104 replies to this topic

[Lsten94]

Where are people getting their rear quarter windows restored?

[racingenglishcars]

Where are people getting their rear quarter windows restored?

No idea!

Both mine and Peter's have stationary rear quarter windows with rubber mounting, so I don't see that they need any restoring anyway. Just new rubber.

[racingenglishcars]

What good is an Easter weekend if not to work on everything possible?

Thursday I cleaned the garage thoroughly so I could do an exhaust on my wife's V70 since it had broken in the middle. Plus it has to go for inspection soon.

Then we went to Easter dinner in the country where I finished building and installing stairs in the summer house.

Back home I fixed brakes, tires, axle joint cuff, main beam light, again for inspection.

 

Then finally I got a chance to do a bit to the Mini. With the limited time available I only got to remove the steering rack, clean thoroughly and paint black. It was previously orange from the Swede who used the car as a field racer. Orange paint on the steering rack and suspension arms apparently makes a car go faster.

I then took the wire brush on the angle grinder to the engine compartment because all that copper/gold paint was really tacky. (see page 3) Not finished yet, long way to go, but a good though very dusty start.

 

 

 

 

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[racingenglishcars]

Tuesday wasn't a big night for pictures. We got all that welding done around the back of the main floor, and also boot floor to back panel. The cool part was that Tim did the work and not me. I unfortunately had to deliver back the spot welder since I have had it a lot​ longer than the one week I promised. I'll get it again to in time do the roof.

[racingenglishcars]

The red car, having been a field racer in Sweden, has a very good and rust protected front subframe. But it's been abused and sitting unused for a long time so the protective finish is damaged and surface rusting in a few places, not least where the brake hoses are mounted. I used today to clean all loose finish and clean to metal. A bit of epoxy primer should hold it good for a long time to come. Oops, I accidentally welded in a couple re-enforcements for the tie-bar mount. I suppose it should have a coat of black after the epoxy hardens.

 

I've ordered a bunch of stuff from Mini Spares including all the suspension stuff so I can put the front end together with the new S brakes. It should be here by Wednesday.

 

I'm going to change the A+ engine from Verto to diaphragm clutch so I've also ordered a grey cover, disc, bolts, straps. I have all the mechanical parts necessary on one of the old engines here.

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[racingenglishcars]

I have begun assembling the A+ engine and collecting bits for the brakes and suspension. I have received a package from Mini spares today, but haven't seen it yet. I should have all the new stuff to put the front together, except the bits I forgot. Like brake hoses, motor mounts, and oil seals. I installed my "quite good condition" used camshaft (somewhat similar to a Kent 266 but not exactly) and since the lifters were actually better than the camshaft I decided to leave them. The cool part is that I installed the camshaft without breaking the engine from the gearbox. Just set it down on it's side. I also polished up the somewhat rusty looking flywheel and clutch plate. It was after all only surface rust. I'm also working on getting the correct speedometer drive gears since I'm using an A+ 5626 gearbox with 10" wheels and a very early cream colored metric speedometer.

 

Last night Peter's car got the first test-fit of the new roof. We aren't yet finished with the rain gutters so we just wanted to make sure all things are ok and that we can actually fit it into place. Not there yet, but close. We have made new drip rails which look very good. They will be fitted after the roof is installed.

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[racingenglishcars]

Well it's been a busy weekend. Aside from the domestic work like new fridge and windows, I finished up brakes on another un-related lont-term automotive project, the 51 Willys. A more relevant bit was the Frogeye, for which I have finally had a chance to install the engine. Unfortunately due to the Ford Kent flywheel the clutch wasn't mating up with the throw-out bearing. It was about 15mm too short.  So a modification had to be made to the latter. This surprisingly worked just fine.

 

Monday, instead of spending May Day at the local park (Fælledparken) and protesting about the one politician or the other, I decided that Peter and I could better use our time and finish preparations for installing the Mini roof. We did one test fit which worked a charm. Then removed the roof to do the final preparations, smoothing the transition points, and painting the concealed areas with epoxy paint. Hey, today is Tuesday. Peter comes again this evening and the spot welder is ready! Jubii.

