49 replies to this topic

[joezone2001]

Just wanted to say your car looks really nice. I love the colour. I think your photoshopped image of our dials and radio looks the best by the way. Looks much neater. Cracking car mate! Keep up the good work
Joe

[Sisco]

The rear bulkhead welds are ok and seat belt points are still strong. I never actually have anyone in the back anyway but i understand your point and it is worth checking as if the welds had been damage it could make it unsafe. Saying that I had a crash in a mini once and the side panels came in, roof came in etc. the back passengers were the safiest as the rear section seemed to be the strongest point withh the rear seat bench across, rear bins, bulkhead and parcel shelf construction. The slight deformation of the bottom of the rear bulkhead doesnt concern me much when considering the construction of the mini and thin panels, considering the car has little rust anywhere it is a pretty solid car as minis go. I can think of weaker points in an accident, especially on cars with rusty panels.

Thanks for the comment joe! Glad you like it. I always wanted an orange mini. I Am looking forward to getting everything in the centre console too will finish it off nicely.

Edited by Sisco, 06 September 2012 - 09:22 PM.

[Sisco]

So this morning I got round to fitting a new headunit, current gauges and cigarette lighter in the centre console. Also added components including tweeters.

Before anyone give me abuse for the choice of speakers, I wanted low budget components to get some sound up front as I only drive this the occasional weekend and to shows and didnt want to spend a fortune (plus the colour scheme may have had something to do with my choice). They are still much better than the single speakers in the parcel shelf. If I decide to use this as my daily drive I will likely upgrade.

Preparing the centre console.







All fitted and wired up:







Plus some photos of the now matching back seat (tinted side windows make it look blue)

[ThePastRecedes]

No problem. If you look on page 1 it was bought from a scrap yard and had rear damage. All of the rear has been replaced including rear valance, boot floor etc as per photos and it has been inspected to be put back on the road.

The only panel that still has some damage is the rear bulkhead. This doesn't bother me too much as it is covered by the seat and rear boot kit. Depending on how long I have the car I may replace it but as its not concours it doesn't seem worthing bothering about and it will stay like it is for the foreseeable future.

Thanks for pointing it out, if I didn't know about it then it would be good to be made aware.

I don't know how much truth there is in this but this what the scrap yard people said to me. There was a spear wheel in the that back that wasn't secured when it was crash; so it went flying on impact and dis-formed the rear bulkhead.

So my uncle made that screw down jig for the wheel incase it ever happened again and so it wouldn't hurt anyone in the back.

[Sisco]

Past recedes, i hope you dont mind me continuing my updates here. I know you originally posted to show your work and mini. Don't mean to highjack just think its nice to carry on the story and to have the history from the scrap yard to present day plus it means you can follow the car you bought back from the grave..

Hows it going over there? You got a mini yet?

[ThePastRecedes]

Past recedes, i hope you dont mind me continuing my updates here. I know you originally posted to show your work and mini. Don't mean to highjack just think its nice to carry on the story and to have the history from the scrap yard to present day plus it means you can follow the car you bought back from the grave..

Hows it going over there? You got a mini yet?

I'm really quite happy that you're still posting about the mini , I check it randomly when I have nothing to do. It's always looking that little better each time.

All is fine over here in Canada I've started to settle in now.

I've been looking in to buying another mini, but they either are SORN {well Canadian equiverlant} and would cost thousands to restore or new as if they were just out the factory.

It looks like my best bet is to get an air-cooled VW of sum sort, I can get a bay window camper for about $2500 ~ £1600 which isn't too bad. And there's plenty here so I assume there is a few car clubs too. The mini car club in Ottawa seems to be mostly BMW mini's anyway .

[Sisco]

That sounds good :) I would have a VW split screen, if they were cheaper in the UK (but just didn't say that on the miniforum). There not a mini but can have just as much fun restoring one I am sure.

Got a few more updates..

