396 replies to this topic

[stuart bowes]

disappointing update, brake rebuild kit arrived and fitted, top half (front brakes?) went together nicely and you can feel pressure as you push it in, bottom half (rear brakes?) goes in with less resistance, and when pumping the pistons with thumb over output holes, can feel pressure building up at top, nothing at all at the bottom

 

I even went past that point and fitted the reservoir, filled up the fluid and pumped it, spurting slightly from the top but not exactly a constant amount, and literally zero from the bottom

 

I'm guessing that means it's just junk now, will have one more go swapping the seals around in case I got them wrong somehow but I'm not hopeful

Edited by stuart bowes, 04 November 2023 - 06:23 PM.

[stuart bowes]

finished off the pedal box, nice shiny new studs fitted, took a bit of faffing about to get them positioned and angled correctly (had to weld up and redrill after 1st attempt being so far off lol) but perfect now though I say so myself

 

 

Reassembled the lot with a nice smear of grease for the big pivot pin, assembled upper plate and gaskets with nuts spun on gently, none of those bits are going missing now

 

 

jobs'a goodun

 

The clutch master cylinder has also had new piston and seals after it's first coat of paint (work in progress on that as you can see) .  filled, primed and pumped liquid through a bit, works lovely, finger over the hole, press the piston in and feels almost solid, definitely not hissing or bubbling out under pressure... leaving hanging up overnight with some clean tissue underneath to show up any drips.. about as much as I can reasonably do for now to test it I think but seems fine to me

 

 

Edited by stuart bowes, 07 November 2023 - 08:16 PM.

[stuart bowes]

well various attempts at rebuilding the brake M/C have failed and after all that messing about I've decided to cut my losses and just order a new one.  also with all the clamping in the vice and pushing it about I seem to have put a big crack in the little fixing bracket at the top where the roll pin holds the tank on

 

strange, I thought it would be the other way around and the clutch MC would be the one I replace.. oh well

 

in other news a half-arsed attempt to locate a spit came to nothing so did the next best thing and got a few dead tyres from the local tyre fitters, they were more than happy to let me take as many as I wanted.  will just roll the shell over on it's side and do the welding / cleaning up underside like that .  sod all that laying on my back and hot metal dripping on me nonsense

 

also because it's been a while I took the head off the engine and sprayed a load of WD40 in the bores / push rod holes while turning the crank pulley with a spanner.. still turning easily and nice and smooth

Edited by stuart bowes, 04 November 2023 - 11:04 PM.

[Be87n]

Shame about the brake MC, however better have a new one and piece of mind with such big safety item. Although one could doubt new parts as well with the quality of some items these days. Pedal box looks great!

[stuart bowes]

getting back on the case, sorted out the clutch slave bracket

 

 

 

and then looked at the bias valve which looked like this after some scrubbing and wire brushing

 

 

as discussed on another thread getting some expert opinion it's still likely to get replaced at some point, but in terms of checking its current state it's flushing through cleanly on both sides using meths, and when the big end bolt is removed you can press the sprung section in reasonably easily, and actually under there it looks very clean as well.  not really much I can do to test it so for now I've just painted it up to match the other components (including new brake MC received today)

 

 

got a bit of a colour scheme going here :)  I've gone for cold zinc spray on mounting faces, because I want to give it some protection against surface rust even though it's all cast iron and would take millenia to rust through it might make repairs / disassembly easier in future.  anyway I like it like that. Did same with clutch master but that's stored away already. Obvs internal bores all still clean bare metal where the piston actually lives, I've not completely lost the plot

 

conveniently the new yellow tags are easily removed and refitted like a cable tie, so that's handy for painting

 

Clutch slave rebuild kit (such as it is, 2 bits of rubber) received and fitted after the pic, seemed to go in nice and snug with a bit of brake fluid to assist

 

In terms of storage I'll zip-lok bag all these bits up separately with desiccant packs and hope for the best, they've survived this long so hopefully another 6 months or so won't be a major drama

Edited by stuart bowes, 08 November 2023 - 04:36 PM.

[stuart bowes]

Shame about the brake MC, however better have a new one and piece of mind with such big safety item. Although one could doubt new parts as well with the quality of some items these days. Pedal box looks great!

 

cheers :) certainly a damn sight better than it was when I dragged it out the shed and scared the spiders off it 

[stuart bowes]

next on the shelf for refurb (and I want it ready fairly quickly to work out the bonnet hinge situation when fitted) .. window wiper mech



took wheel boxes apart to see if recoverable, one just about turned by hand the other needed the vice and molegrips



actually they would have been fine, were it not for the external threaded part which is too weathered, maybe could have re-threaded that but what the hell just get new ones



motor and spiral cable thing all stripped, cleaned, regreased, painted to match other parts, reassembled and new park switch fitted



neatly taped over the end with a bit of sparky tape to stop any crud getting in there

and then this happened





so I literally have no more excuse to get the boot floor finished off / sill plug welds all finished off / underside all stripped back and repainted / new pipes and battery cable fitted / wheel arches all cleaned out and stone chipped

obviously as you can see the work I have done so far also needs a good wirebrushing back having been left for a while

Edited by stuart bowes, 12 November 2023 - 07:03 AM.

