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The Moo


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#1 ads7

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Posted 14 March 2020 - 01:46 PM

Right. Time to get busy. Minimoo is an '86 City owned by us for 5 yrs. Having blown up the 1293 I fitted an 850 engine bagged on the bay of e for seventy quid.

Recently found the offside sill is totally shot and was about to sell. However had loads of encouragement on TMF so going to tackle the job myself with guidance from a welder mate of mine.

Found out I love the low power of a small bore, besides money is tight so the whole focus is maximum fun for minimal outlay - I'm also quite Eco conscious so ready to show the world just how relevant the Mini is to the climate crisis.

Anyway Facebook is easier to upload photos so I'll post up progress there

https://m.facebook.c...ternal&mt_nav=0

Cheers everyone ?

Edited by ads7, 14 March 2020 - 01:48 PM.


#2 GT Jimmy

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Posted 14 March 2020 - 04:08 PM

Good lad for having a go yourself. I'd get some bracing across the door opening before you go cut any more metal out.

Have a look at Project Paddy, Neil explains how to do everything with good photos, good luck

#3 ads7

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Posted 14 March 2020 - 04:52 PM

Yes I'll just screw the door back on to check alignment then brace as per Project Paddy. I'll be using his sill repair guide.

Looking forward !

#4 ads7

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Posted 14 March 2020 - 04:54 PM

I may need inner sill / floor pan to the first flute panel if m machine still do them?

#5 Bobbins

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Posted 15 March 2020 - 08:43 AM

I've just looked at the photo on FB and it looks much more promising than the '86 City I'm working on! Good luck, it'll be great project :)

#6 blacktulip

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Posted 15 March 2020 - 03:10 PM

Nice one. Once it's back on the road you will be asking what the fuss was about. Great looking mini. Love the colour

#7 Alex_B

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Posted 15 March 2020 - 03:26 PM

Following along on facebook! M-machine inner sills are the ones to get from my reading, I was just going to use the part panels you can buy but honestly not worth the agro when you can get a much better panel so will be going for those myself. 

 



#8 sonscar

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Posted 15 March 2020 - 06:13 PM

Just replaced sills with m machine inner and outer sills to first flute.Time consuming but not terribly difficult.Have lots of trial fits before welding.Good luck.Steve..

#9 ads7

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Posted 15 March 2020 - 08:35 PM

Thanks everyone. Glad you like the colour, azure blue I think, she does look good with the cream seats.

Had my welder mate around today and making plans tomorrow. He remarked how solid the front end is.

Definitely seen worse than Moo!

#10 ads7

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Posted 19 March 2020 - 09:17 PM

Quick update, not looking too bad!

since o/s A panel is now off I took the flitch back to bare metal. Small hole by air vent and at bottom, otherwise in great shape.

o/s floorpan is solid up to 40mm out from the outermost flute.

So ready to start in on the sills, it's just things are rapidly spiralling downwards financially with the covid 19 outbreak hitting our various small businesses.
I do hope everyone on here is managing, it's really quite surreal.

Anyway, I'll post up once major progress has been made.

Hang on in there guys.

#11 blacktulip

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Posted 20 March 2020 - 10:05 AM

Worrying times but watch the boom once it's under control. People will be itching to get things done and bought again. Good luck with the sills

#12 ads7

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Posted 26 June 2020 - 09:10 PM

Quick update, sills fixed and back on the road a few weeks ago ?

Fitted with an electric fuel pump, small bore three branch manifold and small bore 1 1/4" exhaust leading to a mk1 sprite single rear box the engine is pulling amazingly well (for an 850 with standard internals and indeterminate mileage)

Absolutely loving it!

#13 ads7

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Posted 23 July 2020 - 05:47 PM

1000 trouble free miles since mot, so of course Moo had to play up a little.. 20 miles from home the indicators stopped working - of course TMF came to the rescue ?. A few thread reads later I'd bridged a few connections and identified a faulty 2 pin relay behind the clocks. Hard wired it to get me home by flicking the indicator stalk on and off in absence of a flasher unit, then bought a more modern 3 pin unit and simply added an earth wire to pin 31. Result!

The 850 is pulling quite well and the mixture is perfect running an AAU needle / ramair foam filter. Haven't rolling roaded it yet though, unnecessary perhaps.

Main gripes are bouncy ride with year old Red dot front cones and ancient standard rear cones / standard shocks in good working order. I really need to try some koni classics or protechs at least at the front end - perhaps someone on here has got a good used pair on offer?

Apart from that I'm going to renew the engine mounts using Minispares oe spec items to reduce vibration transmitted through the hard old mounts. Paintwork needs finishing keeping the patina plus a little more rust prevention then she's good for the rest of autumn with not too many winter miles planned.

All in all I'm really, REALLY enjoying the car

Finally, I'm chuffed that a few TMF people have checked out the YouTube video I posted

https://youtu.be/uQhXRFexwks

Volume goes up about a minute in by the way. Production values nonexistent but I'm going to put more videos up focusing more on stories than how to fix stuff.

Next one is going to be a 'skool daze' feature on the shenanigans our band of sixth form rebels got up to in our first cars. I can't wait to do that one.. I'll post the link up here when it's done.

Other non mini cars in our family will feature in separate videos too (mr2/ Mx5)

#14 ads7

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Posted 17 August 2020 - 07:32 PM

Ahhh.. Ride home on the breakdown truck for what seems like the tenth time!

Intermittent misfire got worse, suspect head gasket failure (again) as when head was skimmed a crack was revealed.

Oh well at least she's done 1500 miles or so without problem, err.. apart from indicator relay failure, oh and the fuel pump wire coming loose.

I've come to accept these constant trials as part of life with a classic mini

#15 ads7

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Posted 05 October 2020 - 04:23 PM

Aaargh! And now the Passenger side inner and outer sills are buggered.. Oh well already booked her in with the welders I used just a few months ago for the offside exact same job

Oh well good old Mini moneypits! Can't help loving em though

Edited by ads7, 05 October 2020 - 04:23 PM.





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