Midas Cars Forum - www.midascarsforum.com

The Midas now has something bolted back on to it!! However, it has not been without its complications and there's not an awful lot to show for it. Let me explain.

On a Mini, bolting on the front dampers is nice and easy because all you need to do is to pop 4 bolts into the captive nuts on the inner wings. The Midas has 4 bolts to attach nuts to, 2 of which are captive and INSIDE the front crossmember. The top 2 are just chucking a couple of bolts through the bodywork; however the bottom 2 are somewhat different. I have made 2 plates with 2 bolts in (one for each side) as an improvement to Midas' original design which was simply a "D" shapped washer welded onto a bolt to stop it turning. Getting them in is - how's the most polite way of saying this? - a ******* challenge. The only way is to insert it through the hole for the big tower bolt for the front subframe, and it takes a lot of patience and contortion. Forget about putting in/removing split pins from the master cylinders - THIS is the most difficult job on a Midas. I have only managed to get one in so far as it took me close to 2 hours to get it in. I'd love to know how they did it in the factory if they'd already built the body...

Anyway, the passenger side shock mount is on. I am expecting the driver's side to be equally troublesome. Watch this space.

Well - it's done. And I still have one more to do. Whoop-di-doo.

its good to see you have started building the car back up. I totally agree that they are very naughty to say the least, I changed my captive bolts from new because the ones from the factory were already a bit rusty and changed them for a good grade s/s, rust and unf threads don't go together well.

No worse than changing the front dampers on a Mk 3!

Although I have not spent much time in the garage recently for a myriad of reasons, I have struggled for a good 3 hours to get the second captive bolts into the driver's side crossmember without success. I think it's because the plate is just that little bit too wide that's causing the problem, so I am going to trim it down on my friend's grinding wheel and then have a another go. If that doesn't work I may have to resort to more brutal measures i.e. cutting the crossmember open under the dashboard, popping the captive plate in and than glassing it up again.

In the meantime, what else to do? I really didn't fancy spending much time in the garage, so I decided to clean up the expansion tank. This was filthy dirty and had obviously come from a car which had little or no care taken of its cooling system. The inside was covered in a nasty rusty residue and it really needed a clean up. The question was - how? It wasn't exactly an easy thing to get a brush into as it's a weird shape. Once I'd bunged up the pipes, I made a solution of hot water and caustic soda, and left it bubbling away for half an hour, giving it regular agitation. This had no effect whatsoever. So I had a chat to the knowledgeable chaps on the Mini Forum and the best solution was bleach, rice and agitation (I could also have used water & coarse sand, but as I had none to hand, the rice/bleach seemed the easiest option). The rice acts as a a mild abrasive and the bleach does the rest. Many thanks Nick, Kev & Ian for your advice.

Much pouring, shaking, tutting and tired arms later, there was a significant improvement. I then rinsed everything carefully then gave the tank a good clean on the outside using hot soapy water. It's not perfect as there's still a few really stubborn dirty bits inside the tank, but if half an hour with various chemicals won't shift them then not much else will! As I don't have a dishwasher, I might casually pop it into one of my friends' next time they're filling it...

Before, with ugly rusty residue and dirty exterior.



After, looking much more serviceable.

Looks splendid, but for you also the advise not to use the plastic cap. It gets clogged easily and the blow off function won't work. Result is an inflated expansion tank. I lost 2 tanks this way. There are caps available with a mechanical (spring) valve, mentioned in the build thread of the Cortez mk4.

I used pasta twists on both my screen reservoir and header tank.

http://midasownersclub.co.uk/forums/vie ... sta#p13913

Heavier than rice so knocks off the dirt better and if you don't like the wife's pasta cooking you use it up quicker , win win

Hans Efde wrote:Looks splendid, but for you also the advise not to use the plastic cap. It gets clogged easily and the blow off function won't work. Result is an inflated expansion tank. I lost 2 tanks this way. There are caps available with a mechanical (spring) valve, mentioned in the build thread of the Cortez mk4.

I'm also fitting a Metro expansion tank to my MK 2 but didn't know there was an issue with the plastic cap. Had a look on eBay, not sure which one to get though.

Well it's been a while... I have had no motivation to get into the Manroom so I just haven't been in there - for about 5 weeks! So, having had a clean up, I looked at a few of the little jobs that I can be getting on with whilst waiting for the weather to warm up enough for me to spray the car again.

I had a look at a couple of interior bits that will need work, primarily the rear-view mirror & sun visors. The mirror itself is ok, but the light's internals are rusted and useless and the lens has had its retaining clips damaged. My first thought was to build something up where the original light was, but I thought that I would also look at replacing the whole unit. I discovered that these came from a Fiat 126. As there's not too many of these left around today (the engines are popular with the Classic Fiat 500 brigade), I thought it'd be unlikely that I would find anything. Yet good ol' eBay came up trumps. It was slightly more than I wanted to pay, but hey, the chances of me finding another cheaper would be nigh on impossible. Just waiting on delivery now.

The sun visors were also in a sorry state, having been damp in the past, as well as being subjected to some orange overspray (Oops, my bad). My first thought was to replace using some from the same seller I got the mirror from, but his ones looked much the same condition as mine. As I like a challenge, I think I'll have a go at remaking/rebuilding them. At least I know they should be relatively simple...

I had a stroke of luck when helping my friend Tink clear out his garage. He'd been storing a few Mini bits for a friend and there was a sump guard there. My driveway has a few bumps on it, so I asked how much he wanted for it. The text reply was that he couldn't sell it too me - he could give it to me instead, on the condition that I bought cakes in for Tink's garage nights. Guess I'm going to be getting fatter.

Finally, I have pulled out the gear selector as it will need to be extended. Originally my Midas had a remote gearbox and a Cooper S engine, and thus did not have the original extended factory rod change unit. My plan is to cut the steady rod at the lever end and the selector rod nearer the gearbox end so once extended they do not clash. I have cut some 1/2" ID steel tube to a 4 3/4" length, allowing me to sleeve the rods at 1/2" each end of the tube, giving me the 3 3/4" required. The rods have been marked out - I just need to cut and weld them now.

Rear-view mirror ok, but light and switch is knackered. Replacement unit ordered.



Sunvisors showing the after effects of overspray and damp...



... on both sides. Time to get creative!!

Nice sump guard for the price of some cakes. Needs a clean but I love it!



Steel tube cut to size before tidying it up (you can still see the blue paint from the hacksaw!)



Rods marked ready for cutting, sleeving and welding.

Good work, I can't wait to move on to the mechanical side of the Midas. Body work does not interested me at all