33 replies to this topic

[Twichel04]

The polished ones pictured in the first post? They are 12x7's. They are actually golf cart wheels :) I'm not 100% sure that I am going to use them yet, because I found some Revolution RFX's that I quite like. And the cart wheels have such a low offset that I will need some super wide arches to cover them. They will probably stick out 4 inches from the bodywork.

[Darrenh88]

Nice project! If you ever want to scrap an American muscle car, you can send one my way good to see a mini in the states! Good luck

[Twichel04]

Thanks. I am glad to have one in the states too, haha. I was very lucky to find someone who imports Mini's only 5 miles away from me. Very nice guy too. I don't have a space to work on the car where I live, so it's still out at his shop and he lets me come over and work on it whenever I want until it's ready for me to start driving it.

I used to have a 65 Mustang-


But this is what happened to her-

[Darrenh88]

Ah **** man that sucks! That was a sweet looking stang too. Love the neightborhood too, I've always wanted to live in America, floridas very nice. Maybe one day ill be cruising round America in my mini too!

[Niko-mini1275]

4 inches! the wider the better
are those golf cart wheels and such safe for road use on cars?there are much higher speeds on minis,thats why i ask...
i hope you were ok after the accident with the mustang,and the passangers aswell...

[Twichel04]

The golf cart wheels are rated for something like 800lbs each, so they are more than ok for the Mini, and I will be using real car tyres on them :) Plus, if I decide to use them, I will be keeping a very close eye on them.

Luckily I was the only one in the Mustang, I was okay, but it messed up my knee a bit, and bruised a couple of ribs. The Mustang (Sally, lol) had a roll cage and 5 point harness. Despite the harness, I still hit the dash hard enough to bend it. The knob for the headlamps came off and the rod stabbed me in the knee, but I didn't even notice for a half hour, haha. After the wreck, she was about 2 feet shorter than before.

The other guy, also in a Mustang (1999) was fine.

[Twichel04]

Not much of an update, but an update none the less.

Did a little work to Flur today and she is finally starting to look like a Mini! Got some used wheel arches to put on her, and painted the steel wheels silver for now, until I get some real wheels, just so she doesn't look bad with the dirty mismatched steel wheels. Also went under the car today with a wire brush and some rust converter just to stop all of the surface rust from becoming a major problem. Also under coated the whole car today too.

New brakes on the rear-


Made a scary realization... I think I could park Flur inside my SUV, haha-


You can see some of the damage to the rear end in that picture.

Unfortunately, while I was under the car, I found a small coolant leak. It's not a big deal, I was planning on redoing the entire cooling system anyway, I will just be doing it sooner rather than later.

I didn't get any pictures of my garage/boot handle experiment on the car, because my phone died, BUT, it fits perfectly, no modifications needed at all. The mounting holes on the handle line up perfectly with the holes in the boot lid, and the square peg is the exact same size as the correct boot handle, so the garage handle works perfectly with the original latch! 4.gif The only thing I will have to do is trim the peg a bit.

Took these pictures earlier when I was testing to see if the two parts would work together-




And finally, the obligatory photo shoot edits

[Twichel04]

Small update- did a bit of work on Flur today, but it felt like I was going backwards. This whole time, I have been putting her back together to get back on the road, but because of the coolant leak, today I was taking her apart

The leak was just a spit hose, but I knew that the radiator would need to come out anyway, so I bought a new one, and I am really glad that I did. If you just touch the fins on the old radiator, they fall off, haha.

Old-


New-


That's about as far as I got on the cooling system today, because my new hoses hadn't arrived yet. So I went about getting some of the little things done that I need to do before she goes on the road... Cleaned up all the grounds, got the tail lights in, and blinkers working, finished fitting the interior (save for the carpet), took the grille off so that I can try to fix it, etc.

All that's left to do before I can start driving her everyday is to refit the cooling system, put in some seat belts, and new headlamps. Then she's good to go.

I feel like I took a step back though, cause she started the day like this-


and ended like this-

[Twichel04]

I am a serious penny pincher when it comes to the car. The grille on Flur was on it's way out. At one point the bonnet release broke, so someone tore into the grille to get to it-


Flur will not be perfect by any means, she is just a daily driver, but I can't stand the bent up grille with half the slats falling off, but I also don't want to spend the money on a new grille that will look better than the rest of the car, so I decided to try to bend the slats back as best I could, reattach them, and polish it up.

Before-


Taped up to keep from scratching the slats and to paint the metal backing. I kind of like the green slats... but I don't think it would be a good look for Flur-


After-


Still not perfect, but A LOT better than before, and it was cheaper than even buying a used grille, which would have looked about the same. All in all, I am happy with it.

[Maverick78]

Great job so far mate! I bet your itching to get her on the road. Loved Sally too. Beautiful car which you don't see here
In Ireland. Keep up the good work!

[AndrewMini]

not a bad starting point. wish mine started like that instead of a rust pit!!

[Twichel04]

Great job so far mate! I bet your itching to get her on the road. Loved Sally too. Beautiful car which you don't see here
In Ireland. Keep up the good work!

Thanks. Yeah I miss Sally quite a bit. I love the Mini, I haven't been this excited about a car since Sally. She's also the first car that I have named since then too, haha.

not a bad starting point. wish mine started like that instead of a rust pit!!

Well believe me, she does have her share of rust, but luckily it's not too bad. The biggest issues are mostly cosmetic.

Speaking of cosmetic, I did a little more cleaning up today....

The fan shroud was pretty rough looking, and I wanted to spruce it up so it didn't look even worse when I put in the shiny new radiator.

Before-


After a bit of work with some steel wool, and some paint, it ended up like this-




Not perfect by any means, but a ton better to look at, and perfectly usable for a daily driver :)

Sorry I keep boring you guys with all this little stuff, I am just trying to keep a good record of all the work I am doing to Flur.

[minimikej]

Nah, this is great, there's nothing wrong with just keeping your Mini alive. I'm amazed there is a following at all out in the States, I remember watching Grease2 sometime way back before I had any taste and wondering how that Mini got there :)

[mk1leg]

that mustang only had a small shunt... .....all fixable.. ....lol.......and nice work on tidying up the mini..................

[Twichel04]

Thanks guys! Hopefully if all goes according to plan, she'll be on the road in two weeks! Not much left to do...well A LOT left to do, but not very much to get her on the road, haha.

I've got the cooling system refitted. It's running just a little warmer than I would like it to when sitting at an idle for a long period of time, but I will soon rectify that with a full time electric fan.

New exhaust arrived today! Well not new, it's used, but used very little. I'm still not sure how it will sound, it's just an RC40 resonator (front box only) set up with a centre exit. I couldn't pass it up for the price. If I don't like the sound, back up on ebay it will go.





The exhaust might not go on for a while as it is not really a priority, it was more of an impulse purchase. Now I am just waiting on my new tyres, tail lamps, and carpets.