Mini City :d

so here is my mini have i owned for two years come december!
His name is frankie (was named by old owners) and he is a little mini city.
This is the look of him when i bought him

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When we bought him he had a nasty pink, blue and black interior... (yes in a red car )

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After a while the drivers seat happened to break so i asked as a birthday present for some Corbeau buckets i liked


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Then i bought some harnesses, ooh the race car look

After some time i started to get more confident with changing bits and bobs...

Especially after spending three hours making the subframes fit on the chairs properly

So i decided to fit some angel eyes... which just before i fitted, the sealed beam packed up perfect timing again

i kinda drove it illegal for a while as i had 'Devil eyes' instead of angel ones hehe

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I also put some clear rear lenses on which im sure you dont need a picture of!

and after that i decided those doorcards had to go!

So i decided rather than paying out the high cost of doorcards today i decided to DIY it and make some nice ones up using some leatherette from a local material shop!

After a couple of hours per side, i managed to produce a good finished product which set off the brushed alloy handles rather nicely

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So i done it for the back cards as well

Which were a lot more of a pain in the ar*e as they are curved around the rear wheel arch but i got them done as well...

Next thing was the clear front indicators and side repeaters to match the rear light

Then soon after the old RC 40 which was fitted on the car started to blow really badly, due to a hole in the back box around the size of a 5p. and a nice crack near the tail pipe.

So at southern mini days last year i picked up a twin exit supersport exhaust, and link pipe, i already had a spare LCB to use

after getting the brackets on the rear subby (a lot of trouble for what its worth)

I noticed that the rear subframe was knackered it was covered in rust and the rear floor was looking sorry for itself in all..

Which called for the car to be taken to friend of a friend, for it all to be replaced with a subframe i picked up for £70 and new inner and outer sills to be put on down the front...

After this great effort those exhausts are on there all snug!

And i picked up some nice smoked rear lights, and an aston cap, which i have on the car now!

Looks like a nice project you got going there - what's your plans for the future of it then?

soo here are the zorst's on the new subframe nice and shiny!!
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And here is the Aston cap and the smoked lights

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well at the moment the 1293cc bored out metro that was in there is out for a rebuild and i am putting in a 1275metro in the mean time... Looking to get a nice set of arches (not sure which ones yet) and some 13x7 alleycats, removing the union jack on the roof and changing the bonnet and boots over for some smoothie ones

Also looking at takin out the rear seats, and i am also making a dash up at the moment for it

So quite a bit... i also have a couple of patches of rust i need to sort out and the a panels!

And just today i have been doing some painting on the engine bits and brackets

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i didnt think the blue was going to be that light
but will be nice and bright in my engine bay!

Okay i havent posted on here in ages...

A lot has changed since the last post!

I have the new engine in my car and the old one has been sold with a second gearbox and some other bits and bobs!

I have replaced a lot of parts on the car whilst it has been off the road, as i thought i am not going to be driving it for a while so why not!

So far...

Engine...
Replaced engine with another metro 1275cc lump
Decoked the cylinder head and re lapped in the valves and replaced valve stem oil seals...
Replaced all gaskets and seals on the rest of the block and gearbox
Gave the carb and manifold a clean and service
Repainted the engine in matt black
Replaced engine steady bushes with poly bushes
Repainted all engine mounting brackets
New Sachs clutch and replaced all clutch parts in bell housing
Seals on clutch master and slave cylinder replaced
New braided clutch hose.
New distributor and points etc
Old plugs and leads used (as they were only on the car for 3 weeks before it was taken off the road)
Flushed all radiator Carp out and repainted rad
New oil filter
New thermostat


Braking/steering
Replaced Inner Cv's and rebooted and greased outer CV's
I have new track rod ends to fit
I also have new subframe to caliper brake hoses to fit
I need to fit new ball joints (but my sister owes me these as i used mine on her car)
Also have replaced seals and serviced the servo
And have ordered new servo to slave cylinder braided hoses
New brake reservoir cap (with sender for lack of fluid)
I think i need a new brake pedal return spring as my brake lights flicker and come on when they arent being touched

Bodywork
New Rear subframe all undersealed
New sills on both sides
And welding done on floor and boot
Front subframe undersealed
boot floor undersealed
New front wheel arches (yet to fit as one of mine is missing and the other is cracked!)
Firewall cleaned of any surface rust and repainted red
New locks and handles for doors
New boot lock as my one was held together by a jubilee clip... no wonder it wouldnt open!

