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Dec 29, 2018 16:02:07 GMT
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Just another quickie update - the fuel pump is now mounted and finished. There's just a bit of wiring to do and a matter of fuel in the tank to get things moving. I took the little spacers off the bobbins as they weren't needed, grabbed all the necessary fixings and chucked it on the car. I drilled a 10mm hole for the power/earth wires and chucked in a grommet before feeding them through. I then grabbed the fuel hose, and cut 2 sections to size before clamping it all together. There's still the matter of where to put the fuel filter, but that will simply be a case of cutting the fuel hose and adding it in. Pump fitted and all piped in.  Bolts, grommet and wires. Will all be covered over when the car's finished, but that'll be a while...  |
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Dec 29, 2018 16:28:08 GMT
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Absolutely fantastic rebuild,without a doubt the best Midas around,can’t wait to see it in the flesh
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Previously owned
12 mini,s
mini moke
sabre sprint
reliant ss1
nova,s
205
fiat 126
mk4 escort van
reliant ti
ms jiffy pickup
gtm coupe
chambers special
wolseley hornet
mini jem
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Dec 29, 2018 22:29:15 GMT
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Absolutely fantastic rebuild,without a doubt the best Midas around,can’t wait to see it in the flesh Thank you SO much. You have no idea how much that means as this is my first proper project. Granted it's taken me a while, but I am learning on the job and it's about as far from a chequebook rebuild as you can get! Love what you're doing with yours too  |
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Dec 29, 2018 23:34:21 GMT
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Cheers mate,I rebuilt a cars and car conversions Midas a couple of years back fantastic little cars wish I still had it
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Previously owned
12 mini,s
mini moke
sabre sprint
reliant ss1
nova,s
205
fiat 126
mk4 escort van
reliant ti
ms jiffy pickup
gtm coupe
chambers special
wolseley hornet
mini jem
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New Year, new me and all that garbage. Forget the gym/diet. I am just bunging myself in the garage until I am knackered. There's Pepsi Max & occasionally "Garage Food" aka Jaffa Cakes or similar in there so I am happy!! Once again I threw myself under the rear end of the car in order to fit the fuel filter. Armed with a pair of cutters, some new jubilee clips, a new P clip & my new inspection lamp I was able to simply cut, insert and reconnect everything. Granted I need to replace the screw/washer holding said P clip in place but that will only take a minute or so. After that I moved up to the front of the car and set about lifting it into the air. I found my second pair of axle stands and after cursing loudly that my jack wouldn't "quite" go under a bit of the front subframe (remember the rear end is already in the air...), I was able to eventually get it all stable and level. The reason for doing this? It was seat time. Now, I need to point out that the seat runners for these come in 2 bits - a locking runner on one side and a "free runner" on the other. Therefore it is impossible to simply take the runners off and mark where to drill without a lot of measurement so instead I kept the runners on the seat and did it the old fashioned way. Now bear in mind that there is nothing left of the original runners and bolts as these looked like they'd been left in the sea for 6 years and were a bit of a mess so I had no data to use. So first of all I sat in the driver's seat and moved it around until I felt comfortable. As I am neither short nor tall (5ft 9") I took this info as the middle of the runners' range. Having crudely marked on the floor where the fronts needed to sit, I moved the seat back on its runners and marked where to drill. Once the front bolts were in place, it was a simple matter of sliding the seat forward on the runners to mark the rear holes and drill them. At least it would have been but for some reason it would only go so far. So I had to take the seat out to fully move the runners. Still, once back in, it was easy to do and the seat looks good. I'll do the passenger seat next time as I ran out of time today. Fuel filter in place. Screw/washer arrangement will be replaced.  Front bolts in for seat runners  And rears sorted after a fight.  |
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Looking good , am enjoying the read ... keep going  |
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Minor but important update: Fuel system is now pretty much DONE. The original fuel filler hose (which I'd kept for sizing purposes) was a nasty item - it was obviously the original from when the car was built. It was cracked, very hard and also extremely heavy - a sure sign of knackered rubber, and quite a heavy-duty fit-and-forget item. A quick bash of the card on the Car Builder Solutions eBay account saw a 57mm ID length of filler hose appear on the doorstep today. 10 minutes and a minor trim later, it's on the car and I am a happy boy. Old fuel hose - only fit for "File 13".  New fuel filler hose all fitted up and done.  |
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Fresh rubber is a good.
Little wins make us feel good.
Makes the fights worth fighting.
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Fresh rubber is a good. Little wins make us feel good. Makes the fights worth fighting. Indeed grizz - those little wins are becoming slightly more frequent and I like it!! |
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Nice work, getting there!
