209 replies to this topic

[TimS]

This is the story about my car, there is another post on my 1330 but I am now going to start it again through this post due to a large amount of changes

Background of the car

I acquired Winston around 2 years ago now just before my 17th birthday and before i could drive.

He is a de-seamed flip front, 1972 mini with a new but very poor and thin paint job. When I got him, he was stripped out with a cage, buckets and ready for rallying. the engine was a 1275 with stage 1 kit and a very nice head that was ported and flowed with bronzed guides and double valve springs but std sized valves. It was a bespoke head done by a local garage and would be classed as stage 3/4 depending on the company and if the valves were changed.

The whole car had been rebuild and the back end was not restored like the rest of the car. Sadly due to insurance reasons i could not keep the buckets, harnesses and cage. And insted I decided to turn it back to a road going car.

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Edited by Flappyplasticbits, 07 January 2006 - 12:11 PM.

[TimS]

Old Subframe
The first main thing I had to set to on was the rear sub frame. This had not been replaced in the rebuild b4 being sold to me. But gave me the opportunity to learn. I managed to get a fairly new, good condition subframe off a friend of mine from down the road. The only problem with it was that it had seized on bolts on the radius arms and mounts.

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Edited by Flappyplasticbits, 05 June 2005 - 02:14 PM.

[TimS]

New Subframe
After heating, swearing hitting and drilling I managed to get them all out, although some threads were damaged and so needed tapping out to the next side. After all of this taking the old subframe off was just as much of a problem as the bolts that hold it to the car were also very rust and had seized. This meant more drilling and cutting(the dremel soon became a good friend of mine) and finally got most of them out, apart from a couple of stuck studs in the body itself

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Edited by Flappyplasticbits, 05 June 2005 - 02:15 PM.

[TimS]

Eventually the studs came out with some help from a friend. And the new subframe was built up. After being to a show earlier that week before I bought some new gmax shocks, hi lo’s, bolt kit, hand brake cables, braided hoses, copper brake pipe, new rubber cones, a lot of black hammerite and slave cylinder. All of there were to be built up on the new subframe as well as cleaning up the radius arms and bearings to make sure this subframe was going to last. And to help with the cars reliability.

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[TimS]

After a week or so(I was taking my time with this) the radius arms and subframe were sanded down to metal checking for any rust spots, and was repainted with a few layers of paint for protection. And eventually and slowly assembled.

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[TimS]

After the subframe was back on I could concentrate on interior. I was going to go for something that was std looking with a hint of customisation. i kept the three clocks but decided to go for a chequered plate dash. To match this i thought id turn the interior from black to grey so it all matched. So in went a std interior(off the same mini that the subframe had come from) and a dash from MWS. The steering wheel was acquired at a show. I went for a slightly larger mountney wheel that the previous one for a little bit more control and I believe is now 13” I also decided on 4 spoke as I preferred this look and found that most people in my area and club had the 3 spoke wheel.

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[TimS]

ICE
With no radio the trip to college was becoming a little boring when stuck in traffic, so I was after something cheap but with a hint of quality(you cant hear much in the mini due to the lack of sound deadening and solid mounted subframes) At the time I was working for halfords and just by chance we had last years stock being sold off cheap. I ended up getting a display Rockford Fosgate RFX9000 head unit for £97… this was great as it had gone down in price then with staff discount I save a packet and it even played Mp3s. its peak out put at 40 watts per channel isn’t too high but then it didn’t need to be as it came with 2 pre out I would be running an amp for the rear speakers.

The next thing acquired was the Infinity Reference 6x9’s which retailed at £99.99 but I managed to get them while they were half price and with 15% discount so for £43. I was after some 10cm front speakers and after a trip to the scrappy for some other bits I managed to see some nice blue kenwoods in the doors of an Escort. After getting some bits they only wanted £2 for them but I managed to get £2 of the over all price and so got them for free. These were going to be perfect for fitment to the front behind my dash.

Finally was the amp. This was a last years Alpine V power MRP-T130 amp that madmax (James) bout from halfords for £25.50 after being obsolete which has sort of made its way to mine after I leant him a JBL sub. There would be no sub going in my car due to weight and the amount of boot space it took up. And at a total cost of £140 I had a good ICE set up for my car.
:grin:

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[TimS]

1275 Engine
The car ran well like this for a good time on an engine that was built just after I received the car. It managed 74bhp on some local rollers which for a 17 year ld in a mini was enough power to have fun with, to surprise a few people and to learn the car well. It was reliable but this engine only lasted 12k miles from rebuild…. This isn’t long and the reason why was the way is driven. I have the Lincolnshire Wolds near to me and this meant a lot of late night drives in the middle of nowhere with madmax and other friends The lack of a central oil pick up pipe meant that low oil pressure was happening too often and wore the bearings extremely quickly and so the engine gave up, the bearings wore out and the bores were at the end of their lives and would need a rebore. At this time I was at university doing an automotive engineering course so was understading more about engines…. I thought about doing the work myself but with the amount of course work and assignments I had to do it was time to get a job(at pound stretcher) and head off to morspeed for a 1330 kit

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Edited by Flappyplasticbits, 05 June 2005 - 02:32 PM.

[TimS]

I spoke with simon on the phone a couple of time as well as contacted the insurance company and found that going from 1275- 1330 would have no effect on insurance premium as it’s a std engineers over bore of + .060”.
I wanted a bit more go to the engine now after getting used to my car over the previous year and a half so went for a lightened flywheel, MSPD phase 2 cam and larger inlet valves in the head. I would retain the same head and 1.5 roller tip rockers but change the LCB manfild as the previous one had cracked from havign no gear box mount

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[TimS]

Engine Spec From Morspeed
Freshly bored and cross hatch honed to +020- 060, The block is then chemicaly cleaned, Fully prepared & painted, Re-surfaced, And fitted with new cam bearings, Crankshaft is ground to next, Complete with new O.E bearings, Conrods are fitted with new Bolts, Hepolite Pistons and rings, Supplied with a new Duplex timing gear set, MSPD or kent Performance cam of your choice, High grade Followers and H/C oil pump.

Engine is fully dynamic balanced.

Complete with new oil ways, core-plugs & gasket set.



Another pick of the old engine.-

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[TimS]

The crank, block, cam and pistons/rods where all ecxhanged

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[TimS]

for nice shiny new ones

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[TimS]

I also had to think about the strains on other components that more power would place on the engine so for the gear box was a hardened diff pin and central oil pick up pipe. The gears and rings were also checked but from being built 12k miles ago was still in very good condition.

the new and old diff pins, there is a fair bit of wear on the old one.Im now pleased I checked this out and found i have a 3.44 finall drive as suspected

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Edited by Flappyplasticbits, 05 June 2005 - 03:24 PM.

[TimS]

Other parts to cope with the power included EBC green Stuff Pads and new Ball joints (I previously had a ball joint work its way loose and come off bending an A panel with the wheel) Rose jointed bottom arms, new tie bar bushes and heavy duty adjustable tie rods.

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[TimS]

After having problems with bent bottom arms previously i thought id got for adjustable ones. I’m having to devise a way to keep dirt of the joint but i am fabricating some rubber sleeves to fit nicely. I shall be starting off running 1 degree negative camber

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Edited by Flappyplasticbits, 05 June 2005 - 03:40 PM.