mk1-forum.net

Thanks for the positive feedback folks, feel quite humbled.

I took the 850 to it's first "meet" the other evening, to the first Wheels on Wednesday meet in Worcester. Unsurprisingly being the first meet of many, many months it was heaving and the 850 got lots of attention, spent most of the night nattering to folks about it which took me back to the old ford days of showing my old Escort RS at shows.

Lots of people were asking about the colour and i had to reassure them that the Old El Paso Beige was a factory colour, and another old fella was heard telling his mate that i'd ruined a mk1 by fitting mk3 rear lights.....

But overall i enjoyed it, first good run out (80 mile round trip) has highlighted a few tweaks i'd like to make, starting with a fresh bleed of the clutch and i suspect a new slave cylinder, coupled with a manual adjustment of the clutch and if that doesn't improve gear selection i feel a new clutch will be in order at some point, but i have to keep reminding myself that it's a 52 year old car, not some modern car.

I'm booked into the National Mini and Metro show at Gaydon on the 6th June so i've got some more polishing to do before then.

Cheers

Matt

Some enforced tinkering has been required on Bryan - named after the Canadian global rock legend Bryan Adams, tenuous link to 1969 somewhere I'm sure.....

The gear selection was getting more and more notchy and pretty unpleasant so i drained the contents of the clutch master chamber with the other half's turkey baster.... looked a bit elderly lets say...



Bled the clutch with fresh fluid which kind of helped the pedal feel but the fluid coming out looked almost frothy, so i suspected a tiny air leak on the clutch slave. Luckily i'd got a new one on the bench so that was fitted and the old one contained a very corroded push rod which could not have been helping matters so that was cleaned up in the old cheek poker and all fitted back together nicely.

Once the hydraulics were bled i adjusted the free play in the clutch arm as well, not that there was loads tbf.

I used the new grease gun i recently bought to get to the often overlooked grease nipple on the back of the diff housing (remote change box) and that took a fair bit of grease so i suspect that was pretty dry in there. I then turned my attention to the gear stick itself. The ball and cup set up were in fairness greased up but it looked very old and dry so it was all wiped out and regreased with nice fresh stuff.

So far so good, the gear change is a lot smoother, still notchy and agricultural but i honestly suspect that's how they are maybe?

In the future i suspect a clutch change will be due as the bite point is very low on the pedal and the slave rod extends quite a way out to disengage/engage the drive so it does point i think to a tired diaphragm or nearly worn out friction material.

I'll see how it all drives on Sunday heading to Gaydon.

Matt

Another huge technical update...



I replaced the rear view mirror to windscreen sucker as it was not holding the mirror steady and was suffering from years of UV exposure.

Nice easy 10 second job.

So the use of the Mini Mk2 has continued over the last few months and it's been driving fine, apart from a slight eagerness to get hotter than i'm comfortable with at cruising speeds.

Initial investigations found a very old radiator fitted, Evans waterless coolant in the system and a number of rubber hoses that were showing some hefty surface cracking, so the decision was made to bring forward the engine bay refresh to now, and the deadline is the forthcoming Mini show at Himley Hall.

I started by draining the Evans stuff out of the system and thoroughly flushing it from every water way before removing the old rad.

It didn't look too healthy..



Evidence of clogged fins, previous brazed repairs and general age.

I purchased a super cool alloy rad from Minispares, along with new water pump, top and bottom hoses, bypass hose, 75c stat and some conventional anti freeze.

Here is how the engine bay looked once all the cooling kit was removed.




Although the shell has been blasted and painted in the past i suspect the running gear was re-installed with no attempt to detail it back to something like factory new, and while i appreciate it's a slippery slope, i've always done things properly, so i stripped the rest of the ancilliaries off the engine..

Ignition coil, dynamo, horn, wiring, plug leads, rocker cover, and then started hours and hours worth of rubbing, scraping, priming, painting etc.





New water pump painted, thermostat housing painted, water pump pulley painted.

The rocker cover before was a hand painted mess...






Attached the rocker cover with power tools and enthusiasm.., and then etch primer, filler primer...




Followed by more sanding then a healthy number of coats of Mid Bronze Green





Once baked in the outdoor summer oven i rebuilt the rocker cover with the Austin badges





I painted the block and fittings in situ, then started work on the ignition system.

I sourced some NOS Champion screw on plug cap fittings, and some OE colour green plug wires and set about making my own ignition leads




Then refitted the new radiator, shrouds, and the rest of the cooling system, heater hoses, new heater tap and this is how it sits right now.



I'm still waiting on a new short neck 7lb rad cap, and a new horn assembly, hopefully they will be here tomorrow latest, and i have also ordered new VIN plate, commission number plate and engine number plate, they probably will not be here till after Himley.

I'll get some proper pics when it's all back together

Cheers

Matt

Great work there!! I have the same car...if I get anywhere close to yours, I'll be very pleased!!!

Andrew

I'd forgotten this one. I do like a Mark II, still probably my favourite era of Mini.