Midas Cars Forum - www.midascarsforum.com

Just bought this and I think I'm the 4th owner. Left the factory late 1988, first registered in 1989.

Apparently it's 1340cc with a gas flowed head, and an Aldon distributor. The undertrays are present, the front is fitted but the rear isn't because it has an inline rear box with twin tailpipes. Rear undertray is in a bit of a state and is best described as "unloved". Driver's door doesn't lock and the inside handle doesn't operate the door catch. Petrol sender isn't connected and apparently the voltage stabiliser doesn't. Wipers don't park or operate intermittently. Needs new carpets. Gelcoat needs a good polish. There's a cassette stuck in the r/c, but that will be removed and replaced with something possessing a USB port.

Previous owner thinks it's running a bit rich. I've forgotten all I ever knew about the HIF44!

Rear window heater works. It has 11 months MoT and tax, so this will be a rolling restoration, with the emphasis on "rolling"...

Good luck with the rolling resto!

Nice to see another one on the road.

I do like Coupe's in Black.

Thanks David.

It's been on the road for a while, but the previous owner didn't do very many miles in it over the past few years (I forget how long he had it). And it's the colour I wanted, too. And it wasn't even very far from me, about 10 miles away, but I'd never seen it out and about. Another plus (AFAIC) is that it has the Rover 213 instrument pod.

I think the first task will be getting the driver's door lock working properly again, closely followed by the fuel gauge! Hopefully I'll get it down to Moffat (is that next weekend?).

It looks splendid. I agree with David that the coupe looks stunning in black. Congrats with this sleeping beauty.

Hans Efde wrote:It looks splendid.

You haven't seen it close up.
Also, the rain hides many blemishes!

Hans Efde wrote:I agree with David that the coupe looks stunning in black. Congrats with this sleeping beauty.

Thank you Hans. We shall see how it goes...

Well, at least the rear window heater works..... it's a basis.

Rich wrote:Well, at least the rear window heater works..... it's a basis.

LOL....mine doesn't!

Finally I managed to generate enough brownie points to take a break from building husky climbing frames.

The longer I leave this car, the longer the list of things to do becomes!

However, I had to start somewhere, and currently it's missing its gearchange and exhaust, the inlet manifold is off as well since I've taken off the old LCB in order to replace it with one without cracks. And I'd stripped the carb to clean it, and I'd noticed one of the headlamps had about an inch and a half of water in it...

So, today, I have reassembled the carburettor, removed the dodgy headlamp, and drained the oil prior to replacing the gear selector oil seal. The replacement came with an alloy collar to sit behind the seal, but it turned out that someone had already fitted one. With a chisel, rather than a tool which might not have made big gouges in the housing. Rather than remove the engine and gearbox to fit my other gearbox, I have fitted the new seal with a dose of silicon gasket and will be keeping my fingers crossed. At this point I'm more concerned with getting the car mobile again; if it leaks oil, I'll just have to keep a close eye on the level until I have more time (and better weather, since the car is out of doors) to do something about it...

Oh yes, the carb. I was a bit concerned about the float valve, since it has a bit of a groove worn in it. I dismantled the other HIF44 I have lying around to see if it was any better. It was worse, so that's something else to search eBay for, tonight.

When I removed the gearchange which was on the car (which had been the main reason for getting the car up on ramps), I found just about every moving part had wear to a greater or lesser degree. The rods had worn the housing bushes oval, and the yolk (if that's the right name for the bit with the ball socket for the gear lever) was rattling about on the rods too. A new housing, yolk, and roll pins, and used rods, were sourced, and the rods lengthened as per the build manual. Today I retrieved the steel plate that fits on the housing base from behind the bench, where it fell about six months ago, and reassembled the whole thing, together with a pair of new rubber mounts to bolt it to the car.

I've also cleared a lot of junk out of the car which had mysteriously appeared there, rolls and rolls of bubble wrap amongst it all. Plus the new gearchange oil seal, which I thought I'd lost.

Next time, oil will go in the engine, the gearchange will go on, and I'll reattach the manifolds, exhaust, and carburettor, if all goes well. I had hoped to build a towbar, but that might have to wait till later. I've also just won a refurbished rear subframe on eBay which I'll collect on Tuesday, but that's not going on unless the current one fails the MoT - plan is to fit it if/when I do a rear disc conversion; the rear damper mounts are also looking very rusty, so that's another entry on the list. Once the gearchange, carb, and exhaust are on, then I might try and fire the engine up again. And at that stage it will be coming off the ramps that it's been on for moe than a year, and maybe (headlamp permitting) I'll try for an MoT...

I'm still hoping to drive my Gold to Stoneleigh this year. Please don't scoff.

(edit) Looking back on it, this may not seem much for a day's work, but I did have to dig out a soakaway this morning too. Not my favourite kind of job - vey smelly!

One step forward, one step back...

I now have a complete fitted exhaust system, although it's quite tight, a bit cobbled together, and I don't know how it'll behave once it's warm. Hopefully I'll find out soon; the carb's back on, but I wanted to replace the choke cable.

So, the driver's seat came out to sit beside the passenger seat in the shed. Neither was fitted very well, the passenger side was connected to the floor at the front via a perspex plate, I have no idea why that was considered a good idea. The driver's side was only held down by three bolts; two M8 setscrews and one M6 bolt...

Carpets are a bit of a mess, there are several layers, most of them either damp or mouldy. Luckily I kept an offcut from when we recarpetted the bedroom, which is almost the same colour as most of what was in the car - although I haven't checked just how much there is of it.

I removed the dash trim, glove box, and heater trim; the first and last of those need to be retrimmed, eventually. It looks like a family of mice have taken up residence behind the dashboard...

However, my first priority is to get the car through an MoT, so carpets can wait; if needs be, I have a supply of earplugs! I have tomorrow and Tuesday off, so I'm aiming to refill the cooling system, buy some fresh petrol, clean the plugs, and try to start the car for the first time in a year and a half.

This has turned into a longer story than I ever imagined. The closer I look at any part of the car, the more work it seems to need.

I STILL hope to drive this car to Stoneleigh next month!

Mate I took delivery of my Midas without even throwing a pair of eyes over it I have never even touched a vehicles mechanics in my life other than oil and filter change my Midas is my second car in my driving life other than my pos transit but I got there the larger and most ridiculous the target the harder us men seem to work I still feel as though my car is as good as q826 leg which is what I'm aiming for it may never get as good but its now as much a part of my family as some of the mountain bikes I used to race it will get there I promise