Project Zippy (Midas Mk1 Coupe) Engine In!

[MrBounce]

Due to multiple work and social committments I have left the little beastie in the garage for 2 weeks and haven't touched it; high time I brought it out for some work. The front end needed more sanding - I spent most of the morning concentrating on sorting out & smoothing the nose area. It's very close now - one more application then a small skim of filler and all will look good. I still have so much to concentrate on - under where the bumper sits still needs a lot of attention, but because it's close to the ground at the moment and the work around the sidelights/indicator recesses is intricate, I will leave it until the car's on its side and it's more accessible. The door apertures are practically complete. The rear numberplate area is done, the badge holes filled in and the rear wheel arch repairs are almost finished. I have also used P40 on the remaining ground out cracks around the bonnet aperture. But I still hate sanding. Hopefully not too much more to do...

I have decided where the dashboard will be modified. It's currently 120mm too wide and I have concluded that the side vents can go. It was either those or some very clever surgery on just the passenger side, and that would give me an offset centre console, not something I wanted at all. There is a separate piece that fits under the top of the dashboard which funnels air to the vents. This will need to be cut and sealed off due to there being no end vents. Saves a bit of weight I suppose! The cowling for the instruments may be slightly offset when it's finished (not by much I doubt) but given that the Mini dials couldn't be seen much either, I don't think it's going to matter too much. I have measured up where I will be cutting and also sorted the curvature of the top of the dashboard so it butts up nicely to the bottom of the windscreen. I knew there was a reason for keeping the original Midas dashtop rail!! Surgery will commence in due course.

Front end looking smoother (not that you can really tell...)



Door apertures looking healthier.



Rear end better, but the foglight holes still need sorting.



Dashboard taped up ready to be cut about. Unless I change my mind!



Vent "casting" in preparation for considerable shortening.



The instrument cowling fits nicely. The shade that goes over the top is missing and they're silly money on eBay. I might make one if I can't find one cheaply.

[MrBounce]

I found myself with a free evening plus the added likelihood of 2 friends round at the same time. As a result I thought it was time to turn the car onto its side so I could spend a bit of time "cleaning up" underneath. James & Matt came over and we first pushed the car out onto the drive on its trolley, then gently rolled it onto its side on the grass.

I clipped all the little bits of wire tying the fuel and brake lines to all the clips then removed them and stored them carefully in the garage. The fuel line can certainly be used again - I will give it a blow through and a good clean up first though. Am tempted to change all the clips as I think the ones on the the car are the originals and therefore 32 year-old brittle plastic. Trouble is there's a lot of them and that's a lot of holes to fill.

Talking of filling holes, there's plenty of that to do underneath; where the old seats used to sit, the old subframe mount holes, the old handbrake mount holes, the old gearbox mount holes and a few other random ones where I can't figure out what they were used for. I have also found a bit of damage (at the middle under the rear valance where an old bolt had rusted away) and I have already trimmed the remains of it away. In the meantime I have pressure washed & degreased the underside. Plenty more to do but all in good time...

One last thing. Am thinking of exhausts, but where to mount them. Seeing that they're heavy buggers, I had wanted to do a centre exit but may change this due to having no idea where to hang it from. Answers on a postcard please.

It's a rollover! Disgusting grease marks removed. Fuel & brake lines now removed. Holes still there...



Thanks to Matt & James, it's now on the trolley. Yes, I did check clearance before putting it back in the garage...

[MrBounce]

Time to take a look at the underside to see what horrors I have missed so far. There was a spider crack on the underside of the valance which has been ground out along with some cracking by the bolt holes for the handbrake. I also sorted the damage in the middle of the valance by removing the very broken gelcoat & adding a small strip of fibreglass, then P40 over the top. It was then, rather distressingly, that I turned my attention to the front end.

I can only say one thing. The person who did the "repairs" to the bodywork on this car is a total muppet (I sometimes wish that forums were not swear free zones as you might get an idea of how frustrated I am - let's just say the garage turned blue. A lot.). When I was sorting out the problems on the nose, I didn't pay particular attention to the underside of it. Should have done really. It was ALL body filler. I could have cried. And the looking closer at the under bumper area on the nearside side showed more ugly bits. And a truckload more filler. And guess what? More cracks!!

