Project Zippy (Midas Mk1 Coupe) Engine In!

[MrBounce]

Had a pretty busy weekend so haven't had much garage time. I have however managed to grab an hour or so and started on a couple of small jobs. The abutment bracket for the carb (and the spacer) were pretty disgusting having sat in a box with other bits for quite a while. I have given them both a clean up and also a coat of primer. I just had enough to do 2 coats and the primer ran out. Got my money's worth out of that can...

I also had a look at the heater valve that I'd got from Guessworks on eBay (cheers John!). The valve itself works perfectly - it just had a bit of surface rust and fine covering of radiator silt on the inside. I split the two bits and cleaned up the metal using a wire brush. There are a couple of pockmarks from the surface rust so a quick blow-over with some satin black and a smear of grease should keep it in fine order. The valve itself will go in with the nest load of washing up. Plastic parts always seem to respond well to warm soapy water! More soon.

Abutment plate and spacer in primer. Platinum silver coat to follow.



Heater valve in its component parts - a bit rusty and dirty.



Valve mechanism cleaned up. Platinum silver or satin black? Hmmm...

[MrBounce]

Back to garage and a few more little jobs done. It doesn't look much but it's the little things take time. The carb is now finished and has been put "together" with the inlet manifold, spacer and abutment plate for safe keeping. I have sprayed the metal part of the heater valve (no pictures yet) and have also primed and sprayed the spreader plates I made for the front subframe rear mounts. I also took the time to paint my front hubs. I had put them to one side ages ago meaning to do it and never got round to it. There was also a balljoint that I wasn't 100% happy with so I re-shimmed it and now feel satisfied. The hubs themselves are not perfect but anything is better than the rusty brown they were!

Last of all I have grabbed the driver's door in order to recondition the window winding mechanism and door locks. I will leave the picture of it to amuse everyone. It's a state, and this is the good one...

Carb is finished all bar cables and gaskets.



Spreader plates primed...



...and painted.



Hubs painted and looking a bit more presentable.



Driver's door internals. Not looking too good at the moment...

[MrBounce]

A quick update as I had an hour or two after work this evening. The driver's door needed to be stripped and the first thing I needed to do was to release the window. I used the tried and trusted method of jamming the glass with a block of wood whilst winding the winder down to take the channel off the glass. Some hope. Seized solid. So out came the WD40 and a small hammer. A few taps with a flat blade screwdriver got it moving and it eventually popped off. I will be removing the frame eventually as I will need to replace the window seals but this may take some time so don't hold your breath!!

I then had to remove the plate which holds all the winding mechanism. This was held in place by about a dozen rivets. A few minutes with a drill and they were all out although they did fight a bit. I unhooked the door release mechanism and then withdrew the plate and the window winding gubbins. Unsurprisingly, the winder mechanism was covered in surface rust (as was the plate). I cleaned up the winder mechanism using the wire brush attachment on the angle grinder, masked off the greasy areas and gave it a coat of primer. I shall make sure it looks a lot better when it goes back in.

I am not sure whether to de-rust the plate or make a new one yet; there's only one section of it which looks horrid. However I don't have much steel and if I can get away without making it all the better. On the other hand, the passenger side plate is virtually see-through in places so I might do this one as practice for the other...

Channel removed. I had to hammer it off.



All rivets drilled out, plate removed.



Winder mechanism cleaned, masked and primed.

[MrBounce]

Today I have mostly been playing with metal plates. First job was to see a) how bad the rust was and b) if it didn't appear to be too bad, I should try to remove it. First job? Out with the angle grinder and wire brush and I cleaned up the plate as best as I could. Although the plate looked quite bad, it appeared that the majority was surface rust. A few minutes' judicious use of the loudest tool I have and most was gone, and seemingly only a couple of minor pinholes had shown themselves. Perhaps I was going to be lucky? The next tool in my box was a chemical-based one - Bilt-Hamber's De-Ox gel. I only have one word for this stuff - astonishing. I brushed it on, left it for half an hour and then used a hand-held wire brush to agitate it all into a horrid brown sludge. This is then wiped off and viola! The rust has disappeared. Sadly it also revealed more pinholes and pockmarks than I could shake a stick at.

