Hello from Jaap and his white MK3

[midasjaap]

Hello,

I am Jaap Tuinstra, yep an other Dutchman, and I own a White MK 3, for about 4 years now. But my story starts much earlier.

In 1986 I spotted a picture of a dark bleu Midas Silver (MkII?) in a German (!) ' Auto Katalog' car yearbook(if that's what it is called in English). I instantly fell in love with the car. It had all the characteristics I like in cars. Small, light and agile. Always been a big Lotus fan for that reason. The next year it featured a MK3 next to the MK2. I just had to have that one. As I was 17 at the time, it was only a dream. but the dream never realy died. Over the years I kept track of the midas. Thats how I found Hans his internetsite, featuring a red and a green Midas on the opening page. Still one of the best pictures of a (set of) Midas even, I think.

But it took 'devine intervention' for me to actually own a Midas. My (now ex) wife got so fed up with me talking about buying an rebuilding a midas that, when one came on sale in Holland, she went out and bought it for me (sort of).

The car was in barely drivable state. Biggest isssue was that the shock on the passenger side had pushed through the GRP, a common problem. Besides that the engine was misfiring and had very limited power and the usual other small matters.

First job then was to grind out the delaminated GRP and replace it with new kevlar/carbonfiber and epoxy. Since the mounting of the shockabsorber is virtually inaccessable from the top (thouhg the dashboard) I had to apply the matting from below. Worried that, due to the weight, it would come down during the night I restricted myself to put 3 layers in at a time. As the RGP is about 3/4 inch thick in that area, it took some time to lay up, about two months. Every evening 3 layers, alternating the direction of the woven material. Not a job I wish to do again, that's for sure. But it seems to hold up quite nicely, having covered about 20000 punishing miles since then.

Next on the list was a comlete engine/gearbox overhaul. That took another 3 months (as, fot my daytime job,I had a very busy schedule doing vehicle tests abroad for our Dutch type approval authority (RDW)) to complete the rebuild. The base engine is an MG Metro unit, which is a good place to start. It has a fairly tame Kent 266 cam (MG cam was damaged beyond depart) and a small overbore (1293 cc) For the rest of it, it is pretty standard. Though it ran smoothly after rebuild, there were some 'minor' issues with it. It was not very powerful and was running extremely lean (by the looks of it. Turned out that a previous owner had ecxhanged the needle (or the whole carburator unit) with one from a Metro HLE, so the enormous BJE (I think) needle was in there. Replacing that with a more correct needle , cured some of the perfomance problems. It is still not ideal, but it works for now.

After that I fixed the brakes, put in a new clutch and cleaned up the inside, and it was of to it's first MOT. It passed that with flying colours, although driving it out of my very cramped garage, the reverse lights were stuck on. With no time to fix that I just dropped it at the local Austin Rover dealer and hoped for the best. Obviously the problem did not reoccure during MOT. Pfffffff

Since then the car has been my daily driver. With bits falling off here and there and the odd emergency repair, it has survived the punishment remarkably well. I do about 15000 miles yearly (but use a motorcycle during the summer) I have now covered about 20000 miles since the engine overhaul. Having done almost no mainainance at al for over the last year (except for topping off the oil on a regular basis), I decided to treat myself to a front suspension overhaul. Steering was getting a bit vague and it was moving about a bit on the straits. The summer was an ideal time to do the overhaul, as I could use my motorcycle for commuting.
In the process I fitted polyurethane bushes, which work well and are less noisy than the original ones (which probably says more about the rubbers that came out). Steering is much more direct now and I love it. Thanks to Alistair for supplying them, together with the undertrays, which are still in the back of the garage. I finished the front suspension overhaul just in time for the next MOT.

But, this years MOT made it fail on the rear wheel bearing. So it is back in my garage again, with it's feet up. Life is cruel sometimes. Since my garage is unheated I am reluctant to spend long hours fixing the rear suspension (I am going for a complete overhaul again). So it will probably sit there until the first light of spring warms our harts (and hands).

So, owning a Midas is a difficult, but rewarding thing. All my friends think it is pig ugly, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder I guess. I allways told everyone that I bought it for the pleasure of rebuiling it. And I got plenty of that, I can assure you.
Future plans include fitting a different, more modern and hopefully lighter engine, converting it to coilsprings at the front, respraying it (in Burgundy) etc. I think I am therefor a pretty average midas owner. And, when finaly my ship with unlimited resources rolls in, I might buy myself a Midas Silver, just like the one I first saw more than 20 years ago (I still think the original Midas is the prettier car with cleaner lines).

Dream on, my Midas friends, and keep this forum alive. It is great.

[manifold]

Hello Jaap,

Welcome to the forum.

Thanks for a nice little introduction. It was great to read.

Kind regards,

David