126 replies to this topic

[70K1100]

Finally pulled my finger out and spent a few hours on the mini. My new favourite toy is my grinder with a twist wire cup. Made short work of the surface rust on the firewall/bulkhead. Next step is to finish off my rotisserie and paint my wheels before getting new tyres.

[70K1100]

Went to a car show today and saw three really nice minis. Gave me a lot of motivation to continue work on mine. Figured out how to finish the rotisserie off so just need the time to do it.

[70K1100]

I received my latest order from Minispares today. Didn't get the chance to unbox it. Maybe tomorrow before work gets in the way.

[70K1100]

Enjoyed a day off from work today.   So I made the most of it.   Put a new radiator into my FJ Ute and took it for a test drive.   The only issue now is the bonnet kept popping up every couple of km.   After that onto the mini again.   I made another start on painting my ROH Contessa wheels.   Most of them have bad gutter rash.   One in particular was bad.   I think that this one might be demoted to my spare wheel as I have a set of 5.

 

 

Coupled with that I painted my trailing arms in a chassis and roll bar paint.

 

 

Whilst waiting for the paint to dry in between coats I masked up the polished outer for the rims to make painting a little easier.   That was a job that I enjoyed.   It was nice to have a day where nearly everything worked out well.

[70K1100]

I managed a few hours in the garage today. I tried my hand for the first time at MIG welding. Not the prettiest of welds but they hold. Rotisserie is about half finished now which is inspiring.

[70K1100]

Spent yesterday working on my rotisserie. I’m very happy that it is almost completed only 5 holes left to drill and now the fun part of lifting it into position. Looking at using the engine crane to do so unless someone has a better option.

[70K1100]

Well Rotisserie is finished, mostly.   The shell is currently spun around with the floor standing vertically.   I've used a length of wood and a bit of rope to hold everything in place just in case.   I'll post some pictures tomorrow.   Whilst in that position I removed the fuel and brake lines which I will hopefully be able to reuse, and removed the hydro lines which I won't be reusing since the bags are perished and as a result the car is being converted to rubber cones.

 

I had a look at the rear subframe the other day and there seems to be a few areas that require new steel to be welded in.   The hydro rear subframe appears to be in a lot better condition.   Now I know that the radius arms are different between Hydro and rubber cone but can I put the rubber cones into the hydro rear subframe?

 

Any help would be appreciated. 

[70K1100]

I'm starting to put together another order from minispares. Can anyone tell me, besides the fuel and brake lines and battery cable is there anything else that needs to be fitted to the shell before the rear subframe gets fitted?

[GraemeC]

Rear no.
Front would also need steering rack.

 

Apart from on some early models, the battery cable was actually routed below the subframe.

[70K1100]

Thanks Graeme.

Do.you know if rubber cones can be put in a hydro rear subframe?

[GraemeC]

Yes, but you need to modify the platforms in the subframe by knocking back the locating tabs.

[70K1100]

Awesome thank you. Looks like next week I'll be stripping down the hydro subframe.

[70K1100]

How the mini currently sits. After night work I will crack on with stripping down the underside of the floor. Then the hard decision of deciding of a colour for the car.

[70K1100]

It’s amazing how spending money can motivate you to get more done on a build. I inquired about tyres yesterday and living in regional Queensland I don’t have the same supplies as larger town centres, so I looked into getting a set of Falken tyres as that’s what my local dealer stocks. Only to find out that there was only a limited number of Falken tyres in stock in Australia. 
 

But then I remembered that I hadn’t finished painting and filing the wheels.   So today I filed back the rim on one wheel and painted four wheels as well as sanding back two brake drums and painting them in calliper paint which should hopefully not burn off with the first brake application.

[70K1100]

I had a good couple of days working on the mini.   Firstly I had new tyres fitted and picked them up.   I'm happy with the way they turned out.

 

 

Then I started to rub back the boot floor with my favourite toy being the grinder with the twisted wire cup.   The underside of the floor is covered with a bitumen type coating which made things a bit more interesting to get through.   It was al going well until I uncovered some rust in the boot floor new the bottom of the seat back.

 

 

Then I looked at the battery box.   Not a good quality repair job on the base and uncovered some rust holes as well.   Looks like a new battery box will have to be ordered.