59-JS-NS Gold convertible work in progress

[max midas]

That explains things
I'm getting about 35mpg with a slightly warmed 1293, but getting the megasquirt together to map the sparks in the near(ish) future, so hoping for an improvement.
The trouble with mpg figures is that we could all score a higher number if we tried, but the joy of driving a Midas especially with the lid off tends to work against conservative driving.
I'll look forward to your assesment of the differences in driving and economy when you get the injection installed, something I have a mind to do as well.

[Hans Efde]

That explains things
I'm getting about 35mpg with a slightly warmed 1293, but getting the megasquirt together to map the sparks in the near(ish) future, so hoping for an improvement.
The trouble with mpg figures is that we could all score a higher number if we tried, but the joy of driving a Midas especially with the lid off tends to work against conservative driving.
I'll look forward to your assesment of the differences in driving and economy when you get the injection installed, something I have a mind to do as well.

Yes it's a huge challenge, but I am looking forward to it. I bought an Emerald ECU that has 3 internal maps. I can switch maps with a rotary switch on the dashboard so can drive eco, fast or race. At least that's the theory. My garage said that it will certainly help with fuel consumption, but was sceptical about extra performance. It seems the SU with its variable intake is hard to beat. I bought a set of Honda Firestorm injection manifolds, but a Dutch Pimlico owner did a smarter thing and converted a SU carb to injection.

[Hans Efde]

Update 14 October 2016
One of the last updates before the winter stop. A few weeks ago I did the REEE2016 ride (REEE stands for rolling english heritage event). This event is hosted by a number of English car clubs, like the Mini club, Austin Healey club, Triumph club etc. We drove a well organized tour through the center part of the Netherlands. The start was dry, unfortunately the rest of the day was wet and cold. Here a few shots at the start:



At home I found out again half a liter of oil wasted, with the oil catch tank bone dry. Possibly I have to renew the valve seals. Disappointing on a freshly rebuilt engine, but that'sthe way it goes. I have been advised to buy the brown mfi valve seals from Mini spares, so I'll install these coming winter or spring (depending how cold it is in the garage). For the mean time I have unplugged the oil catch tank and will probably sell it.

Speedo drive
With the new tyres my speedometer is indicating about 10km/h too low. I have a 17 teeth speedo drive so found a 15 teeth one on internet. These are used in the mfi gearboxes. In the IPC it says that the pinion and gear are a matched set, but in the past they all worked well together.

When I received it I discovered the diameter is smaller than my 17 teeth gear. Today I tested it and indeed no speedo indication at all. So another winter/spring job is to remove the pinion and find a better combo.

Spigot rings
My Team Dynamic wheels have plastic insert rings to centre them on the hub. But after numerous wheel changes they were in bad shape. I discovered these are called spigot rings and are widely available on Ebay. I found a company in Eastern Europe that can make any size, so 4 ones were ordered. Upon receipt installed and they fit perfectly. For just 5 euro including shipment, local tyre companies wanted between 5 and 10 euros a piece!



I expected the REEE ride to be the last of the season, but weather coming weekend is extremely good (sun and 20 degrees expected), so I am taking the Midas to the Supercars and Classics show on the Classic park in Boxtel. I've never been there so quite anxious to see how good or bad this event is organized.

[Hans Efde]

Update 5 November 2016.
So the last trip of the season was another 400km. Unbelievable weather, morning was cold, but afternoon was in the twenties and in the evening went home top down. Event itself was not to be repeated, but it was such a joy to feel the last sunrays driving open top. Anyway trip itself car proved reliable with good fuel economy, but clutch release bearing is starting to squeek and the left doorwinder frame broke because of fatigue in the aluminium. More stuff to sort out prior to the new season.
As a positive side note there has been no more tyre chafing. It seems the large rubber upstop cones do their job. The suspension in general is just brilliant. I can't remember having so much fun with this car. It just flys through the bends. In total did 1400km this year, not bad for a SORNed car.

