Hi all. In a possibly rash moment I've bought a part built Midtec Spyder (wanted one for a long time after foolishly not buying the metallic blue V6 that was originally built in Scotland) and I was wondering whether anyone had got one through an IVA? I can see at least a couple of things that will need doing but any advice would be gratefully welcomed.

While I'm here if anyone knows where Ivan get a roll hoop and laminated windscreen that'd be handy.

Cheers.

I seem to recall the screen being the rear screen from a Saab 96 but they weren't laminated so would fail the IVA. Obviously, you don't need to have a screen for IVA.....

[Edited on 15/5/14 by owelly]

the first 2 on my list for the windscreen would be

Pilkington
Ricky Evans

For the rollbar, where are you?


[Edited on 15/5/14 by stevebubs]

Quick google turned up...

http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=52725

I'm in.....Glasgow. (Distance sigh). The kit comes with a windscreen but like you said it won't be laminated. This may Bea stujpid question but if you want to get a screen made do you just take the car along and they build one to fit or is it more (or less) complicated than that? The car won't be road legal before the is fitted so I'd need to trailer it about and I don't have a trailer.

I'd like to have a screen so we don't want to cut the surround off just to pass the IVA - my limited skills don't stretch to making a viable new windscreen surround!

If it's a standard rear screen then the jigs may exist...

I've direct messaged the bloke that had the screen built in the link you mentioned. Hopefully he can give me chapter and verse!

Only other immediate concern (over something surprisingly trivial) is fitting the rear number plate. The back of a Midtec has shortage of flat areas so fitting a holder may be tricky. I'm thinking about putting something on the spare wheel but wonder if this counts as permanent enough. Any design ideas for this spot or else where?

Great work so far, chaps.

[Edited on 16/5/14 by Wibbler]

It's quite an involved process to make a curved laminated screen for a one off.
They need to make a jig/mould for the shape and then drape softened glass into it.
If they have a mould for a saab back window it might be cheaper/easier as the NRE will be a big chunk of the cost.

Pilkington can do it linky-dink but I can't imagine it would be cheap.

[Edited on 16/5/14 by iank]

Hi all. I may have sourced a source for a laminated windscreen! One thing though...they're asking whether the Midtec windscreen is one from a long nosed Saab 96 or a short nosed Saab 96. Now neither I now they know if the rear screens are actually different for these cars but if they are and I get the wrong one it's going to be an expensive mistake! Anyone know? Cheers.

Hi, I've just joined this forum, so am catching up.

Back in the 90s, I had a Spyder ( Q251 HRY ) Black, 2l Pinto injected from a Granada. I didn't build it from scratch, but as a completed 'new' car from the dealers who were then in Leicester. I did have to do lots of modifications on it though, because parts of the original construction were particularly poor.

I am also the person who crash tested a Midtec ( NOT my fault, I really was stationary at the time, & the other pratt smashed into me from the opposite direction. ) so have a different perspective.

Looking at the pictures I still have, & having read the comments about windscreens / Saab back windows ( I knew that), & toughened / laminated, it struck me that after the crash my screen was cracked from top to bottom in several places. ( The chassis was twisted quite badly in the impact.) The screen I had was LAMINATED!!

Obviously I don't know the origins of many parts of my car, so this might have been a 'special'.

I'll see if I can post the pics. ( I've created a photo archive called 'Midtec Casualty'. I can access it OK, I presume you can too!)


[Edited on 12/3/15 by Chas.S]

When I acquired my Midtec, the rear number plate was attached just below the spare wheel by a couple of self tappers. It was itself stuck to an ali plate, which also held the number plate light. This arrangement was not particularly suitable, & eventually the plate used to fall off, since it was only staying in place through habit.

I made up a support bracket out of 1" thin walled square tube, of the type I used to build stands & stagings in my Lab. It was a proprietary product which also came with joints & corner brackets. Can't remember the name, but anything suitable would do. 2 'L' shaped brackets & a cross-member. It gave a firm structure to mount the ali plate to. The 'forward' ends were attatched to the back of the chassis frame. I can't remember how, but it was nothing too complicated, & seemed quite obvious at the time, when I had the thing there in front of me. The 'back' was attached by a welded on bracket & a bolt/nut to the rear bodywork.

( Photos are available in the archive 'Midtec Casualty' )

I was going to do something similar at the front, which was always very unsatisfactory ( self tappers again ), but fate intervened before I got round to it. The stick on plates don't look great, & were considered illegal at one time ( as 'E' Type owners used to find out ). Since so many boy racers seem to now get away with driving around with the front number plate sitting on the dash top, I suppose this is no longer an issue.

I knew that Midtecs were rare but didn't know it was because they were being picked off individually!

Thanks for all the information. I think we've sourced a laminated screen through the chap who's building a Midtec in Complete Kit Car magazine; about £450.

Good idea with the L shaped fittings for the rear number plate. Probably worth doing something similar with the rear fog and reversing lights to get through IVA (with horrible looking but totally legit lights) to get them nice and square-on which can then be replaced with nicer looking LED lights that would be more moulded in.

Never thought of the Midtec a particularly curvy at the back but once you start trying to attach things you realise that there's not a straight line or handy vertical surface in sight!

There's a plan for some Midtec owners to meet up at the CKC Trackday (at LLandow circuit in Wales)) in May so if you fancy getting nostalgic...

Following the accident, the car was written off by the insurance company. You can see the body damage, & the chassis was bent / damaged, so everything would have to be taken off, so that the chassis could go back into the jig for repair, or the whole thing would need replacing.

