The car thread

[1-wheeled-grape]

no i didnt, i spent the day painting the mini block and casings. Once the car is running i will be going to mini shows, and the uni meets. Have you got a mini then?

[SmellyGeekBoy]

no i didnt, i spent the day painting the mini block and casings. Once the car is running i will be going to mini shows, and the uni meets. Have you got a mini then?

I have indeed!

I have an ongoing 1275GT conversion... It's a Clubman which has been in the family since new, now has 12" Revolutions, a 1275 MG Metro A+, big valve head, bucket seats etc.



Here's the thread on the Mini Forum.

We've actually restored 5 Minis so far: 2 1275s, the Clubman, an 850 estate, and a 998 City. Good to see other unicycling classic car (and Mini) enthusiasts here!

[1-wheeled-grape]

id love on of those, clubmans are cool. I might have to get a mini van first though
Right now though, the Mayfair is the main concern. I've painted the block, next up cleaning up the bores and checking the gasket faces. I should get some parts in the week too for inside the engine. I just need to buy new gaskets.


heres a few more pics, slowly adding to them as and when it looks like i have done something
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/album.php?aid=158852

[Rob Northcott]

Just doing a few little bits of maintenance before Mayhem next weekend... jacked the front up to change the oil and noticed a dreaded worn trunnion. It was really baggy, don't know how I'd missed it before really - no way was it fit to drive to Mayhem. Bugger - perils of using a 40-year-old car all the time I suppose (with a 70-odd-year-old suspension design). Rummaged around in my stash of spares and found a nice new replacement of the right side. Yay!
As usual the bolt was utterly seized to the inside of the bush so wouldn't come out (they always do that, however much grease you think you've put on them). Bugger. So out came the electric saw, hacked off the ends of the bolt, unscrewed the trunnion and found the thread of the upright to be in good condition and nice and oily. Yay! So just need to clean it all up and rebuild with the new trunnion tomorrow - should be back together in an hour or so.

I've also tidied up a bit of a scabby area on the screen pillar. It had actually gone right through at the bottom, but not enough to be worth welding a patch in. I hacked out the rust, tidied up around the hole (1/2" diameter), wire brushed out all the surface rust (quite a bit around the hole and up the pillar) and treated it all with rust killer before giving it all a skim of filler, rubbing down, more filler where it had gone hollow (grr - always does that), more rubbing down, and finally some paint this morning. I'm not really into body repairs, but I'm quite happy with it - much better than before anyway. The bit up inside the gutter is nearly impossible to get smooth, but you can't really see that very well normally anyway (looks a bit lumpy in the picture though), but the big area at the bottom of the pillar has worked really well. New paint needs a bit of blending in with t-cut though. There are a few more similar scabby places that I'll have to get round to soon.

While I was messing about with the suspension I got rid of some slack from the steering rack/column splines that's been there for years - always passed MOTs but was sloppy enough to be annoying in a cross wind. So it should feel like a new car next weekend (well, perhaps not quite).

Rob

[Rob Northcott]

@SmellyGeekBoy: That "Guns 'n' Roses Goon" number plate has to be worth something

My grandmother had a K-reg Clubman in the '70s (and kept it all through the '80s) - beige with brown interior (I think the colour was officially called bedouin). She used to pick me up from school in it sometimes - that's what I think of when I see a Clubman now (not too many about any more though). Later when she didn't drive so much she used to get me to take it out for a drive every weekend to stop it festering in the garage. So I'd give it a nice gentle pootle round the local area (that's what she thought - I was 18 or 19 at the time...) - It had no legroom, ridiculously short-travel clutch and horrible handling, but was good fun. Presumably a better-set-up mini handles better, but this one would just start hopping up and down madly with no warning in a fast corner. I'm so sad I can even remember the reg - VUF 285K.

Rob

[1-wheeled-grape]

theres a couple nice minis on my route to college, including a stock looking green clubby, and another purple one with some ridiculous body kit. I dont like body kits on minis, they look far better stock. But engines definitely need to be big Im hoping mine will so one day, and some suspension and handling upgrades to go with it.

I've got my driving test on wednesday, although even if i pass my car wont be in one piece, or painted, or taxed, or MOTed, or insured

[Rob Northcott]

Just done a long overdue front suspension overhaul on my Spitfire. The bushes we fitted when we restored it 12 years ago were "original spec" rubber ones and turned out to be pretty shoddy quality. They'd been looking worn and squashed for years, but always passed MOTs so just got ignored, until this summer when the handling on corners started to suffer noticeably. Decided to replace them all with poly bushes - we'd done it with our Herald a few years ago and they're still as good as new. Quite an easy job, apart from a couple of stuck bolts that had to be cut out, but that's par for the course. It's only had a quick test drive, but first impressions are good - no more wallowy weirdness on bends
A couple of pics of the new bits attached (amazing how filthy the "clean" chassis looks under camera flash!)

