Pics of the new hoses and repainted radiator refitted. notice the bypass hose is a short section of 1/2" hose and proper clips, not the crap bellows type.
Posted 08 June 2017 - 06:14 PM
Well, with the other mini finally stripped of parts and the shell finally gone, I now have the garage free for the 25 and do jobs without being rained on. Even if the £300 I finally got for it wouldn't have even covered the cost of the panels that were welded on, and I also have no plans on ever doing another one.
One bit of welding i didn't get round to doing last year was the n/s rear quarter panel corner, Witch had been plated over before 4 or so years ago and then filled over for a an mot. So rather than mess around, I chopped the lot out and the bottom of the quarter panel, as the rot had crept in on the rear of the panel.
The good news is that all that painting i did before welding the outer sill is doing its job, as the inside of the sill is nice and clean a year on.
New closing panel made up and welded.
And new lower quarter panel section mad up and welded, I'll trim the flange down when i come to weld it (ran out of wire)
As I'd ran out of wire, I tided up the welding to the bottom of the rear panel and started with the filler.
I also had a play about with my rear bumper that I'd welded a patch into because of a rust hole and need to re-make new mountings for. I know bumpers aren't exactly expensive, but these ones are genuine and not the thinner ones that are available. Plus this one fits unlike the temporary spare one I have (my rusty one rattle canned black) That pretty much has to be forced to fit.
So as well as waiting on some more welding wire to turn up, I'm also waiting on a new front wheel bearing to arrive. As last Sunday on a trip out to a local free car meet, my n/s front was making all sorts of nasty grinding noises.
Posted 12 June 2017 - 06:42 PM
New wheel bearing arrived Saturday (nothing like waiting 5 days for an order to be dispatched) and fitted it that afternoon. And apart from the dust shield (reused my old one) and the split pin provided being too small (I have a box full anyway) It fitted and torqued up ok. And being £22.49 with postage it was more expensive than the non-genuine crap on offer from the mini 'specialists' and ebay.
Although with the new bearing fitted and everything back together there was still noticeable play in the wheel at 12 and 6, witch turned out to be the top ball joint. Probably not noticed before hand as the play in the earing was that bad. Luckily i have a new ball joint spare from only changing just the one a while back, it just took a bit of finding in the garage.
I've also got the filling and priming done of the n/s quarter panel repair.
Posted 24 June 2017 - 12:59 PM
Hate to put a damper on things. If that first line wheel bearing is part no: FBK027 it will let you down. Just back from the MOT for my '72 mini 1000 running 7.5" discs upfront. Both my front wheel bearings have play, although just got through this time with advisory’s. Just looked at my paperwork both were replaced by my trusted little garage in Oct 2012 with First line FBK027 bearings, and have covered just 3,633 miles. Going to do the job myself and fit timpkins this time.
On a more positive note my '79 clubby estate with comprehensive history, got its first wheel bearing advisory a few months back on its MOT, and I know for a fact the bearings are the 38 year old originals (109,000 miles), so good bearings are out there, or at least have been.
Wish you better luck with your new bearings though.
Good work with your ongoing project!
Olie
Posted 21 September 2017 - 06:44 PM
Haven’t really got much of an update, other than I’ve managed to acquire this.
After giving it a bit of a clean, it does seem to power up and work, even found an old caste to try. The only fault I can find, is one of the speaker outputs seems a bit weak. But as I don’t really intend on using it, it’s not really a problem and it was cheap enough anyways. I just need to try and find an original radio housing for it now, or just keep it with all the other 25 memorabilia I already have.
Posted 30 September 2017 - 10:14 PM
I’ve been quiet enough for long enough, so time for an update on what has been a very long and at times stressfully 3 months. Basically 3 months ago I set to with the paint stripper taking all the paint off the car (the roof had 5 layers) back to bare metal and then rattle can primer ready for taking it off for a full exterior respray. And being my only car, I was still using it up till a week or so beforehand even with it covered in primer, interior trim missing etc.
Well that was the plan, only problem being the guy doing the painting took nearly 2 months to get round to doing the respray. So has taken a lot longer than planned for, even if it has meant it given me more time to buy a lot of new items like seals, wheel arches, headlining, windscreen gaskets etc. and clean up and paint just about everything else ready to go back on.
So after a 2 month wait, it’s gone from a painted rolling shell to this in just over 10 hours (today) of work. I can’t list everything, but thats new headlining, all the glass, interior minus the dash and passenger seat (the seat would fit in the other car) and all the exterior trim and lights. I’ve still got a few parts to fit as some of the new bits I’d bought (minispares) don’t fit and will need modifying, which I simply didn’t have the time for today. And then I have to sort to the issue of an mot, oh and the stripes.
