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mk1 wrote:This car just gets better & better!

Well done.

m

Thanks! I've been able to get a few things done recently, and its been great to sort through the garage and get rid of things I won't need like the rod change gearbox cases. I've had some help from a local guy who has helped me pick the best bits for the gearbox. The case now needs a good clean out before I can start putting it all back together. I've also got a pair of pot joint diffs, not period correct, but I can't afford another Hardy Spicer set and I dislike the rubber cross joints..

The 850 housing fits on the remote case perfectly too, nothing to worry about there. I've cleaned it all up and re-greased it.

Minispares had a sale late last year so I ordered some new cones and shocks.

It'll be great to have some suspension travel again, as it's currently resting on the bumpstops at the front, which is unpleasant to drive!

The rocker cover crinkle paint was well and truly cured so I rubbed back the raised letters and fins with some wet & dry and it's come up really nice.

I've also slightly trimmed an original oil cap to replace the ugly red Metro one that came with the rocker cover. Not the greatest quality photos, but you get the idea.

Ever since I had the engine out last year (and swapped the alloy remote extension) the gear shifter has been rattling like crazy. Holding the lever didn't help at all, so I suspected the "anti-rattle plunger" was a bit worn so I pulled it out from the car (right side), and also the spare one I had (left side). The right one is obviously quite worn and wasn't doing much, so hopefully it'll stop the rattle!

I cleaned up the car for my local MITG (Minis in the 'Gong) Show n Shine last weekend, it was a great day out and lots of different cars.







Here are some of the other photos I took:
https://flic.kr/s/aHskpvx967
And some more here (not mine)
http://www.illawarramodifiedcarcommunit ... w-n-shine/

I also bought a set of 850 alloy "Escutcheon Plates" and they turned up this week. These were a popular accessory in the 60's

It seemed like a good time to replace the passenger door handle which has been broken for at least the past 5 years.

They went on easily, with just a little double sided tap to keep them in place and off the paint work. Funnily though, all the scratches in the paint are just under where the plate is...

I had a couple of days off work last week, so I thought I'd get stuck in to replacing the cones and shocks. I started at the back and removed the old cone and shock

They'd compressed by about 1cm

It was pretty easy to get them swapped over at the rear, as I'd had it all apart to put in the Hi-Los a few months ago. The back end took an hour or so do to both sides..

I then started on the front end, which I was a bit worried about. It was a bit of a struggle to get the old cone out of the front as the trumpet was fused to it..

The front cones had compressed about 2cm

I managed to squeeze in the new cone and Hi-Lo by removing the top arm. Unfortunately one of the seals was missing so I'll have to chase up another

Mostly done on the left side

I finished off with the front right, it always seems to go quicker on the second side as you've figured out all the angles to shove everything back in . I then adjusted all the Hi-Los up to a decent ride height and tightened everything back up.

This is the front suspension before, the top arm is pushing into the bumpstop - not great.

And after, there is now plenty of travel for the top arm before hitting the bumpstop. You can also see the improved angle of the shock.

I'm pleased to report that after extensive country road "testing" last week that the car is now absolutely fantastic to drive. Before I used to be frantically scanning the road ahead to check for bumps and dips in the road, but now the car just goes straight over them.

There is a rather large bump in an 80kph zone near our house, previously hitting this at the speed limit would cause the car to bounce severely and feel like it was going to spear off in any random direction. Now it's very smooth (in fact better than our 10 year old wagon) and I can barely notice the bump..

Of course I needed to be sure so many miles were done!

It's even pleasant to drive up onto driveways and over speed bumps, I don't need to crawl over while wincing any more. I'd have to say it's the best money I've spent on it so far (shame it took me so long to get it done!)

It is sitting a lot higher, but drives and rides so much better!

I made it up to a show at a mini shop the other week with some guys from our local group (4 hours return). I met a bunch of people and saw lots of great cars I hadn't seen before. We went the nice twisty way there and had an awesome drive. Here is a link to the album:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/55685928@ ... 2816056333

I also bought some goodies from the shop, including a nice straight 850 grille

And a centre oil pickup

And a heavy lump of metal

Looking really great!

mk1 wrote:Looking really great!

