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The Rise And Fall Of Sir Reginald!


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#1 Retro_10s

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Posted 06 May 2009 - 04:55 PM

Well, I've had my grubby thieving eyes on this particular Mini for a while and have known about him for about 2 years now.

Then suddenly, roughly a year ago, He was fixed up and put on the road in all his glory by 'PurpleDasiy' - and to christen the event he decided to drop his load big style all over the motorway on his maiden voyage,.. so with a blown engine (conrod failiure - resulting in internal engine components exiting the gearbox case!) he was placed in the naughty corner and left to sulk for another year in the Cotswolds - so after umming an arrring - i finally got my *bottom* into gear and Took the plunge on saturday with the help of my Bestest trailer buddy ;)

Two hour round trip and we'd collected him:
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Got him back home and opened up all his doors and windows to have a good air out and took the carpets up. Initial inspections revealed a New rear subframe, New exhaust, Spotless interior, Immaculate boot floor with 0% rust, scuttles are fine, and the floors are solid - though there's a bad repair on the drivers side floor which i think i fancy sorting out but it isn't desperate and certainly wont be an MOT problem... other than that the only rust that needs sorting is a 4" section on the sill. Lots of moss but hardly any rust!!! yeeaaaay!

Still on his standard wheels + trim:
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Original black grille, bumpers would have been too but have been over painted hammerite black at somepoint
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Center clock dash configuration: i love it. So simple and uncluttered, I intend to keep this + a 52mm rev gauge and water temp also.
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He came with a chrome grille ready to go on, so i'll proabably fit that at somepoint, but for the time being: he's going grill-less:
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I have done some work on him already in the past two days : the electrical components on the current dead engine will be used on the new engine that i've got for it (a standard 998 that i'll fit a stage 1 (and a bit, wink wink) kit, onto) have been removed - the radiator is as new, as are the rest of the ancilleries - the only change i didn't bargain on was the distributor - it's a ducellior so i want to change this straight away for a lucas item (think i need a 59D4 ideally)

future plans? well you'll have to see.... But I have a brand new Cooper S disc set-up to go on  :( which'll pave the way for some lovely 10" wheels i have,... and I fancy building my own roof rack ;)

Engine is now ready to lift out, worked on it for most of the day - the vast majority of it came undone easily but the engine mounts were right buggers! And i also adjusted the latches so the doors close fully and smoothly with no bangs or clunks.

Over the past few weeks I've also been working on a Nice little 998 engine build - So far the head has been:

dipped:
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primered
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and painted graphite grey, metallic:
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Then refaced - de-coked - the valves were cleaned and lapped in gently:
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I also took the oppurtunity to replace all the valve stem seals - which i bought along with the following little lot from minispares:

* Bulkhead fire+sound proofing kit, the original stuff :thumbsup: will make everything really tidy and quiet
* Rod change selector oil leak fix kit - just a precaution that makes sense to do whilst the engine's out
* Kevlar reinforced Bypass hose - i have bought one of the conveluted rubber types but don't trust it.
* A nice 'Austin' Rocker cover sticker - bit of bling.
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so the engine was then partially built up:
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I also kept the Ducellior distributor and decided to re-condition it - it's better than new now and should perform just fine.

There's lots more progress already but it's all back dated so Ill update the rest later to bring you up to speed with where the project has lead over the last few weeks!!!!! :cry:

#2 Shifty

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Posted 06 May 2009 - 05:14 PM

Way to go Retro!!

Looks a good little car, so whens he gonna be on the rd then?

Himley???

#3 Retro_10s

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Posted 06 May 2009 - 05:46 PM

No wont be ready for Himley dude.

To bring you all up to speed - here's where we're at so far:

*Engine is now in and just needs the head torquing up.
*Bulkhead liner is in
*New fuse box
*Wiper motor stripped + rebuilt - painted the cover too.
*Starter motor stripped and rebuilt
*distributor stripped and rebuilt
*New engine mounts fitted
*New water pump fitted
*Plugs and Oil filter are new
*Engine bay completely stonechipped

I dropped it in on sunday and finished putting it in on monday, shiny eh ;)
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The other area of work was the dash - I simply hate not having a Dash area and i despise the standard ill fitting dash liner that Rover clearly designed with old bin liners. So - I got hold of some 8mm soundproofing foam - lined the whole dash with it and then glued Black Acoustic carpet over the top of that - the bottom of the dash (the bit usually covered in soggy old card) was replaced with plyboard liners that i made which were covered in Dynamat - then the foam - and then more acoustic carpet. Lo and behold You can now rest more than a single mint on the dash without fear of it falling through onto the floor :(

