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[MrBounce]

I had left the fibreglass sheets to dry overnight - I have learned to my detriment never to rush working with this stuff! I laid each one over the hole where it was due to fit, and drew the shape of the hole on the back side using a Sharpie. The oscillating tool was put to good use again, and made short work of trimming the pieces to size. Once done, they were offered up to their respective new homes. More trimming was needed until each one fitted with minimal clearance. These were taped into place, and I flipped the headlining over before fibreglassing them into place from the back. They're now drying. 

 

Once I'd finished doing my fibreglassing thing, I completed a job that I've been meaning to put right for AGES. The driver's side indicator and sidelight combo was hanging down. Why? One of the Rivnuts had started to spin because there was a crack in the fibreglass. I had already repaired this from behind (and through the crack) using resin and chopped strand mat, but for some reason I had never completed it (probably because it has been F cold and/or raining). I also remembered that the bit where the Rivnut sat was a bit "bulgy", causing said Rivnut to sit at an angle. This was sorted by a brief tickle with the finger sander. In went the new Rivnut, and the light unit is sitting happily in its proper home. I should add that the bonus today was the front of my garage is a suntrap in the afternoon, so it was a lovely place to be. Hopefully this will continue!

 

Laying the new sheet over the top of the hole needing to be filled.

 

 

Sharpie marks all over the sheets

 

 

Pressed into place before fibreglassing

 

 

Like this!

 

 

Indicator/sidelight unit now in place. Picture makes it look wonky, but it's fine.

 

 

15 degrees! A welcome change!

 

[MrBounce]

Well, it's about time that I finished off the headlining. First up was to drill some holes in the newly added fibreglass sections to suit the visors. This was pretty straightforward, as I used the spreader plates for templates. Then I needed to put the recesses in for the mounts towards the middle of the car. Out came my old friend the multitool. I measured up, made appropriate marks and cut some holes. Then it was simply a case of putting the recesses in place, taping everything up and fibreglassing them into place. Of course, this being fibreglassing, it takes FAR longer than it does to write it down - even with a "hot mix" it takes a few hours to dry off properly.

 

Once everything had dried off, I flipped the headlining over and brushed some resin over the edges of all the amended bit, to give it a smoother appearance, before sanding it a bit smoother, and giving it a quick coat of black. This is not entirely necessary, as I will be covering the headlining with material; however, I wanted to get more of an idea how it looked. I just need to figure out how best to sort the spreader plates; my initial thoughts of Rivnuts doesn't work as the nut tries to expand into the fibreglass, which isn't exactly helpful. I shall revisit this. Possibly welded nuts, but I might be able to sort something else. Not sure yet.

 

Finally, I've sorted the engine number rivets. My HSS drill bits did not want to know, barely making a mark in the hardened steel of the remains of the ones left there by the machine shop. However, a few quid on Amazon saw a Cobalt drill bit arrive, which, after some effort, made holes deep enough for said rivets. The engine number plate looks FAR better than my somewhat poor efforts to stamp it!

 

Holes drilled in new fibreglass.

 

 

Marked for cutting

 

 

Taped up...

 

 

...and glassed in from the back

 

 

A drizzle of resin to smooth out any ridges

 

 

Test fit of the visors - LOVELY

 

 

A splash of paint just for the hell of it

 

 

And engine number plate now riveted in place.

 

[MrBounce]

There are 2 things which will need to be sorted to finish off the headlining, aside from covering and fitting it of course. The first is the interior light; I've already opened up an appropriately-sized hole for this, and I need to sort the wiring and door buttons for it, and as I need to speak to Tink about this, it will be left for a bit. The other one is a high-level brake light. This is not an easy thing to fit to a rear screen on the Midas, as the rake of the hatch glass is incredibly shallow. What I needed was something that could hinge.

 

Rewind a few weeks, and I was helping Tink clear out stuff from his garage loft. We'd sorted 4 piles: keep, dump, sell, me! There just happened to be a hinged high-level LED brake light. First thing I did, having dragged it out of the bag of booty from Tink's garage was to test it. Everything worked perfectly - excellent. The light only had 2 short bits of wire on it, which had pin terminals. I don't have pin terminals, so I spent a fiddly few minutes removing them - cutting off the heatshrink with a razor blade before carefully bending back the crimps. Thankfully it wasn't soldered, as this would have made things a bit more awkward. I cut positive and negative wires to size and have soldered them to the stubs of wire on the unit. These have then been covered with the correctly-sized heatshrink tubing, and will be piggy-backed to the brake lights. 

 

Finally I needed to mount it to the headlining itself. There was one hole drilled in the plinth (slightly off centre), so I repeated this on the other side, and also made a hole for the cables to pass through. Once I'd established the centre point of the headlining, I repeated these holes through it. I screwed it into place, and it sits beautifully. I'll take it off again when I cover the headlining. 

 

Hinged LED light from Tink's "stash". Now mine - mwahahaha!

 

 

Wires extended after carefully removing the pin connectors and doing some soldering.

 

 

And mounted to the headlining. At least for now...

 

[MrBounce]

One of the problems I have with some of the work I do on cars is I don't check things well enough. I'd set the mounting points of the visors at points where they didn't line up, but I then didn't properly check this at the time. As a result the inner mounts were not in the right place and the bar on the visor would not clip into place. Once I had figured out my idiocy, I got out the multi-tool and cut bits out until it would work. Then I fibreglassed it all back together. Of course, this sounds really simple when typed out like this. But of course, when you factor in cutting things out, checking the fit would ACTUALLY work, trimming, trimming other bits and then glassing it all back together, before then waiting for it to dry, then sanding and filling to make it usable, it actually took a couple of days. 