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Fraud owners club member
2003 W211 Mercedes E class
1989 Sierra sapphire
1998 ex bt fiesta van
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glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,353
Club RR Member Number: 64
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Good stuff. Modern fuel is really bad with most old rubber components, so even if it had looked OK then you’d still have been safer replacing it.
👍👍
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My worst worry about dying is my wife selling my stuff for what I told her it cost...
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Jan 31, 2019 15:51:52 GMT
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Here's a tiny but overdue update. I have been unable to spend any extended time in the Manroom due to my garage heater not playing ball. It fires up but won't stay lit which really doesn't help in weather like this. Therefore it was time to do something which doesn't involve me freezing my extremities off. I have removed the sunroof from its resting place in the car and have taken it to a sunroof specialist. I need a new seal as the original was shot to bits and leaking badly when I bought the car all those years ago. They're going to have a look at what they have in their seals store and come back to me. I am guessing that a seal for a 1981 sunroof won't be common. If and when they find something to fit (hopefully!), I can go ahead and fit it permanently - I've dug out all the fixings which I carefully packed in a box years ago. Just waiting on the phone call now, although I did tell them not to hurry!! Sunroof prior to going to its temporary home at the windscreen place.  |
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Feb 24, 2019 14:52:53 GMT
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Apologies for no recent updates but I have been a very busy chap. Managed to get a few minutes today and sorted something I've been meaning to do for a little while - the top hose arrangement. The setup that I had was just a 90-degree hose and I'd realised that it wouldn't clear the bonnet. So of I trotted to eBay and bought myself a 45 degree hose and a 70mm long aluminium joiner. A little bit of measuring, a touch of adjustment with my friend Stanley and some new jubilee clips and all looked very much happier. However, I found that moving house mid way through a project makes for a bad plan when you want to find a specific small part. I thought I'd fit the throttle cable. The little round clip that holds the cable on the pedal? Nope, NOWHERE to be found. Short of turning the garage upside down, I am thinking that a new one may be easier. Of course, once I fit it, I will find the old one in the car... 90 degree hose - bonnet won't fit.  Revised top hose arrangement - MUCH better!  |
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For the princely sum of a couple of quid I got myself a new clip that fits over the the throttle pedal and stops the cable from springing out (allegedly). So I separated the inner from the out throttle cable and after some half-blind groping in the footwell I managed to thread it through the appropriate hole in the bulkhead and fitted a grommet. I then threaded the homemade bracket which holds the outer cable to the bulkhead back over and screwed it into place. Once the outer was on I looked at the carb: of course there was a problem. As far as I can recall the HIF44 has a plastic tube which fits into the abutment plate and secures the outer cable whilst guiding the inner cable. Did I have such a thing? There was a slight possibility that I did, but if so, it wasn't in the place where I may have put it (house move and all that). Knowing my luck, it's probably still sitting in a corner of the old garage. Yes, I could have ordered up a new one, but I couldn't see anything obvious after a quick glance at the usual Mini sites on my phone (They were probably available but I didn't have my reading glasses with me...). So it was time to think laterally - what could possibly fit in the hole yet also clamp the cable in place? What I needed was a specific type of sleeve. I started looking in my parts drawers then it dawned on me - I could use a bolt with a hole in it. I didn't have one, but I do have a pillar drill. So, armed with a 2mm drill bit and the drill vice, I got as close to centre as I could and drilled carefully down. Once done, I measured the outer cable (5mm) and then drilled a 5.5mm hole in the head of the bolt for the outer to fit into. I bolted everything up to the carb and it all works beautifully. Oh, and whilst searching for the non-existent part, I found the (new) vacuum advance pipe and fitted it because why not? This tiny little thing caused me grief by not being in the garage when I needed it. So I bought a new one and fitted that.  Fitting it enabled me to attach the inner cable to the pedal and to poke it through the bulkhead.  No cable guide on the carb saw me get creative with a bolt and the pillar drill.  All connected up and working  And finally, new shiny vacuum advance pipe fitted too.  |
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Mar 31, 2019 16:56:03 GMT
