ProZac

Got most of the garage sorted today. Pretty much everything looks fine, which is good. Can't say the same about the street i live on, its FUCKED, as is most of the CBD... This really blows.

These earthquakes are getting really old.

Had the front and rear subframes i was going to use blasted. The front know came back looking a million bucks, but the rear was swiss cheese, so I've chopped the front section off it to use a a jig later on, and biffed the rest. Will have to clean up the one that came out of the car, which mean removing all the underseal... A decidely ardous task.. But i know it'll be nice and rust-free underneath atleast . Sorted myself out and sprayed the subframe with POR15 this morning. It seems to have gone really well. I used my shitty cheap spray gun, and didnt thin it at all. Got a couple of runs, but i was putting it on pretty heavily... Anyway, It now looks very shiney and black Will flip it tomorrow and get all the bits i missed with an airbrush, as it's way easier to clean up. Ive got some POR15 Chassis Black there aswell, which is apparently more of a satin finish, and it meant to go over the POR15 I've already used... Might give it a shot, but will be diffincult to spray black on black and remeber where I've painted... Heh. One of my favorite auction site finds was a clubman windcat steeringwheel center, $2, win. More stuff hanging in the wind. All blasted, then primed with zinc rich primer, and painted with CRC's Black Zinc. Does a really good job. Tray of bits back from the zinc platers... Also all blasted first. Its pretty cheap to get this done to all your old rusty shit, worth looking into for sure. 1100 Thats going back in, this is after about an hour of de-greasing.. Still needs to be alot cleaner before recieving a lick of paint. Replacement switch panel im working on for the heater, mine was scoozed. And I recieved this, this morning. Hmmmmm, pretty. Does anyone know if replacement seals are available to the subframe mounted brake pressure limiting valves? Mine tore the seal on the thread when i was taking it apart to make it adjustable. On the subject, does anyone have any clues as to how they actually work? It looks like they let the pressure to the rears match that going to the front, up to a certain point, when they block off the ports and wont let the pressure going to the rears increase anymore... Would this be right? It thats the case, and I want to DECREASE the pressure allowed to the rear cylinders, I would need to have a weaker spring in there, correct? Cheers all

I'll give it a go with the split master, and see how it works. Will modify the bias vale on the rear subframe to be adjustable, should hopefully be able to dial it in pretty nicely that way.

My Mini is caked in it, seriously caked. Its great, because it means it's not rusty, however, I need to remove it. Sent the rear subframe I thought was okay away for blasting, and its come back with lots of holes in it. Not really a part I want to take a chance with, so I'm going to have to clean up the one thats actually come out of the car, thus the removal of all the underseal... Does anyone have an bright ideas to make the job a bit easier? Current plan is to chisel/scrape what I can off, then douse it in petrol and set fire to it.

I fitted the front skirt properly today, turned out to be a pretty easy job. Shares the bolts on the bottom of the over-riders, and i made some flanged bolts to pin it in at the sides. Tomorrow I'll carve some of the fibreglass away, pop in the flanged bolts, glass over them and be left (hopefully) with a nice strong stud sticking out of the other side. Just back from another 3 hours infront of the sand-blaster... I think pretty much all the blasting is done now. Will sort through everything on monday, take some pictures to i know what goes with what, and send it all off to the electroplaters. mjrstar: Ahhh, I see. What are you doing in the brake master cylinder department? Ive seen lots of people do lots of different things... I'm just going to run the 1275GT split master un-boosted, with adjustable bias to the rear, thoughts? Cheers for the info on cams, its something i havent put to much thought into yet... I'll be getting an order from minispares mid march, so might suss a cam and get it over at the same time. Are non-vented metro discs the same as mini 8.4" discs? If so then getting some grooved ones would be very dooable. I havent seen any listings at work for non-vented metro stuff though. Alex - Minis are definately easier to get over here than an Imp, I've only ever seen a couple of Imps around TBH. Your more than welcome to a drive once it's up and running, might be a while though, Uni is about to start back up and that will consume 90% of my time once again .

