482 replies to this topic

[Avtovaz]

first job today was put the car on its side, and have a look at it, i wanted to touch up some of the stone chip and just have a look really.

 

 

Ill turn it the other way at some point and have another look.

 

I had decided i wanted to prep the roof and maybe paint it, and at least paint the inside of the car. I had put some high build on the roof yesterday, so i started to flat it down. I found 2 dents! I was a bit gutted but it was no big problem really

 

 

 

 

all primed up i thought id leave it until tuesday now as i wont be able to do much tomorrow.

 

so i painted the inside of the car.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

its far from perfect, but its enough done i can mask up now to paint the outside of the car.

 

 

getting there now!

[Avtovaz]

i didnt have much time today, but i masked the car up, and put it all in high build primer

 

 

 

 

 

tomorrow ill see how much of it i can get right, there is stillsome work to do at the front but i wanted to get the car in primer as there was lots of bare metal on it. Once the front panel is done, taht is the main big bit left until its getting paint!

[Avtovaz]

i flatted the roof down today with 320 discs, then i used some 500 wet and dry, masked it up and went for it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

can see a little ripple at the front from my repair, but im not bothered, its really hard to notice, and i think outside you wont see it. Big step taken today. Just got another 4 sections of car, 2 doors, boot and a bonnet to sort. then decide on how ill do the wheels, that is if i keep the minilite type wheels.

[Harryrothers93]

Looking good bud! Roof looks quality! I’d be happy with that!

[Avtovaz]

thanks there is a little bit in the gutter that ive missed, but, there  is now a bit of a change of plan. Two things, one was our neighbour was in the garden again drinking beer reading a book, so i was going to spray the back of the car, but instead prepped the side and front because of the smell and noise of the compressor. Second work has been in touch and im back in very shortly, so i havnt the same time to put into the respray. If i do it myself now, after going back and being off for so long, i wont do it. So ive spoken to Terry one of the painters at work and he will do it for me. Thing is, i was mock spraying the side, as in going threw the motion to see if i had space to paint ok, and there just isnt the space to see and paint. Its better f terry does it, it maybe painted in 2 weeks!

 

So i can now look at headlinings, wiring looms and all of that !!!

[Avtovaz]

kinda change back of plan now, work is extremely busy, terry said he would paint the car this weekend, but he has a lot of work to do over the next month or so. So it is looking like ill be painting it after all!

 

I was looking at the paint job on the roof, and ive missed little bit in the gutter, and ive noticed that some of the sanding marks from under tha paint have shown threw!! I was quite surprised, as at first it looked really good. I was looking at the paint, and thought, ok lets flat it all down, paint it all again. So i got some 600 discs and started flatting, clogged straight away. Got some 320 discs, clodded straight away. Put my nail into the paint, and pulled a strip off!! It felt soft in places and hard in others. Then i realised, i had 2k high build primed the roof, that was done one day, then when i flatted it for painting,  went threw in a few places, so i used some high build aerosol primer. I painted it maybe 1/2 hour after doing that. Now the solvent in the primer was trapped under the paint when i painted the roof, parts had softened, have to strip the lot off now! At least ive learned but this car is biting me all the way.

 

I had also started to think about the engine for the car. I have a 1293 with stage 3 head etc, sat there, but i thought that if i use it int he car, ill be driving it hard everywhere, and also thats not the point of the car. I have a 998 i bought some time ago, i had stripped the head from it, started to port it and messed it up, so i had bought another head, and left it all in the corner of the garage.

 

So i stripped that engine.

 

 

Head is quite small, and the valves are tiny lol

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As i stripped it, the only things i found wrong where, slight wear on the outer main bearings, could do with a oil pump as this one looks a bit worn, and at least needs a hone, or maybe a bore. I have a 12g940 head [thats off a 1300 Alex!] that i had fully reconned with unleaded valve seats, new guides, etc. So the plan now is, rebuild that motor, 12g940 head, pocket the block as the valve can hit the block, evo1 cam, spi injection, speeduino seafox ecu. I think it wont have big power, maybe 55bhp, but itll drive really well as itll be mapped hopefully by my mate around the corner from me.

