120 replies to this topic

[fokko]

Nice progress!

Love the radio! Where did you get it?

[Spherix]

It's the Blaupunkt Valencia model: https://blaupunkt.co...cia-200-dab-bt/

They have a wide range of that face plate, with or without CD, bluetooth, DAB+ etc. I figured the bluetooth and DAB+ option was sufficient, and I like the somewhat retro look on it! It is a little cheap, as in the CD player slot is simply filled in with plastic on this one, but overall nothing to complain about. I ordered it through Bol.com

[Spherix]

Assembly time! Luckily I had made 6 copies of the gauge faces to practice alignment and cutting out bits I wasn't sure of yet, like the indicator slots. The print shop could've done it on a machine, but that'd require me to perfectly calibrate the images in Illustrator and having them reprint, so manual labour it had to be.

 

At the right you can see the final ones glued on to the metal gauge face;

 

 

Some mishaps happened as well, I haven't been able to test the gauges properly in the car fully assembled yet, partially due to the needles having been reamed a pinch too wide for the stalk they go on to, so they'd sit loose. Glueing them in place without the face plates being doing wasn't a sensible option either.

 

As I had put the needles on with a singular drop of glue and let them dry like this:

 

 

The glue dripped from the actual needle on the tacho, in to the mechanism. I had to take it all apart and pry bits out with a sewing needle! Thankfully it all works perfectly fine again now. 

 

I noticed the speedo bounced around a lot, and noticed the original 1275GT speedo had a stop needle in the face plate, so I decided to hand drill a tiny hole and stick it on the new face plate as well

 

 

Once in place, that allowed the speedo to operate much better.

 

 

All in the car fully assembled for the first time:

 

From the divers position everything works out as expected. I used the steering wheel to mark on the dashboard where I wanted the gauges to line up, so that the middle three gauges would be fully visible through the rim of the wheel while driving. Lots of Porsche drivers tend to titlt the revcounter and speedo as the common highway speed values would fall behind the rim, making it difficult to read.

 

 

Lit up:

 

 

I've got a couple of small dings to touch up with paint that got on there during assembly, but for the time being I'm perfectly happy!

 

I also tried on the Victor F steering wheel I had laying around as those have been used on Porsches, but I simply don't like the look of it and with it being a smaller diameter, it would obscure the speedo while driving:

 

The brass trim strips will get nickle plating towards the end of August as the supplier is on holiday, so I'll simply leave it as is for now and focus my attention on hooking up the heater/air control panel and radio wiring.

[KTS]

that is very impressive;  all that hard work and effort has certainly paid off.  well done !!

[GraemeC]

The speedo needle should have some sprung preload when on that stop.

 

On the GT face the needle would be put on to the shaft in alignment with the little dot before the stop, and then lifted over the stop into a position.

[Spherix]

The speedo needle should have some sprung preload when on that stop.

 

On the GT face the needle would be put on to the shaft in alignment with the little dot before the stop, and then lifted over the stop into a position.

Ohhh that may explain a bit. I'm not entirely sure I follow the setup steps, wouldn't the above make it less sprung by lifting it over the stop as the needle already moves clockwise while driving?

[KTS]

..this may help explain

 

https://www.theminif...ckup/?p=3655315

[Spherix]

Yep! Was also finding some other posts and it makes sense to me now. Anticipating some calibration errors on my end I havn't fully sealed the gauges yet, so should be fairly easy to copy the marking dot over and set it up correctly. Thanks for spotting it and the advice!

[Spherix]

Getting close to MOT!

Today I installed the radio and heater control panel, gladly all working. Did not yet recalibrate the speedo as unfortunately the needle is rather stuck on there. I'll measure the offset while driving vs GPS and then decide the course of action.

Also chased non working headlights for 2 hours only to find a connector in the steering column to be loose

Then set the axle nuts to torque spec, torqued down the steering wheel, gave the windows a wipe, and hooked up the reverse light LED and third brake light LED with their own fuses in the boot.

Todo for MOT would be an alignment, as both front wheels point outward at the moment, and filling the washer bottle reservoir. Oh, and to make an actual appointment!

[sonscar]

Very nice,the dash looks incredible,Steve..

[johnR]

Great work!

