Just a polish, or much more work?

[Hans Efde]

Are the later stalks still available?

I bought a complete new unit from Ebay 2 years ago.

[DavidL]

I would sell the exhaust and buy a proper Maniflow one and fit the undertrays. I have driven a coupe to about 190km/h and it is amazing how good the aerodynamics work. It's just 770 kg, but it felt glued to the road. Absolutely a breathtaking low flying event, although compared to the Bronze it's a bit softer and slightly less sharp.
No doubt the suspension will need a complete overhaul, also the right height setting is important for the ways it steers and behaves on the road. Problem with the hydragas is you can't tell how much nitrogen is left in the bottle. On my car they pumped it up, but the suspension became rock solid. You if you stick to the hydragas, it may be necessary to get a few new ones. Also all bushes and rubbers will need replacement after so many years unless the chap did it recently. On my car (1990 Metro) the play in the suspension was a complete MOT failure, so it's no sorned and will be overhauled.
Anyway you have to calculate this in you budget, so I would give him 700 pounds for it max.

Are Maniflow the only makers of the "proper" Gold exhaust system?
He did say that when he bought the car (from Charlie Dodd, IIRC), the suspension was "pumped right up" and that it was very hard. If I buy it, I'll try and find out just how much work has been done recently - he's had it about 7 years, so hopefully I should get a good idea of just what's been done, and what needs to be done (in addition to what I know needs done).

[Hans Efde]

Are Maniflow the only makers of the "proper" Gold exhaust system?

Good question. My car has a GTM supplied SS exhaust and it does NOT have "Maniflow" on it, so I assume GTM got them from a second source. But who? If Alistair has the GTM records he could answer that (or maybe sell them for a better price than Maniflow).

[DavidL]

Are Maniflow the only makers of the "proper" Gold exhaust system?

Good question. My car has a GTM supplied SS exhaust and it does NOT have "Maniflow" on it, so I assume GTM got them from a second source. But who? If Alistair has the GTM records he could answer that (or maybe sell them for a better price than Maniflow).

On the subject of exhausts, can you get a SS LCB manifold? I used to go through mild steel LCB manifolds about as fast as I went through Mini rear radius arm bushes. I think they formed the basis of my annual service.

[wolfie]

you can get a ss lcb but it ain't cheap. Looking at the pics has the car had a respray at some point? I'd try lightly sanding the surface with something like 1500 grit then T-Cut it and see how that looks. As for the spoiler, I've seen 1 gold with a cut down scooby impreza job and it looked absolutely ridiculous so yours is pretty subtle in comparison

[Hans Efde]

On the subject of exhausts, can you get a SS LCB manifold? I used to go through mild steel LCB manifolds about as fast as I went through Mini rear radius arm bushes. I think they formed the basis of my annual service.

Yes, but Maniflow is a bit vague what these things cost. I sent them pictures of my car and asked for a detailed quote, but they did not respond anymore. I think they were trying to rip me off, so I am done with them anyway. I had a chat with Alistair and he advised to use mild steel since the SS ones can cause temperature problems in the head. I think I'll buy a good quality mild steel LCB, also good for holding a few pennies in the pocket. My Mini garage orders their parts from Minispares and they sell several types. I just have to figure out which one,but the book from David Vizard is a great help for that.

[DavidL]

you can get a ss lcb but it ain't cheap. Looking at the pics has the car had a respray at some point? I'd try lightly sanding the surface with something like 1500 grit then T-Cut it and see how that looks. As for the spoiler, I've seen 1 gold with a cut down scooby impreza job and it looked absolutely ridiculous so yours is pretty subtle in comparison

I think I may have seen that particular Midas of which you speak, or at least a picture of it, which I think was what I originally thought of when I first phoned him and the spoiler was mentioned.

Not sure that the car has been resprayed, but it has been "touched in" with black paint where the gel coat had faded. Those bits look terrible, I have to say - I should have taken some photos of some of them, but the owner was standing beside me when I had the phone out, so didn't want to be too blatant about it.

Just realised, you can see the car on Google Streetview, here's a link...
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&sourc ... 7,,0,20.86

[manifold]

Some interesting subjects here.

