8 replies to this topic

[Fordy]

This is my first Mini Mayfair 1986 project that I purchased back in May 2016, I have posted some photos below.

 

I have done several items of work including new brake lines at the front, clutch, primary gear, gear linkage refurbishment. I shall post some photos in the near future.

 

Due to moving into my house, putting my time, effort and money into that, the Mini took a back seat.

 

As I was preparing the car for it's MOT with a slack handbrake, and then a no good rear brake cylinder. It soon turned into taking the rear subframe off as it looked rather rusty.

 

In the time of taking the rear subframe off the Mini I have now decided to do a full restoration to get the Mini to how a level/standard I am fully happy with.

 

It is now fully stripped down to a shell albeit for a few last parts; arches, bumper, couple of fixings. I shall again post photos of this in the near future.

 

Any advice is welcomed as I said previously this is my first Mini project.

 

1 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

2 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

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11 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

[Curley]

That's a beautiful shade of blue! Do you have any plans on fitting a trim seal between the body and wheel arches?

[Fordy]

It is a nice shade, will be changing the colour when I have it resprayed, thinking of going for a Nardo grey with black roof.

 

I hadn't, but will be replacing these when I come round to the rebuild.

[Fordy]

I've put a few photos together of some of the work I did before the handbrake cable and rear brake cylinder gave up on me.....

 

Fuel hose splitting, replaced with braided.

 

12 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

13 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

From first buying the car the gear linkage seemed very loose, and difficult to find the gear with a lot of play. There was a lot of wear on the gear linkage shaft as well as being bent, the housing was heavily worn and perished rubber mounts. I had the housing machined to allow a bush to be fitted, a new shaft made, cleaned up/painted, new rubber mountings. All seen on the photos below. 

 

15 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

16 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

17 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

18 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

19 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

20 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

Removal of the air horn, was taking up a lot of space, wasn't a fan of the sound it made either.

 

21 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

22 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

After resolving the issues with the gear linkage, I then was having issues with physically getting the car into gear. I was able to easily selected gears with the engine off. But with the engine on I couldn't select any, it was just hitting a brick all. I tried everything I could think of without having to strip down:

- Setup the clutch, including bleeding the system of any air

- Replaced the clutch master cylinder to slave cylinder hose, and re-bled the system.

- Replaced the slave cylinder due to split seal (see photo below)

 

Non of the above helped with the issue so I had to strip the clutch/flywheel housing down. Noticed a build up of a sticky oily material all over the clutch which was very damp. This was also found on the primary gear.

 

I then replaced both bushes on the primary gear, the primary gear seal, plunger and release bearing and clutch.

 

Once all back together and setting up the clutch again, this had removed the issue of getting the car into gear with the engine running with a nice firm feel to the clutch.

 

23 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

24 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

25 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

26 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

27 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

20161004_103541 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

29 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

30 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

31 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

[Steve220]

Great start! How's the clutch now?

[Fordy]

The clutch was then fine after the work done.

 

I shall update tomorrow/weekend to bring up to speed where I am at.

 

I had a gap of a year and a bit of not touching the Mini due to moving into my house.

 

When I started the work again ran into a few other issues which has now lead me down the line of a full restoration.... 

 

I shall bring up to speed in the next few days!

[Fordy]

Couple of photos of the rear brakes which don't look in the best of condition.

33 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

34 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

The rear subframe didn't look great, so decided to remove this to either restore or purchase a new one and build back up to refit. Few other photos of the condition it was in after being removed and as well as the radius arms.

35 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

36 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

37 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

38 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

39 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

40 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

41 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

42 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

43 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

 

[Fordy]

With the rear subframe I made the decision to take the front subframe off which then later lead to me deciding to go down the fully restoration route after some thought.

 

As much as needed was removed from within the engine bay and all other items required to be disconnected as per the manual to free up as much room as possible for when lifting the body over the engine and subframe (with wheels still in place).

 

I had the back end sat on some large blocks and a scaffold board which I used as a pivot, sat a mattress under the rear to provide a little protection but unsure if that ended up helping and was more of a safety net if it was to slide back at all.

 

With all the nesseccary items removed and disconncted, the front was jacked up till it was high enough to wheel out the engine and subframe as one, with a trolley sat under the engine/gearbox and using the wheels to roll out as one.

 

44 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

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When the body was lowered back down it was sat on blocks and a scaffold board as the back was, I made a trolley out of some other scaffold boards and 100m dia. trolley wheels to sit the body onto. So that I could now wheel the body in and out of the garage to free up some room when required.

 

53 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

As above with the body being able to be moved out of the way, the engine was removed from the subframe.

54 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

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57 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

Below are some photos of the body work which will require some attention, looking to get someone to take on the majority of this work for me.

Engine bay hood lip

58 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

Rear subframe mounts

59 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

60 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

Rust on passenger  side arch/floor

61 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

Engine bay/ inside bulkhead with wiring loom pulled through

52 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

62 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

Doors both side in simialr condition, DA back to see the rust damage 

63 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

64 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

Inside of the rear pocket companion box

65 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

66 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

67 by Samuel Ford, on Flickr

 

[Nossedout]

Looking good!