Back to the future

Time has ticked !

Eeeek, so after many an occasion that I have said to my self  " must do a little up date" I am sat at the pc with just a little more than good intentions to log some kind of an update.

Wow, so I see it has been only 2 + years since I did an update. I would completely forgive any one who has read this for thinking the towel had been thrown in. To be fair that thought has cropped up, which during a long resto is almost an acceptable thought. Things go over budget, available spare time changes as life does, the once brave person accepts a project is that little bit beyond their skill set and many other reasons as well. For me the self doubt of required skills raised it's head, during moments of frustration in quality or progress. Coupled with reduced time available and the dreaded worry of available £ . But a seemingly small injury took an amazingly long time to recover and get over to a point I could get back on properly with a mini saga.

Don't worry though, bite sized chunks have been taken nudging progress along, all be it at a snails pace, but when doing a full resto you do have to take any progress forward where you can. So we now have more parts prepped and largely ready to just bolt on.

Oh, I didn't say. Just for a change there was a bit of body work as well. So at some point you can see above I started, and finished  a test fit of the light cluster (jewel clear lenses have been acquired). Then in one of the down times I had during a hot spell a minor explosion happened..... in the wooden garage that has no windows, a can of primer sat on a shelf exploded. none of the other 8 aerosols did thankfully. But I was left with strange patches of residue and blogs of powder, it took a while to work out what had happened. Having studied the roof for leaks of water or even tar from the felt roof and other random ideas I found the can hidden on the floor with no top, a few weeks later I found the top of the can as well. With contamination worries over I did sand it back and finished off the front wings as well as the front end.

I'll come back to the bonnet you may have noticed. At some point during all that I did source some clubby front indicators ...... the mounting bolts pressed in though where broken or missing, so with the help of a work neighbor (again!) we found some perfect bolts in marine grad S/steel, ooooowww. so the holes for them tidied up instead of a drastic plating then new holes for alternative lights. A small attempt to keep things simple and not adding more time to the project. PS yes the purple paint from the reflector lenses has been removed. Why would some one do that ???

So there where some other parts sand blasted and then powder coated..... never one to out source (and drag out my own project) I bought ferrari red powder, borrowed my friends gun and christened it for him on some engine bay parts. Engine steadies and the elusive clubman bonnet catch.

I spy a crank case breather in red as well. A hiff 44 is in our dinning room (where else would you keep an almost reassembled carb) which has been stripped, a full rebuild kit installed and I have decided to rob the jet assembly from a spare carb to complete this one. Can't rush these decisions, so only a few months of said carb being moved around the dinning room, I might finish it. Oh, of course I had to polish the dash pot, it isn't mirror finish but it looks nice. Whilst messing around with that I dug the inlet manifold out (ally mini pares one) ...decided it was dirty so cleaned it .....and I may have polished it and put some 2k clear over it to stop oxidizing. Will have a rummage and see i we can't magically make some pictures appear bellow. Talking of magic, it seems I have cleaned up an alternater as well.

So I think we are getting upto date now, A brief amount of work has been done on the doors, still decisions on which handles are going on the insdie (mk2 or mk3) as I may have one of each door so have to decide so I can replicate any mountings on the other side so they at least match. That reminds me, I have changed some of the key barrels, did it so long ago I have no idea how many I have changed!!
So earlier you saw a bonnet on the min, that was panel fitment checking as I have 2 bonnets. Of course the one that fitted the best, at least looked like by far the worst, the rejected bonnet I had already been panel beating accident damage and was proving slow work. The "preferred" bonnet had good out edge shape and alignment but looked like it had been stripped of paint then left in a damp place for .... a few years. Hard ware off the dented bonnet and a shit load of grinding, sanding, wire wheel on the designated bonnet. Of course I had to do a bit of panel beating to calm down some high points and a couple of dents then set about applying some filler. OMG I really don't know hwat has gone on in my head but I have over come the many and varied curves of a mini let alone this one is de seemed so no joins to hide behind. But the bonnet ... ba jesus what an absolute *%$£" and thats being polite. I am almost certain I have sanded off as much filler as I have put on the bonnet, I shall just say it has done my swede in. I even saw this turmoil coming and tried a few contacts to farm it out....yes you read correct, farm it out ! But even then that did not go well, so over a very long time I done stints here and there.
If you think about a bonnet even for a short time you will prob realise it is such an important panel for the overall look of any car, as I have done so much on the rest I have been wrestling with the concept the bonnet could well end up under par compared to the rest. Today I was sanding it and as much research as I have done on sanding, despite all I know from wood work on top of that, today I have decided (for now) to apply one last layer of filler and when that is sanded a coat of filler primer is going over that. After that if there are defects it may well be a case of the dents can kiss my tiered and some what older than when this all started, arse. I did not start this as a learning course of how to rectify any panel defect imaginable ready for paint, with so many other projects tugging at me I am possibly having to be reasonable with my self on how far to take it ...... bloody git bonnet ! I just want to drive it. Oh yes, you can see a sneeky jig that is turned over to protect the wings as I have no space to sand the bonnet other than on the car.

I am hoping it is not too long till enough progress happens that I need to do another update, kind of before I have to surrender my licence due to old age would be good :)