Midas Cars Forum - www.midascarsforum.com

I've had my gold since may, been to a few shows in it so some of you will know it, after Castle Combe it's coming off the road. I'm planning a few jobs, although the list keeps growing, I'm not going as far as I did with my previous Midas (q319 nya) which I stripped piece small and rebuilt from the ground up. I am going to attempt to document as much of the work as possible (on here). The list so far:
-more buffing and polishing (I will get my gel coat all the same colour)
-new dashboard and centre console (will be hand made one off)
-new wheels (again customised,already in progress)
-new or retrimmed seats
-engine, change final drive, change cam, tidy up generally
-rewire to include moving battery out of engine bay
-new modified heater unit again to tidy up engine bay
-repair damage near rear arch where a previous owner backed up a kerb.
Wish me luck and keep a look out for updates on here.

Oh, alterations to the suspension too.

I'm looking forward to reading about your improvements. Having seen your Mk2 I'm sure that we won't be disappointed.

In particular I'll be interested to see how you get on with restoring your gel coat. Polishing it up to restore the shine is one thing, but then stopping it from going matt again is quite another. Just ask Rich.
My experience is that hard waxes seem to work better than liquid waxes, which means even more effort. I would be keen to learn how you get on.

Moving the battery is also a good idea, especially if you can get it low down in the back. I'm looking at doing this for a customer at the moment so I'll post up how I get on.

I am interested to see how your dash is getting made, so I will follow you closely. I am going to take mine off the road and plan major work the coming 1 or 2 years including a LHD dash and new wiring loom. Since the LHD Rover 213 dash mold is lost I need to shape a new one myself.

I am considering a wooden inlay for the dash and centre console (if I can find a grain I like) as I am thinking of using individual "classic" style clocks instead of an existing binnacle, as for wiring, I have found it easiest on two previous kit cars and three minis I have re wired to do a drawing of what electrical items I shall be using and making the loom on the car, held loosely with cable ties and then wrapping with non-adhesive loom tape afterwards before securing.

It has begun, today I started to strip the still taxed car after I had been to the Autojumble ! Most of the miles and miles and miles of wiring has been removed, dash and heater are removed, pics to follow.

]Over the past couple of evening I have found a couple of hours to carry on stripping the car. The Interior is almost entirely removed, the wiring is out and some of the new back in and today I removed the front subframe/engine assembly, alone, foolishly, as a midas is not really a one man lift, however it was getting dark and my helper had not arrived. I have also this evening added a castor on a piece of box section to stop the engine/subframe toppling over, works wonderfully I'd recommend it to anyone who may be planning on removing the subframe and engine together.

As in the previous post, photo showing the castor added to stop things falling over.

Todays little job, clutch master cylinder. Stripped, cleaned, sanded, primed and painted then re-assembled with a rebuild kit.

I haven't updated for a while so here goes. The car has been stripped of the front subframe, engine, exhaust, all wiring, interior and metro heater unit. The subframe has been altered to take the mini coil springs as both hydro units looked in questionable order. the subframe and engine (albeit without a head at present) are both back in the car. the engine has had the gearbox replaced for one with a taller final drive (3.105 from 3.44) and a centre oil pick-up pipe. The cam has been replaced with a Minispares evo item along with duplex timing gears and a new oil pump. The head has had the ports cleaned up and opened out a little and has had a little skim to ensure it is flat. Single HIF44 carb has been altered according to the Vizard books. The rebuilt clutch master cylinder is refitted, the brake master cylinder was replaced previously so it has just had a clean up and lick of paint. The car came with a new radiator so I have fitted that along with a new slimline fan. The seemingly endless task of wiring has begun, I have been trying to conceal as much of the wiring as I can to leave a tidy engine bay. As for the interior I have seats and Clocks that I want to use and a centre console is under way but I am still undecided on what material to use for my dash and the centre console front, I am torn between Aluminium, burr walnut and vinyl, time and availability will tell.

I have two weeks booked off for the Christmas period with plans of trying to get some of the bigger rebuild jobs done on my car, oh how plans can change.
Monday 22nd, Tidy garage to allow me to more easily on car, Done.
Tuesday 23rd, Exhaust system to fabricate, car jacked up high and put on stands, make a start, slip over in garage, hand/arm cut needing stitches and i'm home alone with the car on the stands and blood everywhere, needless to say this has hampered my progress.
Wednesday 24th, Fabricate exhaust with stitches in hand, fits well but I haven't taken a pic yet, will do though.
Christmas day and Boxing day spent being festively drunk.
26th-28th, Odd hour here and there fitting hoses etc. to make the car run, exhaust sounds good. Oil leak spotted, looks like the sump nut on the newly replaced gearbox is loose, no the threads are pulled, much swearing, close the garage door and get beer.
29th. Need to look at the sump, its f*@cked. Dont want to take the engine out so time to fire up the lathe. The threads in the sump where stripped entirely so I drained the oil and drilled out the sump plug hole (in situ) to 17.5mm with a massive drill extension/morse taper adaptor to allow me to tap an M20 thread. Then I made a hollow sleeve that was M20 on the outside with a 30mm collar and M16 on the inside so I could use an M16 bolt as a sump plug. The whole thing was screwed into the gearbox with a liberal coating of hysol e-metal to secure it, so far doesn't leak. I will take a pic once I am convinced it has worked.