55 replies to this topic

[frankiebateman]

Wow thats great !! 11 years !! i wish i was that pacient lol great work bud

[buddylove]

Nice to have such a long history with your Mini. Good job on keeping it around and not giving up Should be stunner when finished.

[browno]

Hello all, and thanks again for all the positive replies! It's good to have all your positive words of encouragement to make sure I don't take even longer to get the car finished!

I promised some pictures, so here goes - unfortunately, I keep taking the camera into the garage, but don't take any snaps as soon as I've started to get going, so haven't got anything really exciting - I'll try harder to do more next time!

I've got the front door cards fitted and the interior looking pretty good (just need to finish the dash off when I've sorted my electrical gremlins - Earth check is definitely my next job there!)




I've had a productive weekend too - firstly, I solved my wheel dilemma, by buying a mini.joe-mk1's used minilites, so drove down to pick them up on Friday...



They are in good nick, but were a bit grubby (looked like remains from burst CV boots on 2 of the wheels)



So I got busy yesterday at cleaning them up, and adding a couple of coats of wheel wax - which had them looking pretty good:




Once that was complete, I set to work on compiling my shopping list for Bingley hall ready for more shopping, and worked out how much it was going to set me back!

I went off down to the show today (and had a great day!), and have spent a small fortune on getting a load of bits that I need to finish up (and a couple of treats!)

The list for today was:

Full set of Hi-Lo's
Full set of Gaz Adjustables
Braided oil pressure gauge pipe
Grille surround set
Carpet underlay set
Gearknob
Wiper Mechanism (one of my guide tubes is bent, meaning the wipers are very sluggish)
Bonnet Badge
and various other odds & ends...

Unfortunately, I'm off to Germany now for 2 days with work - so won't be able to get busy fitting my little parts stash until later in the week!

That's about all for now - but I'll try to get some more done this week, and put up another update soon!

[browno]

So - some more news today - I'm back from my travels and have made a start to fitting all my new shiny bits and pieces...

Firstly, I stripped the o/s rear suspension to start adding my new bits:



...and after lots of swearing and some serious work with the pliers and an old screwdriver to get out the nylon cup in the radius arm, I could compare the old and new parts...:




So I built up the rear end and dropped it onto the first of it's new wheels...



(perhaps set a bit too low for now - but we'll wait and see when all 4 corners are done!)

I did the same things on the front o/s - to give this look - which I'm very happy with!!!





That's all for today (well, I rebuilt the wiper mech again - but it wasn't too exciting, so I didn't take pics!)

Hopefully should get the remaining two corners done tomorrow - and then onto the next set of jobs...

[Saxo-Fiesta-Mini]

lookin good me like

[adam_93rio]

looking brilliant, i hope mine doesnt take this long tho, ive had mine for about 5 months or so now and i thought i was slowly rebuilding it

its coming along nicely, its made me want to go outside and work on mine now

keep us updated

[browno]

Just to bring this thread back from the dead - it's time for an update!

The progress on my mini stopped shortly after the last update, as I had the combination of a house move and first child to contend with! Well, now that is all done, and my son is 3 1/2 (and has a 16 month old brother!), so I figured it's time to get a bit more done!

I started by buying another new heater matrix (this time with solid pipe attachments) and fitting that. I then bought (another) new battery, and thought I'd try and get it fired up. So after first carefully making sure there was some oil around the top end, and then building oil pressure on the starter, I gave it a go and... Nothing! So, having checked for fuel, I double checked the static timing, then looked for a spark - which I didn't have. Then I remembered the 12v feed for the Aldon ingitor (I have ballasted ignition) - which was disconnected!

As soon as that was sorted, I tried again, and it sprung into life, and is sounding pretty healthy. I went to try and set up the timing, but the bulb in my light has gone - so I guess that's the next job!

So, having got it running again, I'm going to once again have a push to get it sorted - who knows, it might even get back on the road before the 20th anniversary of me starting, which us in August!

