191 replies to this topic

[carthorse]

Hello Folks, heres my newly acquired 1980 Mini95 Pickup which my kids have inevitably christened 'Percy'

He's a very original 850cc powered model with a few months mot left, but the poor fellows suffered from a few years of 'mot standard' repairs. The dreaded overfills are present, and the floor has patches over the patches in places. 

The plan is to give the suspension and brakes a much need refresh then use him till the mot runs out after which i'm tempted to cut the whole floor out and invest in one of M machines complete floorpan assemblies. Here's some more pictures......

interesting patch at the rear of the sill!

nice original engine bay

terrible repairs in the n/s footwell / flitch panel

might have to rethink plans to keep the bikes in the back!

Hopefully now I've remembered my passwords for minispares and miniskirts websites some nice new brake bits and bushes etc should be in the post soon, I've not had a mini project for a few years so I'm really looking forward toggling to grips with this one. 

Cheers all, Mick

[mr3speed]

Very nice

[minimissions]

really nice little pickup you have there : ) hope you get on well with the build...

[SAL 821X]

I'm liking the duck board in the back, I nearly bought one on ebay a while back but it was a bit worse for wear. 

 

Think I'll try and make one when the Van painted and back together. 

 

Don't fancy doing me a template do you? 

 

Good luck with the resto all the same.

[Vinay-RS]

Really original looking pick up, that engine bay looks in great condition.

[carthorse]

Thanks for the comments, Percy is a really original survivor - he will be getting a few tasteful (hopefully) mods while under my care, but nothing to drastic or difficult to remove if I ever want to put him back to standard.

 

I've dug some old spares out from past mini's from the depths of the garage and made a start on rebuilding the front suspension, progress is a bit slow as i haven't got too much spare time to devote to him at the moment, but its good to be working on a car without needing it back on the road or moved out of the garage for once, it'll take as long as it takes!

 

A few pics of progress so far.......

I had a pair of very rusty disc hubs stashed away

Quick clean up & treated to new bearings and ball joints

Old vs new cone and Hi-low

And all back in the car with a new trackrod end and CV joint.

 

Just waiting for my 7.5 discs and callipers to turn up from minispares and the damper which is on back order and thats one corner done. Should be a bit quicker on the other side now i've remembered which order things have to come apart and go back together in, and I won't need to turn the garage upside down looking for my cone compressor next time either 

 

Cheers, Mick

[Ben_O]

very nice

 

Ben

[slidehammer]

Nice looking project, keep up the good work

[carthorse]

The brakes turned up this morning, so the drivers side front corner is complete apart from the damper which I'm still waiting for.

That only took a few minutes so while i was on that side of the car I thought i'd get the clutch changed before lunch......... yeah right. I tell you you don't realise how much access removing the grill gives you till you can't do it! This is the first mini i've owned with the 'commercial' front panel and what a total pain it made this job. it took best part of 40 mins to disconnect and wriggle out the starter motor. The bottom couple of clutch cover bolts took ages as well. 

Still eventually it all came apart and the flywheel didn't put up to much of a fight unlike my poor old neglected mini flywheel puller which was so crusty and thread bound it had to be clamped in the vise and dowsed in plus gas before the centre bolt would move freely. 

One rather distressed and oily clutch plate!

By this point the kids and wife were home so playtime in the garage was over 

In other mini news on the way to the dentist for a spot of root canal yesterday in my nice modern Bini daily a nice chap in a white van pushed me almost off the road into a massive pothole which resulted in a nicely dinked alloy and a low profile tyre with a large gash and bulge in the sidewall 

This meant the wife little blue '94 sprite got dragged out from its winter hibernation early to take me to work last night, despite not having moved since its mot in January it never missed a beat, but the wife wasn't happy it was out in the rain today 

Its a year since i replaced the cones and it hasn't been driven enough to settle them properly yet!

 

Cheers, Mick

Edited by carthorse, 11 March 2015 - 04:44 PM.

[Ben_O]

That sprite is lovely. really tidy.

 

No wonder your wife didn't want it out in the rain!

[carthorse]

It's done 7500 miles from new, it's a little time machine - there are a couple of rust scabs that need addressing but it's the best mid '90's mini I've ever seen that hasn't been restored. I couldn't beleive how clean it was when we went to see it, so we ended up buying it more as an investment that a daily runabout, it leads a very pampered life!

[carthorse]

Got the clutch back in this afternoon with no real issues apart from the usual finger twisting required to get the engine mount bolts back in when your working on your own

Then while I was tidying up the work bench I found this little blighter hiding under the box the clutch kit came in:

Bugger. Well i'm not taking it apart again so we'll just have to see how the new oil seal holds up without it. I'm pretty sure the earlier cars didn't have it fitted anyway so heres hoping it won't leak to badly straight away 

I'm planning to rebuild a spare 998 I've got stashed away for Percy next year anyway when i've got the floor and sills sorted so I don't think this engines going to be in for too long in any case.

 

cheers, Mick

[carthorse]

Got an hour in the garage this afternoon so started on the back suspension. Unfortunately found some more patchwork lurking in the wheel arch and the outer 3/4 panel looks suspiciously like its hiding rather a lot of filler 
The subframes a little crusty on the sides but its not terminal yet so it got a quick wire brush and some rust converter, if I bow to the temptation to replace every slightly knackered bit I find its going to turn into a full restoration and won't leave the garage for the next two years, and i really want to drive it this summer before the mot runs out and the floor and sills need doing.


New longer studs for spacer drums waiting to go in.
The rear bearings are toast though so thats another minispares order going in after payday!

Edited by carthorse, 19 March 2015 - 11:42 PM.

[One step at a time]

Great looking project, hopefully the rust won't be too bad. Look forward to your updates👍

[Gadgets]

Very nice find indeed!