75 replies to this topic

[buddylove]

Sorry about the poorly rotated photos, Photobucket appears to be having some issues.

[buddylove]

Picked up some more parts from Pigpen and received a couple ebay purchases.

Center Binnacle



Late style Rokee Dash, its going to need a good amount of work.



Twin HS4's



Mk1 Switches - Freebies



Mk1 Boot Lid, its a bit tweaked so it will need some work as well. Hoping my body guy can help me out with it, another freebie.



And... The one I am most excited about. Mk1 Grill from the 1960's with Marchal lights.

[buddylove]

I have some updates for the thread. The head came back from the machine shop, there were no cracks in the head, but the old valve seats in it were improperly ground down. One of the factors that could of contributed to poor compression in cylinder 1. It was already an unleaded head, so that didn't need to be done. It does have new valve stem seals, valve guides, exhaust valves, and the valve seats have no been properly ground down.






My recondition Mk1 / 2 Heater came in from England a few days ago. It has a new core in it and looks to be pretty nice overall. I am pretty happy with it.

[buddylove]

After Chuck crunched all the numbers, it was discovered that the Mini was at a 13.1 compression ratio.

I ordered the ARP BMC A Series 9 Stud Head Kit yesterday. Today, Chuck got the Cometic Head Gasket ordered up, the new compression ratio will be 10.1:1.

I also ordered 2 kits for the twin HS4's from Joe Curto, Inc. They will have # 6 needles, .090" Jets, and red springs along with all the gaskets and everything else that is needed.

And, finally... I just put in a huge order with Mini Spares, hopefully almost everything that I need to build up the Mini and get it on the road, but we will see.

[buddylove]

Lis painted the head, and I put in most of the studs on Monday. Also, with the help of Chuck, we built the twin HS4's back up after I cleaned them.

Head painted:



Twin HS4's all cleaned up.



ARP 9 Stud Kit and 2 Carb Rebuild kits with # 6 needles and red springs



6pt Roll Centre Cage, from what I hear its already been tested once Thanks, Don



1" Spacered rear drums to replace my current shady spacer setup



Innocenti Sump Guard, its a lot beefier then I thought it was going to be.



Lucas Lens Converters, slightly damaged in shipping. Hoping I can buff out most of the scratches.



A bunch of other parts came as well:

Quadoptic head lamps
New rear Mk1 lenses
Clutch lever parts
Brake switch
Temp. sensor
Distributor Shield
Heater Valve
New battery box
And, a bunch of other stuff.

I will have more updates after Sunday.

[timmins]

Interesting project! Out of interest... I think I have your old Clubman. It made its way all the way over to the east coast. It likes the weather here!

[buddylove]

Interesting project! Out of interest... I think I have your old Clubman. It made its way all the way over to the east coast. It likes the weather here!

Yes, your avatar looks very much like my old clubman. I regret having to sell it, but it was necessary at the time. Is the crease in the driver's door all sorted out now?

I hope you received all the records with it, I had quite an extensive amount on it.

[timmins]

Interesting project! Out of interest... I think I have your old Clubman. It made its way all the way over to the east coast. It likes the weather here!

Yes, your avatar looks very much like my old clubman. I regret having to sell it, but it was necessary at the time. Is the crease in the driver's door all sorted out now?

I hope you received all the records with it, I had quite an extensive amount on it.

I did get all the history (including the TMF sticker, which is in the window now I'm still not really sure about its life in New Zealand, I can't find any evidence of restoration, and the paint all seems original. So any info there would be welcome.

Other than the crease, it's in amazing condition. I did a fair amount of mechanical work, it wasn't really running well when I got it. It's pretty close to perfect now!

I'll keep an eye on your project, it looks fun. I kinda wish I didn't have something so original... I'm dying to do a 16V conversion or something similarly mental, but I couldn't do it to the Clubman.

[buddylove]

Interesting project! Out of interest... I think I have your old Clubman. It made its way all the way over to the east coast. It likes the weather here!

Yes, your avatar looks very much like my old clubman. I regret having to sell it, but it was necessary at the time. Is the crease in the driver's door all sorted out now?

I hope you received all the records with it, I had quite an extensive amount on it.

I did get all the history (including the TMF sticker, which is in the window now I'm still not really sure about its life in New Zealand, I can't find any evidence of restoration, and the paint all seems original. So any info there would be welcome.