Engine is going to be the 1100 from the clubman, as its in really good nick. Cam I'm not sure on, but I've got a set of twin HS2's all rebuilt and ready to go, and a set of LCB extractors. While I've got the head off I'll do some very minor port smoothing and what-not, not going to to really wild with it. What do you reckon for a cam? I was going to take it to kelfords and just ask them to tickle it up a bit... but I might do some more in depth reading first i suppose. Brakes are a pretty easy swap if your mini had disc brakes originally. The hard to find parts in NZ are the mini disc brake hubs. If you can only find metro hubs, you need to get the earlier model metro ball-joints, (I'm pretty sure we can get them in a repco), as they match the tapers on the mini arms. You need a set of steering arms from a mini, any model will with, drum models included, as the metro ones are much longer and it fucks up the ackerman angle. You'll also need asjustable lower arms and radius arms, as the ball-joint locations in relation to the wheel are different and your camber/castor will be up the whack. Probably do some good measuring and select a set of wheels with your scrub radius in mind aswell, as I think it becomes a problem with high offset wheels (as in tucked in toward the car) and heavy steering prone to torque steer will result. Regardless of what hubs you run, you need the metro drive flanges, as they put the disc in the correct place with respect to the caliper. The way I've done it: Mini Hubs. Mini steering arms. Metro drive flanges (must lathe/grind off the original wheel mounting lugs for the metro wheels, easy job). Mini disc-brake model CV joints, they're bigger, and fit the metro drive flanges, but i believe all the mini drive shafts themselves are the same, drum brake models included. Metro vented discs. Metro turbo four piston calipers. Twin brake line kit from minispares.co.uk. The metro calpiers are twin pipe inlet, so you need a bridging pipe, was pretty cheap, im sure someone local could make up something similar. mrjstar - Ive got a set of metro turbo calipers here, and drive flanges, and hubs actually if your interested. I've blasted the calipers, and they need new pistons and seals, but that stuff is pretty cheap from minispares. Hubs woul need new bearings/ball joints, and I can modify the drive flanges. I was going to tart them up and sell them on trademe, but if someone bought them and did it themselves it would be way cheaper Alex - You can get them under 12" wheel apparently, but the original mini i bought came with some sweet 13*5.5 super-lites, so I'll be using those Get an Imp. Imps are so fucking cool

Mini's came with a couple of different disc brake setups. The first set I overhauled, with the slotted and dimpled rotors were factory 8.4" disc brakes, which are the most common disc brake option (still pretty rare here in NZ, most are all drum). The ones I'm using now are from an MG Metro turbo. They had the four piston calipers and vented rotors, but kept the same disc diameter of 8.4". You can swap metro brakes in pretty easily, can even use the metro hubs, but it mucks up the suspension geometry a bit... Better to use mini disc brake hubs, but all the metro brake bits. I found the fancy discs through a supplier at work. Got chatting to him one day and he mentioned he had a set of merto discs stashed under a shelf somewhere... He pulled them out and machined them up for me, for a bloody good price too Thanks Mr Znoelli.

Had a productive couple of days. Got the rear subframe out, I needs the frame itself to make a jig from, and the suspension arms to clean up and use. Will sell the brakes as i have all new bits for those. Ive just come back from a three hour sand blasting session, so alot more stuff cleaned up, radiator shroud and mount, heaps of nuts and bolts, etc, etc... Will drop a heap off to be zinc plated tomorrow. Started a job I;ve been really looking forard to today. I bought some new mini special flares a while back, so have them a test fit, no worries. Then i started sizing up the front lip I bought for it... Looks like it'll be a pretty easy fit, needs some glassing and modifying at the ends, but nothing major. Pics, because updates suck with out pics. Amazing how a double garage can only ever fit a single mini... THANKYOU for ticking the 'underseal' option when you prochased this car, original owner! No rust. It does make dissassembly a little tricky, as half the time you cant actually find the bolts to undo them.. but once you do, after the initial crack they all come out with your fingers, and still have all their zin plating, is really amazing. Had to give it a try! Wheel is about were it will actually sit, might not be quite that low however. I reckon is looks proper tough

Well. Being chronically unable to make up my mind about things, my plans for gauges have changed yet again. I've always loved the gauge setup in one of my favorite computer games, GT Legends. I'm going to do something very similar, but with a less stripped out look, as this does have to be a road car aswell. The look I'm going for. I've sorted a center speedo, will have a water temp and amp gauge either side. Right infront of the driver will be the tach and an oil press gauge. I've got a mate bidding on some porsche tacho's for me in germany, but they keep getting to expensive. MGB has been another option, but finding one cheap has proved to be difficult. I'll sort something tho. I've even gone so far as to design a circuit and start builting my own... But we'll see. This means I had to sort out the top dash rail in my mini. Being a clubman, it origianlly runs a dash-pad, these dont really look any good with center speedo's, so I'm going to run without it. This means filling the holes in the top dash rail... Unfortunatly, my top dash rail is a bit wavy, and required a bit of beating to get back into shape. I decided it would look pretty sweet covered in vinyl rather than painted, as it'll match the lower dash rail (and is WAY easier than getting it totally smoother for painting) Pics show the days progress: Holes filled. Bit of smoothing Bit of Satty-B Covered. Result looks pretty damn good really, could be completely factory, quite pleased. Ive been busy doing other stuff, but nothing really interesting. Brakes and front hubs are all done, just been to torque up the ball joint gland nuts, paint the calipers and their good to go. Should stop on a dime. Motor is current sitting in a cleaning tray i made yesterday ready for a good de-grease and paint. Will pop the head off and the cam out and send it away to get tickeled up also, to match the twin carbs and extractors.

