I got my first mini from the chef at the local pub after he t-boned a curb at 50mph.. project I thought.. He was desperate to get it out of the pub car park so gave him £20 and he bit my hand of.. Great!!
Not until my dad was towing me home I realised the extent of the damage, I wasn’t sure but are you supposed to see any of the road a head though the passenger window?? maybe slight crabbing issue...
So spent the summer with my grandad, beating the hell out of the shell trying to straighten it out. Replaced the cracked front wind screen, twisted front subby and rather banana shaped steering rack from scrapyard, them put the engine back in and generally putting everything back on for the MOT. 15 secs down the road.. my dad (driving) turns to me and says " this is not normal"... mmmmm back to square one.. more damage then than i first expected..
So needed a new shell.. ebay!!.. bought a 1980 1100 special for a MASSIVE £5.50!!!
jammy or what!!! although it is in a lovely shade of pink.. (dont ya think).. and the vinyl roof didnt stay on long.. only came with a bonnet (non rolling).. but have everything from the blue wreck. Started repairing the pink shell, which didnt take long but University meant the odd weekends was about all i could do till the next summer.. to be honest for what i paid it was 1000 times better than i expected!!.. only needing rear valance, patchs to the OSR arch area and drivers floor pan..
Once the holes where sorted i set about modifiying the rear lights with mk1 conversion plates, and smoothing over the filler cap. next up was some sexy fibre glass bits from Dave Kimberley.. including Boot Floor, Miglia arches and Mk1 outer boot skin.. boot floor took a little fiddling to fit but looks good even though the fuel tank is slightly to wide for it.. also bought some 13 x 7 white superlights, which im really please with they look just as good as I imagined..
Being on a budget the plan was to spray the inside a neutral..white so that after I MOT it and ultimatley prove that it drives in a straight line and is worth spending £XXX's on painting it.
So now the interior/engine bay and boot was finished i could start to put everything back on and connect up..
Now if I thought the project had gone smoothly then i hadnt counted on the engine being a pig!! engine went into the shell all fine, but then head gasket blew.. so ok i had a 1275 head from Minidude and went out and bought a kent 266 cam and at the same time i stumbled across Slark Race Engineering, so booked the engine in with them and they pocketed the block and fitted the cam. I didnt think using a Dremmel to pocket the block was the best idea in the world.. not mentioning any names JetBlick!!
So the engine went back into the car and connected everything up.. it ran!! but more like a tractor. so trailered it up and sent it of to slarks for fine tweeking and tuning (yeah rite)... the list of replacement or new parts needed is:
1/ radiator
2/ new clutch
3/ waterpump
4/ electric fuel pump
5/ new bearings on the front
6/ one new front hub
7/ new engine mounts
8/ complete set of shoes, pads, cylinders and discs.
the list goes on!!
Anyway after a month at Slarks, whilst it was there they dyno'd it and i got very healthy 65bhp and 65lb/ft of torque...... at the flywheel
but only a measly 35.9 at the wheels..i thought this was normal so i couldnt wait to get the car back and get it ready for the Mot..Well the first attempt at the dreaded MOT was a big fat fail. the examiner said he'd never had a car fill two pages of faults!?! ooops!!
had to get the emissions tweaked at slarks before i could retest. well next attempt was 6 failures and the emissions where the only thing to re-fail when i took it back within the 10 days.. mmmm so Slarks had it back again and set the fluctuating emissions the best they could, and they sent it to be tested at there local man who does all their MOT's... and .. it passed!!! HALLELUJAH!!! 
But the still running funny! and it was weeks before i found the problem, which is when i found this wonderful forum, somebody suggested the coil was the problem, so replaced it and no problems since..
I had the biggest grin for........er... about 3 weeks.. because apprantly that huge drop in power is the gearbox, about to die.. which it did spectacully in rush hour whilst funnily enough heading to get some paint for the exterior..(mmm i think this car has a mind of its own)
so engine out again to replace the gearbox or diff not sure which has broken yet.. thought i'd treat myself to a flip front at the same time so the front end has come of, and this is it as it is now..
future plans are:
- replace the gearbox
- paint outside,
- 4pots,
- fibreglass front end and doors!!
- down draft weber,
- oil cooler,
and roll cage..
well enough of me blabbing, hope everyone had a good chirstmas and new year.. and see ya at the shows (not in my car though)..
happy building...Aaron (Mad4mins)
Edited by mad4mins, 01 April 2007 - 03:16 PM.