I did the only thing I could do. Out came the hammer & chisel for the filler under the nose, and the angle grinder with wire brush attachment for the under bumper bit. I also found that a bit near the indicator surround was all filler. I cut it out using the Dremel. I now need more resin and fibreglass. Now what was I thinking of? Oh yeah, that's right. Yee-haa.

Spider cracks on valance ground out.



Damage to rear valance halfway through being corrected.



More cracks where handbrake bolts through.



Muppetry. I hammered it out.



Lumpy bits. Time to remove...



Half removed showing cracks and general ugliness. Angle grinders are useful. Although mine is now white...



And the rest of it. I don't know exactly how they thought it was "fixed"...



Piece removed. All filler - with a tiny bit of fibreglass attached...



There's a hole in my car. Again...



Starting to right the wrongs. For the umpteenth time.

[MrBounce]

I have to admit to quite liking other peoples' bodges. Makes me realise that my corrective work can be nowhere near as bad. I finally got some more resin and set about laying some more fibreglass behind the nose and also over the inside of the hole I made last weekend. This was where I remembered that doing a "hot mix" of resin is where you need to use it quickly. Oops. I now have a paintbrush firmly stuck to the hardened resin still in the mixing pot. Never mind...

I had a small issue of how to make sure that the repairs to the nose were straight. I used the relatively simple option of a wooden baton with clear tape wound round it and clamped to the front end. I was able to stuff the hole with P40 and will be able to peel off the baton once it's dry, leaving a straight edge. At least that's the theory.

Whilst that was drying I thought I would have a look at the fuel line. I am going to replace the brake line anyway as I have a full set of cunifer lines which came with the project, but I thought the fuel line might be salvageable. It was quite horrid really; I couldn't quite figure out whether it was covered in badly applied paint or if it was the accumulation of 30 years of grime from both the road and from just standing around in gardens. Still, wire wool is brilliant. A bit of elbow grease and the fuel line looks in good nick again. I will need to give it a blow through and will also have to re-bend it at the front beause it just won't sit right. Not too difficult a job I guess, but I will need a pipe bender.

Newly laid fibreglass under nose...



...and around the indicator recess.



Baton (covered in clear tape) clamped to the front.



P40 applied. Baton *should* peel off.



Starting to clean the fuel line. Is it paint? Or is it grime?



Looks nice again!

[MrBounce]

I have been a little lax recently, enjoying the hot weather both here and abroad so no recent updates and for that I can only apologise!

With the shell up on its side I could turn my attention to the vast amount of holes through the floor. These were for the old twin-cables from the handbrake as well as the lever itself, the twin bolt subframe floor mount holes, the old seat mounting bolts and where the old remote gear selector had been mounted. Tink went inside the car and gaffa-taped over the holes whilst I used the countersink drill bit to enlarge the holes a little and give the filler something to adhere to. Then it was a simple matter of filling in the holes & sanding them flat.

Talking of sanding, I feel I am getting somewhere with the front end now. It's flattening off nicely, the tape-covered baton did its job well to straighten up the nose; soon all I will need to do is to give it a thin skim of P38 in places and we will be good for some primer. However, I noticed some more cracks (groan) on the underside of the front airdam which included one which had gone right through. I have strengthened it from behind for now and will grind it out properly in due course in order to repair it properly.

Finally I have been collecting some more parts - I have 2 CV joint kits, a pair of inner boot gaiters, and have finally splashed out on a pair of recon radius arms. Big thanks to Ted at the East Anglian Mini Centre who was happy to take my hydro/dry hybrid arms in exchange.

Holes filled in - these are in the exhaust tunnel.



Front end smoothing off. It doesn't look great but it will after the primer!!



More cracks! Arrrggghhhh!!



Recon Radius Arms. At last!!

[MrBounce]

Yet more bodywork today. Am getting to be quite a dab hand at sanding. Yay me. I still hate it though. If anyone ever wants to offer me a job at a bodyshop, it will only be as the teaboy, or the bloke who is allergic to sandpaper and never does body repairs.

I ground out and repaired the crack in the bottom of the airdam then spent the rest of the afternoon filling in bits around the bottom of the bodyshell. I also spent time sorting out the hole which I'd filled where the original selector sat. I say filled. I meant chucked a load of P40 in and left to do another day. It is now much, much smoother, and nothing like the wild terrain that had been left there before.

