A Scotsman With A Kiwi Clubman

Not massive progress per se, but any progress is good progress!

Heater cable and new overflow hose to finish things off, just the fan belt to go now...



Oh look, I have a working heater again!!





Will hopefully have the radiator in before Sunday :)

This bloody car has pushed me to the edge of despair this last week. First, the new radiator was too wide for the shroud. Force fixed that. Secondly with the radiator in the car and both bottom rear bolts in, it fouls the suspension tower making it impossible to get the bolts back into the bottom stay bracket. Third, with the bottom bolts removed and the shroud halves craftily cable tied together, all bolted to the subframe and top mount, the fan fouls the shroud due to it being bent out of shape by the 6 or 7mm too wide alloy rad. Pain in the arse. So this Saturday I'm loading it onto a car trailer and sending it to a local garage by the name of Clints Autos, with Clint being renowned as the man to see down here when it comes to Minis. Hopefully they can modify the shroud enough to get everything fitting correctly. In the meantime, have some pictures!

Minispares silicone hoses certainly look the part



Stainless steel cap screws, bolt at the bottom was a foresight, as you could never fit a 5mm Allen key between the suspension tower and radiator, better with a ratchet spanner, of course it was too wide anyway...



More cap screws



Shroud er, "fitted"



Radiator in after an hour of swearing, fighting and head scratching



The issue, fan is hard against the bottom of the shroud





Hopefully the garage can give me good news in a couple of weeks...


IN NEXT WEEKS EPISODE...

mate you should call lee at minibitz here in nz , hes in Auckland.

Already have, not keen on paying $1000+, plus labour costs, then another $1000+ to transport it back to Dunedin again, I've overspent as it is

Hi Agro RB do you know of any rustorations in New Zealand please

Plenty on trademe :)

Already have, not keen on paying $1000+, plus labour costs, then another $1000+ to transport it back to Dunedin again, I've overspent as it is

nah I meant for parts matey.

Plenty on trademe :)

 

can you pm me a few email address

Already have, not keen on paying $1000+, plus labour costs, then another $1000+ to transport it back to Dunedin again, I've overspent as it is

nah I meant for parts matey.

Aaah I get ya, would just be trial and error again,.its a Taiwanese radiator so will never fit as good as something locally sourced or from the UK, at least Clints have a tonne of spares and can make something up if need be, they always have Minis in :) It's not fouling by much, it's enough to stall the fan though...

Means I can finally get my mixture and timing sorted properly too

Plenty on trademe :)

 
can you pm me a few email address

Plenty on trademe :)

 
can you pm me a few email address

I'll be watching this!

 

Looks like a great little project

 

Ben

Cheers mate :) booking the car trailer tomorrow and taking it in on Saturday. Excited, but also apprehensive, mostly about compression and leakdown test results :/

While I'd love a supercharged 1100 or 1275 lump in this eventually I can NOT afford another engine at the moment...

I'd be a bit cautious when it comes to Clint, he will most likeky try and sell you something you don't need. But hopefully it will be sorted easily enough

I've been staunch about it and said this IS the radiator that's going in the car, no questions asked, and if he can't get it to fit, I'll take it to a sheetmetal specialist who can make a surround to suit. Scott Fabtech is right next door to work ;) hopefully it won't be an overly difficult job for them though.