ProZac's 1980 Mini Clubman 1275GT

[ProZac]

Right, time for an update methinks.

First things first, clean up that garage!

Only one mini part casuality due to earthquakes, and it was a part im replacing anyway...

I finally decided on a design for the switch panel. I used some cad software to finalise the design, and whist doing that I made a construction guidline also. This was then printed it onto overhead projector screen, makes getting the holes in the right place much easier without heaps of measurement. I'm making the actual switch panel itself out of 3mm clear arcyrlic, as its what I happened to have sitting under the bench. You can use a sharp scribe to poke through the construction guide leaving a mark where the holes need to be.

Once that was done I printed a reversed copy of the panel design onto an OHP sheet, and a normal orientation copy onto some plain paper. This is just a test, I'll get them professionally printed sometime in the next week. The aim is to spray the inner faces of these with adhesive, and then get them perfectly lined up and stuck together. The side of the OHP sheet with ink goes inwards, being glued to the paper. This means the printing cannot get scratched off. Will be sure to get multiple copies on each printed sheet, as I'm bound to mess it up a couple of times! I've made some gauges faces like this before, and it works pretty well.

Final result should look something like this, but with 5 switches and some nice stainless button-cap head screws. I've also devised a plan to have the writing back-lit when the head lights are on, but havent started building it yet, as I'm not sure it will be worth the time. The current plan is to build a wee circuit that will provide a PWM signal to the LED rings in the switches when the headlights are on, so the rings are visible, but not bright. The ring would then be given full power when the relevant device was activated (either by pressing the switch, or otherwise). Can't decide whether to do it with a couple of 555 timers, or go fancy and use a microprocessor... Hey that electrical engineering degree im studying towards better come in handy somewhere, right?

This took up a couple of eveninigs, but during the days I've been tackling the underside. My mini was undersealed from the factory, and this stuff is THICK! I wanted to remove it so I could straighten out the floor and replace it with newer technology stuff. I really want to keep this car for a while, so I'd like for it to not rust away on me. Initially I was going at it with a hammer and chisel. This method worked, but was very labour (and fingertip) intensive. I tried a cup-brush on an angle grind for about three seconds and it made such a mess it was clearly not the answer. Since then I've been weilding an air powered chisel with great results. I turned the air pressure down to around 40psi to keep things a litte more gentle, and it does the job pretty well. Still have to be careful not to cause any damage however.

All in all its look quite good under there. Only one minorly scabby seam in the drivers footwell that will need attention, and some usual scrapes and dents to knock out.

[ProZac]

First day of the mid-semester break from uni today.... It was so nice and sunny out I decided to do some stuff on my mini rather than head into uni to work on projects. I've been popping out for an hour or two whan I can to continue cleaning off the under side, man it takes ages! its 90% done now though. The only two areas I wont worry about are the back side of the rear valence, and in behind the front of the guards by the headlights, as I just cant get to them.

Phew, that took ages! Will pop into the spray paint store and grab some seam sealer and some decent stone chip that I can paint over in the next couple of days. This got me thinking, I'm actually pretty close to getting it back on it's wheels! That ofcourse means I need to get the rear brakes back together, and the rear subframe painted.

Looking good. The shoes looked pretty much brand new, so they've been re-used, but I did pop new cylinders in. Even managed to get the circlips on without scratching the paint off the backing plate! (mostly ).

I had the rear frame blasted, and asked them not to paint it afterwards, but the message must have been lost, as they gave it a coat of epoxy primer. I suppose it can't hurt, but the black paint I'm using is really only meant to go on bare metal. Still, I mixed some up and gave it a coat...

I'm getting a bit better and faster at this now, for this coat I thinned the paint a bit more than I have before, and the results were even better! Really good coverage and no runs. Will turn it over and do the other side once it's cured overnight.

I just got a pretty decent tax return, so that'll hopefully pay for all the seam sealer and stone chip to do the underside. I've popped out most of the dents under there, and there are a couple of tears I need to weld up from when it fell over in the feburary earthquake, but all in all its looking pretty good .

Cheers for looking! Hopefully next update will show a nicely sealed, stone chiped and body-colour painted underside

[ProZac]

Got sick of studying math for the day, so i made up the fuel pipe. I tried this the other night, thought i might be able to bend the tube around a it of pipe if i was careful, but it was a no go, so i bought a proper bender during the week, made the job much tidier . Went halves in a full length of the tube with bubblegoose many many moons ago, I wonder if he's made use of his bit of it yet, hah .

If your ever doing this, bend up a couple of scrap pieces to various angles, and mark how they fitted in your bender. This way you can mock up with the sample bends, and transfer the marks onto your main tube, so you know where the bend will end up.

I need to have a look at a few pictures of mini's with twin carbs to see where i want the front bit to end up, but, i might just chop it off there and flare it.

