads which I then made worse. I carefully prised off the side panel with a flat blade screwdriver and bingo! The matrix was proper knackered. Oh well... Guess I can get myself a secondhand heater in better nick from Southern Mini Days next weekend. I was able to remove the motor and fans though, which will enable me to experiment building my "Turbofan" Mini heater using a Ford Motor with the Mini fans and casing. The blower outlet was weird though - someone had made up a pipe reducer out of rubber and cardboard. It was fit only for the bin.

Side panel with weird pipe reducer. 



Heater with knackered matrix 



Rustier than an HA Viva that's just crawled out of the sewer after 20 years in there :shock:



The starting point for "Turbofan" 

[MrBounce]

Not much done this weekend but have manged to strip down and destroy the horrible seats. Naturally this gave me a great deal of pleasure Some parts of the seats looked ok (some of the foam). The rest did not. Horrible, nasty and utterly rotten. Had to strip them down as the local dump (sorry - "Recycling Centre") won't take obvious car parts or seats for that matter. Plus I'd look like a right numpty trying to take just a pair of knackered seats to a breaker's...

So out came my friend Stanley and the "F" screwdriver. 10 minutes later there was a lots of crap and two metal seat frames which can go in the metal bin at the local tip.

Just foam and backrest left to go...



First one done



That's a big pile of crap...



Stripped frames (being guarded by Moneypenny the cat) 




Ok, so Saturday saw me off to Southern Mini Days in Kent with the sole purpose of picking up a few parts. So I now have some captive nut engine mounts, a pair of rear wheel brake cylinders, a gearshift gaiter, a set of caliper seals, a couple of stainless caliper pistons (for some reason known only to myself I didn't buy 4), a couple of dashboard vents and another heater, which the vendor assured me was in good working order and didn't leak.

However I put all this to one side as I wanted to clear as much stuff from the engine bay as possible. This meant firstly removing the wiper motor and wheelbox assembly. It came out nice and easily and was well lubricated but like most things on this car, it had suffered a bit with the 10 years of standing. It was a bit...well...brown. No problem! 5 minutes with my friend the angle grinder and wire brush had it looking good. I've put it in the corner out of the way.

I have also removed the bonnet stay which then got the same treatment and once I'd removed all the brackets and screws that didn't involve me needing an assistant, off came the bonnet. I then utilised the man-room hoover to suck up all the horrible dust, broken clips etc that had accumulated in the engine bay over the years. It still needs to be properly cleaned, but maybe I'll get on with that at the weekend.

As I still had a few minutes I thought I would just take a quick look at the heater matrix in the "new" heater. "Good working order" and "doesn't leak" eh? Thank you so much for relieving me of a tenner to take away some of your crap. The matrix was almost as bad as the previous one.  Guess I'll just have to bite the bullet and buy a new one - it's the only way to be sure... 

Wiper wheelbox before...



...and after!



Bonnet stay before...



...and after!



Bay getting cleaner



Heater in good working order, allegedly. I beg to differ...

[MrBounce]

Managed to get away from work nice and early today (bonus when you start at 7.30 - you can finish at 3.30  )

Thought I would clear a bit more of the engine bay and set about removing the radiator. Now this was supposed to be an Allegro item - I think not as the top hose connection is on the wrong side of the engine bay. I think it's more likely to have been from something with an inline rather than transverse engine so possibly a Marina? Anyhow, undoing the 2 bolts on the front panel under where the bumper would normally sit was a doddle, presumably because they weren't rusty. The rad just lifted nicely out. It does look a bit knackered though at the bottom - a layer of rust probably means it's had a smaall amount of water sitting in it for several years and has started rotting out. Replacement is on the cards. If anyone works at a Motor Factors can they let me know of a radiator roughly 270mm x 500mm (excluding end tanks) that has a top and bottom hose connection on the left? Much appreciated 

The fan was bolted to the radiator by means of some extremely rusty bolts, 2 of which sheared immediately. These needed drilling out. I shall probably re-use this as apart from the rusty bolts, it looks in good condition.

