647 replies to this topic

[mini-mad-mark]

And this is a surprisingly good little ratchet, great for hard to reach places like the bulkhead side of the radiator shroud, Lidl's finest!

Is that really a six sided 1/4" AF one end and a 12 point 11mm AF at the other? Re-defines "combination" spanner

[colinf1]

Everything eventually reassembled, after last weekends saga of the lost choke trunnion, picked up a spare from James in Minifix.

Today got it turned in the shed to drive it up the grass onto the patio so I can wash and polish it before trying a ceramic coating. At least I can do it in stages being dry under the lean-too roof.

Some fresh fuel in the float chamber, bit of choke and it fired up first try. Then came the fun bit, trying to get it moving on the boggy wet grass. One wheel was on the path, the other did a spot of ploughing...



Good job it needed to be washed...



But it's all cleaned now, ready for clay bar then cut and polish, then try the ceramic coating.

[colinf1]

Had it out for a few spins around the village over the past week, dialling in the AFA needle. Seems to be nice and responsive now, plugs are nice and clean.

Whilst looking for the choke trunnion, I loosened off the steering rack and gave it a wiggle, just to see if it had got caught between that and the body, tightened it back up and it wasn't til I got it onto a straight section of road that I noticed I had knocked out the alignment. Loosened off the nuts again and gave it another wiggle in the opposite direction, nipped up the nuts again and now it's much better.

Been trying to update the scale model on the parcel shelf to be as close to the actual car as possible...

https://youtube.com/...siE91E7TRlkj6kN

[Designer]

Hi,

 

Here is a question.

How deep have you gone with the model on the back shelf of the model on the back shelf of your real beutiful Mini?

 

Amazing.

 

Paddy

[colinf1]

You can let us know how it goes as this is something I am after myself.

 

Finally got a chance to test this suction cup & selfie stick combo out with my Insta360 x3.

 

I had a flag attached to it, which I think caused it to rotate slightly. The main suction cup base plate is flat, so its a bit hard to get it to fully attach to the curved screen without pressing very hard. 

 

Maximum speed achieved here was 80km/h or 50mph, so I'm impressed that it stayed on, the roads were fairly rough and it did shorten the stick, but maybe I didn't have it locked tight enough.

 

Edited by colinf1, 18 March 2026 - 01:07 PM.

[colinf1]

Second attempt at using the suction cup mounted selfie stick, this time at April's edition of Cars and Coffee North East. This involved a trip on the motorway afterwards to get some Easter Sunday dinner. Max speed on motorway was about 115km/h ~71mph, camera stayed on perfectly fine.

Not much audio gets picked up other than wind noise, you can hear the engine slightly when pulling off. Footage of the motorway run won't open to allow me to edit it

A quickly edited video, 5.7k recording is .uch sharper than the 4k

https://youtu.be/1cA3oeg3CRs

I had been able to get gps speed and tracking the last time I used it, but this time I just recorded direct from the camera - it turns out that the GPS data comes from the phone if you use the app to control the recording.

Had a look at the sparkplugs to see how the mixture has been since changing over to the AFA needle, all 4 plugs look to be burning nice and clean.





Whilst I was at the car, I took the dizzy cap off, small bit of wear on the contact points, so cleaned everything up including the rotor arm.

A nice photo of the car, captured by Projeckied

I had washed it, but a lot of crud and leaves got blown over by morning.

[Retro_10s]

Nice to see the AFA needle is working well for you, I think it's likely to be my choice of needle too, when the time comes

[colinf1]

Up to around 360 miles on the AFA needle now, and seems to be running really well, a nice clean burn across all cylinders.

A wee bit of tinkering today making infill trim panels for the boot lid segments.



Minis in the city in Lisburn is the next big outing, debating whether to all go in the mini or take both the mini and my wife's car. It's a bit of a squeeze with 2 of the 3 kids needing car seats, the wife, a buggy, the picnic, changing bags, sun hats, the kitchen sink...oh the joys!

[colinf1]

Been attending a few local vintage runs in the past few weeks, as well as driving it as much as possible to do school runs or popping to the shops, it's been driving really well.

