297 replies to this topic

[coopdog]

Yeah I do think they look a bit gay sometimes, but they were on the car when I got it and it just doesn't look like my car any more when I take them off... sounds a bit weird, I'm sure you kind of understand where I'm coming from I may break the emotional bond with them one day, who knows

yeah i get you :L

[george91]

Sounds good, my car was also butchered on the front arches when i bought it,, damn 13" wheels! Sounds like you have some good plans for it too, have you got much planned engine wise?

Edited by george91, 10 March 2012 - 12:12 AM.

[The Otter]

Sounds good, my car was also butchered on the front arches when i bought it,, damn 13" wheels! Sounds like you have some good plans for it too, have you got much planned engine wise?

Not for a while no, I've done about as much as I can without taking the engine out, but I'll see how it's going by the summer. If it's starting to get a bit smokey or rattly or anything then I'll probably try and pick up a 1275 to drop in, then re-build the 998 with a hotter cam and such, maybe even an over-bore, but I can take my time and do it as and when. The clutch is getting a bit worn too, still works fine but slips a little once in a while. It's also popping out of second during deceleration more and more, quite violently at times Still, not going too badly for almost 100,000 miles, and it certainly hasn't been driven gently for the past 15,000 of those The next step in performance will be getting it set up properly at the rolling road, I'm hoping for about 45bhp at the wheels, but we'll see

[rob963]

me likey!
i'll keep an eye on this one
i am sure it'll all work out very well and yeah it is brilliant for almost 100,000 miles

[The Otter]

A little update: Good results from the rolling road, went in there with 34.9bhp at the wheels and came out with 43.3bhp, mainly due to the wrong needles being in the carbs, they were far too lean throughout the whole rev range.

So, final figures were 43.3bhp at the wheels, 55.7bhp at the flywheel, and 57lbs/ft of torque. Brilliant service from Neil at Slark Race Engineering, would definitely recommend them to anyone looking for a tune up!

The only slight issue with my visit was that I was booked in for 11, and I eventually got on the rollers at 2 Neil was busy tuning a race-spec MG Midget/Austin Healey Sprite for those few hours, which was interesting enough to keep me occupied and luckily I didn't need to be anywhere else that day. It was an awesome car that Midget, managed 122bhp on it's best run, assuming it was a very well modified 1275 but I'm not sure.

I took a few pictures and recorded a couple of videos from the day:

The amazing Midget



A couple of my car on the rollers,





Torque and power curves,



Pulls wonderfully all the way up to 6000rpm now, much nicer to cruise in as well now that the mixture is almost spot on throughout the range.

That's all for now, thanks for reading

Now time for a bit of watching



Sven.

Edited by J322OverTheTop, 21 March 2012 - 08:41 PM.

[yousmeg]

sounds great

lovely mini

[giacomo]

i saw that midget at motorsport in the park last year, i instantly fell in love! its driven by an old bloke i believe ?

[rob963]

It certainly does sound very tasty now,
And pulls very cleanly :-D
Sounds like it was money well spent then...

[The Otter]

i saw that midget at motorsport in the park last year, i instantly fell in love! its driven by an old bloke i believe ?

Yeah there were a couple of elderly chaps taking care of it, still pretty spritely to jump in and out of a race car though! Was a lovely beast, all fibreglass bodywork and 9 inch wide wheels wrapped in Avon slicks, a proper old school racer.

[giacomo]

i saw that midget at motorsport in the park last year, i instantly fell in love! its driven by an old bloke i believe ?

Yeah there were a couple of elderly chaps taking care of it, still pretty spritely to jump in and out of a race car though! Was a lovely beast, all fibreglass bodywork and 9 inch wide wheels wrapped in Avon slicks, a proper old school racer.

it went well tooo by far my favourite of the day! here's a few more pics of it :)

[The Otter]

Little update, had a bit of drama last night when the steering almost completely vanished, thankfully literally only 100 yards from home. Sounded and felt like the pinch bolt had come loose on the bottom of the steering column, a lot of clicking and notchiness whilst turning the wheel, thought I'd just nip it up this morning and that would be that. However, on inspection the bolt was still as tight as a tight thing, so decided to take the column off the rack and have a look at the condition of the splines. I was greeted with this rather sobering sight inside the column:



As you can see, the splines down the first half of the opening (the ones that actually engage with the splines on the rack) were worn almost completely smooth. I've been wondering why my steering has been getting more and more vague lately...

I obviously therefore needed a replacement inner column, so I kindly asked my dad to give me a lift to the local mini specialist in the neighbouring village, as I have had to do many times in the past . A real treasure trove of a place, Col's Mini Centre in Feckenham if anyone knows it, he's been in business a long time and has a yard full of old minis and more spares and second hand bits than you can imagine. If I ever need something quickly and cheaply, I'll go to him! So anyway, popped down to Cols, asked if he had any good second hand columns lying around, so we wander round the rusty relics in the yard out back, and after not much searching find one stashed away in an old trailer.



As you can see it's not exactly brand new, but the splines are in much better condition, and a little bit of rust shouldn't deter any of us mini owners and the £8 he wanted was a bit kinder on the wallet than £38 for a brand new one. An hour's work and it was fitted to the car, the steering is sharper than it's ever been and I know now I'm not going to loose the steering whilst hooning round the country lanes!

I also took off the eyelids the other day, thanks for the suggestions guys, I prefer it without them

[rob963]

Wow! Glad nothing bad came of this!
Although I'll be willing to bet that you may have excreted something smelly..
And glad that it has been sorted quickly!

[The Otter]

So I've finished my first year of uni and am now back home, what better thing to do than give the mini a proper wash to clear up all the muck accumulated over its winter of neglect? Spent all day cleaning and polishing a few bits, I took off the bumpers, arches, sill trims and gutter trim to get all the nasty winter dirt out of all the nooks and crannies. I started about 2pm and finally finished about 11pm!

rob963 switched to clear indicator lenses the other day, and he kindly let me have his old orange lenses, as I had been wondering if my car would suit the orange a bit better to go with the retroness of the other mods. So I cleaned them up and fitted them and I definitely prefer it with the orange lenses!

Ooh, and last night I won a pair of minispares red dot cones on eBay, so they shall be added to the pile of suspension upgrade parts!









Whilst I had the arches off I thought I'd take a picture to illustrate just how much of the A-panel and wing is missing from a previous owners "modification" to fit massive 13" wheels...



Replacement panels may be bought and fitted sometime, if funds allow.

I plan on doing a few little bits and pieces to the car in the next week to make it more shiny and presentable for the London to Brighton, so expect a couple more updates soon

[yousmeg]

:0 i didnt realise that much metal had to be cut off to fit 13's

[The Otter]

:0 i didnt realise that much metal had to be cut off to fit 13's

It doesn't! That's the annoying thing As far as I know, you only need to trim the front of the arches and not take anything from the A-panel, but someone obviously got that a bit muddled up somewhere in the past, as it still rubbed on the front of the wing on full lock It really annoys me that there's such a stupidly large gap at the rear of the front arches, I swear it looks worse every time I see it...