7 replies to this topic

[colboy888]

Hello all,

Well here is my new Mini ARCHIE! He's a cheeky little orange chap that I have waited 10 years to get my hands on.

Ok, maybe not 10 years for him, but a mini.

I last worked on Herbert, my 1982 Mini city E 998 until I sold him as I was a poor student.

Now I have finally bought myself something I can really get to grips with, now work and budget are within my grasp I can hopefully really turn him into something special.

Archie is a 1983 Mini Mayfair that is is need of some restoration. The previous owners, Jeff and his Son, reluctantly parted with Archie (my name for him, not theirs) after he sat for a couple of years on Jeff's drive. Jeff and his Son phoned me from an advert I placed on another forum as I think they knew Archie would go to a good home with me and I don't believe I will let them down.

Once a loved member of the family Archie was used and looked after until he finally stopped working and a more reliable form of transport had to be sourced. Left on a drive for some time he has all the usual rust (boot, windscreen, doors etc..) but both the sills and subframes appear intact and untouched by the dreaded rot. HURRAH!!

Archie doesn't run, infact he doesnt even start! There is no electrical power what so ever and I have the battery on charge infront of me now and the readout says it was charged since I put it on there, so its unlikely the battery.

I have some pictures attached at the bottom here, you can see the general state he's in, its not bad, just a little neglect has caused the rot to set in and now its down to me to get him roadworthy and re started.

As for my plans for this little chap, we shall have to wait and see. I completely rewired a Ford Focus some time ago and electrics and ICE especially are my forte. My Focus looked and sounded like a disco inside with a built in arcade, so Archie could be in for some top notch upgrades.

But first.

Where to start? The rust has to be stopped and the engine started. New door and window seals are on order to help stop water leaking in and I might just have to patch the holes for now to stop further rsut until I can get the engine sorted.

I expect He will not stay orange either, I am a great fan of gun metal grey and this is a real possibility for the final stages.

I hope anyone reading decides to follow my progress and also chip in with help and advice, I'm always open to opinions and tips!!

Ok, see you around,

Col and Archie!

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[colboy888]

Well after further investigations Archie has got a few more holes than i first thought. The interior was so wet it all had to come out, along with the carpets, soundproofing and the headlining will be next. I have thrown away all the interior except the seats which are dryin in the garage, there was so much water I just knew there would be more rust.

Prodding with a screwdrived found more holes in the drivers side floor and rear floor pans. Its frightening to look down and see the floor under the car!!

I have started removing the horrible faux leather dash that was standard in these mayfairs, its just horrible!

I tried to remove the top rail but the bolts are rusted in, so I'm going to need to coat them with rust killer and see what happens after that! They'll probably just fall off!!!

Archies had the day in the sun and now hes much drier, i removed the back ashtray by chissling the rivets out, it ripped my jogging bottoms and part of my leg when it was in so i decided to get shot of it!!!!

Also I took the bonnet off to make getting to the engine easier but a mouse had made a nice home out of the sound proofing and this all had to go to, wet and chewed up it was a dirty job to remove it all.

Radio's long since gone and that was unbolted and taken out too.

I'm not sure but I like the sparse lok of the interior, im debating wether to replace the carpets or leave it bare, I'm leaning towards bare but I'm not 100% on that, watch this space. I also already have an awesome idea for the back seats which would become a lovely entertainment system/storage system.

pictures below, look at those lovely holes!!!


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[Bean]

Best of luck with it - Looks like a decent little mini to start from!

What are you planning to use the car for? You might find that it's very, very noisy without any carpets! If it's only a play thing, then it wouldn't matter so much!!

[colboy888]

Best of luck with it - Looks like a decent little mini to start from!

What are you planning to use the car for? You might find that it's very, very noisy without any carpets! If it's only a play thing, then it wouldn't matter so much!!

thank you for your kind words of encouragement.

It's just a play thing so noise isn't an issue.

