454 replies to this topic

[BMC Paul]

[emalee]

i haven't done too much on the sky over the past two days, yesterday i cleaned up the dash rails, bulkhead sound proofing, and taped up the inner wing sound proofing as it was falling apart!!!!, i have no idea where the rest of the sound proofing has gone, i swear i put it altogether in one bag!!!! LOL

then we went on a quest to find my dad a windscreen for his astra!!! we went to 5 scrap yards!!!, he fitted on a few days before, then broke it putting the rubber surround on!!!!

so the first one (i was at home) had a mini just come in, mostly stripped down, they took the alloys off, and front subby with engine and squashed the rest!!!!

the next had a astra, but a car was ontop of it, and the bloke was about to go to lunch, so we moved on

then the next mainly had insurance write off, which was quite good to look at, including a limo, and a couple of rolled cars, and my favourite a written off 08 plate astra i think, it looked brand new!!!!

the next had a mini on a shelf about 10ft in the air at the end of there workshop!!!, (i call this journey mini spotting rather than finding a windscreen!!!) it was a massive place and they said they didn;t have any astra, but i bet they did and they were just too lazy to help!!!

so then to another one, which didn't have any, we didn;t look round that one, so no mini updates, so back to the second place, waited about for anout 15 mins for the bloke to move the car, then we were on the last bit of sealant holding it in and it cracked!!!!

so last one, had 2 astras in and we got one out finally!!! it took us 4 hours to find it and get one out unbroken!!!!

so back to the garage start taking the old one out and dad realises we don;t have any sealent to glue the new one in!!!, so mad rush to the nearest motor factors, got the stuff to stick it in, i think at about 6.30ish, then about a hour later we went on a 90 mile round trip to collect a engine i lent to my friend, it was alright apart from the windscreen was letting a bit of air in at the bottom!!! DOH

so a eventfull day, but i have my lovely 1275 vanden plas engine back, to er sit in the garage!!!

ok so day i spent most of the day at a recriutment agency, but came back and spent the afternoon cleaning up the engine!!!

i took the clutch arm off and the back of the ball on the end was worn rather than the front, does anyone know what causes this????

then made a little bench for the engine, so i don't have to work on the floor!!!



its almost ready for painted now, just a few more bits that need cleaning up

then core plugs have holed so they will be changed, as for the rest, rebuilt clutch slave cyclinder (that was on mine for a few months, till we realised it was the wrong one, when i broke it and broke the ball off the end of my arm ) new water pump, deplux timing chain set up, electronic iginition kit (thanks retro's) new coil, plugs, leads, new heater take off, because that was all rusty and holed!!!, new clevis pins for the clutch set up, silcon bypass hose and new gaskets on the bolt on bits!!

the engine is really sweet, so there is no need to do anything else, and i kinda don't want to spend loads on it, because i dunno how i'll cope with a 998!!!!! it may well end up with my lovely old 1275, which was well sweet, (just leaked gallons of oil, and thats it!!!!)






so tomorrow i might do some work on the shell and clean up the rest of the bulkhead and take the spotwelder to finsh the front panel off and the bottom of the a panels (and tops) then might presuade dad to braze up the front for me!!!

[Saxo-Fiesta-Mini]

v v v busy like the progress i finally got my own workshop spent the day in there and decided way to dark

[emalee]

god i haven't updated this for a while!!!

the main reason is that i was *drunk* off with it for a few days, as the buff oxide paint isn't a anti-rust paint, so i had to strip it all off and paint on the red oxide...... not happy, and i struggling to find a end to my dads morris which means the sky won't be in the garage, so i struggle to get it ready for riv run..... and mainly thinking what the point was.....

but i'm ok now, (mainly because its dry and the sky isn't being soaked everyday, tarps really aren't waterproof.....) and i've got a shed load of non shell things to do

so shell wise, dad brazed the front end for me





he did the wing to front panel joins, and the lines around them, and then the bumper lip seam,

then i tidied them up, i need to do i bit more work on them tho...







then took the steering cloumn and pedal box, and blanking plate for the brake and clutch cyclinders off, oh and the rack



cleaned up the bulkhead and painted in red oxide





so i just gotta clean up the exhuast tunnel underneath and the inside of the roof (good knows how that gets rusty!!!



spotted on the pigs ears


and made up the reinforcing bits for the end of the joins between the front end panels and spoted 3 of them on, the last needs the a panel lip modding!!! LOL