Brakes failed on me the other weekend so replace wheel cylinders and brake shoes



and cleaned up the drum



Removed the engine mount which had been welded..



and fitted a new one with poly bushes



Then while I was under there used some Junk to clean all the oil off the engine, cleaned with brush, white spirit and sand paper and gave it a coat of silver spray.



Then cleaned up subframe, tie bars, steering rack in the same way. Overall its in good condition under there! kept protected by the oil. There was only slight surface rust to clean up with some wire wool. I then sprayed and painted all of this with a nice fresh lick of black paint, will probably cover the subframe in waxoil tomorrow once dry for further protection.







and took some nice shots of the engine bay at the moment (have cleaned up a few bits and added a chrome fuse cover and new radiator cap.





The front underneath is now looking pretty good underneath. Next job I want to do is strip under all the arches, paint orange to match the rest of the car and the clear waxoil over the top. Then the underneath should all look pretty good. Not going for concours but wanting everything to be as good as I can get it without completely stripping it down.

Just been looking at the original photos posted on page1.. it's had quite an adventure really.

Edited by Sisco, 15 September 2012 - 05:29 PM.

[Sisco]

Been a while since I updated due to winter however I was crazy enough to do some more work in the snow this weekend. I also rubbed down and painted the rear arches orange and waxoiled underneath the front arches before winter to protect it.



The last week I have spent some time trying to block out some of the engine noise.

I added a layer of dynamat to the bonnet and then covered this with newton commercials under bonnet kit; which I have to say is great quality and looks great. Hopefully it will protect the dynamat from too much heat as the pvc is quite thick. If not then I will replace it with hoodliner. I also added the newton commercial bulkhead insulation. With both of these fitted the engine bay looks pretty tidy too.

















And a nice shot of the mini with it's winter coat!

[Sisco]

After completing the under bonnet soundproofing I decided to bulk up on the inside of the bulkhead and block of the vents. As it seems pointless going to the effort to then have 2 big holes in the bulkhead letting the noise through plus on the single speedo I don't think they had air vents.

The air vents were a pain to remove so I drilled off the screwheads and then tapped them out with a screwdriver which knocked the back nut off the panel.



I cleaned the holes up as there was some slight rust although not too bad and coated with some silver hammerite.





I then silicone sealed the plates on and rivetted them and added silicone around them to seal them.





I added a layer of dynamat all over the current flash tape and over the blocked off vents followed by some closed cell foam and then topped with the standard felt insulation and dash liners (need to change these to some new ones without holes now). When the weather improves I will get some waxoil under the arch on the new plate to protect it.











Just need the weather to warm up so I can see if it makes any difference.

The mini looks cold without his coat but the orange looks nice against all the white!

[Sisco]

Also I got some new mini models I got the green one and the small ones the other weekend and then saw the orange one and couldn't resist!

[grahama]

Looking VERY nice. What have you done with the plastic air vent box thing under the driver wing. The pipe that went from that to the air vent you have blanked off has been removed I presume, but how have you stopped the air just exiting the box before going into the heater??

Graham

[Sisco]

I am thinking of removing the box as I have already removed the pipe that goes to the front of the car. Will leave the pipe from the heater to the hole in the inner wing I think or may even block it off.

What is the purpose of the pipe from the heater? to let cold air in? as I usually have the heater on hot air or off completely.

I never really found the air flow from the front through the pipe to the vents that effective..

[grahama]

I am pretty sure it is for air flow. Otherwise the heater is just recirculating the cabin air and going by modern cars this causes alot og misting up, does on my focus and 5 series.

All looking great tho.

Graham

[Sisco]

Thanks. Maybe i will just remove the box and keep the pipe connected to the heater leaving some air to it from under the wing.

[ThePastRecedes]

Looking great mike! I'm glad I sold the car to you!
I check on here every few months and each time you're doing all the things that I didn't have time to do.

Edited by ThePastRecedes, 27 February 2013 - 09:06 PM.