Moth Busting Mk 2 Decathlon

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

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Re: Moth Busting Mk 2 Decathlon

Postby Hans Efde » Mon Oct 17, 2016 7:45 pm

goldeneye wrote:Nice pictures!

Since mine door hinges on one side have the same problem.. i am very interested how this can be fixed!


I repaired my doorhinges by drilling them out and installing pinbolts, I believe 8mm ones. These bolts have a solid shaft, so only at the end there is a thread. I also installed metric bolts for fastening, after welding I ground the heads back. Here are a few pics.
Image
Image
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If there will be play again it's just a matter of tightening the nut up.
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Re: Moth Busting Mk 2 Decathlon

Postby fozzza » Tue Oct 18, 2016 10:51 pm

Geoff Butcher wrote:How are you finding the Californian mirrors? Are they flat or convex lenses?


They are flat lenses. Because of the shape of the mirror they took a little getting used to and at the moment the N/S mirror is giving me a better field of view than the O/S. Even though the O/S lens is fully adjusted outwards I can still see a little more of my rear wheel arch than I really like to, so one of my winter jobs is to slightly alter the angle of the base to rectify this. On the whole I'm pretty pleased with them but at the time I had to purchase something in order to get the car back on the road so I just took a chance on them. If our paths ever cross, maybe next year you are more than welcome to take a look for yourself.
Roy
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Re: Moth Busting Mk 2 Decathlon

Postby fozzza » Sun Nov 20, 2016 6:32 pm

I have enjoyed driving my MK2 again over the last few months but It has now come to that time where I've got to do something about my worn out door hinges.
The last photo before removing the dash board in order to get to the top hinge nyloc nuts.
Image75 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr

The dash board removed. The worst part was to squeeze my hand in to unscrew the speedo cable from the gearbox :x , so I could pull out the Metro instrument binnacle and disconnect it.
Image76 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr

The drivers door now removed, I must admit it did weigh more than I was expecting. I bet Justin likes this photo with the door removed ;) .
Image77 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr
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Re: Moth Busting Mk 2 Decathlon

Postby fozzza » Sun Feb 26, 2017 5:54 pm

It has been an age since I last updated. While the door hinges have been under repair I also decided to tackle one of the jobs that I had been putting off for a while, changing the gaskets on the TR7 rear lights. This is because the fixing nuts corrode and can cause all kinds of problems and can even crack the lens.
I decided to start, I had already sprayed the fixing nuts with penetrating oil for a number of day previous anyway. As predicted the top fixings came off with now problem but not so much luck with the bottom ones. I had got no choice but carry on because the gaskets were way past their best so I ended up sawing and grinding the nuts off.

Its been many years since I saw the car without its rear lights.
Image108 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr

Both the light units removed, only one bottom fixing survived been butchered.
Image109 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr

Closer look at the missing fixings.
Image110 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr

I decided to make stainless steel screws, identical to the original with M5 thread and slightly longer.
Image111 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr

The screw now Epoxy glued into place.
Image112 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr

All lower fixings now glued into place.
Image113 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr

At this stage I decided to give the reflectors a bit of TLC with an old faithful.
Image114 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr

Both reflectors now polished up, it took about 8 hours in total (plenty of time sat in front of the tv) and ready to be fitted back onto the car.
Image115 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr

I have made some spare screws so if there are any MK 1/2 owners with any missing screws and want to replace them, just send me a pm.
Roy
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Re: Moth Busting Mk 2 Decathlon

Postby goldeneye » Mon Feb 27, 2017 3:21 pm

Looks like a nice job!

I used silver polish for mine rear reflectors, i still looks like new.
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Re: Moth Busting Mk 2 Decathlon

Postby fozzza » Sun Apr 23, 2017 7:35 pm

This is probably last update before Stoneleigh and an important one at that if I want to attend in my MK2, to finish off the doors. I must admit this door hinge project has took a lot longer than first planned but hasn't been helped by the acquisition of my MK3.

With the door hinges removed I had to now try and take them apart without making a dogs dinner of them. As I had already mentioned I have the early type hinges where the hinge pin is fixed in the main body of the hinge and the outer part of the hinge rotates around the pin.
Image116 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr
Image117 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr
The problem was I was unsure how these hinges were made, :? was the hinge pin fixed and part of the main body of the hinge (highly unlikely though) or was it 1 pin pressed in or 2 pins pressed in from either side, my gut feeling was 1 pin.
The first thing I did was to grind the heads on the captive bolts enough room for the 5/16 (8mm) pin to be removed. I now drilled the hinge pin from each end about 1/4" deep using a 5/16 drill, making sure I was perfectly central to the pin. I was now able to remove the outer part of the hinge. On closer inspection of the main body of the hinge I noticed a very slight chamfering in the bore which told me a pin had been inserted. I tried to press the remainder of the pin out but with no luck so I drilled all the way through with a 7mm drill, I thought if it was 2 separate pins from either side I would have to drill the main body of the hinge anyway.
Drilling the hole all the way through I found out it was 1 pin and it virtually dropped out on its own, so I carried out the same procedure on the other 3 hinges and was pleased I had stripped them all down without any casualties. :D

The hinge stripped apart with the hinge body drilled and tapped for the grease nipple.
Image118 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr

I now had to decide how I was going to repair them, the problem with me is I always seem to over engineer jobs even if they are a relatively simple task. What I would like is to repair them in such a way that they are easily dismantled or perhaps able to remove the doors without unbolting the hinges which also evolves removing the dashboard, so removable pins was the answer. I decided to make the pins out of a bronze and hope they won't wear out too quickly.
Image119 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr

The bronze pin inserted against the captive bolt to prevent the pin rotating.
Image120 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr

M4 socket set screw used to prevent the hinge lifting out and to further lock the pin in place.
Image121 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr

Hinges now had a few coats of paint.
Image122 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr
Image123 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr

The doors now fitted.
Image124 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr
Image125 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr

I'm now pleased to say the doors no longer drop and close a great deal better than they did. :D
Roy
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