*cough* VQ *cough* .

Yes, just plain yes. Looks fucking ACE man.

Which repco are you at bro?

It's not that late, get to it! Procrastinating about studying for exams is the BEST motivator for working on your car.

Another day, more exam procrastination, more work on the mini . I decided that the gauge shrouds weren't close enough to uniform after all, so i made a jig to ensure i got 3 pretty close to identical Worked a treat, and after lots of priming, sanding, and painting, i ended up with 3 really good looking shrouds, which i then hot-glued into the front bezel. The end result actually looks pretty awesome i reckon, could be a factory part . As a side note, once the acrylic enamel spray paint i was using had touch dried, i bunged them into the over (don't tell the mrs, and make sure you;ve got an hour or so to air the place out afterwards, as it does smell a bit...) at around 50 deg C for 40 mins (length of an episode of star-trek...) and it really hardens the paint up quick-smart. Right, with that stage of the dash complete, i decided to get the firewall sorted, so i know where i'm building from for the boxing to go around it. This entailed removing all the items screwed to it, and all the wiring: I bought this almost a year ago as it came up really cheap at work. Am i cool like Chip Foose now? . Was actually pretty easy to work with, and way thinner than i though it'd be. Hope it does the job. I've left the middle bit out as i'll cover the wiring bulkhead seperately. Then i got down and dirty with some spray contact adhesive. Cutting the carpet to the right pattern took a bit of trial and error, but as it's not backed it does stretch pretty well, so can cover up any errors . Will cut out the middle section for the wiring bulkhead. It looks a bit odd in the photo, like its not fitted properly, but thats just because it follows the shapes on the firewall. Should actually look pretty cool with the heater ducts visible and what-not. I;ve also made up some covers for the fresh air vents, as i'm going to delete them. Thats what wind down windows are for . These sections will be likewise dynamatted and covered with the same fabric. I'll have to devise some covers for the door-check stops however... Cue more drainage pipe, albeit a little smaller. All in all not a bad few hours work, most of it was just messing about cutting things to shape, but it's coming together pretty well.

Exam time again, and that means more work to be done on the mini! Have been making progress of fitting the three clock dash. Made up a font bezel from 6mm MDF, measured and cut some round-ish holes, then covered in black vinyl. Actually came out really sweet. I got some 90mm storm drain pipe and made the shrouds for the gauges. Was a real pain trying to get 3 the same length and angle just by eye, but i got pretty close eventually . Once the shrouds are painted black, with a silver ring on the front (a-la the original), they should look pretty sweet. Being a bit longer than the originals gives its a racier look i reckon, and should look cool then they're lit up at night. Just have to made some bits of MDF to box in the sides and it'll be a good-un. Have made MDF pieces for the dash-shelf aswell, as the other half said i was under no circumstances to remove the shelf, heh. Will cover them in black speaker box carpet, along with the boxing to go around the gauge cluster. Have some dynamat to do the firewall with, that will then also be covered with black carpet. Going to leave the windscreen demister pipes visible, as it is a mini afterall . As updates are useless without pics: The front bezel. Pretty happy with how that came out, considering i didn't have a 90mm hole-saw to make the holes... careful ig-sawing and sanding ensued.... The gauge shrouds. In situation. Should look a heap better when its boxed around. View from the drivers seat. I actually spent AGES figuring out where i should put the gauges in relation to the MX5 seats, nothing annoys me more than poor seating and gauge positioning. In the end the place i settled on was so damn close to the factory mini spot, i just went with that to save faffing about making a new gauge cluster mount. Sweet. Currently waiting for the primer on the shrouds to dry so i can get to painting them all pretty What colour dash-lights should i go for? Blue, as its a blue car? Red would probably look pretty cool also... Hmmmm. Or just remove the wank factor and not have them coloured at all.

