Project Zippy (Midas Mk1 Coupe) Engine In!

[MrBounce]

Not a huge amount to report this week other than that I have finished the modifications to the seat runners. I managed to do this without Father-in-law's pillar drill, but it probably took an awful lot longer as a result... As per my last post, I had hacksawed the front of the runners off as they're surplus to requirements and then set about removing the "spikes" that would also get in the way. These go through the runners and are held in place by a kind of rivet. The best way to remove these is to simpy drill out the rivet, which is not quite so easy with a handheld battery drill. Still, after much swarf, I was able to drill as far as I dared then twisted the remains out using the vice.

I moved on to the back of the runners where once again there are some rivets holding in the curved mounting plates that aren't required. Again, there was much cursing and swarf, but once drilled, it was an easy job. The runners are now back on the seats; I am going to get some "top hat" spacers made up with a thread on them so they can be fitted to the bolts with no likelihood of them falling off. This will make fitting the seats an easy one-man process.

I have started to clean the carb. I have given the dashpot, spring, damper and needle their first go through the parts washer - I think I need to give them another go as they're still a bit dirty. Lovely...

Rear mount removed - just add bolts and spacers to fit!



Bits removed from the runners. A weight saving if nothing else...



Runners fitted back to seats.



Carb parts after their first clean - they're still dirty!!

[MrBounce]

I needed to turn the body over as the nearside front end needs a bucketload of sanding and sorting following all my fibreglass rectification. This meant calling Shaun again. Cheers buddy! We carefully rolled the shell outside, then whilst we had it out, we put it the right way up. The reason for this was to mark the positions on the floor for the seat runners. This was the first time I had sat in the car since buying it nearly 3 years ago! I made "Vroom!" noises, naturally.

There is not a lot of room in there, even for a relative shortarse like me (5ft 8"). The seats (although small) are only an inch and a bit away from touching the roof. We have positioned them close to the exhaust tunnel; I did consider swapping the seats around so the marginally better condition passenger seat would become the driver's seat. Not a chance. They are different on each side and simply won't fit. To clear the "humps" in the floor (where the fuel and brake lines run underneath) I will need to concoct some spacers for the runners and bolts; luckily, I know a man with access to a lathe...

Once we'd done this we flipped the shell over to the other side and pushed it back into the garage. Sanding will start again soon. I am so excited by this...

Once more out into the open.



Sitting in it at last... "Vroom" noises made of course!

[MrBounce]

I hate filler, cracks in fibreglass and other people's bodges. Yup, I am now having a closer look at the driver's side nose. And man it is not pretty. There was about half an inch of filler unde it, and the area under the bumper was mishapen, bumpy and - you've guessed it - full of yet more poxy cracks. I am annoyed at myself for missing them beforehand. Anyway, out came the powertools again. I even resorted to the angle grinder with the wire brush at one point as I just needed to get all the old crap out.

The Dremel once again came in very handy sorting out the cracks - it took me over half an hour to get all the ones I could see.  However I am now on my last cutting disc, having gone through 68 of them, all whilst working on this car. There were not only cracks on the nose under where the bumper sits, but also under the "air dam" and also on the wheelarch. All have been ground and have been rectified. This will be followed by some sanding. Have we been here before???

Getting the filler from under the nose out. Yup, I was picking my car's nose (with power tools).



Not the best of pictures, but look at all those "lovely" cracks.



Midway through getting all the garbage out of the under bumper area.



Once again, surgery is required...



And also under the wheelarch.

[Thom89]

You think you've got problems with cracked fiberglass!



Seriously, keep up the good work... loving it

Thom

[MrBounce]

Thom that's not cracked. That's f***ed!!! 

My recent fun has once again involved the now filler-free (ish) nose. Lots of further grinding was required to get rid of as many cracks as possible. I will never manage it completely, but hopefully most of the problems have now been eliminated. I have repaired the underside of the nose and under the bumper, but this is the first "rough" repair, so more will doubtless be required. However, I want to use an absolute minimum of filler and although the majority of the work is under where the bumper sits, I want it done properly. I wouldn't be happy if I bought the car and saw a bodge job underneath!

I have bought a Mini centre speedo, as although I was toying with the idea of a digital unit, none of the ones on the market within my budget really appealed. I shall be going with good old analogue for now, as it only cost £6. I have taken the speedo apart to give it a good clean, and also to paint the casing as it had gone a bit rusty. A few minutes with some sandpaper and some silver spray and it looks good again. I have zeroed the mileometer and am in the process of cleaning everything. I am in two minds whether to paint the speedo needle the same orange as the car will eventually be. Not sure yet.

Finally my hunt for a new centre cap for my Mistral alloy wheels is over. My friend's father in law has made me 2 copies, one in white metal and the other in some sort of resin. The resin one is amazing; the white metal one almost as good but MUCH heavier. They'll both look good when painted. Bottle of wine coming your way sir!

