ProZac's 1980 Mini Clubman 1275GT

[ProZac]

Never really though about mini's, then i drove this one, was pretty much hooked. Girlfriends dad went to buy some parts for his mini, and came back with this car... Though it would be a good second car for me and the mrs to cruise around town in, what a good bugger. Drove it for a bit, got used to it and really started to dig it, then took it for a warrent... oh noes. I didnt expect it to pass first time off the bat, but when they told me that they wouldnt inspect underneath because the front subframe was about to fall out, i knew it couldnt be good. Cut a long story short, its got to many good bits, and is way to cool to not fix up, so thats what im doing. A plan is hatched! Basically the plan is to have it done by christmas. I've sorted a full 2 weeks off right after exams during which i'll put in some long days prepping and painting the body, and hopefull have all the mechanicals overhauled already, then bolt it all together .

After a good inspection of the shell, its poked. Rusty, dented, bent, twisted, fuxed basically. Found another shell that looks pretty solid on shaftme for cheaps, catch is that its missing the whole rear panel. Went to have a look at it and they removed it by drilling the spot welds, and slicing through the rear pillars about halfway up, so its no majour to fix up . Rest of it is pretty rust-free and straight, MUCH better starting point than the original shell. Bought the bonnet aswell, coz its also straight.

Im super busy with Uni atm, but still find time to work on small projects here and there (thus the lack of real progress on the chevanne). I've stored the mini out at GF's parents place in Cust (north canterbury for you non-locals), and as we go out there for dinner usually once a week, i'm bringing bits of it back in and fixing them up at home .

Got chatting to Chris (CUL8R) the other day and he mentioned he had a banged up mini body at his... Went to look at the rear panel, and its pretty damn straight and also rust free, score! Even the same colour! Busted out the angle grinder a few days later and roughly hacked it off... Which brings me to the first work on this project, sorting the rear panel.

Today job was to carefully un-stitch the spotwelds holding all the excess metal i'd chopped, and leave a nice useable rear panel behind.

Coupe of pics of the mini as it was bought:

Good wheels, looks tidy, but that body is really fucked.

Interior is a bit messy, but its all there, and will tidy up nicely.

looks good from the rear too, but trust me, it aint!

Shell i bought from trademe, dont have any better pics of it unfortunatly, but it'll be a good'un once i'm through with it

rear panel as i hacked it off the donor, took quite a bit of excess with it infront of the seams.

Found out that the spring loaded guide on the spotweld drill was next to useless, so i drilled a 2.5mm hole all the way through to use as a guide. Want to leave as much metal behind as possible to make welding it onto the new shell easy.

fastfoward a couple of noisey hours later, and its got one rear panel, with lots of little plugs of spotweld left on it.

Another noisey half-hour later, after grinding and cleaning up with a fibre stripping disc, and its all gravy. After a better inspection i can only find 2 dents on the whole panel, just by the passengers side light, will be easy to beat out a bit more and then will get covered with the reat of the bodywork once its welded into place .

fuck yeah. Job jobbed.

Next on the list is fixing up the front brakes/hubs. Pads and rotors are worn out, all the balljoints are shot, and the wheel bearings are notchy as... Basically its ALL fucked. Nost sure if the CV's are useable, but for the price of them i'll just put new ones in. Ive got the pistons from the calipers sitting infront of my moniter at the moment, missing alot of their chrome. The calipers themselves look sweet as, so will get some new pistons, clean, paint, and good as new.

Last weeks project, dont have any in progress pics, but they were filthy and also a bit buggered. Took them to bits, cleaned, new jets and needle/seat. Had to weld up the throttle cable linkage as it was slogged out, and make a new cable clamp bit thingee... The heatshield was also cracked, so welded that back up and smoothed off, and made the brace for the throttle springs. Not sure if it'll clear the exhaust manifold, but I can make another one easily enough if needed. The throttle spindles are also well and truly shagged, but quite expensive to replace... I'll run them as is for the immediate future, i plan on swapping to a weber/dellorto or similar in the not to distant future.

[ProZac]

Have been cleaning up bits here and there. Have put together an order from the UK for basically all the bits to rebuild front suspension.

Front hubs, after cleaning.

Front upper arms. Bearings are epically stuffed... Had to muck around for an hour or so making a tool to drift them out, as my longest punch just slipped off the side of the bearing cage.worked sweet as in the end though. Car came fitted with the Hi-Lo's, which look pretty new.