I don't want to offend anyone here but I'll give you my real life experiences based on my daily drive stuff. Not on showground trailer princess stuff.

I think that the mid 80's Rover parts bin was in use on all the range of cars. I suspect but wont guarantee that any of them will fit for replacement stalks....certainly worth investigating. They all look very similar/the same. I even saw them on a range-rover. With early 1980-84 stalks, just use mini ones. They fit if you play a mix and match game with your existing metro bracket.

As regards the stainless LCB. I have driven mine for 4 years on a stainless manifolds and have had absolutely no problems with cylinder heads overheating on both 5 port or 7 port heads and to be honest never heard of it happening! What does happen is that the manifold will loose its nice shiney finish due to heat. I can live with that for longevity. I bought stainless because I didn't want a mild one to burn though like all my old ones did, maniflow and others....regularly. I have a small crack in one of mine now, but thats due to the twisting moment because of the amount of power I am putting down which is to be expected with a minimum 135hp+ on tap and is easily fixed with the mig. The KAD exhaust manifolds, made by a company called Pipers are all stainless and are very reliable. In fact they are a work of art. Those heads put down up to 200hp and a LOT of heat through 4 siamezed exhausts! No problems there in practice.....so this issue about stainless puzzles me. Maybe Alistair is talking about some other cars but its not an issue with the A series heads.

Maniflow exhausts are not the original Midas exhaust manufacturer. Both my cars have full Maniflow systems and it is stamped on one exhaust and not the other. The newer one has a funky Maniflow stamp on it so maybe they are upping their marketing game. Maniflow made their own exhaust system jigging up on a car from scratch, on a car without an exhaust. Hence the reason why you have to relieve the undertray slightly to make it fit...as the photos of me fitting a rear undertray at the show testify. .

Maniflow do seem to be hard to talk to but when you get to speak to the right person I got loads of friendly advice. I think it must be the way they operate....maybe a bit amaturish. They come across as a small firm to me. I never thought I was being ripped off though. They do different spec exhausts for different customers.....and I know they sell a higher spec to the continent as they told me that themselves when I spoke to them to help Michael out with his Midas from Germany. They specifically said that the German market expects a higher grade stainless system so would adjust accordingly.

To qualify this we used to have one of the biggest exhaust manufacturers in the world in Blackpool (now gone) and I used to speak the guys there who knew their stuff inside out...doing all kinds of stuff in the lab for tuning and noise etc...and they always said you get what you pay for. Bigger money, longer life. They built to customers requirements depending on market/prices.

There was another company doing exhausts for the Midas originally. I seem to remember it being a double barrel name. Its in some of the old club mags somewhere. My experience with them was they were complete tosh. I think the club did a small run of some stainless ones from somewhere else, which I believe were pretty good from all accounts. I missed the boat on that one though.

Happy to compare notes.

[DavidL]

David, your experience with mild v SS LCBs seems to match mine of the mild versions, they just didn't last. I've also seen a few likely candidates for donating column (and other) switches too, I had a couple of 90s Discoveries which looked as if they had potential.

I raided a few cars for parts (as I expect most folk did) when I built my Midas, in particular when I built my own heater - donors for that were Mini (matrix), Metro (fan), Saab (cables), and Honda (?) - and an old twin tub washing machine for the steel to make the casing - if I remember correctly. Happy days (and I didn't have a mortgage then)...

[mikeeskriett]

From what I've seen 90's Range Rover might yield the wiper stalks though the indicator stalk is different as they retained the light switch on the column for some unknown reason. My heater etc are from a Rover 100.

Rover never ceases to amaze me with their parts bin robbing I during the week I drive a late classic Range Rover and so far the thing is mostly 300tdi Disco for the oily bits and windscreen then there is Metro for the indicators, Rover 800 for the switchgear, Airbags and instruments, Marina for the door handles, SD1 for bits of the door trim, interior lights from P6. The alarm broke a month or so back and fixed it with the module from a Disco and fobs from a Metro Gti.

SMC trading and AK Motorsport on eBay are useful and if you're not worried about the costs Rimmer Bros. AK for example had brand spankers clutch arms for cable clutch models and I've struggled for quite a while to get one.