 

 

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[racingenglishcars]

Well Tuesday was a productive evening. I started and moved my Frogeye after the funny clutch solution, finished the floor on the sidecar, and of most interest we mounted and spot welded the roof on the Mini.

 

We used lots of Vice-Grips to hold everything in place. Spot welding through 3mm of plate steel took 1.5 second welds which heated up the welder considerably so only 5 to 10 spots before a break, but the welder is heavy to begin with so holding it up and at that angle is daunting for more than 5 to 10 welds at a time.

 

It's not finished yet, mostly due to a bit of surface rust still on the bottom side of the side gutter rails. A bit more cleaning there and the roof can be done by next week.

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[Vinay-RS]

The Sprite and Willys truck look really neat. 

[racingenglishcars]

Sorry, not much work on the Minis this past weekend. I've been busy with other stuff, but I did get the Sprite running well, only to discover a big oil leak from the rear of the engine, but only after running for more than a minute or two.

 

VID_20170508_200922 by frogeye61, on Flickr

 

[Homersimpson]

Sorry, not much work on the Minis this past weekend. I've been busy with other stuff, but I did get the Sprite running well, only to discover a big oil leak from the rear of the engine, but only after running for more than a minute or two.

 

VID_20170508_200922 by frogeye61, on Flickr

 

 

Hi,

 

I don't know what work the engine has done but bear in mind that the standard engines don't have a rear seal on the crank, they rely instead on an oil thrower and a negative pressure arrangement from the crankcase to the carbs.

 

It looks like you might not have this anymore with the carb trumpets and I have seen this cause problems with oil leaks on Sprite's before (I have owned a couple over the years).

 

Hope this is of help.

[racingenglishcars]

Tuesday night; Tim finished up almost all of the roof welds, leaving only a small section where the original gutter was rotted away, but the original roof edge was still intact. I wanted to put a replacement piece of the gutter in place before this is finalized. 

 

While Tim was doing that Peter was removing the remains of the right front inner fender, which for some reason contained in some places three plates of steel. I think some of this was just previous rust repair. He is meticulous and did a first rate job. 

 

IMG_20170509_213711 by frogeye61, on Flickr

 

IMG_20170509_213611 by frogeye61, on Flickr

 

Barely seen in the top picture is a flange, installed between the dash top and windscreen surround, because the inner fender is supposed to mount between the two. The top of the inner fender will simply be trimmed and welded to the already installed flange.

[racingenglishcars]

Well, It's been a long week. Finishing up on the Frogeye and readying for inspection, Speedometer drive for my red Mini, and now finally some progress last night on Peter's blue Mini.

Quite a bit of careful trimming of spot welds and the left inner fender and front door jam A post is nicely removed and ready for installation of the new. 

 

Everything is ready, "just" assemble all pieces with grips and start to weld, right?

 

IMG_20170516_201009s by frogeye61, on Flickr

 

 

IMG_20170516_200957s by frogeye61, on Flickr

 

 

IMG_20170516_213224s by frogeye61, on Flickr

 

[racingenglishcars]

Well finally back on track. My usual Tuesday night operations have been disturbed by other duties such as amateur theater and the fact that my tenant is moving out and I have to prepare the apartment for the new.

 

Having a four day weekend this week I did some work first then got Peter over to do more. I have been preparing the inner fenders for mounting onto the body and then we tested and adjusted the fit of all other front end pieces, though not the a-panels yet.

 

IMG_20170525_182436s by frogeye61, on Flickr

 

IMG_20170526_165514s by frogeye61, on Flickr

 

IMG_20170526_182258s by frogeye61, on Flickr

 

IMG_20170526_183843s by frogeye61, on Flickr

 

 

[racingenglishcars]

Aside from all the other things this last weekend, I did get a chance to modify the bracing on Peter's Mini. This to make room for the doors

 

IMG_20170605_141607s by frogeye61, on Flickr

 

And the first test fit of the left door...

 

IMG_20170605_140529s by frogeye61, on Flickr

 

 

and the right door

 

IMG_20170605_151204s by frogeye61, on Flickr

 

Tonight we are back working in a team again. So I hope some more progress.