761 replies to this topic

[MrBounce]

I have neglected the poor little thing over the last couple of weeks. I have been a busy boy but... It's all to do with not actually wanting to do that favourite of jobs, removing the split pin to get the master cylinders out. I will do it I promise...

Had half an hour to spare this afternoon so got a couple of little jobs done. Sprayed up the heater side panels and the washer bottle bracket with some black Hammerite. There was also a pair of drive flanges in the box of bits I have, but one of them was attached to an old 8.4" disc. I removed the drive flange (damn I love that word ) using WD40, a 1 1/2 foot long extension bar and aggression factor 5. It worked!

Parts ready for paint



Couple of coats on (finish not too important - they're mostly hidden away!)



About to get medieval on the flange bolts...



...which gave up without too much of a fight.

[MrBounce]

As I walked into the garage today I knew it was time. I could put it off no longer. The master cylinders had to come out. To anyone who doesn't know Minis that well, that means putting your head under the pedals, your feet where the back seats should be and using a pair of needle nose pliers to get to 2 split pins out of the most inaccessible place on the car. Or something like that anyway. So having given the heater panels and washer bottle bracket another spray of hammerite, I set about the horrible task that awaited my feeble skills.

It took about 4 minutes, one of which was contorting myself into position then realising my screwdriver was still on the workbench. The master cylinders were held in with "R" clips. All I had to do was push them out using the flat end of a screwdriver and then move the pins so they came out. I want to buy the man who put them in a beer! The master cylinders themselves need a refurb (no surprise there!) so I will have to put that on the Xmas list. Times is hard!!

I then set about removing the rest of the stuff in the engine bay that I could. This meant all bolts, brackets and heatsheilding. My Dremel went through 9 cutting discs going through all the rusty bolts that wouldn't budge, which was nearly all of them. The bonnet release cable and bracket was a particular pain as although I was able to undo the bulkhead bolts without any issues by jamming a spanner on the nuts inside the car, the bolts holding on the lever beneath the dashboard shelf were so rusty and inaccessible that cutting was the only option. It still took 15 minutes as I couldn't get the Dremel at the right angle due to the windscreen. I did annoy 2 earwigs which were living behind the bracket. They had to find new homes...

The heatshielding appeared to be a piece of carpet-like substance which had been siliconed to the bulkhead. This of course took ages to get off and had a collection of dead leaves and insects underneath. Tasty. The exhaust had obviously had an effect on the bulkhead in the past due to the scorched fibreglass I found. I will sand that out and build it back up before I figure out what sort of heatshield to use.

All the brackets are now off and only the pedal box and shock mounts remain until I can get the subframe off to attend to the brake and fuel lines. Could be a long time...

I love the man that put these in



Master cylinders out (and needing a refurb!)



Bracket held on by horrible silicone. What's wrong with a damn gasket?!



Horrible stuff behind the heatshield...



...which was also held on with bloomin' silicone!!



Burnt bulkhead



The collection of brackets and bars that came off. All need a clean-up and repaint.



All the stuff for the bin. There's a lot of bolts which have been cut in half...



The engine bay is almost completely clear!!!

[Midas Mk1]

Good Progress!

What plans have you got for the interior, are you keeping the standard dash? :

[Ethel]

The Montego rad will nicely fill the height from the subframe front rail to the bonnet gutter. There are 3 variants 1300, 1600 & 2 litre turbo that just get longer. Cooling potential for up to 150bhp - a Midas with that sort of power will shift quite a bit quicker than a big old saloon, for better airflow as well.

[MrBounce]

Cheers Ethel!

Another spare half an hour and I thought it was time to shift some unwanted stuff from the garage, which just happens to be attached to the Midas. There were a pair of 4-pot callipers on the car (not plumbed in) so these have been unbolted and chucked on the bay of E to free up some cash for more bits. I'm sure the previous owner said they'd been refurbished but this may have been a while before it fell into my hands. They need to be redone.

As for the reason why I am not keeping them? There is no servo on my car; I don't want to have to shell out for a complete servo kit as a) I won't know its condition if secondhand, b) it'll be expensive new and c) the car weighs less than 750kg so 4-pots aren't really needed in my eyes. Standard 8.4" discs have always been fine on my last 3 Minis that had them, none of which used a servo. I've also got a second set of hubs I can recondition along with a pair of callipers and drive flanges. It's a no brainer! Plus standard 8.4" discs are cheap, even for the good ones!

