ACS 65C - Mk 1 Cooper S

[Nick W]

I just took the filters off with a long screw driver

[mk1]

How do you stop these tank sealers from blocking the little plastic filter on the pickup pipe ?

If you are REALLY lucky you can roll it around the inside of the tank without hitting the internal filter. If you aren't, all you can do is push a welding rod up the outlet pipe & punch a hole in it afterwards.

As I have said before these sealer systems are OK if you get it EXACTLY right, but I know far more people who have had issues with them than haven't. The usual problem is the coating shelling off in rubbery sheets eternally blocking the entire fuel system.

But as usual, those folks who want to try them will learn by their own experience. I have used them twice & would never use one again.

[richardACS]

Many interesting comments. I have previously used the POR 15 tank seal system on a Lotus Elan fuel tank and as Mark mentioned if you get it absolutly right... the day I did that it was a nicely hot day in August about 10 yrs ago and it went perfectly.

On the second occasion I used it in a five series BMW tank and was rather shocked to see the rusty condition of the tank on a car that had been sitting a few years and now understand this was from the E5 fuel. This was applied three years ago and so far has held up but will take a look to make sure it has not started peeling off yet!

I'm pleasantly suprised just how good the mini tanks are, the metal is as sound as could be, no pitting to be found and now 58 years old... It can only be the benign conditions found in the North Island of New Zealand.

I'm going to leave these untreated and use that Stabil preservative....

[MrNoo]

Many interesting comments. I have previously used the POR 15 tank seal system on a Lotus Elan fuel tank and as Mark mentioned if you get it absolutly right...

I did an Elan 2+2 140 and with the ethanol in the fuel it eventually peeled off in sheets, the darn stuff even managed to get rolled up and down one of the fuel lines. In the end we junked it and bought a stainless one, problem solved.
A friend sprays a lot of classic bike tanks and I have witnessed some of the utter messes that some people create in their tanks with some of these sealers, blocked taps and huge amounts just sat at the bottom of the tank gone hard, it eventually comes away as these large lumps cure and shrink slightly. He had one tank where the lump was rattling around inside it like a cricket ball, it was too large to get out the filler so they had to cut the bottom out of it to remove it but the tank was scrapped as it was like a sieve

[richardACS]

I'm just getting ready to repaint the tanks exterior but prior to that thought I'd go through a further stage of cleaning the internals.

Stage 1 - I managed to find an old cement mixer and with belts manage to get the tank tightly secured to the motor. Then with the tank filled with about a 2 litre jug's worth of small triangular ceramic pieces I left it to rotate for an hour and the inside is nicely devoid of the previous surface rust.

Stage 2 - I then poured in 4 litres of POR 15 'Metal ready' which further treats the rust and etch primes the metal surface, however after moving the tanks position every 30 mins to treat each surface. I came back this morning to find that the surface now has a thin surface coating of rust. If I were to go to the next stage of POR 15 'Fuel tank sealer' then this wouldn't be an issue as I believe POR stands for 'Paint on Rust'

Stage 3 - However I'm still undecided about applying the tank sealer (those internal filters could become blocked) and for the comments discussed earlier in April see previous discussions, the hot temps over the weekend which I feel is how it works best have unfortunately now passed and it seems unlikely they will return this year.

I guess it has given me the option to reconsider what is happening and how to deal with this issue of fine rust within the tank.For this situation is surely no different to one we all have to deal with? Do we leave it upto the filters?

If the car was road worthy and to be parked up say for a few months then mixing the 'stabil' with the tanks brimmed with E5 might do the job. But as this project is on going and the tanks are yet to be fitted - what would be a proven method of coating the surface internally? would redex or 2 stroke oil sloshed around skin the surfaces work if this was repeated every month or so?

[Peter Laidler]

I haven't really been following this from start to finish, but if I understand it, the tanks are clean, rust free white metal inside. Is that correct? And you want to keep them like that, out of the car, until the time comes to fit them. Is that correct?

If that was me, I would get a can of supertrol 001 and spray inside the tank, via the filler, gauge and outlet until the cows come home. This stuff, in its vapour form, sticks like shit to a blanket and its capillary action creeps its way into seams and joins like a liquid possessed.

