1971 Clubman 1275GT

Stuck my hand in a tool tray at the weekend and poked around. I found a scalpel I was not looking for; small cut easily fixed.  

I am NOT getting a chainsaw for Christmas.   

Stuck my hand in a tool tray at the weekend and poked around. I found a scalpel I was not looking for; small cut easily fixed.

 

I am NOT getting a chainsaw for Christmas.   

I sat chatting to the wife at the weekend in front of the open fire....

"I need to borrow a chainsaw to cut up all the firewood we've got seasoning in the garden ready for the fire"....I casually dropped into conversation.

She just raised an eyebrow and looked at my thumb.

Point taken......  

I had one in my garage a few weeks ago as I was fixing it for a friend. The wife saw it and was not happy. He has it back now. 

Well, whilst the hand is out of action while it (sort of) heals up I've been hitting eBay hard buying all sorts of Mini related literature to bolster my Mini Library a little....

I probably don't need all those BMC/Leyland manuals as they're essentially all the same.......maybe I have hoarding issues after all.  Managed to get hold of a 1275GT brochure in fairly good nick along with a load of other Mini owners manuals too......

Got back to re-assembling the mini today (left in bits since I sliced my thumb tendon).  Thumb is a bit weak and I've lost movement in it (can't hyper-extend it anymore) but working on the mini seemed to be OK today....

Fitted my xmas pressie from the missus - a rear mount "work lamp" ;)  - unfortunately the guy I bought it off sent me the spotlamp lens version of the Lucas 576 and not the foglamp.  Apparently a replacement lens is in the post....

Also wired in my matching TIM voltmeter.....another xmas pressie.  

Love the lamp - very sixties

Well - the mini has gone into hibernation now.......by default.

 

I managed to sever a tendon in my thumb after cutting myself with a stanley knife blade whilst finishing off some wiring loom mods.  

 

Had surgery last week to stitch it back together and now have 8 weeks of physio to get things moving again and a mini sat in the workshop with it's electrical guts hangin' out  

 

At least it gives me the opportunity to gather all the bits I need to complete all the niggly jobs, ready for February next year when it should be back to full strength (fingers crossed - I can still do that!)

 

For the time being I'm wearing a rather fetching thumb-catapult-elastic-tendon-assist type splint thingy.......sexy eh? All the kids are gonna want one of these.......

 

Thumbs up Sherly,

speedy recovery.

regards, Fozz.

Thumbs up Sherly,

 

speedy recovery.

 

regards, Fozz.

 

Cheers Fozz, I've started doing some light work on the mini and all seems good with the thumb. 

Attempted some wiring to get my boot mounted fog lamp working - with success! 

Hey Sherly, glad your thumb is ok.

luv the fog lamp, nice work !!!!

grtz Fozz.

Hey Sherly, glad your thumb is ok.

 

luv the fog lamp, nice work !!!!

 

 

grtz Fozz.

Thanks Fozz!

Last weeks bargain - Scruffy 1275gt clocks, the later versions that work with electronic ignition, for £16 delivered! :)

I've been toying with the idea of spending £60ish with Minispares on a new PCB as mine has been repaired in the past and I view it as a bit of a weak link....but luckily the PCB on this is in great condition

So I carefully dismantled the clocks, removed the PCB and gave it a clean with electronic contact cleaner.  

All clean & ready to be installed onto the back of my GT clocks.

I've bought a few clock sets in the past, when they crop up cheap enough.  Unfortunately only one on these sets now has a decent PCB.

Always handy to keep hold of.

great build thread!

Always handy to keep hold of.

Yep - good for spares I reckon - or I could rebuild a set with a new PCB and sell on?

great build thread!

Cheers matey.

This turned up in the post today - can't wait to get it fitted and see how my mini is fuelling......just need to get the exhaust off now and weld in a lambda boss!

Sooo.....bit of work done on the mini this week.  Seeing as the weather has been rough recently I decided to tuck the mini away and get a couple of jobs done.  

I finished refurbing my replacement heater and associated pipe work.  The case needed a bit of a fibreglass repair to strengthen a cracked area, I cleaned everything, repainted the flap and other metalwork, buffed up the aluminium panel surround and swapped the sticker over from another heater.  I replaced all the foam sections inside the heater to make sure the air flows where it should using draught excluding foam from B&Q and cleaned, silicone sealed and taped up all the leaky windscreen vents/ducts..  Hopefully this should mean that all of the heated air gets from the heater to the windscreen!

Kit!

Cracks to repair....

Repaired!

Completed heater

Also got the exhaust off so that I could get the lambda sensor fitted for my wideband lambda air fuel gauge.  Spent a few hours routing the wiring and connecting up the gauge.  Still need to mount the additional gauge pod correctly - but I think I want to try and position it under the other 3 gauges.

Not taken the car for a run yet to see how it's fuelling - should be interesting.......

Up on ramps:

Sensor boss TIG welded into the exhaust downpipe:

Exhaust back on & lambda sensor fitted:

Gauge wired in and showing air/fuel ratio (mixture). Engine isn't running in this shot - the gauge cycles through some values with just the ignition on.