I subsequently heard that the wreck came up for auction at a place near Nottingham ( on New Years Day, so I could not get there ). Even if I'd been there, I would not have been allowed to bid for it, as some kind of special licence was necessary. However, I found out later through the owners club that somebody was rebuilding it, so it still might be out there somewhere, in some form.

At the time I was living in a tiny village just outside Huntingdon, & used the car daily to commute into the centre of Cambridge, throughout the year. Because of the enormous bulge in the engine cover to clear the injection system, although I had a hood / side screens, I could never fit it. Only rarely did I get wet, & with decent clothing it was not unbearably cold, even in the depths of winter. About 5 miles away was the village of Brampton, home to the Brampton Motor Co. ( BMC ) who at that time had the moulds, because they were basically a fibreglass moulding company. That's where the car was recovered to after the crash, & where the photos were taken. The silver car visible was their demonstrator.

Unfortunately, I may be getting more than nostalgic, which is why I am trying to find out where the licences & Jigs/moulds are now. I had a Reliant Scimitar @ the time I bought the Midtec, & over the last year I have bought 2 more Scimitars, having had none for several years. I fear my life is going in circles, although I do not intend to go back to Uni.

I like the look of the new light treatment at front & rear. The original 'frogeye' look was a bit Marmite, & probably put a lot of people off. Many people describe the car as 'ugly as sin'. I accepted it for what it was. I have certainly seen some absolute horror-shows in kit mags over the years, so I think it is a case of " he that is without sin... ". I used to enjoy the drive home down the A14, before the average speed cameras were installed. Even BMWs would move over when they saw it coming. They obviously looked in their mirrors ( rare! ) & thought 'What the f... is that?

A couple of months ago, I was having a clear out & came across the UN1 gearbox adaptors I bought as the first stage towards building a replacement for my smashed /lost Midtec. Thought I'd never need them, so sold them on e-bay. I'm starting to regret it now.

I was always fascinated by the idea of using the rear screen from a production car as the windscreen for a kit. Every time I see a Vauxhall Tigra, I look & think " that would be an interesting place to start to design a body around ".

I wil be taking the V6 and un1 gearbox out of my trackday car soon, so if any is interesyed in it, let me know.

I shall probably live to regret saying this, but..... I might well be. Any more details?

Only that I have V6 attached to a UN1 with carbs, and all the other bits that go with it.

It was all in the car when I bopught it and have no intension of keeping it like that.

Would have thought the gearbox was worth something, and the rest would be scrap value.

The car had been stood outside for a while, so no idea what condition anything is in. Will have a lok when I pull it all out.

Car is in Whitby at the moment, gathering dust. But as A good mate keeps telling me, I don't have to feed it so it costing me nothing.

Any idea what V6 it is?

Obviously I am most familiar with the Ford Essex V6, but I can't imagine anyone choosing that. 'Only' 140bhp from 3 litres, & very heavy, being all cast iron. The 2.8 'Cologne' V6 has about the same power, & weight [ although I do have an injection system for one of those ].

My original Midtec had the UN25 (?) gearbox, which was fine as far as it went. The gearing was approx 20 mph / 1000, which meant that it revved a bit too much. I fancied a UN1, hence buying the adaptors as the first step to building a new one.

I feel a little like Eddie 'The Eagle' Edwards. One false step, & I could be off on a long, very slippery downhill slope. Hopefully, I won't come down to Earth like him.

The engine is the renault one

The same set up as the delorian I am told.

"The engine is a Peugeot-Renault-Volvo (PRV) 2.85 litre V6 which was designed and built under special contract with the DMC Company. These engines were a development of the 2.7 litre V6 in the Renault 30, and were built in the PRV Factory in Douvrin, Northern France. The gearbox, also designed by PRV, was built at the Renault facility near Caen in Normandy. The engines and gearboxes were shipped weekly by sea from the PRV Factories to the DMC Factory in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland."

Sounds like fun. Keep me informed as you make progress.

I would imagine it's just ordinary Renault 30, rather than DeLorean

Chas

[Edited on 15/3/15 by Chas.S]

The DeLorean is described as 130 PS ( 96kW ) which never really made sense to me.

'PS' stands for 'pferdestärke'; German for 'horse-strength'. Apparently, German horses are more feeble than ours, each one rated @ 98.6% of a British one. A bhp is approx ¾ kW, so a kW is approx 1.34 bhp.


[Edited on 15/3/15 by Chas.S]

It has been mentioned that someone in 'Complete Kit Car' magazine is building a Midtec. Does anyone have more details please? I buy mags occasionally, but try to stop myself, since it leads to me having bad thoughts ( I would be better off buying more conventional porn mags instead! ) If I totted up all that I have spent on car & other mags over the years, I could probably have afforded that GT40 I always wanted, but still wouldn't be able to get into the garage.

Hi there. I have had my midtec for about 5 years now and have completely rebuilt it with a Zetec turbo and a UN1 transaxle. It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be.
Also a few years ago the windscreen cracked and the only way I could get a replacement was to take the old screen to Pilkingtons in Essex where they made all of the tooling and jigs for a new one. This was luckily covered by my windscreen cover on my insurance and what cost the insurance thousands cost me my £70 excess :-)
So the jigs and tooling is all there and they can produce screens now. I have no idea his much though.
I've also restyled the back of mine for a more modern appearance.

I bought a windscreen for my Midtec off Pilkingtons at last Novembers Classic car Show at NEC it took until February to arrive and cost £702 delivered.
Original had started to delaminate but still useable so have only laid the new one on top and seems Ok but will not fit until delamination gets to be an MOT problem
Eric