Carburettor
Last job was to replace my brother's carburettor. I have been loaning it for at least now 4 years and we need to get his Midas back on the street or make it sellable. I found a nice HIF44 secondhand, but upon receipt I noticed it had the butterfly disc with poppet valve. So I ordered a bunch of spares from Minispares.
Plain disc versus poppet disc:

This was the second kit they sent. In the first kit I received SU had put a poppet disc in as well. Seems they want to get rid of them!

Replaced the disc, put a red spring in and my custom needle. Since I had sold my heatshield as well with the turbo SU, I had to buy a new one and found a beautiful stainless steel on http://www.stainlessforclassics.co.uk/minipc104.htm. Only 3 pounds more expensive than the original, so a no-brainer.
I bought a pancake filter from KN, these are on sale which saved me 25 pounds over a cone filter with identical performance. Upon speaking with a tech rep. he pointed to the KN naval section for a vacuum hose connector. Although expensive (25 pounds) it saves me drilling a hole in the filter base plate:

They come in various sizes and the plate needs to be shortened to fit between the top and end plate:


Engine was started up, carburettor adjusted which was a piece of cake with an onboard lambda probe and gauge. Can't wait to test it out on the streets. With this setup the tone of the exhaust is a bit darker, possibly due to the red spring. I have parts for an injection system, but according specialists a proper setup SU carb is hard to beat, simple and reliable. So probably will use the Emerald ECU only for the ignition system. Another job for next year. When all is done hope to make the trip to Britain again one day.

(pic. by Rolf Rozeboom)

[Hans Efde]

Update 16 May 2017
It's getting warmer, so time to spend in the shed and prepare the Midas for coming events.

Brake pedal
I replaced the brake light switch, but also had to make an upstop. This because I removed the brake servo. With a simple U-bracket this was solved quickly. The bracket is mounted on an existing bolt of the pedal assembly.


Steering wheel
I had a Mountney steering wheel in my car, but last year was wowed by the Momo steering wheels. What a difference! I found a new old stock D-shaped wheel for just 90 euros on Ebay. What a bargain. Just 2 problems, it has a horn button and it was gold galvanized.

I got an adaptor, but discovered the previous owner had installed a longer steering shaft. There was a gap of 2inch between the indicator reset ring and the adaptor.
I covered this distance with a bit of DIY. A dog pin and a piece of a bolt solved the problem with the indicator canceling system. I covered the whole with a piece of PVC pipe and stitched a sleeve from black vinyl (good practice because I want to replace my carpet as well this year).
For the horn, I made a parallel connection with a curled wire and fed it through a hole in the adaptor. The steering wheel was painted black, all fitted today. I jacked up the car to see if the wire would jam, but full lock from left to right without issued.


(curled wire on picture is too long, only needed the distance to cover the gap)




So horn now works with both the stalk switch and button on steering wheel.
Next few days work on the repair of the left door frame and then install rhino plastic to protect the rear fenders.

[Hans Efde]

This year hasn't been a good year for my Midas. Every time I took it out, something went wrong. Engine cutting out, clutch issues, oil leakage etc. I got it sorted, but it's aways the thought what's next. I just don't drive it that much, next year I'll try to use it more often and hopefully enjoy it more. The other option is to sell it and buy something more modern like a GTM Libra. We'll see.

Anyway the last winterjob was the installation of a professional wind deflector. When I bought the car in 2004 the owner had installed a Hallfords rear window curtain:

This has worked brilliantly, it's neatly stored when not in use and quick to erect. Downside are the hooks on the roll over bar (easy to damage the softtop during installation) and the flapping noise it makes on the highway.

So I found an ad of a Peugeot 206cc winddeflector, for sale very nearby and only 50 euros. I bought it and on the car it looked like this:

Obviously too big and unfortunately the mesh turned out to be faded.