Now the rad was missing it was easy to remove the wire mesh from the air intake - it was held on by 3 rusty wingnuts. The numberplate brackets were taken off (2 more sheared bolts...) I also took my time removing the weird engine steady bracket from the passenger side of the car. This took some time as the bolts and the bracket had become one mass of rust. Still, no match for my spanner and 2ft extension bar and socket. Apart from the various bolts that need to be released from inside the car via use of a helper, I am pretty much done in the engine bay now.

Rad out, rust at bottom... (rad is upside down...)



Electric fan removed



A gaping hole at the front now



Strange bracket (broken). I'm sure those bushes will go again...



The pile of nasty, rusty seized bolts and knackered bushes from just tonight's work.  Stainless next time methinks...




I have been given an oil cooler by a mate (well I swapped it for some scampi tails...) but the scrap pipes on it were so solidly on there they wouldn't budge without extreme force. Now, as it's an OIL cooler and therefore has oil in it, heat would be a problem, especially with a naked flame. So I chucked it in a plastic bag and put it in the freezer overnight. Took it out this morning (after about 10 hours) and said unions undid easily. So that's my top tip of the day. 

I then got the heater I'd bought and thought if I am going to put a new matrix in it, I need to make sure it's not covered in rust and crap. So out came the angle grinder with wire brush attachment and I sorted the heater side panels no problem. However, the main heater body was scrap. I brushed of the paint and the wire brush went straight through. So that's another punch from me Mr Dodgy Mini parts vendor. Perfectly serviceable my donkey! :lipsrsealed:Amazingly the main body from the heater that had been left in the Midas for 10 years cleaned up ok, so I'll use that. Just need to sort some paint now...

Frozen oil cooler union



Pipes off! Woo-hoo!



Rubbish heater, part 2



Cleaned bits ready for paint.

[MrBounce]

As it was a sunny afternoon it was time to push the little beast out of its brick prison and give the thing a proper clean - its first in about 10 years judging by the amount of moss and other interesting marks on it. Luckily for me my father-in-law runs a chemical company which manufactures car cleaning products (wholesale) and he has an excellent general purpose cleaner which will shift most things.

So I pushed the car out into the sun and taped up every hole which led to the interior. This would then give me an idea of just how shot the door and window seals were. So I spent the best part of 2 1/2 hours giving it a good scrub and hose down. I also was able to get an idea of the last few little jobs left to clear out the engine bay and interior, as it's not always apparent in the tiny garage I have. As I was cleaning it anyway, I gave the wheels a squirt of alloy cleaner to see how much work they'd need to refurbish. Still a lot. Ho hum...

And of course it all filled with water. My drive is on a slant, so it all collected in the rear. It took a while with a sponge to clear it out. The sun helped dry it out too. Still, it's now much cleaner (although still in need of a further deep clean) so will be nicer to work on. And I'm not too worried about the other marks as they're all going to attacked with an orbital sander and resprayed anyway!! 

Dirty Car!



Moss growing on the rear end...



Holes taped up in the front...



...and the back



Bang! And the dirt is gone!!



Clean!



Bonnet off and cleaner engine bay



It's full of water!!



Clean-ish alloy



Back in the garage




I have neglected the poor little thing over the last couple of weeks. I have been a busy boy but... It's all to do with not actually wanting to do that favourite of jobs, removing the split pin to get the master cylinders out. I will do it I promise... 

Had half an hour to spare this afternoon so got a couple of little jobs done. Sprayed up the heater side panels and the washer bottle bracket with some black Hammerite. There was also a pair of drive flanges in the box of bits I have, but one of them was attached to an old 8.4" disc. I removed the drive flange (damn I love that word  ) using WD40, a 1 1/2 foot long extension bar and aggression factor 5. It worked! 

Parts ready for paint



Couple of coats on (finish not too important - they're mostly hidden away!)



About to get medieval on the flange bolts... 



...which gave up without too much of a fight.

[richw911]

  Nice work bud