[browno]

Time for another quick update - I've been doing some more bits to get her resurrected!

 

So far over the last few days I've checked all the electrics over and now have all lights working, replaced the wiper stalk (as it had been broken by an over-keen toddler playing in the car!), adjusted the rear suspension (there wasn't room for a finger between wheel and arch - so it's now at a more sensible level), and adjusted the rear drums, and also changed the plugs and checked over the carb.

 

I should hopefully have a bulb coming for my timing light today, so should be able to set it up a bit better. I also have a few more bits to come to sort some more jobs (washer pump was ordered last night, as I discovered it was dead), and next on the list is to get the wipers working.

 

I should be in the garage again tonight, so I'll try and get some more pictures of what I've been up to...

[browno]

Some more news on this, as I have been continuing with some progress. I managed to sort out setting up the timing and getting the mixture set a bit better, so she's running quite nicely, which is good.

 

I've also been busy tracing and recitfying a pretty elusive electrical fault - I mentioned before that the Washer pump and wipers weren't working, well neither was the heater fan either. Having spotted that they are all on the same circuit, it was time for some fault-finding. First, I discovered that they were only being fed about 6-8V which was swtiched with the ignition... So having checked and cleaned all the earths, it was then time to look to the feed - and I discovered that the ignition switch was showing very variable resistance on the ignition switched circuit as you moved the key. So I have now (after much drilling!) replaced the assembly, and all appears to be working, which is good!

 

I then also managed to move the car out of the garage under power to take a good look around, and discovered a trickle of brake fluid down the inside of the bulkhead - so I am now in the process of replacing the master cylinder, and checking the clutch master too. What an absolute pig of a job - I managed to get the brake master out with about an hour of swearing, but even after 2 1/2 hours last night, haven't managed to get out the split pin from the clutch clevis pin. I think more swearing is going to be called for tonight!

 

In the middle of all this, I've been getting my MX5 sorted and done a trackday at blyton, which was awesome fun, and been sorting out MOT and a boost fault with my family wagon, vectra VXR estate. All in all, I'm making progress, but it's still quite slow - it's these kind of frustrating jobs that have made me stall in the past, so I'm going to persevere and get it sorted!

[ShaunaFTW]

I love your story with this car! Your old photos are ace too. Good luck getting it finished (:

[browno]

So, time to bring this thread back from the dead once again - another 3 1/2 years on from the last time!

After the last update I did manage to sustain some focus for a while on making progress and got new brake and clutch master cylinders installed and a selection more work done, but then the mini had to go off into storage at a friend's house for a while, as the old garage was demolished and we had the house extended to include a new garage, took around a year. The car then returned and I have had a few other jobs on since then - more mods to my MX5, repairing my wife's Clio 182 when it was rear-ended and declared cat d (for a rear bumper swap!) and more recently playing with a second Mazda (this time a late mk1) that I have bought to turn into an Exocet kit car.

One additional treat in the garage is that I thought I would save messing with jacks, so have installed a scissor lift - which is brilliant bit of kit!



So, going back to the mini (my decision is that I can't start stripping to build the kit until the mini is MOT'd), I have been firstly sorting some wiring issues which means I now have a full complement of electrics, and also getting the bonnet and grille fitted...








So it is edging closer - I think that one of my next jobs is to go through carefully and make a snagging list to complete before getting it up to my mate's garage for MOT - which I don't think is far off - I need some amber bulbs in the indicators, clamps on the battery and other such jobs doing and we will be there all being well!

I will keep updated as I make progress, but I hope that it will finally be done before I get to the 24th anniversary of buying the car which is in August!

[Alice Dooper]

Great project. The time isn't important, the craic building it up is.

[Zeemax Adventure]

Good luck, i feel like bringing the amber bulbs over myself to make sure you can get it finished   Those first moments behind the wheel after all this time are going to feel amazing 

[paul748]

This is a great thread...23 years over 2 pages LOL.

Great back story and the car looks fantastic.

[Rocket.]

What a great story good luck with it!