Project Zippy (Midas Mk1 Coupe) Engine In!

[Bandit127]

This is my favourite build thread, I can't wait to see the finished product but then I will also be sad that I have no more Monday morning content to read!

+1 on that. I have a soft spot for (proper) Minis having spent a lot of my youth driving and fixing them. My soft spot seems to have extended to Zippy.

MrBounce - some real progress is being made here and I hope your motivation is being bolstered by that. I would hate this thread to peter out before the car is finished.

[MrBounce]

Gentlemen thank you - it is exactly these comments that motivate me further! It means a lot that people are interested in my strange plastic car and my attempts to bring it back to life. It WILL be finished!!

Not much to report this week - I moved the car out of the garage into the blazing sunshine again and finished off all the missed bits of stonechipping. I didn't take any pictures as it looks much the same as the first one. I will get a friend or two over and we'll put it back on its belly so we can start prepping it for the painting process. Eek.

I dragged the MIG welder I've been given out and decided to create my own captive nut engine mounts as the ones I had were - for want of a better word - rubbish. I ground off the crimped in round threaded "things" (they certainly weren't nuts) and cleaned up four nuts I had in the box. I then proceeded to not make a pig's ear of things and surprised myself by welding on the nuts without too much bother - I have only welded once before! I am sure it would have been better if I had a proper arc-sensitive flip-down mask rather than the hand-held one I have and things would doubtless have improved with a lot more practice, but I was quite pleased with my attempts. I wasn't the most accurate as my free hand was holding that damned mask but I know a friend with a proper mask if necessary. Granted there was a bit of pigeon-poo splatter on my first attempt (the nuts weren't spotless) and I managed to weld the tip up, but I fitted a replacement and all was good!

Captive nuts done (this is probably the best of them)

[MrBounce]

Once more I have been putting off sanding the bodywork (mainly for silly reasons such as next door having an afternoon in the garden and Mrs B telling me not to sand whilst the washing is out...) That said, the first 50% of sanding the main part of the bodyshell is now done. It makes such a difference as well. I have my mojo back and all is good. I have however got sunburn. Ow.

Before I finally got out to do some bodywork, I asked David if he would mind sandblasting my rocker cover when he next had a moment? Half an hour later, it was done! This happened when he popped back to his to get his slide hammer whilst Tink & I were trying to remove my idler bearing in my flywheel housing. We'd managed it by the time David returned, but he'd taken a while because he sandblasted the cover. Once home, I primed it then gave it two further coats of Rover Platinum Silver to go with the rest of the bits on the engine. Typically the bolts I had were too short to fit it. I rectified this with a pair of T-bars from Mini Spares, then topped it off with a new oil cap. Am tempted to have a "Midas" sticker made up for it but am not sure...

I was also struggling with my indicator stalk and after a particularly bad time in the garage I said "Sod it!" and ordered a new one from Mini Spares. This arrived and has been paired up with the good wiper stalk I have. The wiring has been recovered in decent electrical tape. Another thing I have finished was the front brake pipe on the subframe. I fitted the front braided hoses with new nuts and washers, then bent the pipe to fit as best as I could , being a total novice at this!! Although it's far from perfect, it isn't bad for a first effort and nobody's going to see it anyway unless they're really nosey! Next week is hopefully going to filled with LOTS more body prep. I am feeling good about it.

Beautiful rocker cover now fitted.



New indicator stalk, now paired with its wiper stalk buddy (Blatant advert in the background!!)



Brake pipe made up and fitted to subframe.



First bit of sanding done. It's SO white now!!

[Thom89]

What are your plans for the body leading up to painting?

Thom

[MrBounce]

It has been a while I've updated this as Mrs Bounce has recently had major surgery, so I have not been out to the garage much. She's now on the mend and I have turned my attentions to paint. Having looked into various options, I was left with these 3:

1. Give it to someone else to spray. I don't have the budget for this at all. A 4-figure sum is not in my plans so that's out.
2. Respray the car myself. My garage is too small, but there's the option of a decent sized gazebo/tent/temporary structure of some sort and my friend has a compressor with spray gear. And here's where it gets awkward. I have never sprayed before, so would need practice and there's no guarantee I would be much good at it. Add to this the problem of the breathing gear needed for 2-pack (and the legislation attached to not being allowed to spray outside) plus cellulose only really being available via the internet and things were starting to look bad for a spray job. There is of course the option of finding larger internal premises to spray in, but I do not know anyone with such a place plus there would be the additional ball-ache of borrowing car & trailer to transport it there and back. Whoop-di-doo.
3. DIY paint job using rollers. I have done a fair bit of research on this, and as my car will not be a trailer queen/concours vehicle, I am happy with just a half decent shine. So I have gone down the Rustoleum route as they have a wide range of colours, and it's easy to apply with no primer once it's been thinned. Flat down with fine wet & dry then re-coat. And Shaun's just bought a polisher. Plus there's the added bonus of it being much cheaper!

There's only a minor bit of prep left to do, I've now got all the paint and equipment, so will let everyone know how it goes.

I'll just leave these two pics here...

[VR6_Wherry]

This is not fair - I've checked this everyday for the last God knows how long and this is all you give me!

Good luck with the spray!

[Thom89]

Good to hear Mrs "B" is doing well

Rollers! Aghhhh!

Priming your bodyshell and panels would teach you how to paint, and something as small as a Midas is an ideal way to learn, and also low cost to materials... lots of "Show cars" get painted in lock ups!

Even with the roller route, your prep work will still have to be impeccable to achieve a decent finish... not ideal, but still very doable,

Looking forward to more progress, keep up the good work

Thom

[MrBounce]

No two ways about it - the first rolled coat is on! The only difficulty at the time was getting the amount of thinning right. Originally I'd planned to use 10-15%, but about 17.5% turned out to be better. There were a couple of minor runs but these were only right on the edges. These will all be flatted back before the next coat but I will be leaving it for a week to harden. The overall finish at first shows a few of the darker bits through where it's been repaired but these will disappear after the next coat or two. In the meantime I will have to do the bonnet and doors; shouldn't take too long!

First bit done; no going back now!



It's ORANGE! Not gonna lose this in a car park...



Looks good from the back too. Shaun doesn't. He just looks scary...

[MK3 Beardo]

This has been a EPIC read. Fantastic work Mr Bounce!

[Horney]

Epic colour choice dude, love it.