Mk 1 Project Zippy. Looking Like a Car.

If you're taking on the task of rebuilding the whole Midas, please put the project in here.

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Re: Mk 1 Project Zippy (Picture Heavy!)

Postby Geoff Butcher » Sun Oct 23, 2016 7:57 pm

I put the top nut on first
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Re: Mk 1 Project Zippy (Picture Heavy!)

Postby Stuart » Sun Oct 23, 2016 8:08 pm

Gaz dampers come with a top stud that is too short for the thick bushes and a GRP shell, trimming the rubber bushes may be required.
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Re: Mk 1 Project Zippy (Picture Heavy!)

Postby MrBounce » Sun Oct 30, 2016 5:06 pm

I have come very close to setting the garage on fire this weekend. I don't know whether it's me doing things wrong, or if this car is cursed, or I have just been REALLY unlucky with items bought.

I have firstly dealt with the brake pipe issue by getting myself a brake flaring tool, along with a proper pipe cutter. I tidied up the fuel pipe end whilst I was under the car using said cutter, then removed the offending metric brake union. A small bit of work later and I have a re-flared pipe end with the proper UNF union on it. Then Andy popped round on Saturday and after a bit of cursing and hitting things with a rubber mallet, the second radius arm was on the car. I haven't properly tightened up the nuts on the brackets yet but that will come later. On went the shock and we connected both shocks up without the top bushes in for now, until we can lower the car down onto its wheels. Then it all went a bit pear-shaped.

The plan was to pop the drums on and sling a couple of wheels on and take the thing off the rear axle stands. I wound the adjuster all the way out so the shoes were at their lowest possible adjustment. From what I can tell the springs and shoes are all in the correct position. But the drums will not go on. I took the whole brake assembly off and tried the drum on with it missing. Drum goes on ok. Put everything back on. Drum won't go past the shoes.

I have shut the garage and walked away, making sure that in the meantime I have no access to anything that can produce flame or be used as a clouting tool. I shall return to the garage when I am in a better mood...

Brake Pipe Flaring Tool helped sort out my pipe problems.

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Driver's side radius arm now on.

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Look at the shiny shiny (which won't go on...)

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Re: Mk 1 Project Zippy (Picture Heavy!)

Postby Stuart » Sun Oct 30, 2016 5:35 pm

Have I commented about your thick brake shoes before? I can't remember if it was you, but I do remember seeing some shoes recently and saying how thick they looked

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Re: Mk 1 Project Zippy (Picture Heavy!)

Postby DavidL » Sun Oct 30, 2016 6:18 pm

Just in case you didn't try this, the brake shoes will slide up and down in the slots in the slave cylinder and the adjuster, more than enough to stop the drum from sliding on. It would only take one to be slightly out of position for that to happen.
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Re: Mk 1 Project Zippy (Picture Heavy!)

Postby Geoff Butcher » Sun Oct 30, 2016 11:07 pm

I once bought some brake shoes which I could not use because the drums wouldn't go over them.
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Re: Mk 1 Project Zippy (Picture Heavy!)

Postby MrBounce » Sun Nov 27, 2016 5:00 pm

Another quick update as there's not much to show for it - but I have managed to sort my shoes & drums issue. As I had bought the shoes from a show many moons ago, I have no idea a) who I bought them from and b) who made them. So I did the honourable thing and bought myself a set of Mintex shoes from our local Mini Specialist. Today I went into the garage and after the usual swearing and struggling with those pesky brake springs, the shoes were on.

Now it was time to answer that million-pound question - would the drums go on? As I am not currently sitting in a police cell for arson, you know it did without a hitch. It's a funny old world. (*Note to self - don't buy no-name parts from a show...)

The answer to the brake shoe issue: Mintex shoes!

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And look - it fits!!

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Re: Mk 1 Project Zippy (Picture Heavy!)

Postby MrBounce » Tue Jan 17, 2017 10:17 pm

Just in case you all thought I'd given up and gone away, don't worry - I am still here - there just isn't a huge amount to show for my recent couple of evenings in the Manroom. My main reason for this is Mini rear brakes. I never liked them much in the first place, but this is the first time I have taken a set totally to bits and put them back together again.

Firstly we had the issue with the unusual brake shoes where the drums would not fit over them. They were cheap and from a show and clearly didn't fit properly. A comparison with my newly acquired Mintex shoes showed that despite having all the same fixtures, holes etc, the cheapo shoes had a shedload more meat on them, but more importantly, the curve of the metal part of the shoe was totally out of true. Lesson learnt: buy cheap, buy twice. Unless anyone wants them for free, they're going in the bin.

Secondly is totally down my own stinking incompetence. Like I said before, I had never had a rear brake set totally in bits before, so when I built them up I was delighted to get the shoes and springs on correctly and lined up nicely. The only problem was that Mr Numpty here had conveniently left off the handbrake mechanism, so I had to take them all apart again, find and then fit the handbrake levers and gaitors before re-fitting the shoes.

There was much shouting, swearing, springs sprung somewhere in the Manroom and bleeding fingers, but eventually, both sides now are in place. No pics as I did not take the camera in with me.
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Re: Mk 1 Project Zippy (Picture Heavy!)

Postby MrBounce » Fri Feb 03, 2017 1:08 pm

Right - having been having a clear-up and building a tool wall for the garage, I am now back on the project again.

As I am likely to fitting stuff back together in the coming months, and there's a few bits already on the car that are rear brake-related, I pulled the handbrake mechanism out of the bits box. I gave it a clean up and followed this up with a coat of paint. It needs greasing up before fitting but I will get round to it once I have drilled the mounting holes for the new handbrake lever - the old one was scrap so I will be using a Mini lever I bought AGES ago.

And now - for some slightly bigger news: The front subframe is ON. Andy came over last night so I fed him then put the boy to work. Using a large piece of wood and a jack, we lifted the subframe up as far as it would go, only to find that the front teardrop mounts would not fit past the front panel. We played around for a bit, took the teardrops off and wound the tower bolts in slightly so we could (with the use of the "F" crowbar) make enough room to bolt the teardrops back in. This meant we could wiggle everything into position so it looked almost ready to go. Then of course there was the heelboard mounts. The passenger side needed just a little tweak with a screwdriver to pull in into line and the bolts lined up beautifully. We got the nuts on but left them loose in case of further tweaking. The driver's side was somewhat more swear-worthy. It took a good half an hour's worth of extremely bad language, struggling with lining things up and dropping stuff before it all fitted together as it should. I still don't know where that nut and washer went mind you...

The front teardrop mounts will need a bit of work though. The Mk1 front end is different to the Mk2 and this car also originally had a twin-bolt subframe in it when it was first built. I have had a look through my old photos and when I took the subframe out there was an extra nut in front of the teardrop mounts acting as a spacer. As I am using solid mounts, I will get proper spacers made up to fill the gap. More soon!

Handbrake gubbins loosely fitted together.

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There's a subframe fitted to my car!

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Some minor tweaking and spacers are required at the front.

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Re: Mk 1 Project Zippy (Picture Heavy!)

Postby MrBounce » Wed Feb 08, 2017 10:38 pm

Just a very quick update - I was round at Tink's last night and asked if he had any spacers kicking around. Out came a whole box of them. I found two nice round ones in aluminium although they were a bit thick at 14mm. I shortened them to 9.5mm and they fitted beautifully. All is nipped up nice and tight as a solid mount should be.

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