363 replies to this topic

[Mini-Mad-Craig]

Edited by Mini-Mad-Craig, 24 November 2016 - 06:18 PM.

[Bartje]

Can't wait to see MinBin finished and back on the road again !! 

[86mayfair]

Looking good! I dropped my shell off just as yours was finished! They should be starting it soon

 

I saw the plates and thought 'I know I recognise this car...' haha

[RawlinsGTR]

Duncan did say that someone had mentioned that they'd recognized my car!

 

Can't say I remember you though Did we wave?

 

Good luck with yours

[86mayfair]

Yeah I saw it around Ashford a few times I think - I'm pretty sure you bombed it past me on the dual carriageway a couple of times haha

This is mine as was

[fattail95]

Yeah I saw it around Ashford a few times I think - I'm pretty sure you bombed it past me on the dual carriageway a couple of times haha

This is mine as was

 

Hows progress on yours doing mate? We need some pics lol

[Zeemax Adventure]

Excellent progress....bet you cant wait to get those wheels turning again.  And you two are just tooooo cute haha....every bf ive had just doesnt understand my car addiction i shall be following progress :)

[Mini-Mad-Craig]

It's going to be a moment of pure joy when it's all done thats for sure. I'll let Simon do a proper update, but I will say that the car was as good as 'finished' until we went to do the rear brake shoes and discovered that the rear Subframe was basically held together with rust, aside from it being removed from the car for the sills etc   We planned to take it to MITP last weekend, so after removing the subframe on the evening of last wednesday and got it ready to accept its new one with the MOT rebooked to Friday at 12 (Giving Simon and me another day to do the small thing). I worked all day on Thursday so Simon went to Minispares after dropping me off and picked up a new one, then set about rebuilding it with Josh. 

 

Unfortunately as it turns out the radius arms are buggered So the car missed MITP, in a way it's a blessing in disguise (as was the crash!) since basically everything on the car is brand new now.

 

Simon will do a proper update soon, busy at the moment fitting new brake lines and rebuilding the new heritage rear subframe. 

 

Stay tuned folks, this is going to be one perfect little car when finished  And with no more deadlines to meet other than Simon starting uni on the 16th of next month he has time to do everything properly

 

And THANKS! I'm sure you will find a Mini loving (or car loving!) guy in the future

Edited by Mini-Mad-Craig, 15 August 2013 - 11:16 AM.

[Mini-Mad-Craig]

Also, it's NEARLY CHRISTMAS!!!

 

 

[scotty_1987]

OOh Craig...

 

[Zeemax Adventure]

Any more progress lads :)

[RawlinsGTR]

Hi all!

 

Thanks for the interest haha!

 

Unfortunately in my rush to get things done for MITP I stopped really taking pictures of stuff, so there's a big gap in progress documentation between about 2 weeks before MITP and now.

 

I'll put up all the photos I have of before MITP for now, and then when it's stopped raining and I've resumed working on the car (waiting for some radius arms to come in stock at minispares) I'll try and catch up with the photos.

 

I'll do some explaining after I've listed these photos:

 

 

 

A rubbish quality photo of me stripping and retaping the engine bay loom:

 

One of the engine loom done:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just a quick picture of this lush stick of metal I didn't know I had, sorry it's rubbish quality:

 

Oh and these are how my wheels currently look, they're not finished yet, the spokes are gonna be polished

 

So that's it I'm afraid.

 

I could list all the things that I've done so far (which is a lot more than what the pictures show) but I'd rather get photos of it and show it that way, because looking at new stuff is always more fun than reading about it!

 

Here's just a quick fly over of what happened the week I had off work before MITP:

 

Things became a rush, and I really wanted to get the car done. I was up at about 8 every morning and didn't come back inside till dark at night. I managed to get the engine started fine (after a little tinkering with the wires going to the starter motor) but then had quite a few problems with what appeared to be earths (thanks for all the help Oli!). It took me four days to sort that out. Then the windscreen had to come back out so I could fit the top dash rail. Then I started filling up the brake fluid to find that one of the outlets of the brake master cylinder was blocked, so that had to come off and be cleared, and put back on. Then when I got brake fluid moving through the pipes, I found a major leak at the union just above the driver's side brake hose, so I had to swap over the braided hoses (thanks to Shifty's advice), which included removing a few parts from the engine bay in order for me to be able to do so. Then when I went to bleed one of the rear wheel cylinders, the bleed nipple rounded itself in the cylinder, so it didn't go up tight, so I had to go and buy a new cylinder from the motorfactors. However, when I got home, I found that I couldn't screw the brake line back into it. So I went off to minispares to get new brake lines (I also have braided hoses at the rear too) and two new cylinders which I got onto the car. But then Craig noticed some major rust on my rear subframe that looked like this:

 

 

I got hit pretty hard by that, as Craig saw, but he convinced me to go back to minispares to buy a new subframe and to try and get it fitted the same night. This was Friday night, the night before MITP. I had Josh (minijosh92) come over to help, who kindly obliged, but after putting one radius arm on, we realised that both radius arms had a serious amount of play in them. And that was the end of the efforts to get it ready for the weekend.

 

All of these problems now mean that I have either restored or renewed pretty much every part of the car. It's currently sitting outside on my driveway on a pallet with no subframe, whilst I wait for a pair of recon radius arms to come in stock at minispares.

 

I've got 3 weeks till I start university, and I'd like to get it done before then so that Craig and I can go for a drive and see what all the hard work has been about.

 

When I get the radius arms I'll take pictures of everything else as well, and ofc pictures of (hopefully) what resembles the done product.

 

Anyway, sorry for all the typing, and the lack of photos! Here's the most recent photo I have of the car:

 

 

Thanks for looking! :)

 

Simaig

[alex-95]

Look's good simon, shame about the problems, The wheels look good.

 

Hope you get it done before you go to uni. Look forwards to seeing it finished

[jb93]

MINBIIINNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!

[scotty_1987]

Good stuff guys, be interesting to see it on those wheels, they look just swell 

 

Nath