846 replies to this topic

[timmy850]

Not much progress on anything yet... I have got a few parts ordered in - new caliper seals and pistons, CV boots, wheel bearing seals, new pair of discs and green stuff pads. That should be about 95% of the parts for now, I also need to double check the rear wheel cylinders to see what size they are and if they're still in good condition. The plan now is to get everything rebuilt, greased, painted and shimmed and ready for installation and do the disc swap once I sort the wheels. 

 

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[timmy850]

I bought another steering wheel 

 

This is an Aussie made Maxrob, this one is stamped on the bottom spoke, has a nice thin wood rim in excellent condition and was tapped ready for the mini boss. Pretty much perfection!

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It's now officially time to sell off some of my steering wheels as I have way too many I never use!

[Gilles1000]

You could install one wheel per seat in the car, like those on merry-go-round ? :)

Or do you even have too many for that?

 

That looks like a very nice wheel by the way!!

[timmy850]

You could install one wheel per seat in the car, like those on merry-go-round ? :)
Or do you even have too many for that?

That looks like a very nice wheel by the way!!

I’ve managed to sell a couple over the weekend and I’m down under 10 now! I’ve got another couple listed, hopefully I’ll be down to my favourite 5 very soon..

In other news, wheel choice (the road wheels) has been confirmed and will be ordered soon!

Edited by timmy850, 22 November 2020 - 08:31 AM.

[timmy850]

I was ready to order the new wheels yesterday, but just before I completed the order I got a message from a local mini guy saying that he had some wheels I might be interested in... They were essentially exactly the same wheel as I was going to buy - just they have the older type wheel caps. Of course I was interested so I went up to his place this afternoon

 

Here we have some Minispares Minilife wheels in 10x4.5, silver with the machined lip. One thing I really like about these is the stainless nuts and washers, which means the wheels aren't chewed up by the nuts overtime you tighten them. They're in awesome condition and I'll end up swapping my A008's onto these wheels as they only have about 1000km on them

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Way back in January 2013 I borrowed my grandpa's mini and went along to my first ever mini show, the Minis in the Gong annual show.  As it was the first big mini show for me, I got to have a good look at all the different modifications that everyone was doing to their cars. At the time I was especially interested in getting some new wheels, so I took photos of lots of different wheels and flares combinations and one of them was my favourite - this Cooper S with some Minispares Minilife wheels. In a funny twist of fate, these are the wheels I've just bought 

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Another car I've seen a lot with the same Minilife wheels was this lovely S, which is about the same colour as my car and was always really clean and a good inspiration for me!

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Edited by timmy850, 25 November 2020 - 10:00 PM.

[Jared Mk3]

Perfect wheels for your car 

[timmy850]

Perfect wheels for your car

Thanks Jared! I’m glad to finally have some chosen and in my hands.

I’ve got no mini drives planned during the next 2 months, so this will give me a good amount of time to get the brakes all sorted

[timmy850]

I finally had a day to work on the disc brakes  . First job was a tidy up and guess what - I found a workbench hiding in the corner of the garage!
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First mini job - rebuild the disc calipers with new seals and pistons

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You can see the poor condition of the old pistons, one was completely stuck and needed to be pushed out of the caliper with the grease gun. There is a new stainless one on the left for comparison

 

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This went very smoothly - both calipers were done in about an hour

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Shimming the ball joints was a bit time consuming. I reshimmed the existing ball joints as they were still in good condition and they are the nice hard original type. I ended up with plenty of old MOWOG dust covers, and they are still in good condition after 50+ years, so they are going back on.

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I assembled the new CV's on the bearings and checked the preload was within spec. They were all OK, so I fully greased up the bearings and installed the dust seals. I then assembled everything to check it all fitted OK and everything looked great.

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The last step was to give the calipers a final coat of paint.

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And finally double check the clearance to the new wheels

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I just have to hunt down a couple of small things before I fit them to the car. Fortunately/unfortunately there are no mini events planned for the next couple of months, so I've got plenty of time to get it all sorted

[Jared Mk3]

Good progress! 

[timmy850]

I bought another Australian made rocker cover - this one is made by SJ Dunn and is one of my favourite designs 

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[Vinay-RS]

This would look awesome in wrinkle black with the fins polished. 

[colinf1]

Looks pretty similar to the one I had in my Leyland Mini in Australia....

 

[timmy850]

This would look awesome in wrinkle black with the fins polished.

 
The plan at the moment is either:
Stay all chrome
Black inside the fins like Colin’s
Engine block green inside the fins or even like this
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Looks pretty similar to the one I had in my Leyland Mini in Australia....
 

Yes, it’s one of my favourite designs. Mine is stamped “CJ Dunn Sydney” on top and the fins are a little thinner, I’m not sure if they are made by the same place and one is earlier than the other, or just different manufacturers. Either way they look so good!

[timmy850]

I fixed up the breather fitting with a 90 degree one - now the bonnet actually closes!

 

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[timmy850]

We had the first MITG drive of 2021 on the weekend. The weather turned out surprisingly nice despite the forecast, and we had a decent turnout too! We had a nice run out to Camberwarra Mountain Lookout for coffee

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