I stripped it, cut and rewelded the frame to size, glued new mesh on (plastified mosquito mesh, used on boats) and restitched the vinyl strip that ties it all together. I used the seatbelt mounting points on the roll over bar to install 2 small brackets and drilled 2 holes in the aft bulhead. Only minimal modification was needed on the brackets of the windscreen itself. Now I can install it in 30 seconds by use of 2 quick connect pins. It folds back if not needed, since I only need the wind deflector on the highway. The finished result looks like this:

[Hans Efde]

Update April 18, 2018.
My car is MOT'd and taxed. It's on the road again regularly to get rid of all gremlins. I didn't trust the Lucas distributor and bought a complete Powerspark kit of Ebay. Around 100gbp for a low resistance Lucas coil, modern distributor with magnetic system and leads. A testdrive proved its value, smooth power delivery, no hickups anymore under full acceleration. The needle in the SU carb was a BFY and much too lean. I also tested a BBW that was too rich. In the end I put the BFY needle in the drilling machine and ground it down to a size in between these 2 needles. Now I have consistently lambda values between 13 and 14.5.
After the MOT I reinstalled my undertrays, they are both fitted with long screw anchors I bought from Memfast, including their excellent tool.
During the first testdrives I noted an intermittent squeeking noise when coming to standstill. The engine would cut out and had some trouble restarting. There is something wrong, can't be the clutch. I did that last year. Perhaps a problem with the transfer gears. I am not going to open the engine now, I have ordered 2 cans with MoS2 oil additive from Ebay. Hope this helps.
This evening was a beautiful one, so took the car out for a short drive. Nothing like driving along country lanes after a crap day at work.

[Hans Efde]

Update Friday 13 July 2018.
The last few months I have been making a lot of miles/km's. The last 700km's were without problems. At last! The problems I had:
Distributor failure.
I had installed a complete kit from Powerspark, new coil, leads and dizzy. The distributor failed after 200km, leaving me stranded by the road. I got a replacement magnetic module, but the car was difficult to start with it. Possibly the gap was too big, but Powerpark does not give gap value. In the end I reinstalled the Lucas 65D dizzy and it is performing very well. Earlier ignition problems were due to a coil with a 3 ohms resistance. When using an electronic dizzy, the coil should have a max. resistance of 1.5 ohms. Another lesson learned.

Steering wheel spacer.
An issue with the seating position of the Midas I have had with all my cars is a) correct leg position or b) correct arm position. Although the steering shaft on my car is already 1 inch longer than standard Metro (don't know from what car it came, mod by previous owner), but still I found the steering wheel to far away. So I bought this hub spacer, cheap and easy to install. My seating position is now perfect.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Schwarzes-Al ... 2749.l2649

Carburettor leaking and erratic behaviour.
I had a problem with the float and float needle, it seemed. I bought a new viton tipped needle but could not get it to seal. After lots of trouble shooting I found the return line of the fuel pressure regulator kinked, so max pressure was sent to the carburettor (in this case 1.5 bar with a pump running on 6V). The line was straigthened (it rests on the fuel tank, so difficult to see) and locked in place with a tiewrap. The fuel pressure is now 0.5 bar again and the carburettor is performing very consistent.

Vapour lock.
With the warm weather and slow touring speeds my engine was suffering from vapour lock. I removed the front undertray to give a bit more fresh air. Still not perfect but it works for the moment. The definitive solution would be a temp sensor controlled fan as has the MGF. Or if I dare, remove a strip, say 2cm from the bonnet rear edge so you get an air slot. Lots of negative pressure near the base of the front windscreen, my first Midas had it.

For the rest it's a joy driving this car, very fast but fuel efficient. I am doing around 3800rpm at 120km/h. Lambda values are around stochiometric, fuel consumption is 1:15 (42mpg) open top driving. Not bad for a tuned engine. Sounds amazing as well.
Summer is still the best ever, if I have a spare afternoon it's going for a spin. For the rest not much to do, just have to remove the bugs frequently!

[Geoff Butcher]

Hans, now you've got the steering wheel spacer, are you doing anything to bring the dipswitch closer?

[Hans Efde]

No, the controls are now far far away. I got the hornswitch on the steering wheel working though, so that's at least close.