I think progress is going to happen in fits and spurts with tidying up the parts as I go for the next few stages.
Thursday 30 January 2020
Plodding on
Slow progress lately but still chipping away. I have raided the 2 sections of brake pipes that came loose with the car and cleaned up the odd T piece union for the front lines, but can't do much with out the bias valve bolted on (need to spray it and find a bolt) or the front flexi s, which I don't have and poss a long way off of fitting those as the front hubs need to be swopped over once they have been cleaned up.
Off to buy some paint tomorrow for the sills and seat brackets. I think the next round needs to be cleaning the inside ready to get at least the noise insulation in, rear loom, carpets and roof liner then the seats can go in and get out of the way. They take up a lot of space when they are not in a car, then I can definitely sell the spare mini front seats as well to get back a lot of loft space, woop, woop. The same for the glass as well, that can then go in and I can get rid of the spare set. The big shelf in the garage can then come down so I can stand up at that end, Proper posh !
I think progress is going to happen in fits and spurts with tidying up the parts as I go for the next few stages.
I think progress is going to happen in fits and spurts with tidying up the parts as I go for the next few stages.
Thursday 23 January 2020
Slow down
Part of making the most of the time with marmite (that is a runner for the minis name, like it or hate it) being in M's work shop I have been installing the brake lines. It has been parked in front of a 2 poster ramp, so I had to ask if it could extend it's stay.
The radius arms have brake pipes, flexi's to sub frame, pipes to union and tonight I replaced the rear to front line. A job I have been dreading as quite a long time ago now I had to put the rear subframe in to get the wheels on and out of my neighbors garage .... with out the brake pipe installed that goes between the subrame and the car with a gap of about 1cm. With a nut on the end of the pipe I knew it should be a bit if a work up to get the pipe in place, I have read many times that you need to do the pipe first. So when I had removed the old one, painted the exposed floorpan and installed the pipe in an hour, that was even with no swearing, I was pretty chuffed.
This was a start today and try to finish tomorrow task, so I have the handbrake cable out ready to take in tomorrow. Not overly confident I have the correct fixings for one part but this is good progress.
The radius arms have brake pipes, flexi's to sub frame, pipes to union and tonight I replaced the rear to front line. A job I have been dreading as quite a long time ago now I had to put the rear subframe in to get the wheels on and out of my neighbors garage .... with out the brake pipe installed that goes between the subrame and the car with a gap of about 1cm. With a nut on the end of the pipe I knew it should be a bit if a work up to get the pipe in place, I have read many times that you need to do the pipe first. So when I had removed the old one, painted the exposed floorpan and installed the pipe in an hour, that was even with no swearing, I was pretty chuffed.
This was a start today and try to finish tomorrow task, so I have the handbrake cable out ready to take in tomorrow. Not overly confident I have the correct fixings for one part but this is good progress.
Tuesday 14 January 2020
Going deep
As I plod on down the road of restoration I caught my self yet again pondering the forth coming jobs, the ideal order and what is involved and if I need other peoples tools or equipment (timing is so important when I borrow tools, ask to early and they want it back before I use it, to late asking costs me more time).
So I have yet again watched the clock roll past 2am and as productive as I have been clearing other chores the slowing happens and the thoughts strayed. With the last few days/week I have been checking tolerances and compatibility of parts from a cluster of different variant parts available and what I need, quite often variants have a knock on effect of space.
On this tack of many precise layers, probably for the first time I fully grasp the sheer enormity of making a car from the ground up. The vast aray of parts, different fabricating and machining, assembly, ability/space to service long term. Let alone designing reliability and good drive ability. The massive amount of maths, the staggeringly specialised level of skill and machinery to conceive and create the parts required. Every nut,bolt, screw, clip, trim, engine & electric component, body panels.
Yes, I have been a bit daunted but this mass jigsaw puzzle, but just as much in oar with how we have combined enough knowledge to create a car.
No real progress with the car, but with a few options for the next stages I am prepping bits to make sure there is no real delays. Apart from cleaning the front seats :)
So I have yet again watched the clock roll past 2am and as productive as I have been clearing other chores the slowing happens and the thoughts strayed. With the last few days/week I have been checking tolerances and compatibility of parts from a cluster of different variant parts available and what I need, quite often variants have a knock on effect of space.
On this tack of many precise layers, probably for the first time I fully grasp the sheer enormity of making a car from the ground up. The vast aray of parts, different fabricating and machining, assembly, ability/space to service long term. Let alone designing reliability and good drive ability. The massive amount of maths, the staggeringly specialised level of skill and machinery to conceive and create the parts required. Every nut,bolt, screw, clip, trim, engine & electric component, body panels.
Yes, I have been a bit daunted but this mass jigsaw puzzle, but just as much in oar with how we have combined enough knowledge to create a car.
No real progress with the car, but with a few options for the next stages I am prepping bits to make sure there is no real delays. Apart from cleaning the front seats :)
Sunday 12 January 2020
Inching forward
Yesterday the seats where offered up but before that I temporarily fitted the pedal box and tightened the rope holding the steering column as I now have the column bracket, so some reference measurements could be taken ready to make the mounting brackets. They looked quite good and enough space around them which was good as it's the first time they been any where near the car.
After that the mini was pushed round to another unit ready for the last coat of clear, well it turned out that it was just to dirty and had to be washed down before degreasing.
Today I was back at the work shop to move it back out and round to my friends unit where it is out of the way. As none of the family cane with me I couldn't help my self and buffed the door, bonnet and boot. With the idea I could take them home where they would be safe.... so I ended up polishing the shell as well :) well it was nice to do as that should be all of that stage done now. Woooo hooo.
