55 replies to this topic

[browno]

Time for another update - firstly a little aside. Having bought the mini to tidy up before beginning driving at 17, I felt just how long it has taken last week - as it was a big birthday for me - and as we had a little birthday bash, my mum had commissioned a cake for me - featuring the mini, which was very impressive - apparently she had been very worried about it and it had been made to match a series of photos of the car! As you can imagine, I was very touched by the whole thing - and I might even be able to finally legally drive the car this week - just a mere 23 years late!

 

 

 

Of course, I just had to compare it to the real thing! A very impressive present - and very tasty it was too!

 

Birthday aside, I have made a little more progress this week - having spent a few evenings in the garage - the first set of jobs was to check over the whole car looking for any obvious defects that might cause an MOT fail - and all looked good (famous last words - although I do know that we will need to tweak timing and mixture and set headlight aim)...

 

Next was to sort a few minor jobs, like sort out the bonnet stay, which was sorted after grabbing the retaining clip from my kit-donor MX-5 to make sure all was secure. 

 

Then finally, I decided that I could make it look better, and so had a go at giving it a machine polish (as I have a DA polisher and all the bits that has had very little use!) - I trod very carefully, not wanting to go too far, so haven't perfected everything, but have brought a lot of life into the paint, and removed many of the minor blemishes that have been introduced as the paint has been caught during the build. There is still an area on the bootlid that needs some serious work (possibly a wet-sand), but I am happy for now that after a couple of passes with the polisher then a coat of sealant and one of wax that it is looking half decent!

 

 

With all of this, I was still unsure of what I was actually going to do with the car - having spent so long on it, one thought was that as long as it is MOTd, it is finished - so it can then sit in the garage, as the cost of taxing, insuring it etc would be high relative to any use. One reason for that is that I had got some quotes (not too long ago) for classic policies which were heavily loaded due to the cage - coming in at £3-400. However, I rang around for cover, and have managed to get a 2000 mile classic policy with all mods declared for £120... which I couldn't argue at!

 

So, as a result, all is set and waiting for the big MOT day to come - I am going to be heading for MOT in the morning, so will update tomorrow with news of my first drive, and whether it has been a success! Fingers crossed!

[Rocket.]

Cake looks awesome! I want one!

Good luck with the MOT

[browno]

So, here I am again! Got up and going this morning to get sorted for the MOT - and my first drive of the mini! So, I set off from home and drove down to get some fuel first of all, with my brother following me just in case! So, first impressions are that, it didn't have a lot of desire to really start or stop very much - the former I think being down to setup, the latter possibly being me driving modern servoed cars most of the time... anyway, we got to the petrol station in one piece and fuelled up!



As I was getting the fuel, a guy who was filling up a lovely XKR complemented me on the car - which was also a good start! So then it was on to my mate's garage where I could drive straight onto the ramp for MOT. Things started well, with everything underneath being ok, and even the headlights were perfectly aimed, which was a surprise! Then things went a little downhill!




The next job was to double check the timing, idle and mixture before finishing the test. The timing was relatively straightforward and easily set. However we then started looking at the fuelling - firstly the idle speed was being quite erratic - sometimes 1200 rpm, then falling to 600. Having got the idle sort of stable we then stuck a probe in to try and get the mixture set - it was quite clear from the smell that it was rich - the problem was that even winding the mixture screw right in was making virtually no difference - and we were sitting very high on both HCs and CO. Having tried, we left it in a position where it would run ok and decided I should swap the carb over for the original HIF38 rather than the current HIF44 to then try again.

So finally it was brake test time - the fronts looked ok, the rears looked a bit on the weak side on the footbrake, and then the handbrake was non-existent on the nearside with slightly more (but still not much)on the offside.



So we have a fail and it is therefore still not quite finished, but at least another step closer to being done! For now it is back in the garage and I will get cracking on swapping the carb and sorting the brakes...

[minimans]

If you were Screwing the mixture screw in you were making it richer not weaker? I always think turn Right to Richen.

[browno]

If you were Screwing the mixture screw in you were making it richer not weaker? I always think turn Right to Richen.

I think you are right on the money there - we had both clearly had a daft moment - as I have since screwed out the screw and it seems to have reduced the unburnt petrol smell significantly - so hopefully we can get that sorted easily enough now!

I have also been busy tonight trying to sort the handbrake - having stripped and rebuilt both drums again (nothing really found - but a little air removed when we gave it another bleed). We still had virtually no handbrake one side, even with the cable adjusted right up. I bought a new cable thinking that has stretched, but in replacing it we found the cause - one of the handbrake quadrants had been fitted upside down - which evidently wasn't giving enough pull at the drum. With that turned over and the new cable fitted and adjusted I now have a working handbrake- so hopefully we will be ready for retest on Saturday now that my mechanic is back from holiday! Fingers crossed again!

