120 replies to this topic

[Spherix]

Been a while since I've written an update! Spent more time in the garage than actually writing things down A LOT of time was spent on getting the wiring loom back in a decent state, having to wait for various parts to come in as I found more and more broken stuff.

 

 

Then ran in to other fun stuff, like finding out my fuel pump had completely rotten away and old fuel had eaten the inside of the tank. When I got the tank it looked flawless on the outside so I foolishly hadn't given it much thought. A new tank and pump later, and we have a running engine. Currently solved most of the SPI related quirks, and need to swap the thermostat from 82 deg. to 88 so it actually reaches operating temperature.

 

 

 

 

Found out more fun stuff like my bonnet having the mounts for both the old and new type of hinges, which makes it faul on the relay pack of the SPi on top of the brake booster, so had to move some bits around.

 

Seeing as the engine runs and the clutch/gearbox works as intended, I figured I would delay further testdrives until I actually have the right thermostat and some windows in the car, so I went on with the trim.

 

Whipped up the doorcards I posted about earlier; I'll have some professionally made later on as I am simply not good at getting these perfect, but it helped a lot in figuring out placement of things like speakers in the doors.

 

 

 

I have some heritage in Scotland, so thought it;d be fun to order some fabric in the family Tartan to use for the parcel shelve. I received more than anticipated and am now wondering if I should dress the dashboard up with it as well!

 

 

The dash with it's default bits on:

 

 

Roughly cutting some new fabric to glue on:

 

 

Using the heat from the Sun to get the vinyl nice and supple:

 

 

Cut some holes and have the gauge rubbers in place to keep it in to shape, as spray glue tends to let go any time I use it....

 

 

And the last few days have been spent on gauges;

 

 

I'm using the innards of the Mini speedo and tacho, I will later on have to match the scale of the numbers etc. on custom made gauge faces, and I have to find a way to drill out the gauge needle from the porsche to accept the larger (we're talking teenie bits of a mm here) needle on the Mini gear.

 

At least things are starting to work!

 

https://youtu.be/SdCDKV5bXNo

 

The Rally deadline I had for end of July to drive around the UK has been scrapped due to covid once again, this takes a bit of pressure of for me at least .

[70K1100]

Is there any progress?

[Spherix]

Very little visible! Thanks for asking. After that rally got cancelled I decided to take it a bit slower, as the hobby started to feel like a second job due to that deadline.

 

Since then it's been a tad frustrating. I've spent a lot of time over the course of two weeks a few months ago to get that headliner in perfectly without any wrinkles, had glued it up and trimmed to fold around the window lips. Seeing as it has taken ages for my new front & rear screens to arrive, the summer sun had heated the garage to the point where the spray glue became flexible again, causing a lot of the fabric to pull back inside the car. I now lack fabric (as I cut it off previously) to properly be able to pull the headliner in to shape again. Which means that if I put the windows in, I'll have a sagging headliner in places. Not entirely sure how I want to continue in that regard. I may heat the fabric up quite a bit and see if that gives me the stretch I need, but otherwise I may need to bring the car to a trim shop to do it for me, order a new headliner and try again, etc. Not great.

 

I have spent quite some time in the gauges, as there's a lot of mix & match of Porsche and Mini parts in there. I finally have the mini speedo internals in place and working in the Porsche housing, and now need to make custom face dials to have the correct ranges and needle angles from the Mini internals in the style of the Porsche. That leaves integrating an LED dimmer in the speedo housing so I can use the stalk from the trip counter reset that was in the Porsche speedo to dim the gauge clusters LED strips with, and finding a jeweler that has drills small enough to bore up the inside of the Porsche needles to fit over the slightly larger pin of the rev counter / speedo internals of the Mini. I've worked out the Ohm resistance adjustments needed to make the other gauges work to the Mini sensors as well, just need to fab those bits up.

 

Now that I have no real deadline, I am slightly tempted to continue building up the Ford Pinto block I have sitting, but I might be better off first getting the car back on the road with the SPI engine before I take on that job over winter. 

[70K1100]

I got inspired to get more work done on my shell over the weekend. Unfortunately the further I got the more dodgy repairs I found.

[Spherix]

Finding a bit of motivation here and there, continued a few hours on the dashboard top padding fitment. I want the air vents to be functional, so lots of trimming and cutting to make it sit somewhat nice. I have a spare top dash padding in case I make any mistakes on this one. Currently looks alright laying loosely, I'll need to cover the padding in a new sheet of vinyl/leatherette and then I suppose glue the modified air vents from the Mini in place to create one solid section.