Posted 01 October 2017 - 07:29 AM
Looks good
Posted 01 October 2017 - 08:17 AM
Posted 01 October 2017 - 09:55 AM
Glad it's all done.
Looks like it was worth the wait in the end.
Posted 07 October 2017 - 11:38 AM
The Mot was last Tuesday, witch it passed. But even with spending near enough three full 10 hour days refitting as much as possible, and checking everything that needed to work did so. The mini still decided otherwise, by me turning up and finding the battery that was perfectly ok, was as completely dead and wouldn't even attempt to turn over. So with the clock ticking, I had to pop back 10 miles in the direction I'd just come from to euro car parts for a new battery.
Once that was fitted it was a quick check over of the fluid levels, for it's first time in over 2 months and 15 miles to the testing station. I still don't know how, but even with driving it gently I still ended up arriving early, so I left the car with them and walked into town for something to eat.
So with the car now legal again, I just have a few bits of interior trim to swap over or refit. The underside to clean up and stonechip, the body decals and stripes to fit and later fully clean, repaint and detail the engine bay.
Also after getting back from the mot, this arrived in the post witch I'd bought for a reasonable price.
It's another original radio (might be from a Ritz) with housing and bracket. Although with a slight bit of damage.
The only parts I was interested in was the housing and the bracket and the damage didn't really bother me. As with a bit of plastic welding with the soldering iron and some sections cut form some scrap plastic. I ended up with this.
I've also reinforced the repair on the back with some mesh and epoxy.
And after giving it a dust of primer, a coat of plastic and vinyl paint I had left over from doing a dash rail, and the Motorola radio fitted.
Posted 10 October 2017 - 06:31 AM
Posted 10 October 2017 - 11:49 AM
Could I ask how much you paid for the paint job? Do people even do self prep jobs anymore?
You can, It cost me £1200 for a full exterior and partial interior respray. As this guy has also done a full respray on another car I worked on a few years back. http://www.theminifo...ber-bumper-mgb/
But, I wouldn't say I was 100% happy with it. For starters I was quoted 8 to 10 days, it attauacly took a total of 54 days. And for 5 weeks at least, I'm sure it sat outside uncovered in primer, striped waiting for him to get around to doing it, Although I can't prove that. I also disliked the fact he was sending messages to me saying that it was progressing along further that it was, and then sending contradicting messages to my dad. Even ones along the lines of it's nearly finished, only to pop past unannounced and find the car stripped to bare metal. Or coming up with other excuses to cover up the lack of progress.
Witch then leads me to another point. I did most of the prep beforehand to save time (filling, sanding, door gaps etc). But he decided to strip the entire car back to bare metal off his own back. The only reason why I can think he'd do that is if my suspicions of the car being left outside were true, and the panels had started to rust under the primer. But if he wasn't ready to work on it, i would have preferred to have known before i dropped it off, as it would have also of meant I wouldn't have had to endure 3 weeks of 8-10 hour days rushing through the prep myself.
And since refitting the car and having it a week. I've noticed a few minor areas I'm not happy with, along with one issue I didn't have beforehand, and that the fit of the passenger side door and the bottom of witch look wavy. They are simple things, with the exception of the wavy door bottom that i could fix myself. But once I've finished refitting the rest of my interior, the underside stone chipped and good wash, I'll take it back to him and see what he has to say. I know it's not a concourse paint job, but I still expect things to be done right.
Although taking of doing things right. I spent far too long measuring with bits of tape and string getting the new pinstripe and 25 decal just right on the boot lid. I also ignored the messuremts given with the kit and referred back to the pics of when I first bought the mini, with it's original rear boot decals.
Posted 10 October 2017 - 06:13 PM
Does anyone need a rear window fillet strip? As it looks like I need to buy another roll of the stuff, as the roll I bought from old skool minis isn't long enough. And the reply I got back from them is "You need to fit the clip to cover the gap". I've never had to fit trim/clips to cover gaps, and its not like trim would cover it anyway as it's over an inch too short. And yes I know the gap isn't central, I was expecting extra to be able to trim it.
Posted 10 October 2017 - 08:00 PM
Posted 10 October 2017 - 08:32 PM
Exactly, I know the new windscreen was a utter pita to fit (I've done quite a few over the years, but this one really was a pain), but it's not like my front windscreen is an inch bigger than every other mini. Its not like fitting the fillets strips, even with the correct tool is an easy job to do with fresh paint around. And I've always tended to cut then about 1/2" too long and force the ends in at the join, as over time the fillet strips do shrink.
Still at least my roof trim is plenty long enough, even if that two was a pita to fit being coiled up far too tightly.
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