Once the evaporants have, well....., evaporated, you'll be left with a light coating of sticky grease that will repel moisture like a camel drivers jock-strap. In fact, this stuff was used to protect armour, trucks and other light vehicles going to '.....warm climates...' as deck cargo, down the Atlantic and into the Med - and onwards. Nothing else even came close

And afterwards, just slosh the tanks with a gallon of petrol or thinners, dry off and use. Just like they did with the REAL tanks!

I did my brand new Rover RCSport, completely and totally, inside and out, drenched it in this stuff. The underside and sills etc etc are still a sticky oily mess. But you don't see a lot of rusty oil......., certainly not on my car!

Or have I got the wrong end of the stick?

[richardACS]

Not wrong at all!

Many thanks....

[richardACS]

There's a certain synchronicity to it being 9 years to the date (28th December 2014) that I should be starting the reassembly of ACS 65C. I would never believe that the road could be so long on such a small package. The engine/gearbox were completed 2 years ago - the body shell likewise, however I lost a year in getting my workshop re organised as I was finding myself losing too much time in trying to locate items. I felt it would be advantageous to get things stored in marked boxes, apply a lick of paint and install some useful pieces of equipment such as blast cabinet, ramp, plating equipment and miniature spray booth for component refinishing.

Mostly to cut down on the time running around using outside companies and however organised one tries to be there is always something that was left out of a batch (of plating) etc. that it would be easier to do this in house. I particularly didn't want to have items powder coated hence the spray booth. Also I wanted to enjoy my first years of retirement in an environment non dependant on chasing work deadlines and working more at my own pace.

The first item to be fitted was a new wiring harness/grommets.

The next being the hard lines before fitting the subframes. Looking at the images now I possibly do not have the brake line correct to original position or even the hydro pipes - I ended up re using the original hydro pipes as I couldn't get the new ones to sit satisfactorily and this is how they seemed to match the tabs the best.

This is the unfortunate result of re building a car from a box of bits otherwise images can be taken from the out set for later reference.

[Polarsilver]

Car Looking Good .. Ramp & Wood Packing you will see the same in my garage. . my tip at this juncture would be to fit the steering colum to get the steering rack positioned before the subframe goes in.

[richardACS]

Car Looking Good .. Ramp & Wood Packing you will see the same in my garage. . my tip at this juncture would be to fit the steering colum to get the steering rack positioned before the subframe goes in.

[richardACS]

Car Looking Good .. Ramp & Wood Packing you will see the same in my garage. . my tip at this juncture would be to fit the steering colum to get the steering rack positioned before the subframe goes in.

Thanks for tip, is this to ensure the rack drive is centred in the bulkhead aperture? (so far its just nipped up so I can swivel the rack to suit the column angle).

The nearside packing pieces look a bit vulnerable!

Now the pipes are in I've since transferred the shell to a pallet so I can slide the shell along the trackway, with the intention of overhanging the engine bay (over the ramp end) to enable the engine/subframe to be installed from below the car - well that's the plan...

[Polarsilver]

I install the engine single handed using the 4 Post Ramp as you describe to lower the Shell over the engine to install .. i put a trolley jack under the sump as with the Body Shell on its rear wheels the Ramp it does not fully lower down enough & there is a need to lift the subframe with Engine UP a few inches just to bolt up the subframe .. i also use a Chainblock secured to the other end of ramp this works in the horizontal Secured onto rear subframe ..just to be able to hold Body Shell should it try to tip also there to pull back the Body Shell complete with bolted in Subframe & Engine back onto the ramp for final installation ..i also have a running jack on my ramp so that helps support the body shell because the Shell needs to be positioned well forward during all this installation faff.. all good fun.

[Peter Laidler]

I'd fit the steering rack as per Normans suggestion but I''d leave the yoke nuts loose. That's so that the rack can be slightly rotated /adjusted to suit the angle of the steering column when it's put in and connected, without any undue leverage.

Additionally, while it's loose you can slide the rubber/neoprene sealing bush over the rack pinion and fit those plastic (or rubber ?) strips between the yoikes and the rack.