All cleaned up, primed and painted. New balljoint kits (Any car where you have to assemble your own ball joints is hardcore awesome IMO), knuckle joints, pads and brake hoses. Rest of rebuild parts (wheel bearings, upper arm bearings and seals, etc) will be coming from the UK just before new-years. Will probably re-blast (oh, yeah, sand blasting cabinet works a-treat, for those that were following that thread) the calipers and paint them red, as now its decided that the car will be red (ladies choice, after some subtle hinting... Now i just need to convince her to go with silver for strips and roof, not white).

[ProZac]

Minty minty mint calipers, new SS pistons, seals, pads, and paint. Will hopefully look less silly when they're on a red car.

My bits came from the UK. Obviously the caliper pistons above, but also all new wheel bearings, front arm rebuild kits (have the rear arm kits at work), new speedo cable, throttle spindles for the twin SU's, solid front subframe mount kit, camber adjustable lower arms, and new taillight lenses. Is kinda underwhelming when you consider that there was very little change from a grand, but will totally be worth it! Once i've bought home the bits i've got stashed for it at work, all the suspension and running gear will be brand spankers better than new. Better be bloody reliable!

Also lapped in the front balljoints, re-cleaned them, and shimmed them up correctly. Will grab some new grease nipples and that'll be another job ticked off .

[ProZac]

Exams are over, and I've finally had a couple of full days to get some stuff done. New adjustable lower front suspension arms are all sorted, as are the adjustable tie rods it came with. Got a new passengers upper arm as the one i had was rooted, is now stripped and cleaned awaiting the next batch of painting. Rear subframe mounts are all cleaned up and painted with new urethane bushes. Tower bolts cleaned and sorted with solid front subframe mount kit. Brake calipers are fully back together.

Fitted 3 out of the 4 front wheel bearings, doing the last, dilligently tapping away and it went thunk, the shell slipped straight into position, where it was just fractionally loose, and would spin. Had to lateral movement, so only a couple of thou clearance, but enough to be a problem... Got some loctite primer from work and borrow some retaining compound from Dad and now its all locking into place, wont be moving in a hurry! So thats all the front wheel bearings done. Front balljoints lapped in and greased up good to go also.

Have cleaned up one of the rear radius arms and brake componentry, and fitted new bearings there also. Will attack the other one next week. Here is a hilarious picture of whal happens to mini rear suspension arms... They eventually get completely filled with grease! I pressed the axle out, so the grease had somewhere to go, then CAREFULLY applied some aiur pressure, the results were down disgusting and hilarious... Had to go get camera for a picture and video to document the hilarity. Basically my car decided to lay a big fat stinky cable.

[ProZac]

Been pottering away on this, most of the running gear is all refurb'd and ready.

after hot-tanking, as i just didnt want to deal with cleaning the grease out the second arm. Will install bush and bearing today and give a quick spray.

The cleaned prats being stored in my study, so they dont get knocked about to much. Looks like the worlds most fun jigsaw puzzle at the moment. Everything there is either new or reconditioned, new bearings, seals, pistons, everything else. Should bo nice and reliable once all assembled.

They weren't listed in the catalogue, but i got talking to the supplier of our race rotors at work, and turns out they do have them. Got him to machine me up a set of slotted and dimpled ones, should resist fade quite nicely... However, this setup will be for sale in a couple of months, due to...

aquiring a set of metro turbo calipers and drive flanges. Money's a bit tight atm with christmas and it being drinking season, so this will wait till next year as they need new pistons and seals. All the main bits are there to do the conversion. Can also get nice rotors through work... Not overly cheap though, but totally worth it for the track time this car will be seeing. Will need a dual pipe kit and the right bolts to mount them to the mini front uprights, but its all available from the uk pretty cheaply. Score.

One thing that bugged me about the switchgear was the way the hazard, brake warning and demister switches faded, but the headlight one didnt... So they're all dismantled at the moment and have just been sanded down (oh what a fun job) ready for a coat of paint to even things up. Polished the aluminium ring that surrounds the switchgear face and repainted the face itself aswell, came up mint.

sandblasted and painted both the rear drum backing plates, as they were all rusty. Looking good now.

Havent been able to get the body itself back into town, and probably wont before the new year now. Will just focus on getting all the accessories and running gear back to as new condition for the moment. Also bought another gearbox for cheaps on trademe to have a play with, opefully will be able to make a decent one out of the two i've got. They have different case numbers, but both have the larger idler bearing, so most parts should hopefully be interchangeable. Will use the existing A+ gearbox as the base, and just replace with the best bits from both boxes. Really hope i dont have to buy to much for them, as gearbox bits can be expensive...

[ProZac]

Soooo long time no post on this. Uni keeps me pretty busy, but i have exams at the moment, so have been doing lots of procrastinating... As in work on the mini.