Interior
Rear rollcage fitted (bolt in)
Dial fascia's changed to white (can i put red bulbs on these?)
Carpet all ripped out (due to a leaky seal)
Need to replace the clevis pin in clutch pedal system (one ordered)
Gloss black minispares dash with VDO anologue clock to go in (buying off GF)
New red gearknob

I also need a battery and could do with new wipers as my sister has had both of these as well for her mini!

Im sure there are other bits i have changed but have forgotten about!

The engine swap hasnt come without its complications as i am told they always do!

We got through most of the swap with no problems (my dad and i)

However we went to set up the static timing the other day and we noticed that when we put it into third gear to rock the car back and forwards the engine pulley wasnt moving (OH PANIC)

But it turned out the bolts we used for the clutch slave cylinder were a little bit too long and were stuck in the teeth of the flywheel!


But now we have replaced these and i have set up the static timing... Now all thats needed to be done is the clutch needs to be bled (once i replace that clevis pin)
The brakes need to bled (once i get on the new pipes)
The rest of the cooling system needs to go in (rad, water pump a few more hoses)
Then we just need to replace those ball joints
And put the chairs back in the car and a few last little bits then its ready to go!
Oh and i best put the back box on the zorst again otherwise it will just be the link pipe! haha that wouldnt go down too well!
Plus i need to get some petrol in the tank!

I will have to take some pictures to show the progress as it just looks like a list of stuff on here atm!

my last post was at the beginning of this year i havent been on here for ages.

I work at a mini restoration centre now, and i have been rebuilding my car fully from the shell up.

This means i have had to strip it right down to be able to get out all of the rust and rebuild.

The sills and the floor were already done by my boss at the restoration centre.


Here are some pics of when i stripped the car down.

Front


Back



Some of the worse bits are pointed out here...

A bad bit of rust on the roof after we removed most of the loose parts and cleaned it up.



This looks worse than what it is and my boss has repaired a similar hole to this before so he knows what to do.


There were holes on the door steps, that someone previously used a step strip to cover up, one side had been patched and the other was like this...




We cut away the whole front end including the front panels.



We done this becuase we found someone had done a tempory repair on the front wings using fiberglass, i was going to keep one wing, but i have decided to replace it since and will be cutting it off soon.


After we had cut away the wings we noticed the front suspension was sitting on the bump stops. i had always wondered why it was quite low.




This meant i was going to have to replace at least the cones. However i decided to go one step further...

And get high and lows, with spax adjustable dampers and 1.5 degree negative camber bottom arms and adjustable tie rods, and obviously new cones.

I also got a top arm rebuild kit and a solid mount kit for the front subframe.

I havent fitted the bottom arms and the new tie rods yet as when we fit the new wings and front panels we will be undersealing them so we will replace them after so they dont get ruined.


Here is a picture of the front subframe all painted, note i have also replaced the front brake hose that runs around the subframe. It has all the new cones and the old top arms rebuilt.





And here is it fitted to the car with the solid mounts.




We have now blacked the engine bay, my boss done this to his car and i liked the look of it and it tidied it up a lot so i decided to do it to my car.




We fitted the Mk1 bonnet to the car i am going to fit just to see how well it fitted.




The next step is to repaint my engine in red again and re fit the brake servo etc in the engine bay.

I am rebuilding a set of metro 4 pot calipers at the moment as well which i got from a local scrap yard for £15 the pair with brand new pads and pistons!

I have a set of 7x13 alleycats



Yokohama A048 tyres which will sit under a set of miglia arches.




Once i fit these i can then cut the front wings and adjust the suspension to suit then take it to be aligned correctly using laser alignment.

I have an upgrade kit for the rear brakes, along with a new rear subframe fitting kit. As there is a patch in the boot floor that needs to be done, to do this we will have to remove the rear subframe which is a new subframe anyway but i will have a chance to also replace the rear suspension and also fit the negative camber brackets.

I have also purchased new headlining as my old one was ripped, along with a complete seal kit for the whole car.

I still need to buy...

Black bumpers front and rear
Black jaguar style wing mirrors
A mk1 grille and moustache
A new front screen
A new carpet set
Metro 4 pot Caliper mini drive flange
Metro vented disks
4 pot pad retaining kit
Front indicators and side repeaters

And probably a couple of other things which i cant think of right now.

Looks like a nice project, well done.

i have also been working on an old 12g940 big valve cylinder head which i gave to friend who skimmed it for me and done all the other work on it the only thing that is left to do is to re port the back out so its bigger like the cylinder head i have on there at the moment.




Here you can see just how big the valves really are in this cylinder head.

Looks like a nice project, well done.

Thanks jack