Red Shed the 68/69 mk2

[Dr S]

Hi all,

Thought its about time to start a thread on my Mk2 as its getting closer to being back in one piece. Red Shed has been mine for about the last 15yrs or so, getting ever tattier and slowly getting faster..
Built in Dec 68 / Jan 69 she's a tartan red Mini 1000. Originally with a red interior I bought her as parts car for another Mk2 in 1999. Come MOT time it turned out easier to put Red Shed back on the road and retire the Shed.

Last seen on the road in 2011 when I drove her to my wedding and an MOT conducted entirely without closing the drivers door as it jammed shut due to some unfortunate sagging I decided it was time for a couple of new panels and invested in front panel, wings, inner wings, inner and out A panels, door steps, quarters, gutters, heel board, boot floor, wheel arches, and rear panel sections. Oh and a new set of doors.

Restoration started in 2011, and come 2014 was stuck without progress as we'd moved house and gained a young son.

So with some work from Kendal Classic Autocraft to finish the welding ( and make good some rough bits ) and work by the Jason at the Mini Restoration Company, Red shed is finally red again.

Pictures below!





Nick

[gs.davies]

There's nothing quite like a nice bit of fresh Tartan red paint..
Very nice!

[Dr S]

Raided Jasons photo bucket to find a few earlier build shots.

Subframes have been powder coated black and rebuilt with refinished hydro units and adjustable bottom arms, tie bars and camber castor brackets.

Red Shed has been used for a few 12 cars in the past and the plan is to build up as my vision of a late 60's / early 70's club car.

The engine is a 66 Cooper 998 motor, bored +60thou, worked crank, super light fly, strapped centre, pocketed block, hepolite pistons, 997 cam, twin hs2's, 12g295 with much work and 1275 gt valves makes about 72-75bhp, read lines somewhere round 7.5k

S discs, competition bump stops and front shocks to get it steering.

Inside is a tatty? patinated! black mk2 interior, hopefully a John Aley Cage, Speedwell throttle pedal (possibly a plastic copy?1?) Motalita, Yazaki Tacho, Alexander map light, don barrow potti and a Halda Speedpilot. maybe a set of Karobes if I can get a trimmer to make them good. Are the rear Karobes covers worth owt? Or better sacrificed to sort the fronts out?

Running on D1's probably with Dunlop D7's

Few shots of the build up subbies going in

[JC T ONE]

So with some work from Kendal Classic Autocraft, and work by the Jason at the Mini Restoration Company, Red shed is finally red again.

Nick

And dont it look good nice - really nice


Jens Christian

[Dr S]

Productive week this week, fitted the loom and drilled the passenger door post for the interior lamp switch. Seem to be missing one from my box of bits so if anyone has a spare that would be appreciated! Doors should be hung this weekend.

Put an order in for a Repro Aley bars cage from Brian Purves, looking forward to seeing how it looks. Ordered a couple of sundry parts on Minispares. Fresh headlining and some carpets, seemed to come to £700... oh well!

Next week should see the hydro pumped up and the wiring finalised, maybe, just maybe a bit of chrome work added to bring out the shine on that paint!

Managed to find someone to service the Halda Speedpilot, albeit at a cost of several hundred pounds, any recommendations for Halda experts much appreciated!

[Dr S]

Productive Tuesday night at the workshop.

A face for the first time in 3yrs!


Doors and a window...


A clue to next weeks project...


The exec sponsor before we went to paint he can now say Mimi! well its nearly mini...


Nick

[InimiaD]

Great looking project you have there.
Liking the monotone colour choice. It suits the "Mimi" well.

[Jebo]

Super cool build!!! I'll be watching this space!

[Dr S]

Couple of weeks have passed with little progress then had a good session the other night.

Suddenly looking like a car.

Seats in, and a cage.


Cage and Headlining in, Its a replica John Aley. Easy to fit and nicely finished.



Should it have stickers on it though? Did they when they were new?
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Motalita fitted, and a rather nice steering drop bracket.
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And Doors on!
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Looks fairly straight
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[Dr S]

Time for a Christmas update!

Spent a couple of days on the car in the run up to Xmas. Learnt a couple of lessons and got the hydro back up to pressure.

Firstly. If you order pie chips and peas then get a fork.

Secondly.. pumping hydro up from dry.

A few years back I bought a set of really nice rust free Australian hydro units, these got bare metalled etched and repainted with a green stripe. The stripe looks to have been sprayed on at the factory so mine aren't quite right, but the original green stripe is surprising bright coloured from the original units.