Yeah, a starion flywheel will need the wider block and gearbox. I would have thought your pressure plate would fit your VR4 flywheel without any issues? As Fuel said, you'll need to have it machined and install a spigot bearing though. vr4's and evo 1/2/3's had the same diameter flywheel didn't they? Is the problem that your evo 1/2/3 clutch plate has a different spline to your l200 box, and doesn't fit? If it is, find one of the l200 clutch plates (there are a few) that has the same diameter as your current evo one, and that combination, with your evo pressure plate, should work. Could also be a change revolving around the 6/7 bolt flywheel issue, but I'm none to sure about that.

Why oh why? All you'll get is shittier starting. I can kinda see the thought pattern... If the system boosts the voltage at the coil to 12V while cranking to get a more powerful spark, why wouldn't I want that better spark all the time? Sweet, remove the ballast resistor. Oh wait, that'll overheat my coil, as its designed to run at 8sih volts... Sweet, replace it with one thats meant to run at 12V... Now you've got 12V connected to a coil thats meant to run at 12V, producing a totally normal spark... Just like you did when you had 8ish volts running to your old coil which was meant to run at 8sh volts... But you've lost the ability to temporarily make the spark more powerful when your cranking... Ballasted systems are sweet, just make sure its working properly.

Man, thats one weird car... Has to be one of the first widebody starions ever made i rekon. So cool .

Sweet score man. Add lowness and wideness, would be pretty key

http://retrorides.proboards.com/index.c ... 793&page=5 down the bottom, good guide on sharpening up your own drills into the same kind of spotweld drill.

Kept the nose of the red one for subframe mockups and whatnot, but the rest got taken away. I did use a spot drill for the un-picking, but the spring loaded centering spike was shite, so i just drilled small holes and centered it that way. Will remember your offer for next time thought Havent found any rust in the blue one... its quite amazing. A little scabby on the edge of the roof where water sits, but just needs a tidy and paint, no actual welding, score!

Damn, that's one laxed out cat!

Lub your work. Look forward to see in MPI setup on a dash motor.

Have been driving it around for the last couple of weeks, runs like a dream. After poking around here and there im inclined to believe the milegae, or lack there of... According to records it's only done 86000 k's. Certainly drives and feels like it! Have started the process of fitting all the tasty bits from my 1275 GT to it. First up is the gauges. The GT gauges are pretty awesome IMO, so will be using them, The housings fro them are less awesome however, especially mine, all cracked and broken. Going to make a custom dash, in a very similar vein to the factory one, but just a bit tighter and nicer. Tasty 3 clock dash. The flexible circuit board for the back of this has seen better days alas. I've fixed it twice now, and it works, but it's just going to crap out again. Solution! User the circuit board from the 2 clock dash, and wire in the tach seperately. This is feasable as I'm using external indicator warning lamps, so the fact they dont lne up on this circuit board isn't an issue, and i have to run some wiring for the tach anyway, as the 1100 doesnt have a power feed for it. Spliced into the factory loom, took a few feeds from the illumination circuit for the tach, auxiliary gauges, and the stereo. Also spliced into the indicator feeds for the external warning lamps. Unless you've been living in a hole, you'd know about the earthquake her ein chch. Was a a pretty freaky experience for us humans (especially in our timberframe 2 storey apartment), but the animals were even more freaked! Since then the boss (Oscar) has been spending ALOT of time in the garage with me, specifically ON me. Had another decent aftershock this evening which sent him running again, poor wee bugger. Me sorting some wiring, Oscar checking the output from the worklamp was up to snuff Used the seat frames and foam from the 1100, as it was like new, but the upholstery from my 1275GT. Came up a million bucks after a spin the the washing machine, it honestly looks brand-new! Fitted up really nice, jobs a good-un. Also fitted some retractible seatbelts, as the fixed ones were a pain. Was a mission finding 3 point retractables though! Also, Oscar supervising progress yet again Mucked around and fixed a few other wee faults this eve. Got the Hazards and Interior light works (broken in-line fuse holder, and stuffed hazard switch). Got the rear demister circuit up and running aswell. Not sure if the actual circuit on the window itself works, but will test in the coming week. Also removed some annoying extraneous wiring from the enginebay that was added at some stage, and found the coil was wired back-to-front aswell. It ran fine though? Coil got pretty hot though. Yeah. So far im absolutely loving this wee beast. I'm definately the first person to take any of it apart, and its all still nice and factory, everything where it should be an un-played with! (for now > ).