[emalee]

then on the engine side took a grubby engine


and some yellooooooooow paint





i have now toned it down a bit with a bit of black!!!


and de greased these



fitted a duplex timing chain


countersunk screws...


this is the only mechanical part we are changing on the engine.... althrough the rockers are quite worn...... everything else is just a tidy up!!

and today i've been stripping the front subframe



all went well except



the bolt that goes thru the bottom arm and tie bar was rusted and stuck in place, it took me about 30 mins to get it out!!!, it did actually end up being knocked out, stupid thing!!!!

so stripped subby



i've de greased it today as well



and one perject knuckle joint and cup




suspesion wise again its just a tidy up, new bushes and rubbers everywhere, new ball joints, wheel bearings, brake discs and pads, hoses, copper brake lines mounts

so tomorrow i've got a massive box of parts to shotblast, i'm gonna be covered in sand again.......

oh and yesterday my drivers door glass in the green mini exploded as i was driving along a dual carriage, so i had to take the door off and replace the glass.....

[sazal]

Looks like its coming along nicely

[Jupitus]

This project and your attitude to it is an inspiration!!!

[edi57]

Great work AGAIN (!) Emalee. You really seem to keep up the pace, which puts me to shame with the pace of my project!

I can see that you're going to have your mini on the road in no time. Keep up the fantastic work (and the frequent updates!).

Ed

[BMC Paul]

All i can say is yet again, you doing well and sticking at it! Don@'t understand what happend to your mini tho mate re the window exploding while you was driving along, u sure some dim wit didnt throw somthing at it while you was driving, minis get alot of attention ive found and not always from the nicest of people or kids... keep at the sky mate and you'll get there! Your dads done very well with the brazing etc!

[liam_italian]

You brazed the joints, that's some quality old skool method right there! I was considering doing the same only with lead.

[emalee]

You brazed the joints, that's some quality old skool method right there! I was considering doing the same only with lead.

we've done the same on my mini and that was done about 4 and half years ago and there is no problems with it and i've done about 60k. one of the headlight joints was left unbrazed on one side (i don't quite know why) and this has got a few bubbles on it and the other side is fine, so it proves it works, and means you can tidy up the join nicely

[emalee]

Great work AGAIN (!) Emalee. You really seem to keep up the pace, which puts me to shame with the pace of my project!

I can see that you're going to have your mini on the road in no time. Keep up the fantastic work (and the frequent updates!).

Ed

Thanks Ed

its called being unemployed

but its great for progress!!! LOL

its no where near the standard of your work tho!!!

[emalee]

All i can say is yet again, you doing well and sticking at it! Don@'t understand what happend to your mini tho mate re the window exploding while you was driving along, u sure some dim wit didnt throw somthing at it while you was driving, minis get alot of attention ive found and not always from the nicest of people or kids... keep at the sky mate and you'll get there! Your dads done very well with the brazing etc!

it was in the middle of the country, so its ruling out people throwing things, i reckon it was stone being flicked up, as there was a hole near the wing mirror, its just wierd because most the glass went out and not in, or a change in temp, it was lovely warm tee shirt weather ish, for winter!!!

i'm not glad it happened, but its good practice for putting the glass in the door for when i do the skys, and my paint really isn't the best (ish, i'm such a perfectionist, it NEEDS (in my opinion) a respray) so i don't mind too much putting a few stratches in the door, while i'm learning, and i'll do the skys with out any (it was only because of the glass in the carpet the door was on!!!)

[daveeeeee]

the bolt that goes thru the bottom arm and tie bar was rusted and stuck in place, it took me about 30 mins to get it out!!!, it did actually end up being knocked out, stupid thing!!!!

same problem! i wanted to change the bushes to the front, but cant go messing with it because its my run about

looking good though =)

[edi57]

You brazed the joints, that's some quality old skool method right there! I was considering doing the same only with lead.

we've done the same on my mini and that was done about 4 and half years ago and there is no problems with it and i've done about 60k. one of the headlight joints was left unbrazed on one side (i don't quite know why) and this has got a few bubbles on it and the other side is fine, so it proves it works, and means you can tidy up the join nicely

Without wanting to sound too thick... how do you go about doing brazing?? Do you just get a brass rod and a blow torch?

Thanks,

Ed