Edited by browno, 13 March 2017 - 10:58 PM.

[declfc]

Great build, where did you get the Piano Black dash from?

[browno]

Time for a big update - my mate is now back from his holiday and after a bit more tweaking, I have an MOT! A bit of tweaking was needed to get the emissions at a good level, but that's all done (and it is running much better now!), and the n/s rear brake needed a tweak on the adjuster but all was ok.

now to get some miles put on it and then get it properly set up on the dyno...

We did have one problem while it was running in the workshop - head seems to be building up around the LCB causing fuel evaporation which then causes the car to stop - I assume the solution here is either a fuel line re-route (electric pump?) or heat-wrap the LCB (or both?).

declfc the dash was from Huddersfield Spares at Bingley Hall the other week - I think it looks pretty smart!

[panky]

Excellent

[browno]

Time to bring this thread back from the dead and update (the title possibly needs an update to - I will have owned it for 30 years in August!)

 

Following my last posts, I had the car road legal for a couple of years, but didn't really use it much (due to my exocet kit build blocking the way out of the garage!). We then get into covid times, and I needed more projects to keep me sane! So 2020's project was adding a turbo to the Exocet, '21 was mostly messing with my sailing dinghies - although I did find the time to uncover the mini in the back of the garage and did some work to upgrade/improve - I drained and replaced the cooling system with a new ally radiator, new hoses and water pump etc, and had continued to run it up periodically to get some oil round the engine.

 

Getting to the start of this year, and I have decided I need to use both toys more - so needed to get the mini sorted and up the mileage (with it having racked up a mere 124 miles in my ownership!)! As a motivator, I spotted that this year might be the last running of the annual London to Brighton - so thought that might give me a target! The first job was to get all the toys out and rearrange the garage!

 

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Then I decided to do things properly (and re-do many of the things that I had previously done! So I started with replacing callipers, wheel cylinders and flexi-hoses all round...

 

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I then replaced all the fuel lines, fuel pump and a host of other bits and pieces - which meant I was ready to go for another MOT... Which didn't start off well - I ran out of fuel en-route to fill up before the MOT and had to push it to the pumps!

 

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All was looking good for the test - until it came to emissions... and it started off super-rich, was adjusted to something reasonable, but try as we might, we couldn't get the HC below 2000ppm, so something was clearly amiss.

 

Once I got it home, I started checking things over (valve clearances, etc) and pulled the plugs to check gaps - and then discovered an issue. I had three nice straw-coloured plugs, which looked normal, but no. 2 was black, wet and oily - this must be the source of my issue then. So it was time for a compression test...

 

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and sure enough, cyl 2 is down - my thinking was then possibly a sticking valve, or (hopefully not, stuck rings). So last night I whipped off the head - having taken a look, sure enough, the exhaust valve on cyl 2 has picked up on the guide and was sticking. The head was dropped off with my mate earlier, and has had a new valve and guide dropped in all ready for the rebuild to begin... Fingers crossed, we will be built up and on the road before the weekend!

 

[johnR]

It's looking great! 

[browno]

More updates on mine - and I got the head back on, and thought it was running ok (usual lumpiness due to the cam, and needing a tweak when we set it for emissions), so pulled out of my drive to go the 3/4 mile to the garage for retest, and it would hardly move - I managed to get to the top of the road in 1st at a max of 14mph, and then did a little better once it was downhill! Obviously, I had one hell of a misfire - in fact cylinders 2 and 3 both resulted in no change to the idle when you took the leads off the plugs. Bugger!

My first thought was that I had changed the cap and leads, and that must be the culprit, so ran home and fetched them - and no difference. At this point, I was getting worried that the head gasket hadn't sealed and so I had no compression on the two cylinders. Thankfully, I had a set of plugs with me, so decided just to bung them in to see what happened - and amazingly it was transformed and back on all 4 cylinders. I have never known a plug fail such that it won't spark - especially when they were visually fine - let alone two at the same time!

With that little test complete, it was then the moment of truth to retest the emissions, and thankfully it went straight through at the first attempt - which was a massive relief!

Now I need to make use of it and get some miles added to it, so that was the perfect excuse to join my mates from work for a pub lunch and then pop for a run up to Wirksworth and round some of my favourite local roads - which it managed without breaking down, and ran really nicely - so that's the first 40 miles of shakedown testing complete! I do however need to raise the suspension a little (and possibly stiffen the dampers) - as I am getting some rubbing of the wheels when it hits an especially large bump on the nearside, but that should be easily resolved!

So good to be out in this and not be a bag of nerves in case it doesn't work!

 

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