Next project - ‘62 997 Austin Cooper

[Dearg1275]

Perhaps not what mr Issigonis intended the gutters for but very useful.

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[Daz1968]

I found having more light on my blast cabinet helped me see better through the mist, I put an led light resting on the window while I was working, I think without a proper vacuum on outlet it will never clear, I also always wore my mask as well.
All looking good though

[roger mcnab]

hi d
that is a good drying rack you have there might as well use what is at hand paint looks good doing well
cheers roger mcnab

[DUF2 ‘65 Elf]

Thank you & well done .. i cannot resist buying them at autojumbles etc as the Compressor Vanes are often the iffy issue they may work but there is not enough compressed air to drive the Horns 100%..have also found out they are reluctant to give a full blast when they are wired through the Mk1 Horn Push & a relay which is needed.
My solution is a specific Air Horn Switch & will then give a full BLAST
Air Horns are a Big Benefit in todays Traffic when the Morons see a Mini coming & then just pull out direct in front of me..Have some of this Sunshine

Here is a pic of my Air Horn

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as space is tight under the bonnet I have mounted mine, including the compressor under the OS wing.

[DUF2 ‘65 Elf]

After a fair bit of head scratching I have decided on the basic lay out for the engine bay.

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A few brackets needed to be made or modified and I have to decide on where the relays will go but I think it should work. The strange position of the servo was suggested by the way it was when I got the car. It does release a lot of space and removing the servo is made much easier. No excuses now to delay the wiring any longer.

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I have fitted a servo to my Elf, but did not want is taking up space under the bonnet, so it is under the dash on the Nav’s side

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it is angled upwards so it will bleed a bit easier.

[Dearg1275]

By way of a change it was time to build and paint the gearbox. The car came with a 4 synchro box, S ratios. It was all pretty filthy. Once all the year of grease and storage grim (including a mouse’s nest) we’re gone it didn’t seem nearly as bad. 1st/2nd synchro ring had very much had it on the second gear side, likewise 2nd gear itself. Without much hope of finding better in my piles of “scrap” I struck gold. A synchro ring and gear that were almost perfect. Somewhere along the way I remember acquiring a gold seal box for an 1100, they must have come from that.

With Scottish weather so good these last few days I built the gearbox outdoors in the sunshine.

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If the weather holds I might get some paint on the shell.

D

[kevs 1961 mk1]

very nice mate ,lucky find that gold seal part , weather in ,carluke brilliant today too just right for a bit of paint

[Dearg1275]

I finally got around to plating the grotty case of the speedo and with a new bezel fitted its nae sa bad. I’ve just got to get brave and take the fuel gauge apart and plate that.

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[roger mcnab]

hi d the gearbox colour almost matches the grass how often do you get a nice day there its starting to get cool here but warms up of the day never snows here but about 20 miles inland it snows on the ranges about 3000ft mark doesnt last for more than a few days
car should look great when all together
cheers roger

[Dearg1275]

Time to put the speedo project to bed and get the fuel gauge done. I had a scrap one so disassembled that one first to discover what the problems might be.

The trickiest bit was taking the dial face off. It is effectively riveted on using tags through the casing holes. For these I sharpened a chisel to get under the tightly pressed edges of the tags and levering them towards the centre of the holes.

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After loosening the nuts holding the bobbins on the rear of the shell and removing the terminal nuts, they were lifted out very carefully. The wire is extremely fine and fragile. The needle assembly and insulators were taken out layer by layer.

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Continued.

[Dearg1275]

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I taped the Lucas tags and insulator strip prior to blasting

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Re-fixing the face of the gauge by folding over the tags proved more difficult than undoing them and vice grips were needed to hold things together while the tags were tapped back into place.

It all doesn’t look new but it’s not rusty anymore. Having photos of the gauge as I disassembled it proved useful in getting the bobbins in the correct place.

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[Dearg1275]

Front callipers this time. It’s nice when it is all clean on the bench and it goes from this,

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To this.

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I did find that chamfering the edge of the dust seal retainer helped it to fit much more easily.

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[roger mcnab]

hi what a great job one would think they were brand new car should look great when finished
cheers roger

[Dearg1275]

Things may slow down a bit with the 997. You may have noticed my mk2 looking rather sorry for itself in the workshop. I couldn’t ignore it any longer and decided to run a renovation in parallel. 997 fans do not despair, I’ll just be mixing a bit more paint each time and attempting to kill two birds with one stone.

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[roger mcnab]

hi d well good luck with 2 on the go it can get interesting at the moment my unipower gt is in the doldrums as other things got in the way like diff gears for the mini finished and needed paying for and now the fly wheel also needs paying for so slowly slowly catches the monkey but will soon get back to the uni
the 1800 fly wheel does not bolt straight on the rover crank unless the holes are filed out but not with cast iron thank you what a mess that would make when it goes bang and the diff gears well standard 1800 diff is no fun it would melt tyres
well keep up the good work and look forward to pics ofthe new job
cheers roger mcnab

[Dearg1275]

Time to get back to the 997 while I wait for bits for the Mk2. The doors were the focus of attention today or more specifically the six layers of various types of paint that stood between me and bare metal. The inside was easy enough and tackled with various clean and strip wheels. The outside was just going to take forever that way. The last layer of paint just melting and smearing and generally making thing worse.

Instead I reached for newly acquired paint stripper. Wonderful nasty effective old school stuff. This I daubed on liberally then tried a trick I had heard of. I covered it in aluminium foil to stop it drying out and went for my dinner. The results were amazing.

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That was one application and scraped with a plastic filler spreader. Another few dabs and 10 min later and all but a few scraps were away. The stripper is Langlow Strip-away Pro. Worth a try if you can find it.

D

[Dearg1275]

Off course when all the paint was gone there was another rust area to sort. It hadn’t gone through the frame flange so I didn’t have to make a corner piece.

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[kevs 1961 mk1]

nice work mate and a good tip on the paint stripper using foil to cover it , your fairly getting on with it now

[roymck]

nice work mate and a good tip on the paint stripper using foil to cover it , your fairly getting on with it now

Or use cling film

[Dearg1275]

This was the bit I had been avoiding. Trying to get the roof something like smooth after bashing out all the folds and dings. It looks a little less like a ploughed field and hope a few layers of high build primer will make the difference.

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