by kelvink » Sun May 25, 2014 8:31 am
Welcome aboard, good to see you've found these cracking little cars, they make excellent project cars for restoration. All the parts are available at reasonably cheap prices and they are quite simple too. You can approach them in a modular fashion with the main modules being subframes, engine gearbox, interior and the exterior. I've got two myself now which I'm approaching in different manners.
The first is a Mk2 which I've not driven at all yet as I'm stripping it right back taking it all apart and rebuilding it with lots of modifications to make it much more up to date and to suit my interpretation of how a Midas could have evolved from the original car. I'm intending to do a little motorsport in it for a bit of fun.
The second is a Gold Coupe which I've only driven a few yards in at my workshop. It's my favourite Midas and one came to my attention locally so I made an offer for it. Most people would say I'm mad for buying it at all let alone the money I handed over for it but I can justify it to myself so I'm sticking with that train of thought. I intend driving this car first despite it's dreadful dreadful state and am waiting to find out what an MOT has to say about what needs doing first. I'll drive this one while I get the Mk2 up and running and then I'll rip the Gold apart and do a complete rebuild on that
The Mk 1 and Mk2 are Mini based with a Midas rear 'subframe/axle' that generally rusts away well before the front subframe other than that they generally fair much better than a classic Mini as they are GRP. Engine bays are awkward to get into but not much worse than the donor Mini really. The Mk3 Gold coupe and Gold convertible are early Metro based with the A series engine they use the early Metro subframes and are generally fine. Rear subframes do go eventually but lashings of good paint are ok. If you want to have an immortal Midas then get them galvanised which Alistair at Midas Cars can get done at a little over the price of doing a proper paint refurb on the subframes so it's worth having done really. The later Excelsior and Cortez were K series Metro based and pretty much the same story other then the windscreen is unique to those cars but members of the owners club have had screens made for replacements before, though they need to have numbers to do them in batches.
All in all ideal project cars to get hold of though probably the best ones to go for are the Mk1/2 as they tend to be more often available at the best value and are the easiest to rebuild in my opinion. The Gold convertible is usually the more often seen car at events where you find Midas owners attending. There's something going on this weekend at Gaydon I believe and there are the Donnington show along with KitFest at Castle Combe later on in the year with Mini World Action day in September also being good events to go along to and have a chat with a number of owners too.
Where abouts in the country are you and given your forum ID would I be right in assuming you might take a Midas rallying?
Just a quick hello to all on the forum,looking at the moment into getting a midas for a summer project,well thats the plan anyway.