I've also been pottering away at my switch panel in spare moments. Has been a fun project really. Currently the led rings around the buttons light up dim when the dash lights are on, and bright when the relevant button is actually pushed.

If the ignition 'on' circuit is active, but the car isn't started (alternator isn't charging) the start button pulses at you... saying "Go on, push me, I fucking dare you", hah. The software is almost finished, next job is to transfer the components onto strip board, or get a pcb made if its cheap enough, or maybe have a go at etching one myself.

Is a shitty cellphone video of the pulsing.

For anyone thats interested I used an ATTINY2313 (had it lying around) and coded up a software PWM routine, as I needed more PWM outputs than the uC has. Have just used Zener diodes to drop the 12V signals to 5V for the inputs. Seems to work pretty well.

Exams are over on the 8th, then Ive got the rest of that week off before heading back to NZEFI for work experience until the christmas break. My partner and I are sticking around in ChCh this year, so I hope to get some good work done during these periods .

[ProZac]

Kinda of a lame update, but an update none the less. Have done a bit more on this, finished up the fuel line and welded the nuts to the inside of the body for the p-clips which secure it. Bent up the brake line to the rear via a mirrored route on the other side of the exhaust tunnel, looks pretty cool, is also mounted with p-clips. Have thrown the shifter, steering rack and handbrake mechanism in place so I can build most of the exhaust. Ideally I want to have every mount on the underside of the car sorted so i can just give it a final clean, then seam seal, under-seal and paint.

Yay, more pics of it on it's side!

Throughts and opinions on some seam welding action? These bodies flex quite a bit, and I dont want to go to the extent of fitting a cage at this stage, but I'd like to stiffen it up a little.

[ProZac]

In other news, I replaced the radiator and carb on my other mini, welded up the exhaust and it flew straight through a warrent, with complements as to how tidy and nice it is to drive even! Its been my daily for the last couple of months (an interesting experience in Christchurch with our roads the way they are, as its kinda low) and is going strong.

[ProZac]

Another daturday, so off to the garage I go .

Started with these bits:

Figured out where I wanted them to go, and strung them up:

Tacked a piece of pipe inbetween them, the pipe slides inside the muffler inlets, and was a slightly too loose of a fit, made keeping everything straight a bit of a challenge, came out pretty well though.

Need a wee kink to go around the shifter. I figured out what space i had to work with and marked it on some paper. Also marked on the paper was where the inlet and outlet to the workable space had to be. Tracing around the bends I had, and joining up some lines shows what needed to be cut, and where.

I tried cutting the first one with a hacksaw, but my skills werent up to the task of getting it straight in both dimemsions. I went to see DJZ and borrowed his exhaust cutter, made the job much easier. He mentioned a trick of putting a hose clamp around the exhaust tubing to give a nice straight line to scribe around, to ensure a nice straight cut, genius! I didnt have any clamps the right size knocking around, so I used a wide cable tie instead, worked like a charm.

Tacked the straight bit in the middle, and tacked it to the rest of the system, everything fits nicely, and can be tucked up as high as poss

ible without fouling on the handbrake mechanisim. Also put a flexi-join on the end, to help with engine/exhaust movement issues. Its not really in the right place, but should do its job.

Next job is to make the mounts. Im having a center exit exhaust, will make up a twin tip end, so I can use the two convenient holes in the rear subframe for the rearmost mount. Coming forward, the usual mount by the t-piece for the rear brakes can also still be used. Coming forward again, I'll have to make a mount up by the flexi... I'm thinking a couple of cotton-reel mounts, with captive nuts inside the vehicle.

I also need to put a flange on the front end. I'd really like to use a v-band style, but it would seem that 45mm ones are pretty expensive to buy. Will find something somewhere I suppose, It's a really common size for wastegates and what-not.

[ProZac]

Found a couple of hours this evening to continue work on the exhaust. Made up the tailpipe, and finished off the mounts. Y-piece for the tailpipe is a bit rough, but nothing a little grinding and paint wont fix.

DJZ gave me a spare 44mm v-band flange from a tial wastegate, fits perfectly and should make exhaust fitting/removal much easier aswell as sealing up properly.

when the car is orientated correctly, the tailpipe is guaranteed to be in the center of the car. There are a couple of holes at the back of the subframe I'm using to mount it, and as they're central, so will the tip be

other mount is at the front of the rear subframe. That was kind of a pain to make it is definately not central with the body.

Mostly welded up. Once its back on its wheels I'll have to dummy fit the engine so i can tweak the extractors to make sure it all fits nice.

Haven't really made to much progress, have been doing a heap of work on other peoples cars, and trying to fix up my back yard a bit. Back to work next week, but I;ve got another couple of days yet!