The Herald is still running well and continues to work for a living - took me and my muni up to Cwmcarn and back last weekend, 3 1/2 hours each way, not a stutter, 45mpg even on modern unleaded rubbish. Can't complain

Rob

[Eddbmxdude]

Looking good Rob I want to get the Dolomite polybushed at somepoint in the future.
My 26 year old Metro gets 50mpg and thats just on the work run. Old cars are great

[Rob Northcott]

Thanks Edd. I'm definitely a convert to polybushes. The ones in the Herald are the "blue" type, that feel the same as standard rubber ones but don't deteriorate (the replacement rubber ones available at the moment are pants and last no time at all IME). The red ones I've put in the Spit are harder, more sporty ones - hard to tell if it feels much different from the originals because the ones I took out were so utterly shagged that anything would seem an improvement! Just to give you an idea how bad they were, I pulled them out of the wishbones with a pair of pliers

My Herald will only do that sort of mileage on a long motorway trip. In general use it averages probably more like 35mpg. Driving "enthusiastically" around the moors it's probably into the mid 20s. But in general it's not bad for an old car with a slightly modded engine that's done 90,000 odd miles since its last engine rebuild. Our modern Citroen does a bit better, something like 47mpg average, but it's slower and boring - does take a lot less looking after though.

Rob

[1-wheeled-grape]

been working on the mini again, ive done quite a fair bit actually. At presant it doesnt have a rear subframe, and the engine is being assembled.
heres my post from my project diary on the local mini club forum... (seems easier than repeating)

well i havent updated this in about 2 weeks, and a fair bit has heppened so here comes some pics... maybe it'll liven the forum up a bit, its gone unusually quiet recently?

Like i said, the subframe has been taken out and taken to pieces



that has had a coat of primer now, and is sat on the floor drying atm, I'll get some hammerite for that tomorrow hopefully

I also got all the stuff for the engine, so it now has pistons with a new ring set, new big end bearings, bolted to the cranksheft that is sat in new main set bearings and new thrust washers




I then set to work cleaning the gear box with mums new steam cleaner, she wasnt happy at all, but surely it cleans itself too right lol?

Before...


After...



I then thought i might as well stack all the parts on top of each other becuase it would look like more progress. They arent bolted together at all.



all is looking good at the moment, next on the list is a trip to halfords i think for some paint and a few other random things, then bolt the block to the gearbox and paint up all the stuff for the rear subframe. Then start cleaning and painting all the things that bolt on to the engine and gear box block.

like my friend said the other day, the end is in sight... just on the horizon, past a mountain, and a pit of acid, and a lake full of rabid sharks... (the list continued for a while longer, mentioning something about periscopes)

[Rob Northcott]

Looks like it's coming along nicely Scott. There's something really cool about firing up an engine you've just built - sort of Frankenstein "it's alive" moment

Good luck with the rest of the build.

Rob

[1-wheeled-grape]

thats exactly what i was going to do :L "ITS ALIVE!"
I just have to make sure its set up properly and run it in properly.

progress today... subframe painted

[UDCNick]

well my first post on the unicyclist forums would be in the car thread..


2003 Audi A4 Cabriolet 3.0 Quattro


1987 Mazda RX7 (Drift Tool)

[Eddbmxdude]

Great to have you on board Nick.
Awesome cars, Love the RX7! Never knew you were a car nut!

[Rach]

my lovely 10 plate Mazda

[UDCNick]

Great to have you on board Nick.
Awesome cars, Love the RX7! Never knew you were a car nut!

Cheers Edd, and oh yes! Cant wait to have the Mazda back out for some sideways action.. And does this count its a company car? haha..

[1-wheeled-grape]

id rather have the RX7 than the van lol

[SmellyGeekBoy]

@SmellyGeekBoy: That "Guns 'n' Roses Goon" number plate has to be worth something

Haha, funny enough I think that all the time. It's not a personalised reg though - it's had it since new. Being a GNR fan myself I actually think it's pretty cool.

My grandmother had a K-reg Clubman in the '70s (and kept it all through the '80s) - beige with brown interior (I think the colour was officially called bedouin). She used to pick me up from school in it sometimes - that's what I think of when I see a Clubman now (not too many about any more though). Later when she didn't drive so much she used to get me to take it out for a drive every weekend to stop it festering in the garage. So I'd give it a nice gentle pootle round the local area (that's what she thought - I was 18 or 19 at the time...) - It had no legroom, ridiculously short-travel clutch and horrible handling, but was good fun. Presumably a better-set-up mini handles better, but this one would just start hopping up and down madly with no warning in a fast corner. I'm so sad I can even remember the reg - VUF 285K.

Rob

Horrible handling? I've never heard a Mini described that way! Well, except the ones with hydrolastic suspension, which I gather was so bad that there aren't any left now, as they've all been converted back to standard... It was supposed to be a much smoother ride over the bumps, even if it did ruin the handling in every other way. Looks like it was an option from '64 to '71 so that could well have been the case.

I don't know about the clutch - they did move to a verto clutch in the A+ engines, been so long since I drove an old A-Series that I can't remember if they were particularly bad or not!

[SmellyGeekBoy]

been working on the mini again, ive done quite a fair bit actually. At presant it doesnt have a rear subframe, and the engine is being assembled.
heres my post from my project diary on the local mini club forum... (seems easier than repeating)...

Loving the engine pics. You can tell someone means business when the pistons and crank are out. Although I see you didn't go so far as to attempt a gearbox rebuild - wise decision!

[1-wheeled-grape]

no, i didn't want to attempt the gearbox. I've got a 1275 up the shed I'm going to rebuild, and luckily the person who had it before rebuilt the gearbox... so again i can avoid it :L It also has a gas-flowed head too apparently, and I'm picking a crankshaft for it for 20 quid lol.

I tried driving my mini before i put it into the shed (about a year and a half ago and before I learnt to drive) and all i managed to do was wheel spin it, hopefully I will actually be able to use the clutch when its finished :L