Mk 1 Project Zippy. Looking Like a Car.

[Stuart]

That looks all rather nifty Alan if I say so myself!

Very interesting Alan, I look forward to seeing the finished set-up.

[Killerwhat]

If I was looking for a new beam, which I am, I would have struggled to find it buried in this thread!

[DavidL]

I think it looks good too, but how do you adjust the camber and the toe separately?

[Geoff Butcher]

I assume the final version will be in titanium?

Bloody hackers, they've let my cat out again!

[Rich]

Is that eccentric washer from an MX5 Alan?

[Alan D.]

Hello All,

If I was looking for a new beam, which I am, I would have struggled to find it buried in this thread!

It was not my intention to release details of the beam now, it was just that someone mentioned my name and the beam in this thread, it may have been your good-self! I was going to wait until I had the Midas beams finished! I also noticed on another thread that someone else had made an adjustable beam and wondered if they might display some pictures. All ideas welcome!!!

Alan

[Alan D.]

I think it looks good too, but how do you adjust the camber and the toe separately?

If you look at the pictures again, there are two journals, an inner and outer, both are to be polybushed. The outer will adjust the camber, with the inner kidney shaped hole (being vertical), this will allow the outer journal to move vertically, whilst the inner journal has the kidney shaped hole positioned horizontally allowing lateral movement for toe adjustment.I hope this makes sense.

Sorry you may have missed that this beam will require a new radius arm to be manufactured in 1.5 inch (38mm) CDS tubing, but I haven't got that far as yet! This beam is for a Mini, but on the Midas beams for the Mk 1&2 I intend to fit a Suzuki GTI rear disk and for the Mk 3, a Rover 200 rear disk, both of which I have in stock. By manufacturing a radius arm I can make a proper job of the bottom coilover to radius arm connection! I've just had a brainwave this week, how to do the same type of adjustable beam with a standard radius arm, but that's for another day!

Alan

[Alan D.]

Is that eccentric washer from an MX5 Alan?

Yes, Rich, spotted first time!

The original tube idea was mine, the reasoning being that tube was sealed and would shed water,(unlike the original sub frame) it's also light weight and strong. If you gear up to work with tube, with tube notcher and bender, then its quick to use!

The MX5 eccentric washer idea, came from David Johnson a very innovative and local to us, Midas owner, David is car mechanic and I suppose he sees all of the latest innovation in his every day work!

Aitchi, from the 16v forum has been working with me, has come up with some good ideas and done the CAD drawings, he devised the hole for the eccentric washer and sorted out the position for the kidney shaped adjuster! I then got the components cut and folded. So it has been a team job with stolen ideas!

I assume the final version will be in titanium?

No Geoff, Ti is only for the chosen few amoungst us. ( or one person) The CDS tubing was in the region of £40 a meter. That was bad enough! It's quite expensive trying to develop these ideas! But it keeps my old brain ticking over!

Thanks to David and Stuart for their kind words.

Sorry to Mr Bounce if I've hi-jacked your thread, I'll start a new thread when I have some further developments!

Alan

Alan

[MrBounce]

Ok, so Saturday saw me off to Southern Mini Days in Kent with the sole purpose of picking up a few parts. So I now have some captive nut engine mounts, a pair of rear wheel brake cylinders, a gearshift gaiter, a set of caliper seals, a couple of stainless caliper pistons (for some reason known only to myself I didn't buy 4), a couple of dashboard vents and another heater, which the vendor assured me was in good working order and didn't leak.

However I put all this to one side as I wanted to clear as much stuff from the engine bay as possible. This meant firstly removing the wiper motor and wheelbox assembly. It came out nice and easily and was well lubricated but like most things on this car, it had suffered a bit with the 10 years of standing. It was a bit...well...brown. No problem! 5 minutes with my friend the angle grinder and wire brush had it looking good. I've put it in the corner out of the way.

I have also removed the bonnet stay which then got the same treatment and once I'd removed all the brackets and screws that didn't involve me needing an assistant, off came the bonnet. I then utilised the man-room hoover to suck up all the horrible dust, broken clips etc that had accumulated in the engine bay over the years. It still needs to be properly cleaned, but maybe I'll get on with that at the weekend.

As I still had a few minutes I thought I would just take a quick look at the heater matrix in the "new" heater. "Good working order" and "doesn't leak" eh? Thank you so much for relieving me of a tenner to take away some of your crap. The matrix was almost as bad as the previous one. Guess I'll just have to bite the bullet and buy a new one - it's the only way to be sure...

Wiper wheelbox before...



...and after!



Bonnet stay before...



...and after!



Bay getting cleaner



Heater in good working order, allegedly. I beg to differ...

[Rich]

If you want any small parts powder coating let me know, if it will fit in a domestic oven (and is clean) I should be able to coat it.