At least 2 different floor pans for the Mk 3 Coupe

[Rich]

Nylon 66?

The seats I have coming are cloth covered. A friend races a Mk1 MX5 and he's offered me all the bits (apart from panels and mechanical parts) from a spares car he's stripping as my better half has one of these go-karts.

[mikeeskriett]

That would be two sets of MX5 seats for me then, anyone got experience of fitting MGF seats in a Midas as they are dirt cheap to buy at the minute?

The old Pastiche saga i remember it well. Quite a lot of stuff and nonsense at the time if I remember at the time it all centred around the floor layup and the quality of the gelcoat. From memory this was the first outing of the thinner floor layout mentioned earlier and there were questions raised about the change and time has shown that it's not the dreaded thing it was made out to be. I think more out of fear of change than anything else and the perception whether accurate or not that Harold did things better. The gelcoat issues were around the brand used initially which tended to fade and in the case of red go pinky quite early on but these days most cars need paint here and there so it's not really an issue. Never really understood the brand snobbery within the same brand Corby cars were not without their problems the gel coat on my Bronze was shocking before I painted it pretty much white in places. Hopefully going forward we can all get along a bit better the club is a much nicer place to be than it has been for years.

cheers,

Mike

[manifold]

I reckon it was certain individuals at that time trying to 'big up' their cars to maintain their value in the face of Pastiche selling their starter kits at £1295 or whatever the figure was. Certainly a lot cheaper than the price they were being knocked out for at Corby at about £7-8k.

At the time I specified mine as not having a gelcoat colour finish (as gelcoat colour was an extra price). When I got it the finish was excellent for what I paid, almost good enough to be left as it were.

I cant remember what the floot depth was, Alan and Johnny measured it last but I know its thick and I dont suffer much scuttle shake, considering theres no roof. Even the A pillars have green foam sandwich in them.

[mikeeskriett]

I suspect you're right then again if I'd just paid substantially more for essentially the same product I'd be peeved that it could be done a lot cheaper but that said you have to have the lower price to chase the volume with the MX5 etc coming along and we'd have fewer cars if they hadn't. I agree on the finish of the gelcoat i think it was merely a pigment problem on the cars not supplied as body in white if I remember. Mine was a body in white job from GTM and to be honest the finish is good under the dodgy paint job I was tempted to take it back to white and polish it but the front end has had more hits than the Bee Gees so I expect it's not pretty under the paint!!

Lot of great technology in the lay up of these cars especially when you consider the vintage

[davidj]

MG F Seats in the Midas

I fitted leather MGF seats into my convertible some two years ago and they were cheap and very comfortable. They are mounted on Marine ply platforms secured with stainless bolts from the underside of the floor to nuts ontop of the ply with hardwood spacers. To maximise the seating position the two seats are swapped drivers side to passenger side and tilted 1 cm towards the centre of the car. They only have one draw back in that they do not tilt fully forwards for access to the rear compartment, this is ok though in the convertible. It is important that the floor sandwich is modified by forming a solid grp plug round the mounting holes and use stainless steel penny washers under the bolt heads.

[manifold]

Lot of great technology in the lay up of these cars especially when you consider the vintage

Your not wrong there! One of the things that sold the car to me was the foam sandwich construction as being used in F1 yacht designs of the day. Same principles applied. Fantastic idea to use it to stiffen up a convertible. Imagine the scuttle shake without the foam.

Would be interesting to see one made up with CF bare weave on the body.

I guess even lotus followed the idea later with the honeycomb alloy design in the elise floor....and that was a good few years later on.

[paulr]

interesting - not sure which mine is ?

[manifold]

difficult to say without lifting the carpet up.

[Alan D.]

Just checked today, the LHD car, which was the last coup made has seat depressions, exactly the same as Jon's!

But, I don't think it matters, what the rear floor is like, because all Mk 3's ( except Davis M's) had some sort of Metro rear subframe. So the design constraints of a new replacement (rear beam) subframe, must fit into the same space on the heel-board, as a the original subframe! Unless of course, somebody redesigns the whole of the rear suspension! But it works very well as it is, so why change to some other type of suspension set up. In my opinion, we will all need to have, some sort of replacement rear subframe in the future as the existing ones are so prone to rust! As far as I am aware there are no new subframes available anywhere!

Just for interest

Alan

[manifold]

I dont think it matters where you put the arms on the later coupe's as the recess is a lot smaller. Just the early ones like mine Sorted now though using a B** F******* angle grinder! I like the arms having a decent width between rose joints as a lever to fight against the turning moment.

Talking of subframes, I have a 'normal' rear one going spare with a couple of arms now as taken off the Coupe last weekend. Free to a good home before I put the in the scrap iron.