 

 

I started to clean up the faces on the block while i was deciding what to do .

 

 

These roloc pads seem really good for this..

 

 

 

So that is this weeks plan! If anyone has a spi inlet complete that they want to sell, please pm me!

 

thankyou

[sonscar]

You can get a special aerosol primer especially for rub throughs
on 2K primer,the name eludes me, spot primer I think.Steve..

Edited by sonscar, 09 June 2020 - 08:53 PM.

[Avtovaz]

thanks mate, i think also it could have been i panel wiped it with brake cleaner, but i always use that. Maybe it had got into the primer some how and didnt flash off.

 

Little bit more done.

 

stripped the roof completely of paint and primed it with 2k epoxy.

 

 

 

 

 

then where i had repaired the front of the roof, i had to fill that again. I tried to knock more of the dent out this time though.

 

 

 

 

I had a feel of the roof, and there is more long dents in it. exactly at the places where the roof bars where. One day when pushing the car into the garage the roof bars colapsed forward, and i thought it hadnt dented the roof, but it had! So, today i put a lot of filler on the roof and started to sand it today.

 

 

 

i have stripped the 998 engine down now, its in bits apart from the box. I may strip that but the rest of the engine is in such good condition, i think itll be good.

 

ive ordered all the bits to rebuild it now from summerford.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

i was a bit bored, and i had the head stripped, and i thought id look at the vizard book and port the head. So i started with the chambers...

 

 

 

 

So, can you see it? I mean, the head is no good now, look at the valves in the pic, its a simeas head, i ported the wrong valve ! So i got another head for £25...

 

 

I did a less of a job on this one, but in the right place. Ill get it skimmed a little, will have to cc it, ill get the valves recut, and new guides put in.

 

 

 

 

I did a little to the inlet port too, i thought that was the worst one.

 

 

 

 

 

Now, i was using a carbide tip at first, and then i thought, its a round hole! i made a special tool... lol

 

 

 

 

now that worked really well!

 

 

I have also painted the rocker cover.

 

 

The engine parts will be here this week, aswell as some new sanding tools and pads etc. may build the engine and wrap it up before i do the rest of the filler....

 

not sure yet though.

Edited by Avtovaz, 28 June 2020 - 07:38 PM.

[Avtovaz]

bit of an order came from summerford, parts for the engine

 

 

 

 

 

One thing i bought was the yellow paint for the block, but it didnt look right to me at first

 

 

 

But after painting the block, it is kinda how i remember it to be

 

 

 

I have cleaned off the machined surfaces already!

 

 

 

I was redoing the roof and found long dents in it, so i filled those too

 

 

 

you can see my new sanding block on the roof, its good but a bit too flexable. I have found using 3 sanding discs to work better and last longer than using proper sanding strips for some reason.

 

 

 

 

I started to sand the high build today, and i found i was getting waves in it. So i got some of my sanding strip, wrapped it around a steel ruler and went at it again. The roof now is how i want it. I will have another check of it later in the week, but i think its ready for some epoxy primer.

 

 

 

 

Now i have probably said before, i am going to make this car spi, reason is, ive the bmw rally car, and ive learn about microsquirt, and using tuner studio. Now, carbs are meant to be easy, and they are to a point, but combined with very limited capability of the dizzy, i just think 1 time to the rolling road will make the car drive a lot better. Plus no choke, wont go out of tune, will start in the rain...

 

So i bought this

 

 

 

 

Now, i paid over the odds for it, as i thought i had bought it with the injector, id did come with the linkage etc, but i was a bit annoyed i missed the main part when i looked at it. However, i started to strip the housing,, and i saw this.

