Workshop open day and MOC BBQ - 13th July

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Workshop open day and MOC BBQ - 13th July

Postby ACourtney » Sun Jun 29, 2014 7:07 pm

Just two weeks to go until the open day, so I thought that I should post up an invite to everyone:

We will be opening up the workshop to Midas enthusiasts (better have a tidy up!) and the club will be laying on a Barbecue.

You don't need to be a club member to come and you don't need to come in a Midas.

Don't worry if your Midas is scruffy and in need of work, bring it along and get encouragement from other owners to improve it.
Then bring it along to Stoneleigh to claim the most improved prize.

Hope to see as many as you as possible at Enstone on the 13th

Alistair

Alternative Cars Ltd, Unit 4f, Enstone Airfield Business Park, Enstone, Oxon, OX7 4NP
Tel: +44 (0) 1865 427823, Fax: +44 (0) 871 7334679
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Re: Workshop open day and MOC BBQ - 13th July

Postby max midas » Mon Jun 30, 2014 10:26 pm

I'd love to if I can get time off and little things called MOT, insurance and road tax sorted.
I also love the way that goggle maps says it's 2 and a half hours away, 'the last section of which requires walking'! :D
I'm sure it's just from the car park to the workshop, but made me giggle.
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Re: Workshop open day and MOC BBQ - 13th July

Postby kelvink » Sat Jul 05, 2014 8:43 am

Providing I get my radiator changed (I got one from an MGf to be fitted this weekend) I am aiming to get up to Enstone in my Gold Coupe rather than the usual Citroen. I'm intending going to a few local events this week to make sure the engine is getting cooled and then hopefully I can do more than the 20 minute dashes I've been doing so far.

Who else is coming out to play? Come on there's lots of parts and helpful folk keen to have a laugh and see more old Midases getting out on the roads along with a free BBQ. Seems an ideal opportunity not to be missed in a Midas to my mind.

Look Matt did it last year!
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Re: Workshop open day and MOC BBQ - 13th July

Postby streetsy » Wed Jul 09, 2014 8:53 pm

I shall be travelling down from mansfield in my gold with my wife, looking forwards to it already.
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Re: Workshop open day and MOC BBQ - 13th July

Postby kelvink » Sat Jul 12, 2014 6:59 pm

Convoy anybody?
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Re: Workshop open day and MOC BBQ - 13th July

Postby ACourtney » Sat Jul 12, 2014 7:30 pm

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone and their cars tomorrow.

Just the other day someone pointed out that the Midas Gold has been reviewed on the Honest John's Classic's website http://classics.honestjohn.co.uk/reviews/midas/gold/
It is not a bad review, but they claim that only 15 Gold convertibles were made. I think that it is unlikely that we will get as many as 15 convertibles tomorrow (we had six last year), but perhaps we should have organized something to celebrate the convertible's 25th birthday. I guess that it is not too late. Donington anyone?
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Re: Workshop open day and MOC BBQ - 13th July

Postby Hans Efde » Sat Jul 12, 2014 8:54 pm

He is referring to the Corby built cars, not the GTM ones. GTM built about 100 convertibles.
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Re: Workshop open day and MOC BBQ - 13th July

Postby ACourtney » Mon Jul 14, 2014 6:58 pm

Yes, I'm sure that Honest John is referring to the Corby built convertibles, but my point is that overlooks the others made since.

Anyway we had a turn out of thirteen cars yesterday including six Gold convertibles along yesterday, of which four were by GTM, one by Pastiche and the other Alternative Cars.

Kelvin came up in his coupe, which made it all the way from Blandford to Enstone and back under its own steam, although it nearly didn't make it home due to too much steam!

I'll post some photos up when I retrieve my camera from the workshop.
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Re: Workshop open day and MOC BBQ - 13th July

Postby kelvink » Mon Jul 14, 2014 9:44 pm

Indeed plenty of entertainment and steam on my trips up and back down.

I've now got a brand new radiator for an A Series Metro thanks to Tony. The journey up had a minor boil over at a garage while I filled up with petrol thanks to the 'wrong radiator cap' but there was a method in this which sadly I'd forgotten about and would remember on my return journey.

It was really good to finally get to a Midas meet in my own Midas at last :D other than the boil overs the car handled really rather nicely and I enjoyed the trips up and back plus the couple of jaunts out in the Gold Coupe to compare with other's cars.

Now as some of you will know I fitted a K series radiator earlier in the week so had to do a bit of bodging to make things work (actually I fitted 2 K series rads one an MGf and the other a Rover 100) the Rover 100 unfortunately has smaller diameter hoses than the A Series hoses feeding the radiator. So I did a bit of a make do and mend jobby by cutting a surplus bit of hose to make up the difference in diameters between the radiator inlet/outlets and the inside diameter of the A series hoses. It all worked pretty well for my test runs and also almost the entire Blandford-Enstone-Blandford trip. Only I forgot why I'd deliberately fitted the low pressure 'wrong radiator cap' to the overflow bottle which had resulted in a minor boil over on the up journey at the petrol station (to stop the sleeved bodged hoses blowing apart) So a mere 4 or 5 miles from home guess what? Yep the hose blew off thanks to me swapping the radiator caps over at the petrol station when the car had the minor boil over.

A quick panic and contemplation of abandoning the car with a hike down the A354 was given a second opinion by calling Alistair to ask how resilient an A series engine is to over heating and thermal shock should I refill it with the copious amounts of water I'd had to hand for the journeys. I pushed the hose back on as best I could by hand (note to self to make up a 'Kit Car Tool Box' for all future journeys just like the old days), decided that I would leave the radiator cap off all together as I'd no confidence in the hose remaining on the radiator for the remaining few miles.

Fortunately I'd stopped in a lay-bye at the top of a rather long hill that had at the bottom of it a pub in a small village next to a small stream. So a quck squirt and a long coast down got me to oodles of clean refreshing water leaving me a short hill and then a ring road to get my car back to my workshop

Phewwww I made it and it seems got away without any obvious damage. Lots of entertainment, a few thrills, a fair few spills and as Alistair has already said a whole lot of steam.

Good to see everyone, next time I will be in a Midas that's bound to be smarter and hopefully the days of bodging will soon be over too. However I still think these are cracking little cars and urge all of you out there with cars up on stands to set them down on some wheels and get them out on the road. They are so much fun!
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Re: Workshop open day and MOC BBQ - 13th July

Postby kelvink » Mon Jul 14, 2014 10:08 pm

Handful of photos I took, sorry I only took a few.....

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Last edited by kelvink on Tue Jul 15, 2014 9:57 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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