Link for the 4-pots on ebay: http://www.ebay.co.u...=item45fcce90c6

4-pots on the car...



...and dismantled.

[MrBounce]

The front end (other than the subframe and pedal box is now stripped so I turned my attention to the rear end. This meant the petrol tank. I didn't have an assistant for the day, so I thought first of all I'd stick a jack under the tank and tackle the bolts that were inside the car. I thought that as everything on this car was so rusty I might be lucky and they'd just shear off. Yeah, some hope. Of course they simply turned on themselves. As I was by myself, there was only one thing for it. Dremel cuts!

First of all I removed the screws at the back end. How I coped without a drill driver before I will never know. Two came out with no problems but the third was so crap it practically disintegrated and went through the mounting hole in the tank. Good enough for now

Out came my friend the Dremel along with my favourite bit, the cutting disc (Or 4 of them actually as these bolts were particularly tough). I decided that as they were tough I would cut halfway through the bolts then give them a clout with MC hammer. There were no issue with the first 2, but the third was difficult (typically!). I was able to cut through it practically all the way then snapped it off with a pair of pliers.

All I had to do now was to lower it down using the jack which was surprisingly easy, with a little bit of manouevring and jiggling to get the filler neck through the boot floor. Condition isn't fantastic, but it does appear to be mainly surface rust. I will give it a clean up before making a decision on whether it needs replacing. The big flexi pipe definitely does!

Finally I needed to drain the tank so out came the funnel and fuel can. That and 2 fizzy drinks bottles as I ran out of room! 7 1/2 litres of some sort of fuel was left in it. Amazingly it doesn't smell "off" (I'm sure the car hasn't run since about 2001) so it may be usable for a lawn mower or strimmer. Think I've got a mate with one so I may earn myself a pint or similar.

Nuts. They just turned with the bolts...



Jack under the tank



Dremel cuts. The bolts didn't stand a chance!



Lowering the tank.



Tank is out. Closer inspection required.



Potential lawn mower food

[benb12]

Interesting, didn't know they used clubman estate tanks. Keep up the good work

[Ethel]

Tip no.2, or is it 3? LDV van filler necks match up pretty well with the tank and body.

[rsroadkilla]

Just read the whole thread, and hats off to you sir! I recently sold my mini based kit car for one that's mk1 escort based and I'm pining to tinker with mini bits already as it's all I know!

Look forward to seeing done more updates!

Bruce

[MrBounce]

I've been doing a bit of research over the past few days. It turns out that the previous engine which was in the Midas came from a 60's Cooper S and was fitted along with the 60's twin bolt subframe and the large alloy remote gear selector housing. The holes for the original subframe towers have been filled in and a later subframe fitted by previous owner Andy (thanks for your info) but the original rear mouting bolts are still there, rusted in place through the floor. These will be cut out in due course. Good old Dremel! As a result, the rod-change gear selector I have will need to be lengthened to sit properly in the car, and a chat with a friend revealed he would be happy to do this for me.

A twisted knee meant I couldn't do any crawling around under or around the car so I thought I would clean up and re-grease the gear selector I had before handing it over for modifictaion. So I hauled it out from under the bench and set to with a brush and some degreaser. It cleaned up fairly nicely, but I assumed it had a whole load of nasty going on inside as moving the gear leaver around didn't feel quite "right". So, once it was a bit cleaner (and smellier as my degreaser stinks!) I whipped the bottom cover off. My worst fears were realised: it was scrap. The gearstick sits in a cup which is held in place to the rod with 2 roll pins. One half of this one piece cup had sheared off. So I need a new gear selector before I can get it modified. Now where was I? Oh yeah - yeehaa...

Before its degreaser bath with years' worth of road grim and old oil on it. Yum..
.


The horrors inside.



And the offending part closer up (and clean!)

[GraemeC]

This might be useful:
http://www.minispare....aspx?pid=33677

[MrBounce]

Well, having been thwarted by my broken gear selectors, I thought I could at least salvage something by getting a replacement extension yoke for the gear lever so set about cutting the remains of the old one off. Unfortunately I ran out of Dremel Cutting discs halfway through this. It was irrelevent anyway as I discovered that the selector rod was badly bent. I could straighten it, but for less effort I could get another whole rod change assembly. Ho hum...

I then cleaned up the petrol tank. It looked like it was mainly surface rust so out with the wire brush and most of it came off; mainly bits of old paint and a lot of iron oxide. Still, a bit of rust convertor may go on this before I paint it with something heavy duty. I can't see any holes at all, but the piece of pipe I took off was well past its best.

