Project Zippy (Midas Mk1 Coupe) Engine In!

[Seanl]

Seeing as you're a man of the law, I hope you told him to ensure he declares this "cash sale" to the tax man!!

I don't know why, but this is probably the only non dub ride I regularly look in on! Probably to do with the fact it literally is a top to bottom resto and its good to see things progress from bare metal....well, fibreglass in this case! Well done with the work you've done so far, keep em comin!

[MrBounce]

Thanks for your kind words Sean - it's that sort of thing that keeps me going. Just so fed up of sanding right now...

As for Mr Radiator man, I genuinely don't care what he does with the money as long as I have a new rad  That said I am not entirely sure if he was joking or not... 

[MrBounce]

High time I got back into the garage. There aren't many pics today as all I have been doing is sanding, sanding and more sanding. P40 is very hard stuff and my fingers are now bleeding. That said, I really feel I have now turned a corner. I am working on the front left hand corner of the car (as it's on its side that makes it WAY more comfortable!) and it is almost time to not sand anymore. Thank ****.

I have finally got it as smooth as I am likely to at this stage, but of course there are various pockmarks and depressions. I have finally given it its first skim of filler. Now all I need is a couple of mates and it'll be time to flip it onto the other side and do that.

[MrBounce]

I spent this afternoon sanding down the first skim of filler and I have to say I am quite pleased with what I have done. Because of all the ground-out and re-filled cracks the aesthetics aren't that great at the moment, but it feels smooth with no obvious raised lumps. I feel I am getting somewhere. It will of course need a bit more sorting out of a few dips and gouges but that will have to wait until I have some more filler. I also took the opportunity to finish off the underside of the nose as there were still a few lumpy parts and/or chunks missing.

Whilst I was waiting for all the filler to dry off last week, I painted the brake calipers in a rather fetching shade of blue, which should offset the orange colour I want to paint the car rather nicely. I then decided to get started on reconditioning them as well, which means new seals and pistons, which I already have. I say that; it appears I only have them for one side of the car. I guess I will have to get some more... I managed to get the pistons out quite easily and have removed the seals. They looked slightly past their best. Brake cleaner is useful stuff and has made things look a lot prettier. Once I have got some new bits I will finish them.

First skim sanded; are my bodywork woes soon to be over??



Blue calipers! They look SO much nicer now!



Old seals. Not pretty.

[MrBounce]

As I haven't been able to get the Midas turned over (too much social time being taken up!!) and I didn't have any more filler anyway, I thought it was time I actually finished off the calipers. As I only had one side of the car to do it was unlikely to take a huge amount of time, but I was being ultra careful because I had never done this job before. Turns I am quite good at this! Now all I have to do is wait for the second set of pistons and seals to arrive before I can do the other one.

I have also been adding to my useful parts list. I wanted a Minispares inlet manifold - they're well made, I've had one before and I wasn't sure about the one I had in the parts box. There was nothing wrong with it; it just looked like it could be a little smoother on the inside. Getting a Minispares one meant less work with the Dremel to smooth it out. Thanks to the Mini Forum, one was bought (new but not used) and one was sold. I also helped my good friend to go through his garage finding bits for his father-in-law's Moke project, and he has chucked me a couple of bits - a switch for turning on the fan automatically and a battery disconnect switch. Very helpful!

Completed caliper. Can I do the other one please?



New inlet manifold



Couple of useful bits. Cheers Mr T!

[MrBounce]

As I had the bits for doing the second caliper, I went back into the garage and messed it all up. For those that don't know, the top seal is held in place by a metal collar, and it is very easy to get this wrong when pressing it in. And of course I managed to do it when I had had no problems with the other 3 I'd already done. So having contributed vast amounts to the swearbox, I put some more seals on order, shut the garage door and left it for a week. New seals arrived, and I promptly did the same thing again. More swearing. I was then ultra careful with the final one and had no more issues. Calipers done! (Although they will need a further coat of paint...)

I have decided that as the temperatures have dropped and there is no heater in the garage, even with a "hot" mix it's not really worth doing any filler work, so I have turned my attention to some more mechanical things. I have got my hands on a KAD Quickshift (rescued from a friends garage for a decent price - he happened to have two! - but I couldn't get the lever's collar to engage on the extension. As I have a spare full selector anyway, I tried that one. No issues at all. Now what it needs is cleaning as it is not pretty. Parts washer is on standby...

Caliper finished! (Apart from more paint)



KAD Quickshift acquired (Really must pay for this...!)



It's a bit gungy in there...

[Horney]

Coming along nicely bud!

[MrBounce]

Cheers Nick!! 

Well, the weather has turned cold. Lovely. The amazing Mrs B has bought me a present though - I've now got a Propane heater in the garage - stick it on for 10 minutes and it's lovely & toastie in there now! I will interested to see how long the gas canister lasts as the guy at the shop was desperately trying to sell me a bigger one...

Just a short update today: The gear selector and a couple of other parts (carb bits & part of the thermostat housing) have gone through the parts washer and look much improved ready for fresh grease and reassembly. I will of course be modifying the selector as it's a standard Mini part; these need to be sleeved and extended by 16cm I believe to work properly. The car was not fitted with an engine when I got it, but the previous one fitted came with a remote box anyway, which of course was totally different.

I also gave the calipers another coat of paint and have painted only half of the radius arms as they're not the easiest things to hang up...

New heater - looks like a jet engine so definitely one for the boys!



Cleaner looking selector (and other bits).



More paint applied.

[MrBounce]

Had another couple of hours so popped into the man room and did a little bit more painting. Have now finished painting the radius arms and the calipers so will hopefully be able to start putting stuff together soon!! I was considering building up the rear beam and the front subframe but I will need the work bench for those so I dug out the steering column.

This was not the prettiest thing in my garage. Being sat in a damp car for 11 years had made it look a bit...rusty. The outer column had a few small pock marks on it and the inner section looked like it had been in a field for a month. That said, about 15 minutes with some wet & dry soon had both looking much more usable and ready for the coat of satin black that I don't have in the garage. Nuts...

Other side of the radius arms & calipers done.



Column apart. Not pretty.



Looking more like it. I do have new bushes for both ends.

[MrBounce]

Another quick update; not much has gone on this week: I desperately need to tidy the garage as it's in a bit of a state. Meanwhile, I managed to prime and spray the outer steering column, having rubbed it down. I masked up the ignition barrel as the shear bolts had done just that and I wasn't going to spend 3 days trying to drill them out. I also got hold of some proper 3M masking tape after the big roll I had just made me very angry; it was terrible stuff that just ripped at every given opportunity. It went straight into the bin. A bit of satin black and the column is looking nice again.

Primed...



...and now black again.