1977 Mini Pickup

[jayare]

Hi all - I've been lurking on the forum for a good while now learning and admiring some of the awesome Minis on here and have recently bought a 1977 Mini Pickup. Not quite a Mk1 but it does still have external door hinges!

It has been restored by the previous owner and while the majority of the work is pretty decent and lots of money has been spent on M-Machine and heritage panels there are a few things which I'd like to improve.

This is one of the photos the previous owner sent me from before the restoration :

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And how it looks now:

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Plans include replacing the front wings (due to awful panel gaps at the scuttle as the wings are non-gen), bonnet (again, non-gen and is flimsy as anything) and fitting the proper fixed grille in place of the Mk1 style currently on it. Roof is also going blue and the load-bay tonneau will be replaced with a black one.

Engine-wise, the current 1098 has some minor issues with the clutch operating system and the carb/choke mechanism and most importantly as it's from an Austin 1100 the final drive is totally unsuitable for the Mini on 10's so that will have to be sorted in the short term. Longer term I'll be rebuilding the 1380 I had in my Clubman Estate for it to give it a decent amount of go.

I have already fitted some soundproofing, a new windscreen as the original was scratched to hell, black screen rubber inserts, Austin 1300GT steering wheel and a few other bits & pieces.

JR

[59fan]

Always nice to see another pickup on the forum, looks pretty tidy as is.

Ian

[Andrew1967]

Nice little pick up.

Is this the one we spoke about at Blyton with Dave ?

Putting the van grille back in will make it.

It's a bit of a bugger to do the points and condenser though. Going electronic on my pick up will hopefully sort that one out

[jayare]

Ian - thanks - it looks better in the photos but it's solid and nothing that can't be fixed.

Andrew - yes it's the one we were speaking about at Blyton. It already has electronic ignition fitted so thankfully no need to do points & condenser through the fixed grille!

JR

[kit of bits]

The trick with fitting points is an 18” long screw driver!

[Andrew1967]

The trick with fitting points is an 18” long screw driver!

A magnetic one at that Dave

[jayare]

Been doing bits & pieces to the pickup over the last few weeks - mostly sound-proofing but this weekend I've targeted a couple of the more odd decisions made by the previous owner - both can be seen in this photo:

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The rear lights just looked horrible and the wooden strips in the load bed were cheap and nasty bits of DIY store stripwood with a bit of varnish and stuck down with double-sided foam tape. Unfortunately the tape has damaged the paint - probably applied too soon after painting but it still looks better without the strips!

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And on to the rear lamps - I chose one of the better sets of these i have collected over the years and removed the round lights and attacked the infill panels the PO had welded into the original lamp holes with the angle grinder & slitting disk.

From this:

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To this:

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I had to fettle the holes with a file to fit the back housings then drilled the necessary holes for the fixings, brushed on a bit of primer then topcoat on the bare edges and fitted the back housings & lap-holders. I'd made some short looms wrapped in the correct grey loom tape to connect the lamps to the main loom so those went in & tested all the lights before fitting the lenses:

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Looks sooooooo much better

Ideally I'd weld up the mounting holes for the later 'trailer' type lamps which it should strictly speaking have but the holes are covered by the lenses so can't be seen and it saves having to paint the panels for the time being.

[Andrew1967]

Excellent remedial work John

Those rear lamps were hideous, well done for ridding it of them.

I can see why he fitted the ‘rubbing strips’ but with a floor that good, who would realistically use it to carry anything that could damage the paint ?

[kit of bits]

That looks better, so you only have 50 sets of rear lamps left in your stash now!

[kit of bits]

So next you need one of these

[jayare]

Andrew - it makes a big difference to the look with the right lights! And it certainly won't be getting anything that's going to damage the paint dumped in the back of it.

Dave - I'll have to remember to steal the number plate lamp cover when I next see you! And you'll have to drive the paint gun - I'm pretty sure it would look worse than it does now if I try to paint it! And I only have 3 sets of lights left, not 50

JR

[jayare]

Pulled the engine out today to sort out the final drive and I'm also swapping the HS2 to an HS4 which I've overhauled to hopefully let out a few more horses until I can get my 1380 built (likely to be over the winter at the earliest).