I used the minispares new shaped front to rear lines. These went on pretty easily and fit pretty well.

So we got the car as low as possible with the bump stops pulled off, this gives the minimum about of air in the units.



We then used a oil gun pump from the rear valves to fill the system up to the unions at the front.



We then used Minispares special tool SMLBAG001, filled with hydro fluid and nick out of the corner like a piping bag, this was used to back fill the front hydro units with the flexis pulled straight.



Once the front lines are full, then we swiftly dropped the ends down and bolted down the unions.

We lost a bit of fluid but it can only be the length of the pipe from the top of the arch down. This can only be a small fraction of the system volume. I reckon each side on the front took a small bag of fluid and the total for each side at ride height was a couple of oil guns worth, so at least a pint or so of fluid, maybe more. So we have plenty of fluid to air in the system. I'm not sure how much better vacuuming it would be? Just how much negative pressure can an old Churchill produce?

We've added some extra suspension work to help with spirited driving.



Once we got up to ride height, it was looking pretty good!




Popped some brake lines around the subframe.



Then we had to get the engine out the trailer with the crane so it seemed reasonable to put it down somewhere safe.



Not bad for a days work!

[Dr S]

Progress update, not much progress!

Plan is to finish the glazing on Tuesday night, I've salvaged the old chrome door channel runners. The stainless repro's just don't seem to fit. Hopefully its just the re-pops that are the problem and the doors are good.

This weeks new bits of kit were a rather nice set of Sev Marchal Starlux lamps. So I dug out the old lamp bar for a look and to decide if the new lamps look right..

Pre restoration (from 10yards and after a serious polishing ready for my wedding day)


The new lamps,


Added into the Works style lamp bar, i'm not sure, think they might be too big?


Lamp bar as is, (set up for Fog, lots of fog, not just that I could only find cheap old fog lights!)


Anyone have a view on a decent set of brackets?
Front now has Overriders and shines!

[Dr S]

Tuesday night should also see the new Dash rail fitted, a bit more of a rummage in the garage found some extra instrumentation..

Yazaki, tacho, that is the real red line! Engine has a properly worked bottom end. However with the 997 cam theres not much worth chasing over 6kish
I assume Yazaki was a budget brand? 60's / 70's. My vision of red shed is that she's (my) vision of a late 60's / early 70's club rally car.


I found this when I stripped the car down, stuck in the door pocket. Red shed did a few 12 cars in the not to distant past. We never placed anywhere but did get a commendation for making up time!


I'm on the hunt for a period cage light, and a Don Barrow potti for the dash.

To go along with this

I've got the drop down drive on the back, it appears that speedy cables can make cable splitters and different drive sizes so that should save 100's in buying different halda drive extensions to make it work..

Plan is to build an alloy dash box on the nav's side with a couple of stopwatches, the halda, a stowage point for the Potti and a couple of 12volt power points (for the Potti) and for a helphos lamp for spotting the codes/numbers on 12 cars.

[Dr S]

Coming home on Friday ready for the minimum possible work before mot and blyton.

Just need to set suspension up, plumb brakes, fit new tyres, add carbs, connect up wiring, add an exhaust and fuel tank

[InimiaD]

Good news. Better get the garage swept out ready for the homecoming.

[bwi457]

This is coming along very nicely, really like the Dunlop D1's they suit the car very well!!

Hope you had success in getting it fired up

[Pete]

Someone ready for Blyton, there's a first!

[Dr S]

Not sure i'm ready for Blyton! anything but!, she's all wired up, masters in, manifolds and carbs in.

Radiator fitted, but its holed. That's tonights job to fit the new 3 core race rad from Minispares. Then its get a fuel tank in and a battery on her!

Still needs all the suspension setting up and brakes fitting and bleeding
I reckon once she's running I'll get the rest done quickly enough.

Isaac is a big fan!, Daddi! Daddi Fix it! Mini car ! Daddi, Daddi Fix it, Fix it Daddi!

I do need to take the heater back out, I left him in the car and opened up the door to chants of Isaac Fix it, Isaac fix it, as he posted bolts through the hole for the heater cable. Think they are all lying in the wiring for the ignition now




Must order some brackets for these too, 2 or 4 of them though...?

[rich@minispares.com]

I do like the look of those Marchel lights

[Pete]

..and Yazaki rev counters were all the rage in the late 60's. though you rarely see one in a Mini nowadays!

[foxy52]

I have a friend that still has the Marchal lens covers from his old 1071s..put on the car circa 1970 !!!nothing else tho !!!... wonder what they are worth and if they could be extracted from him ??.....foxy52