[Spherix]

Cheers! It's Been a bit of a hectic week trying to get the car ready for MOT. With help of the forum I've been able to trace some SPI Idle woes, down to a level where MOT is not a problem. The evening before MOT I wanted to give it one further inspection, and upon sitting in the car I tore through the seat diaphram! A strip of rubber and a whole bunch of superglue was needed to sort that out. Then did my electrical round and heard sparking behind the dash! Turns out that I had forgotten to use a grommet where the heater control cable goes through the bulkhead, resulting in a stripped outer mantle that was touching bare sheetmetal. Add that to the control arm for it sharing a metal pin with the lever/arm that controls the heater motor, and you suddenly have a short going on. The fuse blew quickly, but not before the outer mantle turnt in to soft rubber, resulting me in having to remake the adjusted heater control cable on the fly as it wouldn't pass through the bulkhead hole in one piece anymore. 

 

In the end I failed MOT on the P700 replica lamps not having the appropriate EU approved mark on them, so all in all I'm sort of happy that that's all! I happen to have given away my spare headlamps a few months ago, so a replacement set for MOT is on it's way.

 

There was a cars & coffee meeting at the race track 15 minutes away, so I could not resist driving over anyway. All in all a good day with nice company, and now ready to retry MOT this week.

 

 

 

After MOT I will spend some time in setting up suspension and alignment. It drives great, but I've literally eyeballed it so far, so that'll need some proper measurements.

 

I also figured I hadn't posted many pictures of how I hid & connected the new heater, so here you go:

 

 

 

[sonscar]

Stunning work,Steve..

[Spherix]

 

Been a while!

 

Renovation on our house started in July/August, so that took over the house and garage:

 

 

The whole front and rear of the facade of the house has been replaced, amongst other massive stuff, while we lived through it on the top floor. Of course still having tons of delays, it all lasted a lot longer than it should've!

 

 

 

And to top it up, I faced some unexpected health issues that prevented me from doing pretty much anything physical, so the Mini had seen very little action. Thankfully I'm currently able to do some bits again, still awaiting surgery though. Over the last few months all I've really been able to do was get the fuel gauge working correctly, painting my old roof rack that I managed to buy back from the owner of my old Mini, and setting up a separate fuse box in the rear to attach the tow hook wiring to.

 

I've recently been able to do a number of shakedown tests, overall I'd say with success, but things have started to pop up. First was my low oil pressure adventure which was a mix of stuck relief valve, a higher warning light threshold, and a broken gauge.

 

Other than that, so far I've noticed small annoying things:

- A few rattles behind the dashboard that needs sorting

- Door speaker grilles falling out on closing

- Third brake light LED strip failing, needs replacing

- The mounting point for my heater airflow direction control cable breaking off (thin plastic for what it's supporting, will remake out of metal)

- LH driveshaft boot coming loose; me and my MOT garage have now tried three different strap types, but it keeps slipping off or breaking and slinging grease everywhere. By far the most crucial thing to sort.

- Hi-lows on the left-rear making a knocking sound when cornering on a bumpy road. I've raised it twice already, now sitting quite proud, but it seems to need another.

 

Upcoming weekend the Mini 7 racing club from the UK will be doing laps around Zandvoort Circuit, so I'll be visiting that lot with the Mini and doing a few parade laps, as it's only 15 minutes from here.

 

 

I do notice I need to force myself to find places to drive the Mini... I work primarily from home, live in a city so lots of things are nearby, and when I usually take a car somewhere its to haul people or cargo. I'm not the type to cruise around aimlessly, so I suppose I'll have to take the mrs. to lunch more often

[Spherix]

Had a great day at the race track last weekend. Nothing fell off the car while (somewhat slowly) driving the parade lap, so that's a victory in my book! Spent the morning doing a quick bushfix to the CV joint boot, which actually held up perfectly. I will still replace them for the Minispares heavy duty version and the proper clips.

 

 

Speaking of Minispares, my alternator was making a whining noise almost like I was running a supercharger, rather annoying. Seeing as it's a brand new unit I e-mailed them to ask if this was to be expected, and after contact with the manufacturer they are replacing it free of charge! Fantastic service, which allowed me to add a few items to my order list to sort things out like having a spare tire on the matching rim, unifying the door/boot key by having new barrels, etc. 

 

The local Mini Seven Club organized the day, so we gathered on the paddock, and had lots of chats with the English Mini Seven racers! Very interesting to see some of the upgrades they do to the miglia cars, and overall very friendly foke!

 

 

 

 

Edited by Spherix, 18 July 2023 - 11:48 AM.