Had a bit of a worrying moment when I'd pulled the diff out and counted the crownwheel teeth only to find it had the same 62 teeth as the 3.44 CWP I had to go in. Counted the pinion and 15 teeth (giving 4.13:1) rather than the 18 teeth on the 3.44 pinion - phew! It's no surprise that first gear was more or less redundant and getting anywhere near 70mph had the thing revving its wotsits off. It should be much nicer to drive with the 3.44 in it.

Unfortunately I've managed to damage the diff bearing in my attempt to remove it so unless the local bearing supplier has one on the shelf it looks like I'm heading to Minispares in the morning. I also need to pick up some diff output oil seals which I didn't realise weren't included in the gearbox gasket set.

I also had a delivery of a big box from Spain today:

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I think the mounting point to the subframe are pre-'76 solid type but as I'm planning to solid-mount the rest of the subframe it makes little difference:

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The right-hand end has been squashed a little bit at some point during it's time in storage which given it was probably pressed at least 35 years ago it's hardly a surprise but it should be fairly easy to reshape this:

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[Whee]

Loving the colour - that's a nice blue.

[jayare]

Loving the colour - that's a nice blue.

Thanks - it's Teal blue which is one of my favourite early 70's Mini colours. I'm glad the previous owner/restorer decided to change it from Pageant Blue to Teal - it's just a much nicer colour.

After a trip to Minispares on Wednesday lunchtime to get a new diff bearing, I got the engine back together & my Dad gave me a hand to drop it into the hole. Got most of it hooked up yesterday then finished off this morning by flushing out the cooling system (the 'coolant' which came out was like orange soup!). The engne started first time which I was a bit surprised about having swapped the carb. I've adjusted the mixture following the instructions included in the SU repair kit - setting the idle then take the mixture from rich through the point where the idle hits the highest and just starts to drop as it's leaned off but I'll ideally need to get it on a gas analyser at some point. It's idling nicely, revs cleanly and falls back to idle without any hint of trying to stall so I don't think it's too far out.

It's now MUCH nicer to drive with the 3.44 FD in it instead of the 4.13 and as a bonus the speedo is reading as close to correct as any Mini I've owned where before it was miles out.

The clutch also now works without the massively extended adjustable operating rod as I changed the release bearing plunger whilst it was out. There was probably under 1mm of play but this translates to a big chunk at the other end of the arm due to the lever ratio. I also put a throttle return spring on instead of the massively strong standard one which seems to have made the pedal feel nicer too.

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I've just remembered that I need to set the throw-out stop on the clutch - must do that tomorrow!
JR

[jayare]

Had a failure of one of the QL5000 type joints last weekend - fortunately at low speed so no major damage done. I have replaced both joints this afternoon and posted a question in the technical section viewtopic.php?f=3&t=23112 to see if I've done anything wrong in fitting them!

[jayare]

Well it's been a while since I updated this thread!

The plan for winter '18-'19 was supposed to have been swapping the pickup onto 7.5" S discs and adjustable suspension. Well that didn't happen as I went and bought an ex-Coca Cola field service VW T5.1 transporter:

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And spent an awful lot of time through last winter , spring and into the first part of summer converting it into a camper - full interior lining:

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Camper Interior:

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And exterior colour coding, lowering and alloys:

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[jayare]

But this winter i finally got round to doing the brakes and suspension on the Pickup.

Front & rear hubs refurbished:

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Discs & drums prepared:

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[jayare]

Stripped out all the existing front & rear suspension & brakes:

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I found this on the NSF:

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Which did this to the suspension cone:

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So I have fitted a pair of red-spot cones which I had on the shelf to the front.

[jayare]

And all back together again at the front:

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The rear is also back together with Hi-Los, Gaz dampers, adjustable camber brackets, new 1/2" rear cylinders, the refurbished hubs and new drums but I don't have a photo of that.

Also as the hydraulics were diagonal split, so they have all been taken off and a new yellow-tag front/rear split master cylinder and bulkhead valve and new pipes & hoses all round (thanks to Dave - kit of bits for shaping the pipes for the front - they look much better than I would have managed!)

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So all I need to do now is fit the front pads and get them bled.

I am also swapping the wheels from JBW Minilight style to JBW Rose Petals with new A008's - I'll get a photo of the Pickup with them fitted once it's back on it's wheels.

I also need to get the alignment sorted so if anyone has any recommendations for getting this done fairly close to Milton Keynes it would be handy

[mk1]

Looking great! Glad to see that work continues on the Pickup even though you have another project toop. What are the plans for the VW. A camper perhaps?