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It's been a funny old month - the sort where everything suddenly comes together in one aspect but in others you totally forget things. The suddenly coming together relates to my daily wheels. I have driven a VW Bora TDi Highline for the past 9 1/2 years. Wilhelm has been a really dependable, reliable, comfortable, useful, economical and practical vehicle. Thing was, he'd done 128k and never had a clutch. Last time I enquired it was £700-odd at the local VW specialists thanks to a Dual-Mass flywheel being needed. Although it's something I probably could do, from what I understand it's a butt of a job and specialist tools might be required. Someone else can foot that bill. Also, the lovely Mrs Bounce passed her driving test in 2017 and said that as she now had a "practical car", I didn't need to have one. I fancied something where the roof comes off, but also fancied an auto for cruising. E36, Z3s and R170 SLKs were in my price range, and as I don't particularly like BMWs it was the Merc I started looking for. One came up on the work noticeboard at a silly price (quick sale needed, too). It did have the obligatory rusty wings but it also had been owned by the same festidious owner for the past 7 years. It's mechanically sound, and has a LOT of service history. A deal was reached, and she came home with me. The Bora was sold within a day of being put on Faceache Marketplace. Wilhelm will now be doing commuting work for a vehicle technician so he's in good hands. Of course, this meant no work had been done on Zippy. So into the garage I went today and started looking at the dashboard, having pulled it down from the loft. I mocked up where I wanted everything - rev counter, speedo and multi-gauge pod from an XJ6 that my friend has assured me he can wire in with no issues. The initial plan was to cover it with my mate Stuart's old leather coat, but it's not suitable for the dash as no panel on it is long enough or wide enough. I shall keep the coat and cut it up for other bits of trimming. When I bought Zippy, the dashboard was a mess, and the thing I hated most was the ill-fitting dash top which was only "roughly" the right shape. It wasn't fixed to anything and was nowhere near good enough to use, even for a template. Therefore I making my own. I took a look at what I had kicking around in the garage and found an old sheet of hardboard. Having to make the dash top template in two sections due to the width, I cut both bits to size and then looked at the curvature required for the bottom of the windscreen. The easiest way to deal with this was to pop a block of wood on the dashboard to enable the hardboard to sit on top of that. My plan is to cover it with parcel tape and then cover it in fibreglass to make my own dashtop. This can then be fixed to the dashboard in due course. I can also look at the screen venting system. I have something in mind for that... Farewell Wilhelm and thank you for your service. Lovely car with what seemed like the world's biggest boot.  Hello Katrina. I do rather like her when her top's off. And her whining (supercharger!).  Dahboard mock up.  Stuart's coat - no good for the dah but I can cannibalise it for other stuff.  Hardboard to start a template for the dash top.  And a little bit of wood helps with the curvature (some adjustment needed).  |
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Apr 17, 2019 20:17:00 GMT
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I had a half day today so it was time to start properly constructing the mould for the dash top. Out came the scrap wood, gaffer tape, screws, bracketry and various tools. To match the curvature of the dash top to the top of the dash, I spent a while scavenging the wood pile, making templates and then cutting the wood to size. This was then screwed to the hardboard top. As I didn't have ling enough bits of wood, I did have to get creative with a couple of brackets and a metal plate but as this is only for moulding purposes, it doesn't matter too much. Once all was relatively solid, out came the gaffer tape to keep everything in place. I will further cover the whole thing in parcel tape so the fibreglass won't stick to it when I start to cover it with resin and chopped strand mat. When it's complete it will be covered with vinyl or leather so the actual finish is not too important - it's the shape I am looking at for now. Top side of mould  Underside (not that pretty but who's gonna care - it's a mould!) Metal plate under gaffer tape to hold it together!  And mocked up in the car.  |
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Fetching colour of blue your workbench has.
Question is, being a mould, how do the proud standing screw heads respond once you create it, and remove it?
Or are they recesses for further on.
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Fetching colour of blue your workbench has. Question is, being a mould, how do the proud standing screw heads respond once you create it, and remove it? Or are they recesses for further on. Not finished yet grizz They will be removed before the final layer of brown tape. They were there to hold it together whilst being taped up 🙂 |
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Can I say great progress on Zippy. Also can I say get another more traditional fuel filter as that type look great but don't work with modern fuels.
I fitted one to my Corsair before stripping for Grumpy to have and it lasted two weeks before the clear poly-carbonate tube went cloudy and cracked they don't like the Ethenol.
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Apr 19, 2019 15:56:13 GMT
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peteh1969 That's good to know - thank you. I shall pop down to the local motorfactors and see what they recommend. And thanks also for your encouragement! It's comments like yours that make it all worthwhile! Being a bank holiday and not having to work, and having done my morning household duties for Mrs Bounce, I had an afternoon to sort more dash top shenanigans in the blazing sunshine. I finished removing all the screws and used parcel tape to cover the rest of the mould. Once satisfied with what I had created, I cut several sheets of chopped strand mat into appropriately-sized chunks, grabbed the resin and hardener and set to work. I found a couple of old plastic bottles which I cut to size and used for the resin, and with the paintbrushes I'd liberated from Poundland I started dabbing away on the top of the mould. I got a decent layer on the top, waited for it to dry and then did the same for the front. It will require some trimming (that's what the Dremel's for) before I join the two sections together, but overall it doesn't look too bad. It will be covered anyway, so imperfections are not too much of an issue. I shall be back on it soon! Mould all taped up and ready to go.  About to start glassing  Top layer done...  ...and front done (some trimming needed). 
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