Popular Post Sc@ Chi Posted October 17, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted October 17, 2020 Right, enough lurking; here's my project thread. Finally. Here's the discussion thread for my build. So I bought this on TM from someone in the Hawkes Bay. It was originally mustard/baby poo brown but the PO had painted it yellow. So its always been known to us as The Banana Car, but it won't be yellow once I've finished with it. This is what it looked like in its prime: Later, I dropped in the obligatory 1275 from a Metro I bought just for the engine, and vented disks and quite neat grey leather seats from the same car. It's got a set of Phil Deane's extractors, a 2" exhaust and HIF44 carb. Plus a Smootharide suspension kit with adjustable everything. Certed. The arches are quite wide (wider than the ones in the pic above) as the wheels and disk combination means they stick out quite a bit and the steering is consequently quite heavy at low speeds. It was originally for my wife to use for running around doing deliveries etc for her cafe, but was taken off the road four years ago (to my eternal shame) for rust repairs. I'd previously painted it in acrylic lacquer but the paint's nowhere near durable enough, so I'm going to get it professionally painted this time. This photo's about eight years old and illustrates the adage "You know when you're a mini owner when people ask how many cars you have and the answer includes fractions". The shell of EF7688 is in a garage down the road, live plates, so I may see if anyone here wants it for free. I had a garage but that became the front room again, so I recently extended the Clearlite roofing to form a big carport where I can work out of the weather. Not much but probably will work out okay. I'd stripped most of it a couple of years ago, but set to today and removed the doors and windows. There's a bit of rust. I know I'm up for new floors and sills all round, and remedial work on the corners and arches. That doesn't bother me much. I'm a reasonable welder and have plenty of gear (wondering if I need a stretcher and shrinker... hmm, maybe a Christmas present to myself). I need to order some steel. I'll start by bracing the shell and working on the areas where I can start off reasonably slowly. If that goes well, I'll order the floors and sills, then get it sandblasted to see if there's anything else that needs patched. Then professional paint and reinstall everything. It's only a two seater (seats don't fold forward), so I'd like to do something in the back to get some strength into the shell, possibly a half height 'wall' behind the seats to tie the door frames together across the shell. The Estate and van shells can't be anywhere near as rigid/safe (!) as a saloon. One improvement I'm going to make is ditching the horrible metal & fabric channels the rear side windows slide in. They're the same as Land Rover ones and just the worst idea. They get wet, moss grows, the windows don't slide and they leave rust dribbles down the side of the car. I may 3D print something and seal it to prevent water ingress. Anyway, I hope to make reasonable progress over summer, although I've also just committed to getting a tandem axle box trailer roadworthy again for the scout group of which I'm a leader, so gonna be busy. 25 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Sc@ Chi Posted January 22, 2023 Author Popular Post Share Posted January 22, 2023 Crikey, 2 1/2 years between posts In my defence, there's been other stuff happening, but the main reason for the delay is my rotisserie was down the road (with a Mk II shell on it) in a neighbour's garage. In between me shifting it in there and now, she built a garden in front of the garage... So today I finally got my shit together and my son helped me get it out. I had to build a bridge out of pipe (the old gates from the Karori Sanctuary!) to slide it across her garden to the trailer. Anyway, got the rotisserie and the old shell into the driveway, and the Clubman shell onto the rotisserie. You'll note that I 'had' to cut the slam panel. Turns out Clubmen (Clubmans?) don't fit like round noses. First job is to brace the shell. Then the plan is to start on some easy to get to repairs, work my way around various bits, then if the planets align (i.e. I think it's justified continuing), ordering floors and sills. There is a bit of rust: When I rotated the shell, heaps of rust fell out, and: When did ring pulls like this stop being made? Sometime between '77 and now obviously. Anyway, there it is. The Mk II is listed on TradeMe for $200 to prove to wifey that it's not a money pit. Actually, she want me to build up the Mk II, but I said it's at least $20k to do that. 13 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sc@ Chi Posted January 22, 2023 Author Share Posted January 22, 2023 Link to discussion thread: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.