I decided that as I'd painted the heater side panels I ought to take a look at the rest of the heater. The switch panel was a bit bent and the lever to move between "car" and "screen" was completely seized. I took everything to bits and cleaned everything up with the wire brush attachment on the angle grinder. I then was able to get the lever moving with use of the vice and brute force. I lubricated the little spring and dropped a dab of grease on the mechanism. It's now a lot better. The rest of the bits (including the main heater housing) were then ready to paint. I managed to do half the body then ran out of paint. Note to self: Buy more paint...

Bent rods



Rusty tank



Nasty Pipe



Slightly cleaner tank



Heater bits, before cleaning up



Lever now working thatnks to brute force, grease and ignorance



Cleaner bits



Oh b******s - out of paint!!

[MrBounce]

Still haven't bought any new paint, so left the heater bits for a while and turned my attention to getting the last of the stuff out of the interior. The headling (a one-piece bit of fibreglass) was going to need to come out, especially as I wanted to remove that horrid aerial stub. By the looks of things, all I needed to do was remove the gas struts (knackered) for the rear glass hatch and undo the four screws at the front to remove it. Simple! As the Haynes manual usually says, "Undo the screws/bolts/clips and lift out". What they don't have for their stripdown is a car that's been standing for 10 years in the damp. The nuts for the gas struts were easy; just use a 9/16" spanner to undo and they came away easily. The front screws? Well... One came out with no arguments. The other 3? Well let's just say that what should have been a 10 minute job at most became an hours' worth of struggle.

I really didn't want to get evil with the power tools, but after the first one came out, the other 3 just ended up with chewed heads. No amount of WD40 or shock treatment was going to make them move. I got some new Dremel cutting discs from Ebay last week and put them to use immediately. My plan was to cut off part of the screw and then just snap the rest of it off with a pair of pliers to avoid damaging the headlining too much. It was fiddly (because you're effectively working upside down, which I hate...) but 3 rusty and broken screw heads later the headlining fell on me. Only a few minor scratches around where it was screwed in. I will get the screw stubs out in time. No rush...

Well, the headlining had some strange mouldy bits on it and will get properly cleaned up in due course. For a moment I wasn't really sure where to put a 4ft x 4ft piece of fibreglass then I realised as it was so light the easiest place to put it was to hang it on the wall. 30 seconds with a hammer drill, rawlplug and screw, there it was. The aerial stub was stuck to a piece of aluminium, which was swiftly removed. Headlining out, sunroof and last bits of the internal loom will be next...
Horrible headling in place; sunvisors (one was already off) will need to be remade.



Gas strut undone



It's out! You can just about see the rusty screw stubs...



Nasty aerial stub and bit of ali.



The headlining's new home

[rsroadkilla]

All these progress shots are making me jelous! Didn't get the chance to go play with my Geep this weekend after promising myself I would all week!

[MrBounce]

It has been a bit of a frustrating time this weekend. I have bought a couple of bits and found a nightmare scenario.

Got some more paint from the bay of "e" and proceeded to give the heater parts another coat. Don't worry - they look significantly better than the photograph - it's the harsh light of the flash that makes them look far worse than they actually are!! The heater bits are going under the dash and won't be seen much anyway so I am not too bothered as I can't see it - as long as the blooming thing doesn't leak...

I also bought a handbrake (the old one in the car appears to be rustier than some of the bolts that are holding it in place and appears to be missing its release button. The one I've got is a Sportpack Mini item which I picked up for less than a tenner including postage and it looks in almost perfect condition. Superb. I have narrowly missed out on a gear selector though (don't you just HATE it when you'e outbid by 50p??).

As I'd received a headlight bracket through the post as well, I thought I would prepare that for paint, along with the other headlight bits I have. Unfortunately that was where my nightmare scenario raised its really ugly head. I have (just about) two usable "holding brackets" for the headlights and two trim brackets as well. However, the backplates are more of an issue. I have one very solid one, and... well I'll just let the pics do the talking. If anyone's got a headlight backplate for a Mk1/Mk2 Midas (it's Austin Allegro for those that don't know) in usable condition please let me know asap. Mine are completely fubar'd. B******s.

Painted stuff - it looks much better in the flesh!



The headlight bits I had to play with.



Some of the bits I didn't use...



And the paper-thin backplates. Ouch!