Other than the crease, it's in amazing condition. I did a fair amount of mechanical work, it wasn't really running well when I got it. It's pretty close to perfect now!

I'll keep an eye on your project, it looks fun. I kinda wish I didn't have something so original... I'm dying to do a 16V conversion or something similarly mental, but I couldn't do it to the Clubman.

I was the third owner of it, it was owned my an elderly lady for most of its life in New Zealand. It was then "restored" and put up for a national price. A school teacher won it and didn't have any use for it, so the man I bought it off of had it shipped here in a container with a couple other Mini's. That is the short version basically.

It is a shame that it was in poor condition when you got it. I had just finished putting in over $1000 worth of parts on it before I sold it on. It was running tip top when I had it, as I did a complete tune up on it and had it checked out by a Mini mechanic after. I also am the one that put all of the new suspension components on it. I gave all the old suspension stuff and mirrors as well as headlamps to the guy that bought it from me. I also couldn't bear to modify such a nice example. I am glad you are doing the same with it.

[buddylove]

Here is the link to my old build thread for the Clubbie.

http://www.theminifo...mp;hl=buddylove

[Down&Out]

Judging by what i've heard minis cost out in america, this must be costing you!

Nice work on this.

[buddylove]

Thanks!

With how much Mk1 shells go for in the US, I think I made out pretty good in terms of price. Granted mine is a bit hacked up, but it will still be fun in the end. I am also lucky enough to have a few mk1 Mini parts collectors in the area, so I have gotten some good deals.

[buddylove]

More work done yesterday. Cleaned up the piston walls and top of the block as well as applying some light oil to the cylinder walls. We then torqued the head down using the ARP studs and installed the rocker. Lis and I got to learn how to set the valve settings, we will be needing to reset them after the first start / warm up. We also installed the thermostat. Chuck struggled with the carbs most of the day, but in the end he got the best of them. The linkages that we had for them needed to be shortened and a few parts were missing. Thankfully his "magic shelves" helped us out a ton. Also, we are pretty happy that the intake manifold and head are going to let us use collars to help keep it in place.

Chuck has been a great teacher in this whole process, and Lis and I are both glad we have someone like him around to help out with all of this.

Main thing we are looking for: If you follow the accelerator pedal back to the firewall, there is a hole in the firewall that is in line with the top of the throttle pedal setup. There is a "cup" that sits in there to help hold the throttle cable in place, if anyone has this part or knows where to get it. It would be a big help as mine is missing.






I know the orange doesn't work with the red, its for a future colour combination!

[buddylove]

Chuck played with the carbs yesterday, and got them almost good to go. However, the intake manifold is hitting on the center branch of the LCB.

Finished tinkering with the carbs this afternoon and everything was looking good. There was a screw missing for the fast idle, but that was easy -- Magic Shelves.

The good news is that there was no clearance issue between the lcb and the spring anchor.

The bad news is that the float bowl on the radiator end won't clear the brake master cylinder. Not even close. No problem, if rhd, but won't work with lhd.

The good news is that if the spacers are removed, there is clearance. There still might be clearance if one of the half spacers was cut in half, again. It would be close. Tilting the engine forward a little would help, too, but I don't have any adjustable upper stabilizer arms.

More bad news. Even with the spacers out, the intake manifold was just a little too wide to fit between the two outer branches of the lcb where they meet up with the head.

More good news. A little grinding solved that problem.

More bad news. The cross pipe of the intake manifold hits the center branch of the lcb not allowing the carbs to sit down far enough.

No more good news. A BFH on the center branch might solve the clearance issue, in a crude manner. Also, it might be possible to grind an indentation in the bottom of the intake manifold to help clearance...but I can't figure out how to measure how thick the manifold is where the grinding would need to be done.

The whole exchange made me laugh. After talking to Chuck for a bit today. I dropped the spacers and intake manifold off at a fabrication shop to get modified, hopefully it will be able to work after this go around. I also borrowed a ferrule from him, and I am hoping that a local bike shop can match up a fitting close enough to be usable. Once that happens, we can get the throttle cable situation sorted.

[buddylove]

Here is the fitting. At it's widest it is .330 and the firewall hole is .30.



I have checked at a local bicycle store and Mclendons. I think I will check Oil Can Henry's this weekend if I get a chance.