297 replies to this topic

[steven]

love the steels ! nice work

[Steely]

Wow! They are looking very nice!

[scotty_1987]

steels are full of win

Nathan

[The Otter]

Thanks for the comments guys

The sun was a bit intense at the time I fitted the wheels, so I only have one photo of the wheels on the car, but here's a before and after shot for you.

Big steels



Little steels



I just need to remember that I can't throw it in to the corners the same as I used to, now it just wibbles and understeers

Edited by The Otter, 09 December 2012 - 04:53 PM.

[scotty_1987]

it looks really cool with those on it man...looks like a little race car or something :)


Nathan

Edited by scotty_1987, 10 December 2012 - 02:07 PM.

[ToddM]

Hey man! Great work on the car, I love it. I'll be going down a similar route with the MK1 grille, was just wondering how you got away with the MK1 lights in the back? Do you not need any extra lights? I'll probably just stick to MK2s as I like their square profile.
PS: SIlly me, saw the lights under the bumper... Sorry for spamming your thread, mate!

Edited by ToddM, 13 December 2012 - 09:39 PM.

[Tamworthbay]

Let me know how you get on with the shocks, if yours are the originals I think the difference will be massive. I predict significant grin factor on the first outing.

[The Otter]

A couple of things to update with, firstly is the purchasing of some lovely new shocks from Tamworthbay, as he indicated above! I bought them a couple of weeks before Christmas but due to a small issue with one of the shocks (which was very generously sorted out for me by Tamworthbay) I've only just got them back in perfect working order today. They'll be going on the car sometime late next week hopefully, so I'll put up a couple of pics of them on the car soon.

They're Protech shocks, lowered spec adjustables made from billet alloy, the ones I've wanted for a while now and could finally afford just before Christmas, and they're a bit unique in that they've been anodised in blue rather than clear as they normally are. This was a special order request from Tamworthbay when he bought them new from Protech a while back, to match his blue Mini, so I doubt I'll ever see another blue set. A couple of photos for you here:





Can't wait to fit them now and see what proper shocks do to the ride - I'm sure the 20 year old standard shocks on my car are getting towards the end of their useful life anyway!

Next thing is the fitting of a good security system on the car. I know a lot of Minis have been stolen recently, particularly round the Midlands, so I've been wanting something to give me a bit more peace of mind for a while now. I also know that a lot of people say that you shouldn't advertise what security you have on your car, but to be honest I don't want to get all worried and paranoid about this stuff, I want to be able to share the story of my car with you and not be afraid of the outcome of what I say on here. Let's be honest, if a 'professional' car thief wants your car specifically then they will get it no matter what you do to keep the car safe, but this security system will deter the opportunist that little bit more.



Oh yeah, it's also got central locking now too

I'm also getting some new bonnet straps made up for me, as this happened to one of the old ones a couple of weeks ago.



The new ones are going to be made from much better quality leather and have solid brass buckles rather than the nasty steel ones that went rusty on these cheap straps.

I'm also going to be getting an engine crane for my birthday, along with a few other tools that might be useful for engine building/re-building, so the plan is already coming together for some serious engine work in the summer

That's all for now, so I'll just leave you with a picture of how the car is looking right now (with added Protech sticker on the corner of the bonnet ).



Thanks for reading

The Otter

Edited by The Otter, 16 January 2013 - 12:50 AM.

[Steely]

Needs chrome trim to complete it I think lol. But looks amazing with no arches and those wheels :)

[The Otter]

Needs chrome trim to complete it I think lol. But looks amazing with no arches and those wheels :)

Thanks, glad you like it man Yeah I was going to re-fit the chrome trim once I took the arches off, but it's obviously moulded itself to the shape of the arches and I couldn't be bothered to heat it up and reshape it at the time. It shouldn't take too long to do, so I'll try and refit it next weekend the same time I do the shocks.

[jb93]

I'd finally managed to convince myself that GAZ were the way forward..... now don't know those Protechs look

[Tamworthbay]

I'd finally managed to convince myself that GAZ were the way forward..... now don't know those Protechs look

If you buy GAZ make sure you don't go it The Otters car. You will hate yourself. Spend the Little bit extra and get Protechs, they are brilliant. Customer service is superb, quality is the best available AND they are fully rebuildable so will save money in the long run. I have run a few minis with these now and they are brilliant, I only sold these to the The Otter as I have gone for Protech Coilovers for my project.

[rob963]

Looking good! central locking is always gonna be a bonus!

and those shocks are gonna make a massive improvement over your old standard ones

[The Otter]

Small update here, just to say I'm halfway through doing the shocks on the car. It took me all of 20 minutes to fit the fronts earlier, but I want to give the wheels a good clean and polish whilst they're off the car, so I'm leaving it until tomorrow to do that in daylight and then fit the rear shocks.

Spot the difference?



Ahh, they shall not be that spotless for long (Well they probably will actually, as I shall explain shortly after these pictures...)





I have a bit of a problem you see... the "small issue" I mentioned before has come back again, even after being sent away to Protech to get fixed, so I once again have a front shock absorber that's leaking all of it's fluid out of the adjuster dial (which you can sort of see - the shiny spot in between the dial and the shock body on the first picture) - before I've even had a chance to use the damn things! I seem to have been pretty unlucky here, as the apparent fantastic quality of Protech is beginning to slip away in my mind, as I wouldn't exactly expect a brand new seal to perish (again) after just sitting in a box for a week I'm sure my case is just a one off though, they've got such a good reputation that I'm not exactly going to throw these away and use something else. I also have no doubt that their customer service is fantastic, so I'll have to re-fit the old front shocks for now and get this leaky thing fixed and re-attached to the car in a couple of weeks. I'll still fit the new rear shocks though, I can't see anything leaking from those

Also, my new bonnet straps have arrived, and don't they look lovely



I think they look lovely anyway No pictures of them fitted to the car yet as I didn't have any nuts/bolts small enough to go through the eyelet holes - but they've been ordered off the interwebs so I should have these straps on the car by the end of the week.

Finally, I have acquired some new (old) wiper arms, with the hook type fitting. Ever since I bought my car, I've found my stainless bayonet wiper arms/blades to be utterly useless whatever I try with them, so I sourced these original arms, which have a much stiffer spring so can provide more force to the windscreen and therefore actually wipe the water off the screen rather than smear it around pointlessly! Anyway yes, so I've ordered a pair of aero wiper blades off eBay for them, they should also be here by the end of the week so then I can drive a lot more safely in the rain Here, have a blurry picture:



That's all for now, but I'll probably update again in a few days when I've got the new straps and wipers on.

Thanks for reading

The Otter

Edited by The Otter, 12 January 2013 - 01:32 AM.

[rally515]

Does anyone know were i can get some 10" wellers ? i love them sooooooo much