Decided we needed some seats with neck support, so scored some from a late model 1st gen MX5 being wrecked locally. Nice and comfy, but still small enough to fit well without any issues.

Tacked together some supports for the rear of the rails, they'll be mounted just like normal mini seats, but a little more robust, as they're a bit heavier. Wanted to use the mx5 rails as they have a nice adjusting motion.

Yeap, that'll work.

Started in on the front hinges, took some 3/4", 2mm wall square tube and notched out the end

Then sized up a bit of 3/4" round tube to fit

zipped it up

Gound it down nice and pretty, wash, rinse, repeat.

made some hinge brackets to weld to the central crossmember... They're probably a little chunky, but 3mm flat bar was what I had lying around, so it got taxed .

Should flip forward enough to allow reasonably easy access to the rear... Definately not a well as normal mini seats do, but I'll never be in the back, so its under the 'not my problem' catagory . Should be pretty strong once its fully welded together, hopefully strong enough for mr certification man. I've adjusting the seating position a little more inboard, to get you more central to the wheel and pedals. The seats are about 5mm away from the rear bucket when back as far as they'll go, which is further back than i'll ever have em. Not to bad for a days work.

[ProZac]

Soooo, things took an interesting turn... A complete almost running clubman popped up on the local auction site. I had a cheeky low bid... Then got thinking about it, and dcided to go have an actual looks. It turned out to be pretty solid, and miles better than what i was starting with... Decided i'd have real go at buying it... Which turned out to not be needed, as my cheeky low bid met the reserve and won the auction, score!

Seller said the only reason it wouldn't start was because of a siezed starter. Got it home, swapped the starter out, and it was cranking over nicely, but still wouldnt start. Checked the 3 crucial items, had comression, spark, but wasen't sure of fuel.

Pouring some fuel down the carb got it to fire up and run for a few seconds, then die. I syphoned the old gas out of the tank and lines, filled with frech stuff, and still no-go. Well, but be a dickey carb then, probably all gunked up considering it hasen't been run in a couple of years. Took the carb apart, cleaned, re-kitted, and slapped it back on. After priming, it fired right up, SCORE! Needs a tune, but seems to go okay so far. Warmed it up, popped in some engine flush and changed the oil/filter, jobs a good-un!

Whats missing in this picture then?

carb all cleaned up, was in pretty good nick, just varnished up.

back together and running

[ProZac]

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 > ).

[ProZac]

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.

[ProZac]

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.

[ProZac]

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.

[ProZac]

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

[ProZac]

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

[ProZac]

These earthquakes are getting really old.

[ProZac]

Well, life has been a bit mental in these parts of late... But its getting back to normal .

Got the garage all cleaned up and the mini righted. The Axle stands punched a couple of holes in the floor, but nothing too serious. Once the cleanup was done, and all the neighbours were sorted, i had a couple of weeks to fill up, as uni was on hold till we had another venue... Time for some mini-work!

Ive actually been pottering away pretty steadily on it, but dont usually find the time to take photos. However, I made an exception today, as I decided it was time for a thread update .

With the new holes in the floor, I decided I'd flip it over and do the underside properly. That means new underseal and a coast of paint the same as the body. This meant I had to build a spit to mount it on. Being a later body, it doesn't have a hole the entire way through, and I didn't fancy making one. I made up these mounts to the logical places, and they seem bloody solid. I can lift either end of the car on them and shake it around without any issues, so should be all good. No photo's of the spit frame, but its just a basic A frame made from 50*50*2 box section.

One part from this car I was thankful to not have to overhaul was the rear arms. I dont have the facilities to line-bore them, so if i could avoid that job, all the better. Luckily the ones from this clubman were in A+ condition, as its done such low K's. Did take a whole day to clean the underseal off them, but they look bloody good now with a new coast of paint.

The metro calipers are all rebuilt, back together and ready for paint. I ended up making a tool to install the seals properly, as I kept bending them trying to do it with a pin punch.

I've been a regular at my Dad's work infront of the sand-blaster. This is the lasest box of bits from the other night effort. Should be about the last bits I have to do. Once the body is on the spit and mobile, I'll roll it outside for a day and spray these all with POR15. I've been bloody impressed by that paint...

I've used it on my subframe. I had this blasted (to big to fit in cabinet), than sprayed it just before the earthquake... Bloody hell this paint is good. It had the contents of my garage fall on it, got burried in mud, and there isn't a scratch on it. Bloody awesome. Wish it was UV stable and I'd use it everywhere, hah. Note to anyone else wanting to use this stuff though, dont apply it to new clean metal, it wont stick. It needs really rough surface (blasted is perfect) to key into, and if it has a little bit of surface rust, even better. I sprayed it without thinning through my shitty gravity feed gun, and it came out okay. A bit thick, but easy to manage.