[Viktor]

Hi Stuart, how do you plan to paint and seam sealed the underside of the car?  I will be doing that shortly, so wanted to know what your plans are, and where will you get the materials from?

 

Thanks.

 

Victor.

 

P.S. looking good by the way! :)

[stuart bowes]

We're still working that out at the moment.. general plan at the moment subject to being updated would be -

• underside and boot floor - clean up and anticorrosion spray, seam sealant, prime (possibly red oxide like I did on the subframes?) and then possibly a few coats of chassis paint, nice and thick overall.. it's a nice strong enamel finish should be fine
• arches / sills / lower part of bulkhead below crossmember - clean up and anticorrosion spray, stonechip and leave ready to go over with body colour which I assume is going to be 2k

but that's obviously a bit down the line yet and first there's a bit of welding to do

 

part of that is I've decided to lop off the slinger brackets partly to clean underneath but also to add some decent reinforcement triangles possibly in 1.5mm?  as jacking points,  and I may weld corresponding pieces to the inside as well to double that up (but that may not seem necessary will see as I go) basically somewhere for the 2 post lift to locate their arms, and for the tyre shop plonkers to have something to aim at.  right at the edges of the bulkhead / toeboard where it's already pretty much ok to jack anyway, just a little bit of extra protection and visually make it an obvious place to aim for.  also because I didn't replace the standard jacking points and just capped over those holes in the sill

 

Also that front panel 100% needs replacing, I was umming and ahhing over it earlier in the thread but now looking from this angle there are decidedly more holes and surface pitting than I'm willing to mess about with trying to patch up, I'll be removing the bumper lip as well so can prep that all on the bench in the warm(er) garage

Edited by stuart bowes, 13 November 2023 - 09:16 AM.

[Viktor]

Thanks Stuart. When I did my floor I bought the jacking plates from M-Machine and installed them quite easily.  That should do it...?

 

Cheers.

 

Victor.

[stuart bowes]

you mean the ones  that go inside the sills with the square hole though?  people say they're fine and that's their call not gonna argue with them but I didn't really like those because over time that hole just fills with crud and it's a common rust point. maybe when replaced as brand new they'll be fine for the next 20 years or so but just the idea of one day trying to jack it up and instead of lifting up the car you hear a worrying crunchy noise .. lol no I just welded over the holes.  some little clip-in plastic covers might be a good idea 

 

regardless of that debate though as I say it's more about the 2-post lifts or when you're getting the tyres changed, where do they put their jack or the 4 lifting pads on the lift..  that's where I want to put added strength

Edited by stuart bowes, 13 November 2023 - 06:28 PM.

[Viktor]

I was referring to the rear ones, as the front ones (with the holes) where already included on the floors I bought from M-Machine. Some pictures below to ilustrate what I'm talking about.

 

Front ones:

 

 

Rear ones:

 

[stuart bowes]

Ah I see .. are they actually jacking points though or slinger brackets (what was used in the factory to connect it to the jig temporarily) because from what I've read they're not really strong enough for jacking ??  the ones one mine though saying that do look a lot smaller possibly a slightly older design

 

and the rear ones do at least join to the vertical panel which is what I was going to do.. not so sure about the fronts one though

[Be87n]

Those aren't jacking points and are as Stuart says, slinging brackets used in the factory. Most people remove them as they are mostly flattened anyway. Jacking a Mini with a normal floor jack is done on the join between the floor and toeboard in the front and on the rear subframe in the rear. Atleast, that's my go to.

[stuart bowes]

more simple cleaning and repainting, all fairly self explanatory

 

 

 

 

and gave these a little coat of cold galv for protection (not on the threads though) although it probably means a little bit of touching up once I've used the big socket and torque wrench on them.  cleaned up the old rubbers for now, might just get new ones but actually they're in pretty good nick as they are really

 

**EDIT - changed to solid mount at later stage**

 

 

then just out of curiosity really I found the dizzy and had a look, if anyone has info / link to info on this it would be useful:

 

 

we're not sure if the electric part is original for the age of this car ('88) or something someone's added in later (judging by the unlikeliness of the heat-shrink and blue connectors, all looks a bit add-on) , is it a good thing, will it likely need replacing, etc.  I'm going to be doing a bit of a learning on this and checking if there's better options available without going to the extent of crank sensors and ECU's and all that nonsense

 

got rid of ballast wire and going for full-fat 12v coil if that makes any difference

Edited by stuart bowes, 29 June 2024 - 06:11 PM.