Thanks. I really need to grab the good camera and take some decent photos of it again, it just keeps getting dirty as I've been driving it so often

Really nice looking!

1312bullnose wrote:Really nice looking!

Thanks! Your 1071 project looks very nice too

Might get even more rust removal with a Molasses/Water bath - 1 part Molasses to 3 or 4 water. Here 4 litres of Molasses is $7 at the Farmers' Co-op. Plastic feed bin (also from Co-op) allows blocks, heads etc. to be submerged. Far cheaper & more effective than hot tank at machine shop.

PHOTO of the head for my 1293 build after 2 dips in the hot tank and a good soak (with daily rotations) in my Molasses & Water bath, because the machine shops hot tank did not fully remove the rust (there will be a light flash of rust after freshwater rinse). Head had hardened exhaust seats installed and was rebuilt with new bronze/silicon guides, valves, springs etc.

We had a run a couple of weeks ago which was fun, and had a reasonable turnout

I've picked up a couple of adjustable bits for the front end. Hopefully I can get some time this week to get them on.

The car passed the annual inspection for another year, and it is now on Historic registration, which saves a good chunk of money each year (about $860 down to $95) It also means a new tiny licence plate, which means there are a bunch of holes showing on the metal work...

The current speedo has been a bit dodgy for a while. The odometer has never worked since I swapped it in, and the speedo needle waves all over the place. I've been meaning to take both of my old ones to get rebuilt to make one good one, but then I found another option...

I picked up a km 850 speedo from min-e-bitz, I'm going to get a new speedo cable and put it in. It'll be nice to have a working speedo for once, especially with the right units


I've also dropped one of the small bore engine blocks off to get some work done. A rebore, cam bearings fitted, and a cam reground.

I've got my new speedo installed, not only does the speedo work correctly and show km instead of miles, but the odometer works properly too! That's a first for me since having the car.


The new smaller number plates at the rear looked a bit funny with the wide flap on the boot. I ordered some blank UK size plates from eBay and they were exactly the right size to surround the new plate.

They look pretty good now, and just need to be bolted together. Australian cars changed to a shorter, taller number plate size on the boot to match local sizes a year or two after my car.


I had a go on the weekend at putting on the new front end adjustable bits. I bought a new set of standard rubber bushes to replace the ones that came on the arms (they were previously installed on a car but not driven on).

With the old tie bar removed, it was obvious how bent it was.

The old tie bar and lower arm bushes were also pretty dead.

It was pretty straightforward to swap them over. The most recent mini magazine I bought had a step by step guide too, which was handy!

After it was all back together I did a quick lap around to settle the suspension and make sure nothing was wrong. One side had approx -0.6 degrees camber and the other side was -1.6 (measured with an iphone app ), so I did a little adjusting to get them to around -1.0. The toe on the wheels then looked a bit out, and I measured about 30mm of toe out! The tie rod ends were the normal length ones, so I ran out of thread to get it in the ballpark. I've ordered some long ones, so once I can get them on I will get a proper alignment done.

keep a close eye on the jam nuts on those tie bars, I've seen them come undone. doesn't end well

greyghost wrote:keep a close eye on the jam nuts on those tie bars, I've seen them come undone. doesn't end well

No problem. Once I get them adjusted properly I'll mark them with some paint and keep an eye on them. I previously didn't think the tie bar would spin around of their own accord if the nut was loose, so it's good to be aware it can happen.

The boot had quite a few holes in it from various different plates over the years..

One more set of holes (hopefully the last!) and some bolts and it's looking good

They are actually metallic black, so they can appear black/silver/white depending on the light

I thought a matching set for the front would be good, as it helps to hide the bracket

My mum has been going through some old photos recently and found another one of the mini.


I got a proper wheel alignment done a few weeks ago. It's nothing too agressive, but at least now the wheels are all pointing the correct direction, and as a bonus the steering wheel is straight too! I also did a little test to check the odometer on the new speedo, I used the GPS on my phone and checked the reading before and after and it was within 0.1km over a 20km trip, which is close enough for me.