 

Whilst waiting for things to dry, I spent some time clearing up the garage as there were tools left out (a pet hate of mine - you could tell I was annoyed about things not lining up!), as well as a whole load of things on the floor, bits of fibreglass matting everywhere, spilt resin on the floor tiles (when dry it peels off, thankfully). I also painted the lugs that hold the rear hatch struts in place - these double up as helping keep the headlining in place (as well as various screws). Once I did the trial fit with the headlining in place, there's a minor issue which won't take too long to sort. There's a raised ridge on the inside of the roof of the car. The newly moved visor mountings JUST foul this, so I will need to make some minor clearance grooves. Shouldn't take too long with the Powerfile. 

 

Finally, I grabbed the door lock and put it in place so I don't lose it. I will need to figure out how to attach it correctly, as it's one of the few items I didn't take pictures of when I took the car apart. That would be previous me being unhelpful again! 

 

Yeah that looks a bit out, doesn't it...

 

 

Moved and lined up so it will actually work.

 

 

Glassed in place before filling 

 

 

Fitting nicely! 

 

 

A minor bit of clearance needed here

 

 

Door lock in place awaiting connection to the rest of the apparatus

 

[MrBounce]

Isn't it funny, and ever-so-slightly annoying, when you go to do something that should take no more than 10-15 minutes to sort, and it ends up taking WAY more time than expected? Yup, the orange plastic box of delights continues to irritate and amuse in not-so-equal measures... Let me regale you with a tale of simplicity that became an afternoon's unexpected work, followed by something that ACTUALLY went right!

 

So, the idea was to piggy back the high-level brake light off the spades for both the brake feed and the earth leads already on the driver's side rear light. Sounds simple enough, right? Should be. However, the earth already had a piggy back connector on it - to increase this to 2 piggy backs would be a bit daft, as well as causing unnecessary clearance issues (remember, this is a tiny car, so space is at a premium, and every tiny little bit helps). The easiest way to sort this was to combine the earth wire with the earth for the foglight, and adding a spade to this, thus negating the need for an additional piggy back. Easy, right? This is a 1981 Midas - of course it wasn't. When I cut the connector off the main earth wire, and stripped the insulation off, there sat the familiar sight of corroded wire. "No problem!" I thought. "I'll just go back a bit further until it's normal". Yeah...about that. I had to take it the entire way back to the other side of the car. There was a join of 45-year old solder. I've cut this out and have redone this with new wire, as well as properly heatshrinking any exposed wires and fresh solder. It was massively irritating considering it should have been a straightforward job. Plus I have a pulled chest muscle, so it also hurt! 

 

Onto other, more straightforward things, I have completed the headlining trial fit. I used the Powerfile of dust production to ensure there was plenty of clearance for the new sun visor mounts, before doing some careful trimming to the headlining itself, to make everything fit as it should. There still needs to be enough clearance to allow the sunroof fixings to fit as well as the radio ariel wires to transfer down to the head unit. I spent some time measuring where the mounting screws needed to be, before getting out the drill and chucking some screws to fit. Really chuffed that this bit is now done. All I need to do is to cover it with some of the headlining material from Tink's stash that I have liberated.

 

The bane of my Midas life - corroded wires... This is now in the bin. There's no pictures of the finished job because I was annoyed and the boot is still full of discarded loom tape that I couldn't be bothered to clear up.

 

 

Mounted at the back (there are also screws to fit as well - this is loosely fitted)

 

 

And in place before getting "new clothes".

 

[MrBounce]

The headlining is now covered. I did get it oh-so slightly out (by about a centimetre) which has left a tiny wedge at the back uncovered; however, this will mostly be obscured by the hatch seal and I can add a little wedge so you won't see it unless you really look for it. Bit of a pain, but I don't have enough of this material to re-do it. Still, I am going to blame the wind and the fact that I did it by myself. What I WAS pleased about is that there were not any major creases, and buying a shedload of clips several months ago was obviously an inspired idea! 

 

Whilst it was drying outside, I popped in and realised that one of the wooden blocks that the headlining screws to at the back had fallen off! 45-year old glue clearly isn't what it once was. Two minutes with some epoxy resin and some clamps should see that in place for a few more years yet... I will deal with trimming the edges of the headlining and sticking it to the underside once I get more glue.

 

Headlining ready to go on

 

 

And clipped in place

 

 

Nuts - got it slightly out...

 

 

45 year-old glue failed. Who'd have thought it!

 

 

Clamped in place with new stuff. That'll stay there for a while...

 

[MrBounce]

Time for another really quick update: I took the headlining outside to cut off the excess material as there was a fair bit. This took some time, but at the end of it all I was left with a satisfying pile of offcuts and clips. I still don't have any glue, so sorting the underside will have to wait until the glue arrives. Hopefully this will be before any forecast rain ruins the party, as it's difficult to spray glue on to something this size when there's a car in the garage. I also spent a few minutes with a spike making holes for where all the screws will end up going. And finally, I simply HAD to see what the interior light looked like...

 

Before anything was removed.

Trimmed, and clips removed.

Various holes punched...

And the interior light, looking at home.