Another steering rack tip - while it's out - is to open up or close up the legs of the yokes so that they are a perfect fit into the locating holes that straddle the rack saddle part of the toe-board. The yokes are hard/sprung steel and can be a real bastard to spring open, or close, when other fittings are already in place. Been there and done it!

I fitted my engine, gearbox and gear lever extension LESS THE OTHER EASILY ACCESSIBLE odds and sods from below as above. Then wrapped it in a couple of old blankets, Allow to of engine to rotate backwards slightly so that..............

Then with the help of a couple of classic owning pals, I lifted the fairly light front end of the empty body shell, rotated about the rear 12" roll-about slave rear wheels. Lift up and as body is lowered, carefully, a bit at a time, it rotated over the engine and sub frame. Easy to wiggle the body to suit the locating holes and sub frame bolted up.

All easier said than done but it worked a treat. No scratches or trapped fingers but a bit of foul language of course.

Track rod ends into steering arms nuts - left loose, fitted slave front wheels and within an hour of eating Anns cooked breakfast while discussing our plan of action on the kitchen table, we had a rolling shell. For the first time in 2 1/2 years!

[richardACS]

Thanks for those tips Peter - a good breakfast is definitely a boon for a couple of strong arms!

Spent some very frustrating hours endeavouring to work out why I couldn't find some wriggle room to fit the engine/subframe combo from below. Eventually found the cause! the lower shroud of the radiator was not correct for the car effectively reducing the opening by 14mm as the radiator was sitting too far to the right - one of the downsides of trusting a box full of bits and my lack of intimate knowledge - though to be fair parts in the main has been surprisingly correct.

The shroud fixing section (to the support bracket) was out by 14mm and from checking on Mini spares website could see that the lower shroud I had fitted would be supported by an entirely different bracket - I had wondered why the fan blade was not further inset but didn't question this sufficiently.

I worked on the lower (left hand) shroud yesterday to adjust the issue, blast and painted once corrected (as can be seen the vital dimensions on the dirty left one which I fortunately happened to have in a box of rubbish are correct) and now about to go again....

[Peter Laidler]

New Cooper S type rad brackets are available from 1071Bob of this parish. You could modify the original to suit. I have done it but after a bit of bending, cutting, shaping and filing and welding I'd lost the will to live. Until Bob came to the rescue!

As serviceability and maintainability over-rode my desire for concourse perfection, I deliberately left the left inner wing fan shroud off my car during its restoration. It serves no thermal or practical purpose. As indeed BL did later

[richardACS]

The seat belts were looking rather sad and after contacting FDTS, I took them apart to refurbish the casing and internals with a view of new belts being fitted. It doesn't look a difficult job to do i.e. plating and painting and although the exact webbing design is no longer available a similar one is in the same colour.

Unfortunately the tap in rivets holding the plastic covers in position could not be extracted, and one would need to 3d print new covers x 4 plus the underside is a moulded fitting and these x 2 would need to be reformed in resin (the originals being some kind of metal/foil)

But then after making some enquiries with a supplier of NOS he had a new set available and so decided to purchase these.

This leaves the question of the originals and whether to continue with getting these refurbished which I could use on a further project, the only item required apart from the 1" ball (available on Ebay) would be the 3d print covers and the making of the base in resin might anyone know of such a company?

Alternatively should they just be consigned to the bin?

[richardACS]

Very pleased to have found these new belts and still in the original box, on checking through the instructions it mentioned the availability (back in the day) of a buckle holder. And to my amazement managed to find a NOS item. I will copy this detail onto a sheet of paper and post up with dimensions (on my return - currently away for a few days).

[richardACS]

With the lower radiator shroud now corrected (see earlier post) the unit went into place relatively easily, I still had to manoeuvre the sub frame around but eventually all the fixings went home and now torqued up.

[richardACS]

My version of the brake/servo pipes and big thanks to Andrew for sharing his work of art - still to do the final subframe connection but needed this in before final pipe shaping..

I'm thrilled to have just received this image of the actual engine bay from the owner back in 1968 and will have to adjust the servo 'nose' pipes which I hadn't correctly interpreted from Andrews pics

[Andrew1967]

Looking fantastic Richard

Yes, the nose pipe does lay over towards the inner wing .. I think around 11 ish IIRC. HOY isn't on site so I can't go and check.