 

 

 

I just didnt like it, its a massive stepper motor for the idle, put me right off. The spi units are used on a fair amount of 90;s cars, so i had another look on ebay and decided to buy this...

 

 

 

 

Its  vauxhall 1.2 1.3 1.4 8v unit, from say novas and astras etc. Now, i didnt realize it mounted totally different at the time, and i didnt know the mini spi was 45mm and this was 40mm! But i think in some ways this will work in my favour. 40mm is smaller, i think more suited to 998cc, mounting ill get to in a min, but it uses a much nicer idle valve, has a nicer tps [which i presume is a potentiometer will check later] but also, it was £28, and they are dead easy to get a hold of. So if it goes wrong, im not trying to find an old rover part.

 

So the mounting, i have bought but havnt got yet some 12mm aluminium, and i have designed a plate to mount the new housing.

 

 

 

forget the degrees, that was for a timing disc for my volvo engine!

 

 

so, tapered screws into the manifold, and tap 2 threads in for long studs for the unit.

 

Ill have to cut and tap the plate myself, but my brother has a laser cutter, he cut that cardboard, so i can buy some gasket paper and get him to cut me some gaskets. He did that on my volvo engine, it worked extremely well!

 

 

 

there is the tps, and also the fuel in and out are already on for pipes, not for screw in connections. I think this will work out really well...

[Vinay-RS]

Is yellow the original colour of the engine on the Mini Advantage? It is very bright :) 

[Avtovaz]

im not 100% sure they came yellow but all the pics of the engines ive seen of them they are yellow. In the pic it looks a bright yellow, but in real life its quite dark. I was surprised when i looked at the pics myself!

[Avtovaz]

been doing the bodywork, strugglign with it, but getting there

 

Got the roof something like now

 

 

I found dents all over it!

 

 

I have had the engine bored to +20, bought some pistons, waiting on teh rings from summerford. Had the valve seats recut and ist got new guides.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not loads to report but ive been off all week doing the panel work!

[Avtovaz]

having a few body work issues atm, that is, im struggling doing it. now ive stepped back a bit, and thought about what im doing. I asked Ben_O for some greatly recieved advice, and instead of trying to get little patches of filler all right, just skim the lot and flat that down is the way. So i did the quarters, and the roof

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am quite chuffed with the roof, i skimmed the lot and rubbed it down. probem was one day when i had the roof rack on it, the support colapsed, and dinted it all. I thought it was ok, but it was far from ok! Now i bet its the smoothest mini roof in the world lol!

 

 

 

 

While the primer was drying i had alook at the front and did a little bit to the bonet

 

 

 

 

Its not finished, i will weld a bit more to that, and the wing needs moving with a hammer and block of wood.

 

 

 

 

Also, i was a little undecided about the engine, it wanted boring really, but it would cost a bit. But then i thought, if i plan to do some long trips in the car, it needs to be right. So i had it bored +20, managed to get a good second hand set of pistons from ebay, and new rings from summerford. I had the head sorted too, i pressed in new guides myself, and got the seats recut. I havnt gone for unleaded, i plan to use an octaine booster like i use in the rally car. Itll take the fuel up in octaine, and when its tuned with the speeduino, itll be a nice car to drive i think.

 

Other update is i waned to get the front seats i have redone, but i was thinking more retrim places want to do the seats in leatherette , and in the summer that will be so hot. I have seen some basic metro seats, they are the same colour as the advantages one on the vinal, but slightly different on the cloth on the top. I think ill be able to manage with that, or even get the full metro seats and retrim a mini seat with metro covers.

 

I have tried to up the pace of the progress too for reason i wont go into here. Im hoping to get it painted in the next month or so.

 

 

I am very much looking forward to wiring the car.

[Ben_O]

Glad to hear you are ovrcomming the bodywork issues.

Well done mate

 

Ben

[gaspen]

Sorry : why I can not see the pics in this thread ?