I decided to fit an AFR gauge, got the bung welded in just behind the gear selector housing and got it wired in today.



Was hoping to come into cabin at the reverse switch wiring, but the plug is massive, so came along the selector steady bar, onto subframe and up on the metal fuel pipe, then piggy backed along the Speedo drive cable.




I've installed it just beside the rev counter, using a small stainless steel L bracket that's pushed in along the side the rev counter body into the rev counter housing. The AFR gauge came black as standard, so added a chrome ring with a marker to match the rest of the gauges.



Took it for a spin to get it all up to temperature, then once back home I adjusted the idle baseline closer to 14.7 as it was 12.6~.

I'm getting 14ish across most of the rev range, 2,3,4,5k, so happy enough with that, but letting off the accelerator to drop back to idle made the engine cut out.

I adjusted the idle mixture again, setting it low 13's and it seems to idle fine after letting off the pedal after doing the rev range.

Might get to Cars and Coffee on Sunday, depends on weather, but more importantly if the kids co-operate 🤣🤣

[colinf1]

Also still trying to figure out the best use for the insta360 camera, some footage of the last vintage run...

https://youtu.be/KgIUWdj2PbQ

[colinf1]

Got a bulkhead blanking plate from Hawthorn Mini Works, got it primed and painted yesterday, and fitted today.

It's definitely something that would be best fitted before the engine is in, as it's very very tight to get the Speedo cable nut tightened back up as it has to be inserted through the plate before doing it all up.

It also didn't help that I had the cable from the O2 sensor, power cable to the AFR gauge and a temperature sensor wire to the ashtray clock to deal with, but got there eventually, and only used a few swear words!



Also tidied up the loom with some fabric loom tape, just finishes it off a tad nicer than electrical tape.

[colinf1]

The missus asked me nicely to remove the bonnet stripe, I reluctantly went out to do it in the sunshine, out with the meguires ultimate compound and polisher and a parasol on wheels for some shade...I've one little stone chip on the bonnet after 3 years of being on the road, so pretty pleased with that.



Also finished off tidying the bulkhead, gave it a clean and got most of the oily marks off.



There's a local vintage run on Sunday that I might get to go to, then Minis at Glenarm Castle the following Sunday, it's about 150km each way, so we're carefully planning packing up the mini with everything we need for a weekend away with the 3 kids...🤞

[Retro_10s]

Looks great without the stripes (looked good with them too of course!), I prefer the cleaner look. Great looking mini this!!!! Always enjoy the updates you put here!

[colinf1]

Headed off to the local vintage run today, with the 1 year old, filled up at the local shop, had a strange stutter after going over a speed bump. Thought it had popped out of gear, so quickly checked it was in gear and didn't think much of it, got to the next crossroads where it cut out.

Started again first turn of key, then was coming up to the next crossroads and could get a strong smell of petrol, was only a few minutes away from the venue but it cut out again! Got out and popped bonnet, didn't notice anything in particular until I seen petrol dripping from the overflow pipe. Pushed it back from the junction into the side of the road and had another quick rummage, forgot to put my flathead screwdriver back in the car toolbox 🫣

Managed to get turned around and limped back home, cutting out at every junction and speed bump, had to keep the revs high to keep it from stalling.

Got it home on the driveway, put the baby up for her nap and set about finding the issue. Float chamber top removed, float removed to check the valve and found a long shard of plastic! No idea where this would have came from.



[

I've a plastic inline filter on the outlet of the tank,in the boot, just removed the boot liner to have a look at it and it looks fine, but I'm going to get a new one and replace it tomorrow before attempting to start.

I've also swapped out the mechanical fuel pump, had one with the plastic tip lever, these have been getting bad reviews for the plastic tip either wearing away or coming off completely, so in with a new one with a full metal lever with the end folded as per the original type. Another wee job was to plumb in the breather to the carb, I had the carb blanked off and the breather hose going into the stub on the airbox (which I had drilled open), so we'll see if that makes any difference to the overall fuel mixture.

[colinf1]

Had to say goodbye to my 4 legged banksman today, hip dysplasia had him nearly crippled, wasn't eating or drinking.. R.I.P. Cody...

A tight squeeze...