I bent the frant brake pipe by hand around some scaffold tube, came out really nice, should do the trick.

Ive decided to go with the center clocks. Got hold of one in KMPH, and gave it a once over... Which turned into a complete dissassembly, blasting and painting all the housings, and replacing all the bulbs and holders, hah! Atleast I know it's done now I suppose. I painted the inside of the main housing white and baked it in the over to really harden it up, came out really nicely, and should disperse the light properly for the back-lighting. I scraped all the old sealant out from the main ring, cleaned up up and painted it black to match my other gauges. Re-sealed the glass back in with urethane adhesive sealant... It sure isnt budging now! Looks really tough with the black surround aswell . Ive bought a 100mm VDO tach, and have an oil pressure gauge that will be mounted infront of the driver. I also have an idead for some warning lights infront of the driver, but it need some more thought at the moment... Will draw some stuff up tonight and see if it'll work.

Popped in my wheel bearings, and shimmed up the balljoints yesterday. Don;t know why I put that job off for so long.. was actually pretty easy. Lapped the pins in first aswell ofcourse. How many thickness' of shims do you usually get in a ball joint kit? I could only detect two different thickness'... And there were a boat load of them, I've got heaps left over for next lot I have to do. These hubs are brand new, a fellow i met had bought them from minispares, but they arrived with damage to the threads, so i picked them up really cheap. Fixed them up with a thread file, and they're good as new... becuse they are.. heh .

Gave the calipers a lick of paint and popped them on, along with the GreenStuff pads. Should be up to the job of stopped the wee beast . Had to hunt for ages to find the ERA bolts i bought for mounting these ages ago... Found them in the end though.

Found another rear bias valve and pillaged it's piston. Modified the housing so it's now adjustable. Bonus of this is now I have two pressure springs. I've cut down one of them (the oe installed here) which will, in theory, give me more range of adjustment for the rear bias. Time will tell I suppose. If its a no-go, i can always put it back to stock.

I went a bit mad on Mini-spares, put a pretty big order through, but it should be almost everything i need to finish it off. This is one of my favorite purchases, a 2.2 turn lock to lock quick rack. Will really be like a go-kart to drive now!

This is my mini-wardrobe.... Chocka full of either new, or reconditioned parts... Now I just need some more time!

Cheers reading my dribble, or if you just flicked though the pictures, cheers for looking .

[ProZac]

Stupid Uni... In my second to last year of engineering, and the workload is really piled on, so no time to even think about touching the mini .

Last major thing I did was get it up on the rotisserie, its all spin-able now.

I have managed to sneak a few hour in here and there though. Girlfriend was out the other night so I made use of the coffee table to assemble my carbs. Every single part of these is either brand new, or reconditioned. I media blasted every bit of the linkages (including the springs!) and had them all zinc plated again. A mate of mine worked for Air New Zealand, and got all the alloy carb bodies and my manifold bead blasted for me, good bugger! Everything came out looking bloody fantastic really, super happy with the results. Although it looks like they are, none of these bits are painted, just really really clean.

Getting my shit setup, its nice to work in the warmth with an episode of firefly playing.

How did all this go back together?

results of the bead blasting. I had some extra bits done so I could take my pick of dashpot housings, to get the best match for the pair.

Starting to remember how it all goes...

Oh yeah, thats right... Got some new filters from MiniSpares... Quality seems pretty average, but they'll do the job.

How all the linkages turned out... It all moves nice and freely. I've made a preliminary attempt at setting it all up, but will balance it properly when its on the car and time for tuning.

Today I found a couple of spare hours and tackled two jobs I'd been looking forward to for a while.

A guy started advertising electronic ignition kits on the local auction site, less than half the price of the pertronix ones that have been for sale for ages. I've seen these new ones around on forums and heard good things, so for $100 I thought "why not?". Installation literally took about a minute. Cleaning the distributor took considerably longer, looks good now though! Treated it to a new cap and rotor also.

Next on my list of jobs was some gauge cluster modification. This is basically a how-to on making your factory mini speedo way more complicated than it needs to be.

Ive tried to get the factory mini speedo to look a bit smoother and sleeker. First on the list of things to do was a really good clean! I took the main housing and the light shroud to the blaster and cleaned them up, then painted in their various needed colours. I painted the main bezel semi-gloss black, as the rest of my gauges have black bezels, so it would look a bit out of place being chrome. Once I'd done this, it looks a bit funny having the coloured jewel lights in place... I gots to thinking and playing with an old scrap gauge, and figured that 5mm LED's would be an easy fit. I opted for water clear lenses, to add to the smoother overall feel. When i was purchasing the various colours i needed, I found some tri-colour LED's on clearance. "Awesome!" I thought! five of those, and that way I can chop and change their colours if I'm not happy. This is sort of a future-proofing thing, as I'll be installing a japper motor in this thing a few years down the track, so I;m bound to be changing some of the warning lights.

