Curse of the Crimson Altar-1966 Mini Cooper Resurrection

[politeperson]

I managed to get the windscreen in. I used the original one with a new rubber.

Not an easy job, with the filler strip it took me 2 hours. Hard work on the hands.

The heater pipes look like they come out of the right side of the heater, so have to loop to the left hand side of the bulkhead! Couldn't they have fitted the matrix in from the other side?

I also fitted the carbs.

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[CMC]

The heater pipes look like they come out of the right side of the heater, so have to loop to the left hand side of the bulkhead! Couldn't they have fitted the matrix in from the other side?

Does the LH side of the heater box also have the 2 holes (to be able use the same heater for LHD and RHD cars)? Then simply turn the matrix around.

[Dr.Mabo]

Yes, you can flip the matrix inside the heater box.

[politeperson]

Thats what it needs, Thanks

[1071bob]

Should look like this.

[politeperson]

Thanks, useful photo. Looks good to me.

It doesn't seem to matter how many photos you take when disassembling a 50 year old car, I always have the same issue when building them from a bare shell. Which route does all the gubbins take?

Brake pipes, cooling pipes, which clips, which unions, does it go over or under?

If you google it, you often find then pictures that have been posted are of modified cars or the cars are MK2, MK3 or LHD, they all seem to be different.

Often the areas you are interested in are difficult to photograph as they are buried or underneath the car, so it is difficult to find out. For example, the rear of the remote gear change has a mild steel bracket bolted on with a rubber bush.
This bracket bolts onto the floor-plan with three bolts. The new floor-plan is not drilled. In finding a photo of the correct orientation I ended up looking at Auction House pictures of original cars for sale taken from underneath the car in ramps.
Once I found that out the next problem was that the holes had to be really accurately drilled from underneath the car otherwise you hit the center cross member.

Another example was the brake line routing for the servo, where every Cooper S appears to be different.

If you look at the manuals, these are the parts that are often skipped as no one dived in that deep when the cars were in daily use.

Quite often the information is out there but buried in forums or chat rooms, often with conflicting opinions.

What I really needed was an assembly manual showing the way it was done in the factory in the correct order, starting with the loom, brake pipes sound insulation that kind of thing.

Figuring it all out on a new car takes me along time. All in all however, I would say that the car is very well designed indeed and makes excellent sense once figured out.

Anyway, whether I have got it right or not will soon be apparent when I try and drive it!

[politeperson]

I found the time to cut the underlay, fit the carpets and bolt the seats back in.
Lots of gluing and trimming as you would expect.
I also reversed the heater matrix so it makes sense now and I can fit it.
I will leave the dash panels until I know everything is working. It is easy to damage them taking them out.
See if I have a hangover tomorrow, Happy New Year.

[politeperson]

I little more progress, Badges, exhaust, coil bracket, door, windows, horn, earth strap, steering column shroud, fuel tank sender and straps in.

I decided to fit a 2 box, side exit exhaust 1 and 7/8ths in diameter which attached directly to the LCB manifold. I wouldn't fancy fitting an LCB manifold to a car with the engine in situ, looks like it would be a bit tight.

Couldn't resist sticking the S on, sorry.

On the subject of fitting the rear Morris Cooper badge, its more tricky than you would think.

I carefully measured and drilled pilot holes using the factory spacing from the old boot lid. I checked them with the new badge and they lined up.
I then drilled the holes to 4.5mm to take the plastic badge inserts with a nice interference fit. As expected there was no way the badge lugs could be pushed in, so i started reaming it out with larger and larger drill bits until the lugs would go in. Thats when the problem started.

By pushing all lugs in carefully in turn, the badge distorted leaving the underline bar all wobbly.

I prised at all out and in close inspection the problem seems to be that the lugs are not cast at exactly 90 degrees to the letters. This means as the badge is fitted the letters distort bending the bar.

Annoyingly, I pulled out all the carefully drills inserts and then bonded it in at the back with grey sealer. Its all OK now but a waste of an hour.

Wish I had known before hand.

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Had a fitment issue with the "Janspeed" air-box hitting the bulkhead. 1/4 inch too close. Could the elbows be incorrect? Need to figure it out.

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I also bought some bits from a new ebayer Jeremy Walker who was from just up the road, so he came down to the workshop the drop them off and inspect progress. He seems to be very nice, has lots of well priced MK1 bits and goes by the mane of Selective mini spares. He is dropping off some radius arm shrouds and number-plate plugs next week.

Heater now in, must be getting close to firing her up, all these little jobs take along time.

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[timmy201]

It looks to me like you might have the wrong inlet manifold fitted. That appears to be a 20 degree manifold from a Sprite/Midget - does it have a casting number?

A mini should have a 30 degree manifold and matching float bowl angle

[gs.davies]

Looks like you got a good fit with the rear opening windows.

Which rubbers did you use?

[politeperson]

Morning Gents,

The inlet manifold is now suspect, thankyou. I shall get some numbers off it later if I can find them, that would be an easy one to solve if its the case.

Rubbers have been a bit of a problem.
The rear side window and screen rubbers came from Minisport, no problem.

The door rubbers were Minisport, they were too thick on the front edge and were stressing the hinges so I reversed them by cutting the rubber in 2 and flipping it around at that point. A temporary solution. I will look for another solution as the rubber section is hollow and cannot be shaved.

The boot rubber was the proper MK1 rubber with clips that fits to the boot from Minisport. No way would that ever be correct as it stressed the hinges and pushed out the boot. Never. I even massaged the metal to get more clearance and spaced out the hinges.

I bought the Phoenix trim item for £14 and stuck it onto the the car as per the detailed instructions they sent me. That now fits well, job done.

The front screen was a tight fit, requiring the heat gun, Vaseline and patience. It would have been easy to break the screen, but it went in eventually, as did the stiff chrome strip.

As far as the exhaust went, there were lots of options. I could have picked a work of art for over £300. However I went for the £80 mild steel item which fitted perfectly and was actually pretty good quality, painted silver and will more than do the job. Lets face it, its underneath the car and probably period correct!
The fitting kit was £15. All from Minisport.

Quite refreshing really as car parts are generally very expensive. Another big tick for Minis in my opinion, as parts supply is really good, you are lucky.

[Peter Laidler]

I have said several times to bpdy restorers that it's best to fit the NEW door and boot rubbers while the car is still in white metal - or primer - together with the doors and boot lid. That way you can adjust the metal frames BEFORE paint while ensuring a good fit.

New boot lids are notorious for not fitting properly into original apertures, especially when the car has had a bit of a rear end shunt.....

Fit new rubbers and check the fitting of doors and boots BEFORE paint.

[politeperson]

I am not going to start adjusting panels to accommodate rubbers.

There is no more adjustment possible. I would have to start re-contouring panel shuts the make the rubbers fit. That would be ridiculous.

The old rubbers fit fine!

I think Phoenix sell different thicknesses to suit the situation. You measure it with bluetack like a plastigauge.

I will have a look at it.

[politeperson]

Bit more progress,
She runs.
I checked the key was in the off position.
A bit of fuel in the tank, no drips.
A cautious connection of the battery, no sparks, no smoke, no smells.
Key in position 1, I can hear the fuel pump clicking for a few seconds.
Key in the start position a few turns of the engine and vroom, no choke (not connected) straight into a smooth quiet idle.

It all sounds great, the oil pressure looks good. The exhaust sounds great too, so I turned it off.

Inlet manifold swap next.

I also managed to button down the bumpers, they are now tight.

Need to do bonnet catch, sill trim, door trim, cards, boot boards, pin switches and some other smallish jobs.

They all take along time though.

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