Midas Cars Forum - www.midascarsforum.com

Alan D. wrote:Hi Rich,

Have a look at the next TGT which is out soon. There are some pictures in this next issue, which will give you an alternative to David's excellent, "Watson's" front suspension set up! It's not necessarily a better method, just different, but with longer travel and the shock absorber loads being transmitted into the subframe, rather than the underside of the wing.

Alan

Hmmm, I'd better join the club hadn't I?

That will make Tony Moss happy

So this forum is working

Alan

Alan D. wrote:That will make Tony Moss happy

So this forum is working

Alan

Was it Tony I met on the Midas stand at the Exeter show? I've got the paperwork knocking about somewhere. I must admit I was a little put off by the rumblings of discontent within the club that were coming out on the old forum, been there done that.

That would be the man!

I think we need to keep all avenues open, to secure interest in our funny little cars

The rumblings are only short term. It's a members club and they need to support the committee! So if it's not working we are to blame!The old forum was not run by the club, but by Han's in Holland and he has done a great job in keeping the enthusiasm alive, basically it's the same forum in a new more modern format. Well done David for being the teccy.

Eee are you old enough to remember "The wheel tappers and shunters club". It was a spoof TV program on a working men's club! But if you are in the south it might not connect!

Regards Alan

My personal discontent was historical in the early days when unfortunately there was one or two pompous characters buzy knocking non Midas factory cars when to be honest their knocks were very unfounded in many instances.. and some of the information they provided was down right wrong. My guess is they were probably more interested in protecting the value of their own cars. How times change!

I must say that in the recent years I have met some very nice chaps/chapesses since I rejoined. The club is well worth joining for the nice banter and the insurance discounts.

Buying the coupe moulds and bringing them back to the UK was an excellent thing to do and should be well commended. Well done guys!

Alan D. wrote:
Eee are you old enough to remember "The wheel tappers and shunters club". It was a spoof TV program on a working men's club! But if you are in the south it might not connect!

Not familiar with the show, but having being brought up in the North and spent a little time in WMCs I can probably guess.

I'll have to leave any memberships until after Christmas now, everyone else is after a slice of the rapidly diminishing pie at the moment.

I am quite interested in this conversion. I still have hydragas in the front of my coupé but don't have the shock absorbers because they caused some damage to the wings. I'd like to see how shocks be mounted onto the subframe along with the springs instead of hydragas, anyone have any pictures or links? cheers
Josh

The pics of David's mod can be found on the old forum. Here's a link, but I don't know if it works this way:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/midas_spo ... 20&dir=asc

According to Alan the turret should be extended 10mm for more adjustment. I think Rich did some milling and turned a few things around, but don't know if he was succesful.

Concerning your shock absorbers pounding the wings, several people have installed steel spreader plates to prevent the damage of the glassfibre construction. The shock absorbers are necessary to prevent the nose of the car bouncing around. Possibly your shock absorbers of the wrong type and are too tall for the Midas, so they bottom out at max. compression?

Hans Efde wrote:
According to Alan the turret should be extended 10mm for more adjustment. I think Rich did some milling and turned a few things around, but don't know if he was succesful.

Funny you should mention that Hans, I finally got under the car the other day and took measurements for the bolt on towers to house the springs. From memory I've allowed a little more than 10mm extra but as the adjusting screws are so long I don't think there will be any danger of running out of adjustment.

The question now is whether I use Alloy plate to make up the towers or steel? Using alloy would mean I could mill the profiles, opting for steel would probably be more than my vertical slide would be comfortable with and I'd have to go for getting them professionally cut.

When I get some time I'll try and put up the profiles as drawings.

Rich

Funny you should start on this subject again, Johnny, Alberto and I, had a little session earlier this week, developing an idea I had some time ago. I don't like the "Watsons" idea for a Midas! Not that there is anything wrong with the springing, but I don't like the idea of attaching the shock absorber to the underside of a fiberglass wing. So what we did the other night was make a cardboard template with the same dimensions as the attached drawing. I've sent away the drawing to have four brackets made. Which will take two or three weeks!

The idea being, to have a coilover attached to the top suspension arm, then incline it under the wing box section and attach the other end of the coilover to these brackets, which are fitted and welded inside the hydro gas tower. So it is simply an inclined coilover, which takes its load from the top arm and transfers all of the loading into the hydro gas mounts on the subframe, which in my opinion is where it should go, with no fiberglass contact. I've not put any holes in the bracket as yet, because we don't know what length coilover we are going to use, but it looks like we can get away with a standard 13" coilover (330mm), which would give us lots of travel if needed!

I have thought about putting a bell crank pivoted on the hydro gas towers, with an inboard horizontal coilover, but the idea doesn't work very well with an A-series engine, as there is an engine mount in the way!

I'm away in Scotland tomorrow doing my chambermaid thing ( http://www.scotlandchalet.com ). (Let the photos on the front page scroll through, you just may see a Midas!) But I will rig the cardboard template up on Monday and add some photographs, so you can see where we are going.

Just an after thought, ( Sorry off topic). Johnny and I are working on another project, i.e fitting Mazda Eunos (MX5) seats in the Mk 3 convertible. Rich can you make us some spacers in that hard plastic stuff you use!(plastic is far too modern for me!). We've altered the runners and I've got some spreader plates being cut. The gimmick in using Eunos seats, is that they have speakers in the headrests! Handy in a noisy convertible

Alan