There was a little bit of damage where the steering rack U-bolts come through the bottom of the bulkhead. I wasn't 100% sure how to deal with it but then had a brainwave. I put some tape round some old bolts and poked them through the holes, then used P40 around them. Touch wood it looks like it'll work well. The upper bulkhead repairs have been finished off with some filler and I have also applied my first skim to the front end. It appears I have turned a corner. Woo-hoo!!

Airdam repairs complete.



Bulkhead repairs filled (pic taken halfway through - I did finish it!!)



Filled hole where gear selector sits midway through tidying up.



Steering rack U-bolt repairs underway.



First little skim of filler!!

[MrBounce]

Had a couple of hours spare after work so spent most of doing yet more sanding. I cleaned up the repairs I had made to the bulkhead where the rack bolts through - am quite pleased with it. It needs final smoothing but that shouldn't be too much of a chore. However, having given the car a further once over I noticed I had missed a few spider cracks in the floor (some around one of the holes for the seat belts) plus some more in the front. Out came my trusty friend Dremel and I ground them out before filling them with resin. I once again did the trick of tape round the bolt to keep the hole round. I am getting tired of repairs now. Will it ever end???

Rack mounts repaired - final smoothing needed.



HOW MANY MORE DAMNED CRACKS ARE THERE IN THIS THING??!!

[MrBounce]

2 steps have been made forward, which is always a good thing. Unless there's 3 steps backwards. Which in this case, there were. My wife's stepbrother has a Mini and wants to put a 1275 engine in it eventually, so bought a 1980 Allegro. In Brown. On hearing this, I went to look at it and he very kindly let me have the rad in exchange for helping him eventually fit a stage one kit to the Mini. So out came the rad (took 2 minutes) and I pilfered the expansion bottle too. I'll need to get a bracket for it as the one on the car had morphed into a huge nasty rusty blob on the inner wing. I left it there. I also took the thermostat housing & the sandwich plate as these will be more suited to the heater I am using.

However, the problem with removing the thermostat housing on a 33 year old car usually means they haven't moved in those 33 years. It took 45 minutes of bad language, brute force, double nut technique and a little ingenuity. I had to remove one of the studs at home (broken of course) as it resolutely refused to move. New studs required. I will clean up the housing & the sandwich plate in due course.

I decided to back flush the radiator so blocked off the pipe to the expansion bottle and put the hose in the outlet pipe. A bit of brown sludge came out and then it all ran clear from the inlet. And the middle of the radiator. Yup, it has a hole. I might see how much it is to recore as this one has solid looking metal end tanks as opposed to the rather fimsy plastic ones on my old rad. There's a rad specialist not far from me so we'll see how it goes.

In the meantime I have done some more sanding and finally removed the remains of the old screws which held in the headlining. Am getting depressed about the body work again...

Radiator, fan & expansion bottle, as removed.



Sandwich plate & thermostat housing. They were a struggle to remove.



And the reason I won't be using this radiator.

[SoundillusioN]

Been off the site for ages and thought's I'd see how you were getting on with this... looking much better but rather you than me, I hate working with GRP to this level! 

[MrBounce]

So, having found a radiator with the water retaining capabilities of a colander, it was time to take a visit down to the local Radiator specialist. I explained my predicament and he said it would be possible to recore the Allegro rad, but it wouldn't fit my budget as it would be £150. He was right. However, as I had taken down both of my old rads to show 1) what should be in the gap and b) what was ACTUALLY there when I bought the car, he was able to immediately identify the other one as that from an A-series Metro.

He disappeard upstairs and found a new/old stock one which he said had been "up there a while". He also knocked it down from £65 to £50 provided I paid cash. I have a new rad, I have supported an idependent local business and he gets to go down the pub. Everyone's happy! I will need to re-drill at least one hole as the mounting pins are in slightly different places, and I need to figure out how to mount the electric fan as that's different too, but I am nothing if not resourceful.

I had to go shopping for a Metro expansion tank & pipes though as I only had an enormous expansion tank from some sort of Ford in the bits box that came with the car. Ebay came up trumps so now I am currently making it a bit cleaner as it's a bit gungy.

New rad. Fills the hole although mounting points & fan will need fettling.



Expansion tank with pipes. Cleaning currently underway.