I am currently looking into places to get a decent amount of steel for as little money as possible. I guess it's cardboard template time... To calm myself I gave the winder assembly a coating of satin black which made it look all pretty.

Rusty. Here's hoping I can make it look a little more useable.



Potentially still useable - time for De-ox gel to really make sure!



Gel on. It really is amazing stuff.



Most of the rust just wiped off after agitation. Still some left, but it had told me all I needed to know...



...that holes like this are too bad to ignore. It's template time. Pass the new steel...



Still, at least the winder mechanism looks good now!

[MrBounce]

Just a quick update tonight. I've finally got back in there and have finished repairing the door plate. I decided that the easiest thing to do was to cut off the rusty section, create a new one out of sheet steel then attach it. I chose to rivet it as a) it is really easy and b) I wanted to try my new rivet gun. I made up a template out of a Shreddies box, then cut what remaining steel I had to size. Then it was a simple matter of bending it in the right places, clamping it and drilling the holes for the rivets and then using the rivet gun to fuse them together. I then gave it a covering of the nearest rattle can to hand, which was stonechip paint. That should make sure there won't be a repeat of such corrosion.

Cardboard template.



Roughly bent to shape.



Riveted on and stonechipped.

[MrBounce]

The Manroom has been in a bit of a state recently and I have the battle scars to prove it as I've been falling over stuff. I spent the entire morning today tidying it up - I pushed the Midas out on to the driveway so I could have more room to play with and it is now a much happier place to be. So much so that it was time to crack on with the doors. The frames needed to come off as it is the only way to get the glass out short of smashing it. I REALLY need to change the channel rubbers and all the other window seals as they're so rotten - not a problem really, but the state of them is quite comical.

First thing was first was to remove the 7 screws holding the frame to the door. 2 of them go through each frame upright with 3 securing the end piece and 2 through the front edge of the top of the door beneath the quarterlight. These were horrible on the driver's door, and I have ended up bending the frame over these as they simply would not shift. Nothing a bit of hammer work won't cure. The others were all fine, with the exception of the screw through the upright near the rear of the door. I had to use an impact driver on this one in conjunction with some WD40. Didn't take too long though as I like hitting things with a hammer. The frame then came off with no real issues, and this was followed by the lock, latch and handle mechanisms. All easy!

The other side was next up. Firstly I drilled out all the rivets on the winder plates (the main one looked horrible!) and removed all the window winder gubbins and the door pull. I then moved on to the frame. The front screws were a struggle - I resorted to Dremel-ing a slot in them - the heat from this allowed the fibreglass to release its grip enough to let them turn. The back 3 again were no issue but the rearmost upright screw was a proper bar steward. Of course the head was just chewed enough so the impact driver wouldn't work and you could not get the Dremel in there to cut it off. I eventually released it using a very small pair of Molegrips, which took forever because I could only move it about an eighth of a turn at a time. Eventually it gave up and the frame parted company with the door.

I cut the rusty bit off the door plate and once again repeated the process of making a replacement part, riveting it on. I then hung it up and gave it a coat of stonechip. Am feeling good!

Frame finally off driver's door.



Handle and locking mechanism out.



Frame ready for refurbishing.



Passenger door ready to be attacked, including...



...very ugly looking door plate.



This screw was a pain. I cannot thank the inventor of Molegrips enough.



Frame is finally off this one too!



Repaired door plate in stonechip.

[Horney]

This thread needs more orange.

Good progress dude.

[MrBounce]

Plans are afoot Nick. End of May for more orange... 