I had the bonnet of archie again today, trying to find out why he doesn't start or have any power.

Much checking of wiring and fixing the interior light circuit and door switches later, still no closer to finding out why he has no power.

Power is getting from the battery to the solenoid but it doesn't seem to be getting to the ignition switch.

I'm thinking a new solenoid is in order so it's off to eBay for me.

More soon.

[colboy888]

Its another week gone by and after some more mucking about this is what I've done and discovered.

Firstly there was major problems with power getting from the battery to the engine, after much checking and testing I decided that a new solenoid and also two new earth straps were in order. One in the usual place and another I've added in between the starter motor and the engine earth strap. You can see them shining new in the photo below.

The battery that came with Archie is pretty bad. I also saw that the battery connectors on Archie were the old screw in kind, literally screwing through the terminals! I checked the earth strap and it was pretty busted so I bought a new one, the modern bolted kind but decided against a new positive feed as it seems to be working ok now.

Now with more power to the engine I can see more of whats happening, unfortunately, I dont know whats happening. I think that power is not getting to the coil or the distributor as I took the ht leads off the spark plugs and turned the engine and then placed the leads to the engine earth and no spark, then i did the same with the ht lead coming form the coil and again, no spark. BUT i tested the ht lead from the coil with my multi meter and with the ignition on it gets 12 volt readings? Strange?

I have a video of him turning over, any ideas and help would be massively appreciated.

Also I have noticed that Archie Has some "extra" wiring. Firstly at the coil there is a wire going to the solenoid and the fuse block (old four way fuse block) entering at position one. Also there is a wire going to what looks like a suppressor/earth, just above the coil and finally one leading to the distributor (i think its the LT lead). Again, a photo below shows what I'm talking about, if you can make it out.

Lastly but not leastly I continued with taking the last of the dash out and the windscreen, but alas it started to rain and I was forced to abandon my pursuits and get Archie covered up.

Many thanks for any help or advice!

Col

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http://img291.images...ussupressor.jpg
http://img519.images...ewsolenoid2.jpg
http://img194.images...gnitioncoil.jpg
http://img705.images...igcoilclose.jpg
http://img106.images...alldashgone.jpg
http://img294.images...ienewearths.jpg


Photos are massive so decided to make them clicky rather than straight upload here!

[Bean]

You're so right - those terminals are horrendous, hehe. You might want to consider a larger battery, if you were thinking of upgrading? I've got a 306 Diesel battery in mine - That's the largest that you can get into the battery box itself!

[colboy888]

You're so right - those terminals are horrendous, hehe. You might want to consider a larger battery, if you were thinking of upgrading? I've got a 306 Diesel battery in mine - That's the largest that you can get into the battery box itself!

indeed, the wiring leaves a lot to be desired and because it stood for about 2 years the terminals are all rusty and a few wires have just coroded off at the terminals leaving the connectors still rusted on.

Plus gas at the ready.

Well my dads gone away for 2 weeks and we are trying to work on Archie together so I'll be getting on with replacing seals and tidying up more in the interior ready for his return and then we can try and get the engine running.

Reading the new mini world mag I noticed some anti roll bars on a few cars, especially the Japanese mini's and it's really piqued my interest, so who knows. I'm leaning more and more to making Archie less of a daily runner and more of a race inspired road legal car. We'll see.

[colboy888]

Well it's been a while but now I'm back on the mini re build as my trusty side kick (me dad) has returned from Spain.

Whilst daddy dearest played in the sun I took all the windows out, assesed more rust than I thought, and started tidying up the bodywork ready for welding.

Upon his return, bank holiday over with, we got cracking on archie and his failure to start. As soon as I turnedbthe key though a pipe from the fuel pump split spraying my poor ol' dad in the face. It took an hour to find a shop with the correct size pipe.

Anyways, that aside we continued to clean and test the ignition components, the distributor, the spark plugs, cleaned them all up to find the ignition coils broken, so now all I need to do is buy the right one.