 

[johnR]

looking good - I can't wait to see this dash finished.

[evansisgreat]

Looking good. Particularly like the chrome rings around speaker grilles, where did you find them? I've been looking for something similar for ages! 

 

Excited to see more progress.

[70K1100]

That dash looks really nice. You’ve done a really nice job on that.

[I hate Brian]

Intrigued to see the end product well done ! 

[Spherix]

Thanks! Encouraging words surely giving me the motivation, now all I need is time when work has the typical 'everything to be done before end of year' craze going on.

Booked a week off at the end of the year to get a good dent in the todo list. For now I've finally picked a new head unit, the Blaupunkt Valencia, to go with the rest of the looks. I needed to know where to cut holes for the radio and heater controls so I can finish the dashboard.

Having a coworker redesign the dial faces as well, as the scale / angle on the speedo and revcounter now need to match the mini internals again. Will post pics when I have em!

[Spherix]

Taking a crack at it over the week long holiday even thought it's already filled with obligations  

 

Decided to re-design the dial faces myself, but due to a lockdown over here I can't get them printed by a proper shop, so I'll probably have to do final adjustments a few weeks from now after I get them printed, testfitted, etc.

 

The dials that had to be adjusted are the revcounter and the speedo, as I'm using Mini internals. As most highway speeds here are 100km/h, I was picky and decided I wanted the 100km/h mark to be perfectly vertical, which meant sourcing a 1275GT or similar 200km/h speedo and using the internals from that in my Porsche housing. Ensuring maximum usability in the future, I merged the style of the Mini one to also have a MP/H scale under the KM/H scale of the speedo. The revcounter used a 0-8K/range instead of a 0-7K/range so that had to be adjusted as well.

 

Speedo design with Mini speedo underlay vs porsche underlay vs final result:

 

And the same for the revcounter:

 

Also still playing with different colour schemes like the Singers 991's do e.g.;

 

Furthermore I've adjusted the lenght of a third brake light LED strip to fit the straight edge of the rear windscreen, will put that in it's final place once the parcel shelf is done.

 

 

Tested out the stereo and all seems to work and sound good so far, over the next couple of days I hope to make good progress on:

• The final dashboard assembly by cutting holes for the radio and header controls, then lining it with my tartan and making final tweaks to the brass strips that will then need tin plating once lockdown is vanished
• Figuring out how many switches I need, buying them and cutting holes in the dashboard metal for them
• Installing the parcel shelf, speakers and tartan fabric trim

I also noticed the car started leaking from one of the diff covers, most annoying. Will need to sort that sooner or later.

[70K1100]

I really have to stop looking at your posts.   Every time I do I like the colour scheme of your mini even more. 

[Spherix]

I really have to stop looking at your posts.   Every time I do I like the colour scheme of your mini even more. 

 

Cheers! It has been the first car for me that still brings a smile to my face every time I see it due to the colours :) 

 

As expected I did not have much of a garage holiday, but rather spent a lot of time with family/friends over Christmas. In the hours I did have, I made some progress!

 

Finally found a set of NOS mud guards in Italy that I've been eyballing:

 

Amazed by their clever fitment! A simple bracket that clamps on to existing sheetmetal, no drilling, rivets etc. needed! Ingenious compared to other Mini mudflaps i've had in the past.

 

 

And they look great to in my opinion:

 

 

Also finished the parcel shelf, had to make a combination of the original speaker cover and the aftermarket ones I used in the doors to get the fitment/looks that I was after:

 

Finished in the family tartan:

 

Put most of the dashboard bits that I have worked on roughly in place so that I can measure out the next steps:

 

 

 

Need to now cut the hole for the radio head unit to go in to, and make some steps on my heater design. I kind off want to use the heater panel from the Porsche, but as I was also in the midst of designing a new heater core/fan routing, this may become a time intensive step to figure out. 

 

Sent off the dial gauges to a print shop at least, should have those back soon. Also ordered a small fog light and reverse light as I did not have those on the car yet. They're similar to the ones DSN is reselling (Hella units) but I don't like the look and positioning of their bracket, so I'll DIY that one. 

[colinf1]

That rear photo of the car looks absolutely fantastic!

Mud guards are extremely pretty too, you should make a scan of them to reproduce them to have spares?

[Spherix]

That rear photo of the car looks absolutely fantastic!

Mud guards are extremely pretty too, you should make a scan of them to reproduce them to have spares?

 

Not a bad idea, but I wouldn't even know where to start when it comes to producing them! Any tips ?