The other area i was going to improve on was the Centre clock - as much as i love it - it simply doesn't tell you everything - so I put a small 52mm Yazaki Rev counter in a pod attached to the steering column cowling - and a TIM water temperature in an upside down hanger next to the main binacle - It think it looks great. The dash is now finished and final results speak for themselves:

clocks easy to see:
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Finished dash - looks very Retro in my opinion - simple - uncluttered and stylish:
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I'm over the moon with the finished product. Hopefully the original Bulkhead lining coupled with the Dynamat, Sound deadening felt and acoustic carpet should really cut down engine noise an awful lot :cry:

I've started lining the inner wings and floors with the 8mm felt now too, luckily the floors are immaculate so i have no worries gluing it down :thumbsup:
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Earlier in April when i was working pulling the old lump out - i made the decision that since The new engine came with no ancilleries - that it made sense to move everything over from the old lump - so i re-conned everything in sight - I have also swapped over the Dizzy and carb - my reasoning is that they should be matched. So i cleaned the carb up:

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the carb seemed perfectly clean and useable with hardly any signs of wear anywhere - I also flatted back the solid steel pipe that runs behind the carb from the pump to the float bowl and autosol'd it. came up like chrome so i went roun any thing i could - oil feed pipes etc... all these tiny details are what make a car stand out.

There you go!!! all up to date - expect high amounts of pictures and lots of eye candy on a regular basis ;)

#4 dezshearer

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Posted 06 May 2009 - 07:57 PM

That dash looks great, I'm doing the same in mine, except i'm hiding the vent hoses, and having no padded dash rail!

Where did you get the carpet?

#5 Retro_10s

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Posted 06 May 2009 - 08:00 PM

The foam was from my local carpet showroom - VERY cheap compared to the stuff Mini dealers sell and garunteed to fit of course as you cut it yourself. £12 was enough for 2 cars.

I've grown to like the demister hoses :( so i'll leave them on show :cry:

#6 Down&Out

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Posted 06 May 2009 - 08:32 PM

Retroooooo :cry:. I see you bit the bullet and bought it then! ;). Looks a lovely Mini, look forward to seeing this 'Eye candy' :thumbsup:.

Good luck Mike :(

Jono.

#7 Joloke08

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Posted 06 May 2009 - 09:57 PM

Looking Fabb Mike ;)
I just hope the engine on Boris looks half as good as Reginalds after i clean and paint it "Eventually :thumbsup: " :thumbsup:

I love the centre clock but i allways have,he looks like a really solid Mini ;)
Any thoughts on a colour are you keeping him original colour or is that top secret?

We need to see more Piccys and more updates ^_^
Nice to see you with a mini again :P

Huggz
Jodie :ermm:

#8 Retro_10s

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Posted 06 May 2009 - 10:48 PM

I have a sneaky suspicion that people on here might have an idea of what colour i'm going to be painting it - however i wont confirm until it's been bought. :thumbsup:

should have a nice update by the end of the week....

#9 Down&Out

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Posted 07 May 2009 - 12:03 AM

Oh i know, but i shall keep it to myself :thumbsup:. Cant wait!!.

#10 Joloke08

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Posted 07 May 2009 - 10:02 PM

me wonders if its brown?
I know you like brown :teehee:

Huggz
Jodie :gimme:

#11 Down&Out

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Posted 07 May 2009 - 10:09 PM

Aha!!. I understand the title now :gimme:.

#12 Shifty

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Posted 08 May 2009 - 11:56 AM

Slight hi-jack, but where did you get your bulkhead liner from?

#13 Bean

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Posted 08 May 2009 - 11:57 AM

Yaaay, Mike! Mini looks great! :thumbsup:

#14 Retro_10s

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Posted 08 May 2009 - 12:04 PM

Shiftybaby:

The bulkhead liner was from Minispares - annoyingly it's a little too large and i had to cut about 20mm off it but now it's on it's great :thumbsup:

Bean:

Yes i'm really really glad to have another project on the go - i'm hoping this one will be a little special - i've sourced quite a few nice little parts for it and it's going in a direction i'd not really considered before :)

I just hope the engine on Boris looks half as good as Reginalds after i clean and paint it "Eventually"


Anything's possible Jo!! the engine is from Stardude - and he bought it off 'Pie', Apparently it's a right little go-er! We shall see - I've done a lot of work to it to get it looking that good.

#15 Retro_10s

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Posted 10 May 2009 - 09:24 AM

Righty! - Torqued up the head to the block yesterday so there's no going back now! Just need to set the tappets but i got fed up of turning the engine over by hand to do it it - I'll be there all day! So i'll have to wait till it's back on it's wheels to make that easier.

I shall give a good friend a call and sort out my 1"7/8 twin box RC40 system and Alloy inlet :dozing: good times

Need to get some outer CV boots as i found on inspection that mine are perished to b*ggery and void of grease!




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