Isn't it amazing how one small tiny little thing can make your life a misery? When I was taking the car apart, the screw for the passenger window winder was seized and no amount of impact drivers, Plusgas, grinding or heat would shift it. I drilled the head off it to get the winder handle and then the door card off with a view to drilling it out at a later date. That later date has arrived. 3 broken drill bits later plus a LOT of bad language and still only part of the screw has been drilled out. I at first though I would just replace it with a standard Ford part (Fiesta Mk1 or 2), but of course Midas redesigned it slightly by chopping it about and re-brazing with a piece of triangular steel. So out came the drill again, this time a bigger drill bit, and I drilled out the rivets holding on the winder wheelbox. The "new" Fiesta winder should arrive in the next few days, so I will do the same to that, and rivet the new wheelbox back on.

In the meantime, I gave the winder mechanism a new coat of primer followed by a squirt of satin black. I would have masked the wheelbox anyway so it won't be an issue. I also straightened the driver's door frame where I'd bent it on removal. An easy few taps of a hammer on wood had it back into perfect shape. I also removed the window tack rubbers. You can see from the pictures that it *MIGHT* need replacing...

Wiper wheelbox removed from winder mechanism...



Because this little so and so was causing me a lot of grief. I'm gonna throw it in the bin!!



Primed winder mechanism awaiting paint (Apologies for poor pic)



I'm not sure this will go again...

[MrBounce]

I now had two doorframes sitting around so I thought I had better do something with them, and that something was sand them ready for paint - they were looking a little tired. They are incredibly light (aluminium I believe) so attacking them with the wire brush on the angle grinder was out of the question. No, instead I went for the mouse - it's an ingenious little sanding device that oscillates rather than spins. A bit of 120 grit and all was nicely keyed for a new coat. I wiped them down with a white-spirit soaked rag then left them to dry, before a final wipe with a tack rag. I then gave one of the frames a coat of primer. I only did one as I hardly have any space!!

First frame sanded and put out of the way so...



...I could get on with the other one. Mouse on bench is an awesome bit of kit.



First frame primed. It's hung upside down on the bar because that bit goes inside the door so any hanger marks will be out of sight.

[MrBounce]

Something has been bothering me about this project for a while and that is the fuel tank. There is a small filter in a van tank near the bottom in the middle which is virtually inaccessible, and when I sealed the tank I also managed to seal this. It is virtually impossible to remove at the best of times, but covered with Frost's finest tank sealant it wasn't going anywhere! I have also noticed that there is a horrible section on the tank floor which has made my mind up for me. This tank will not be used. However, I have stumbled across a bargain. When I was at Brooklands Mini day the other weekend one of the autojumble traders was selling a van tank for the princely sum of £35. Considering what they usually go for I was gobsmacked. The inside looked in really good nick and although it had a dent, there was no way I was going to turn it down so it came home with me.

As with most things Midas-related, it is not a straight swap. You need to lop 2 inches off the top of the filler neck. Having marked it up, I grabbed my trusty hacksaw and set to work. All went without a hitch and some gentle filing made sure there were no sharp bits for my poor dainty fingers. There was a bit of a problem with the tank though and that was the paint. The guy I bought it from had it on a van he'd restored and just swapped it out for a new tank. He'd then given it a coat of "paint". I think it is fact more like tar. I got out the most horrible stuff I could find (Halfords equivalent of Nitromors from about 10 years ago!) and coated the top of the tank with it. I then spent the next hour and a half with a scraper getting very messy indeed. I wiped it all down with white spirit afterwards but it still needs a good going over with the wire brush. And I still have the bottom half to do. Lovely.

In the meantime I found a place to hang the already painted frame, then sprayed the other one with primer. Onwards and upwards!

Sealed filter. It was going nowhere. Tank wasn't "right" either so I will get rid of it...



...and it will be replaced with this.



Marked up, first cut made.



No use for a van anymore!



Half the "tar" removed. More work needed.



2nd door frame primed. 1st one in the background.