We had a nice drive the other weekend with the local Mini group, the car drove really nicely too.

There are a few more photos here: http://home.exetel.com.au/minisinthegon ... f=4&t=1829

SUPER !!

Kees.

We had our longest trip so far in the mini - we did over 900km during 4 days, with a two day event with almost 100 other minis in the middle. We met up with the group and had an observation rally out through the countryside and had a great pub meal for dinner. 
3L3A5713 by -_Dan..-
Sunday morning was a little frosty, and then we had a drive out to Mt Panorama in Bathurst for some laps around the track (it's a public road the majority of the year). The car ran really well (if a bit slow at times up hills) and we had no issues at all over the weekend.
3L3A6004 by -_Dan..-
We had a great time, although there are a few areas to improve on for next year... The seats need a bit of work to make them a bit more comfortable, door seals need replacing and the passenger seat wouldn't stop squeaking! I've also found the downpipe wasn't sealing very well to the extractors so I'll sort that out too.
IMG_3212 by Luke Hines, on Flickr
 

Is that the same Bathurst race track where Rauno Aaltonen and Bob Holden won the 500 mile race in a works Cooper S in 1966?

This year was the 50th anniversary of the 1966 Bathurst 500 race where the Morris Cooper S filled out the first 9 places. Similar to 10 years ago a trip was planned to celebrate... I think the total was 82 Minis and 27 Mokes as part of the group!

I booked in for the trip as soon as I heard about it as its not an opportunity that comes up very often. I took my uncle with me, as he used to race minis and mokes back in the 80's and was always brought up watching the race every year with my grandfather (back when they had interesting cars).

We drove up with 2 minis and a 4wd filled with luggage. It was a decent drive, about 4.5 hours on the Thursday and got to the meeting point (a Harness racing club) a bit after lunch. We met up with all the fellow mini owners to receive the race numbers and find out all the necessary details.





After dinner we parked back in the shed at the harness club. There were stalls for washing horses which happened to be the right size for minis too. The car had never been so clean, getting a wash Thursday, Friday and Saturday afternoons!

Our fine luxury accommodation for the weekend..

Friday morning was a bit foggy and we went for lunch to Blayney, about a 30 minute drive.

Always a great site seeing the roads covered in minis!



Friday night was a formal dinner with Bob Holden (one of the drivers who won the 1966 race) as a guest and an auction of various bits and pieces of memorabilia.

An early start Saturday (much before my normal waking time) and we headed over to the Bathurst Motor Racing Museum where we would be parked on display.



We headed out for the parade lap around lunch time. It was a real experience being on the track on race weekend with so many people around and all the advertising banners and race fencing up!

I took a video on my phone as we went around the track. Unfortunately there were a few spots of rain on the windscreen, and the camera kept changing focus from the rain on the window to the car in front and back again so it is unwatchable. I managed to get a few screenshots from the video but nothing very clear... My uncle took some photos around the track on his camera so I'm hoping he got some good ones. The "speed limit" was as fast as the car in front, which did vary a bit...

























Spent the afternoon at "The Chase" baking in the sun watching the second tier V8 class.

We headed back to the harness club early to watch the top 10 shootout at the bar on the TV with air conditioning and cold beers, definitely a good place to be!

Another early morning Sunday and we parked in front of the Motoring Museum again.

The Moke driver parade & top 9 mini parade was on in the morning. The top 9 placed cars in 1966 were replicated with matching stripes and decals.



The crowd was building before the race!

We headed back to the Museum to have a bit of a chat and break



I loved the free range Moke reserve



I went for a quick tour of the Museum



The race roared off for the next few hours, unfortunately all the good spots get taken pretty early, so I found a place in the shade. We left early again and watched the end of the race in the air conditioned bar.

One last night in the shed Sunday night and we headed home on Monday morning.



Overall we did probably 800km and 11 hours or so driving without any issues. Would I do it again? If they are still doing it in 10 years time I'd genuinely think about it!