Start with your tri-colour LED, do a little math to figure out what value resistor you need. Find the closest you can (470 Ohm in this case), and go to it. Each channel needs its own resistor. These are common anode LED's, so there is one positive, and depending on which earth's you hook up, different elements within the lense will illuminate. Theoretically you can create any colour with these, but because they're a water clear lense, the light doesn't diffuse nicely and you can see the individual elements in the lense with more than one lit.

Heatshrink each wire separately

Then heatshrink them all together

I got the new traditional style bulb holder from work for a few cents each. I took the spring loaded contact out of each, opened out the hole in the bottom, and inserted my LED, with a little hot-glue to hold it in place. I did this while fitting to the gauge so the LED height sticking through the gauge face was correct.

repeat x5

Voila! The top will be the alarm indicator, two sides will be directional indicators, and high beam / ignition for the other two.

Looks nice and tidy with none of them lit also.

Have ordered some braided looming to tidy up the wiring. Have some plugs also to be fitted.

All in all, jobs a good-un!

[ProZac]

Took another couple of hours break from study to have a wee play. Got some bits i'd media blasted a few months back painted. Sprayed them with the same POR15 i used on the front subframe. Didn't go quite aswell this time, owing to the paint being a bit past it's used by date really, was quite thick, and I didnt have enough of the thinners it requires to really get it right. Went ahead anyway and got some coverage on though, turned out okay, not fantastic, but she'll be right

First step was to get totally wired... Er, that is, hang all my bits and bobs from bits of wire, from the piece of pipe that will someday be my front subframe... About now is the time I start hoping for no earthquakes. A couple of bumper mounts swinging in the wind for DJZ's mean 280 there aswell.

Gave it all a good blast, got overspray EVERYWHERE, but not on anything that matters (that I've found yet) . Any little bits i missed I went back over after it had all dried with an airbrush... way easier to clean up that way.

Results of spraying the pedalbox, after reassembly. Can anyone confirm I've got the spring in the right place? seemed like the only way it could go round.

It turned out pretty well, and this paint is HARD, like really bloody hard. Should take the knocks from footwell duties quite nicely. I want to get some nicer pedals however to replace the rubbers. nothing too racey, but some sort of alloy option would be nice. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Sprayed my demister vents aswell. These had to look pretty nice because they'll be visible all the time. Turned out okay. I also found if i swapped the side they came out of around I could get them a little closer to the firewall. The air pipes will run inboard of the humps in the firewall now, should hopefully be a little tidier.

I chucked a couple of these air vent trims in with my last minispares order... I'm not totally sold on them. Might etch them and paint them semi gloss black and see how they look then.

Popped the steering column back together also now it has been painted. The upper nylon and lower felt bushes were in top condition so they've been lubricated and re used. I took the switchgear apart to its component, errr, components... every last piece. Ive found that most mini's Ive driven don't auto cancel the indicators, and the highbeam flasher doesn't work anymore. I reshaped the contacts on this set so it all works like it should, gave it a good clean and regrease, all works properly good now.

Then I tackled the shroud. The inboard side was top notch, didnt need anything bar a coat of satty-b. The drivers side was a bit cack around the screw holes however. I mixed up some epoxy glue and reinforced these areas as much as I could. Will just have to be careful with it when i screw them on. I also modified the part where the ignition key sticks out, as the plastic bush that goes around the end of my ignition barrel was stuffed. The hole here is now the right size for the ignition barrel to poke through nicely, without the bush on the end of it.

Im really looking forward to next week, after thursday. Thats my last mid term exam, and after that its three weeks off with minimal assignments, woohoo! time to get some real work done on the mini, as opposed to all these little jobs!

[ProZac]

Oh, and my braided cable sleeving from Vehicle Wiring Products came in, this stuff is so cool! Makes super neat and tidy looking looms. Going to do the entire car like this.

[ProZac]

Had a quick play with the switch panel tonight. Changing to these push button switches,they have a ring around them that lights up. Will make a new mounting plate for them, and a mask that goes over the front for the text. Should be able to have it back-lit aswell which would be cool.

[ProZac]

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU earthquakes. Let the cleanup begin yet again. Apparently rotisseries are the win for earthquake protecting your mini.

This shit stinks, like actual shit .

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