Mk 1 Project Zippy. Looking Like a Car.

[MrBounce]

I have recently been to view a Mk1 (cheers deadshort!) and put a deposit down. Will be picking it up on Saturday. I wanted a project that needed a lot of work rather than just a spruce up and I certainly think I've done that!! It's a W-reg Mk1 with an engine out of the car and in bits, nasty brown seats and a dashboard that needs a fair bit of help!! All the glass is there and there are a lot of bits, although whether they all fit together is another thing!! I believe it to have been standing for a few years. There are a full set of 5 Mistral alloys.

I have various plans for it including full engine rebuild, sort the bodywork at the front and come up with a bit of ingenuity for the dashboard. If funds allow I would like to convert it to fuel injection with standalone management such as Canems. We shall see. In the meantime...here's some piccies!

Rear 3/4 view:


Nasty seats and shabby interior


Front end that needs looking at


Empty engine bay


Rear view (shouldn't this have foglights?)

[alberto midas]

Re the fog lights at the rear.

They are already there on the tr7 rear lamp cluster. Indicators and reversing lights at the bottom and brake and fogs at the top of the cluster. Enjoy the rebuild . You will enjoy driving it, I have for 20 years!

[Stuart]

That's not entirely correct Alberto. The top bit has seperate side-lights and brake lights, I guess if it was possible you could use a twin filament bulb and holder for lights and brake lights in the side-light area and then use the brake-light area for fog lights, no idea on the legal postioning and spacing though.

The mk1's used a bolt on fog light below the bumper I think, it also looks like the bumper is slimmer than mk2 bumpers, the Metro foglights in the bumper arrived with the mk2's, well at least as far as I'm aware

[MrBounce]

In which case I shall add a couple of fogs, maybe using a Mark 1 Fiesta foglight - these fitted flush under the rear valence as they were curved. I had a pair fitted to my Mini - they looked factory fit and not an "Add-on" part.

[alberto midas]

Stuart,
Stand corrected! Memory for details going or gone.

Alberto

[MrBounce]

Well the little beastie is now home and tucked up in its new abode (my garage!!). First couple of jobs will be to give it a good clean and sort through the boxes of stuff into usable, well labelled and easily recognisable boxes (EG engine parts, suspension, interior etc) and get it up on axle stands. But before that, the interior and those hideous seats need stripping out!

It was a good round trip (350 miles) although I could have done without the rather substantial amount of diesel the tow car (Nissan Navara pick-up) drank - I put £111 worth of diesel in it... Still, massive thanks to Father-in-law Steve who borrowed a trailer with the biggest pair of ramps in the world and also supplied the truck - beer on its way! Also enormous thanks go to Shaun, my friend, who accompanied me on the trip, provided me with jelly babies and shared the driving. He also did a fantastic job of reversing the trailer in the tiny cul-de-sac where we picked it up from. And finally - a massive big thank you to Andy (deadshort) whose car I have bought and will foolishly attempt to rebuild. Sir, you are a true gentleman and one of the good guys!

I will sort some pictures in due course.

[manifold]

Looking forward to seeing another project on the go.

Make sure you put pics up for us all to see .

[MrBounce]

Well I've managed to get out into the garage for an evening; my first job was to strip the spare engine that came with the Midas. It is believed to be an 1100 (no engine number), which apparently smoked and might have needed a rebuild. The main thing is, this engine is in the way and needs to be gone. My friend Shaun wants the gearbox casing, so I will cannibalise the engine for what I want (Non-verto clutch & flywheel bits), Shaun gets the whole gearbox and the rest will go up on Ebay at 99p start (buyer collects!).

I began by draining the oil. My mate Matt and I manhandled the lump onto some handy concrete blocks I have (easy as we're both built like rugby prop-forwards ) and after some persuasion with a 3ft bar and socket the sump plug was removed. What came out was not pretty and was darker and thicker than a molasses vat at night. My guess is it didn't taste as good.



Time to remove the flywheel. Off came the cover and it was clear that this would have been undriveable as the oil seal had failed big time - so much oil spray in the cover and also on the pressure plate and backplate. Amazingly the flywheel gave up without too much of a fight - there was an extremely satisfying "crack!" - and then I set about removing the flywheel housing. There was of course, a bolt which wouldn't move and naturally it had a chewed head thanks to my pitiful attempts to remove it. So I got angry produced my hammer and a 12mm socket and had it off and in the bin within seconds. Just now got 6 bolts to remove the box and I will split them.

Cover off...



Clutch pressure plate...



... and ugly clutch (note awesome use of a shelf bracket as a flywheel-locking tool. I used to use a table knife but couldn't find it...)



Almost ready to split



Would have done it all but have a wedding to go to tomorrow so need to be ready for that!!

[Hans Efde]

How did you remove the flywheel? I have to do mine as well and it is said a special puller is needed to prevent damage to the shaft. Did you use a special puller or do you have a clever way of getting it off?

[MrBounce]

I used a flywheel puller Hans. They're not that expensive, easy to use and easy to store. I would suggest getting one that is more substantial than the standard cheap stuff you get. The one I used (borrowed from my friend Shaun) seems to have been milled from a large piece of steel about 20mm thick! This is not the same but works just as well: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Laser-0301-Flywhe ... 35b039ba71

It works like so: You firstly lock the flywheel then remove the retaining nut and (very importantly), the stepped washer behind it. Screw in the 3 bolts through the outside of the puller, start screwing in the main bolt in the centre and add the spacer when it will hold. Then all you need to do is tighten the main centre bolt (wincing whilst the outer bolts sometimes bend under the pressure!!) until the flywheel comes off with a "crack". Sometimes they're really easy, needing only a few turns of the bolt whereas more extreme cases have seen two of us hanging from the end of a 6 ft scaffolding pole on the end of an extension bar to get more leverage!! Mostly though they pop off quite easily