Is this what called "getting a nose-job"?



Centre Speedo - exploded view. You can see the repainted casing top left of the pic.



I have stripped it almost fully. I love intricate bits.



Wonderful "new" centre caps. Original on left, resin in middle, white metal on right.

[MrBounce]

I am almost in the process of jumping around like a crazy thing. I have reached the stage where all the nose of the car needs now is a final skim of filler and some minor tidying. Big thanks go to Shaun who gave up his Bank Holiday afternoon to watch me swearing about fibreglass. I also managed to build up the area around where the steering rack meets the body. It looked like it had worn away over the years so I have rectified this. I had a discussion with Shaun and we have both agreed that as it's not a concours car we're going to paint the underside with some sort of underseal/underbody protection paint. I know it's not factory but it will be virtually impossible for me to paint the underside in bodycolour, so I would much rather do it as a "fit and forget" method and then the car can be back on its wheels.

As I was fed up with sanding, I thought I would bung the head on the engine (the gearbox is currently with Guessworks being refreshed). It was at this point that I remembered one of the main reasons that buying an unfinished project can be a pain in the rear end. You know the engine that was dismantled into its component parts? Well... not all of the parts were there. Luckily they weren't that expensive (the four rocker studs) but it was still annoying. The rockers and all studs and nuts were given a clean up in the parts washer and then all the threads were cleaned up. I used the "two-nut" method to put the studs in the block then popped on the Payen gasket followed by the head itself. In went the pushrods and then the rocker gear. A tighten up in sequence with the torque wrench and all was done.

Final skim to do. Good.



Built up area around the steering rack hole (still some to do when pic was taken).



Cleaned pushrods, studs and nuts.



Studs in block



All finished and torqued down.

[MrBounce]

I figured that as the head was now back on the engine along with the rockers, I may as well adjust the valve clearances. After an initial aborted attempt where I was so tired I saw fit to forget all logic, I used the "rule of 9" to sort them out their proper tolerances.

I then popped to to the London to Brighton Mini run to get my hands on some bits that I needed, which included the following:

Thermostat & 2 x gaskets
Solid front subframe rear & tower mounts (I already have the teardrops)
Rocker gasket
New washers/grommets/spacers for the rocker cover
Clutch oil seal & plastic protector
New oil filler cap
Blanking plates for both the fuel pump and heater tap

I also picked up an MG Metro rocker cover from Ted at the East Anglian Mini Centre for a tenner. Granted it's a bit grotty, but all it needs is a clean and polish. If it's too pitted, then I can easily paint it.

Talking of painting, I have also sprayed up the thermostat housing and sandwich plate along with various clutch arm parts; these are next on my list to put together.

Pile of new purchases. Rocker Cover was a particular bargain.



Blanking plates on and rockers adjusted.



Thermostat housing and sandwich plate in primer...



...and clutch arm too.

[MrBounce]

I have discovered two things I could do with in the garage. One is a bigger vice; the other is a hydraulic press. I have no idea where I would put it but it would make my life a whole lot easier...

First job was to mask and spray the flywheel housing. I spent ages cleaning it then carefully masked it all off. Two coats of primer followed by a couple of coats of silver were enough to see it looking somewhat more refreshed. However, next door's barbecue was a bit of a distraction.

Next up it was clutch release bearing time. I had a brand new bearing and a brand new plunger. However, they did not fit in the vice. I decided I would use one of my sturdy G clamps (held in the vice) and started to wind the clamp in. All worked fine for a bit until it suddenly got a little easier. This is always worrying. Sure enough, the clamp had given way and cracked. Time to find someone with a press methinks...

Flywheel housing primed...



...and painted.



One of the disadvantages of not having a press...

[MrBounce]

The clutch cover assembly is now finished. I went round to see my friend Mike and used his unfeasibly large vice (along with a socket and a nut) to properly press home the bearing onto the plunger. It took a lot of effort; I was tempted to ask Dave if could use his press. No need in the end and all looks good. Then it was just a matter of assembly, making sure the bits that usually seize were given a decent coating of Copperslip. It'll be properly adjusted once everything is on the car. I also shortened a couple of bolts so the timing-mark cover could be bolted on.

It was then time to give the underside of the body its first coat of stonechip. I spent ages masking up the bottom of the car and making sure that any holes/apertures were suitably plugged. Note: it is not the best idea to do this in bright sunshine with a hangover... Once I was happy with everything I gave a good coat of stonechip to the floorpan and the bottom half of the underbonnet area. Typically the two cans I thought would be ample ran out just before I'd finished... I left it to bake in the sun then popped it back into the garage to await the next delivery of stonechip.

Clutch cover all new and ready to go.



Everything masked up.



Stonechip on. Irritatingly there wasn't quite enough...

[VR6_Wherry]

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!