Back at home I need to tidy the garage ready for its return, so I got on with grinding the valves in the head just leaving cleaning up the mounting faces and then it can go on the shelf.
After that the mini was pushed round to another unit ready for the last coat of clear, well it turned out that it was just to dirty and had to be washed down before degreasing.
Today I was back at the work shop to move it back out and round to my friends unit where it is out of the way. As none of the family cane with me I couldn't help my self and buffed the door, bonnet and boot. With the idea I could take them home where they would be safe.... so I ended up polishing the shell as well :) well it was nice to do as that should be all of that stage done now. Woooo hooo.
Back at home I need to tidy the garage ready for its return, so I got on with grinding the valves in the head just leaving cleaning up the mounting faces and then it can go on the shelf.
Friday 10 January 2020
Still a roller coaster
Yep it stills seems like a roller coaster ride on this project.
Having seen the opportunity to do work on the engine with the delay of the mini come back home, a glimmer of a chance to just get the engine ready and simply drop it in the car on it's return was seen. So the big push to really check the engine happened and kind of fell on it's face. With several options of ways to move forward on the table it was quite a fraught time. There was the optermists approach - lightly dress the shaft and replace the clutch boss then wack it together and get a few miles out of it keeping the project on track and in budget, down side is would the engine be wobberly and out of balance and setting your self up to take it back out later. Or throw the towel in and buy another engine, would it be better or last plus the bill would be close to the theoretical cost of fixing mine. Or finally get another crank, poss a reground second hand one, and go for it.
With other aspects having to take priority o get the parts away from temporary locations and back home the latest thought is to try and check the sticky valve guide is ok then grind the valves in and reassemble so there is just one lump to move in the garage. Send the gear box off to get the first motion (primary shaft on the side of the engine) bearing changed and the gears checked over, leaving just the block sat on a pallet in the garage waiting for the parts. Although with that said I will wait till I have had a chat with another engineering place tomorrow (guessworks in Rugby) before making the final decision. But the main thing is the opportunity doesn't get any better than it is now to do work to this level, so some kind of long term solution really does have to be the way forward. It will prob end up being more of a bonus for re sell as this will be pretty much a fully rebuilt engine and I would be hoping it being good for 50k + which at an expected max of 2k a year I am truthfully unlikely to get even close to.
Wel while the pondering has been going on more cleaning and a bit of painting has happened and yes you can see one of the doors in the background, it is finished and back home as I only had enough clear coat to finish one door last time I had the gun out and have only just got round to doing a final buff.
This weekend will be sadly giving back the loaned engine testing box until I get closer. But on a plus I am trying to get the mounts done Saturday for the astra seats due to go into it and then push it round to my works unit and do the last clear coat now fresh stock have been finally bought. The mini really does have to get out of other peoples units and back home before I start peeing people off.
I do have to do some work on the daily as well, with the MOT due end of this month I really do have to sort the car I use instead of the toy. But hoping I can get the engine pushed forward just a little bit more whilst tidying the garage ready for it's return.
So much to do, and I know my time will get limited again very soon but tentatively looking forward to getting the roof lining in and then some glass. Hoping to get the loom in for the rear then carpets can go down, rear lights, tank and then boot lid although I know there is some bumps on that road but will be nice to see some parts going on over the next month or so.
Having seen the opportunity to do work on the engine with the delay of the mini come back home, a glimmer of a chance to just get the engine ready and simply drop it in the car on it's return was seen. So the big push to really check the engine happened and kind of fell on it's face. With several options of ways to move forward on the table it was quite a fraught time. There was the optermists approach - lightly dress the shaft and replace the clutch boss then wack it together and get a few miles out of it keeping the project on track and in budget, down side is would the engine be wobberly and out of balance and setting your self up to take it back out later. Or throw the towel in and buy another engine, would it be better or last plus the bill would be close to the theoretical cost of fixing mine. Or finally get another crank, poss a reground second hand one, and go for it.
With other aspects having to take priority o get the parts away from temporary locations and back home the latest thought is to try and check the sticky valve guide is ok then grind the valves in and reassemble so there is just one lump to move in the garage. Send the gear box off to get the first motion (primary shaft on the side of the engine) bearing changed and the gears checked over, leaving just the block sat on a pallet in the garage waiting for the parts. Although with that said I will wait till I have had a chat with another engineering place tomorrow (guessworks in Rugby) before making the final decision. But the main thing is the opportunity doesn't get any better than it is now to do work to this level, so some kind of long term solution really does have to be the way forward. It will prob end up being more of a bonus for re sell as this will be pretty much a fully rebuilt engine and I would be hoping it being good for 50k + which at an expected max of 2k a year I am truthfully unlikely to get even close to.
Wel while the pondering has been going on more cleaning and a bit of painting has happened and yes you can see one of the doors in the background, it is finished and back home as I only had enough clear coat to finish one door last time I had the gun out and have only just got round to doing a final buff.
This weekend will be sadly giving back the loaned engine testing box until I get closer. But on a plus I am trying to get the mounts done Saturday for the astra seats due to go into it and then push it round to my works unit and do the last clear coat now fresh stock have been finally bought. The mini really does have to get out of other peoples units and back home before I start peeing people off.
I do have to do some work on the daily as well, with the MOT due end of this month I really do have to sort the car I use instead of the toy. But hoping I can get the engine pushed forward just a little bit more whilst tidying the garage ready for it's return.
So much to do, and I know my time will get limited again very soon but tentatively looking forward to getting the roof lining in and then some glass. Hoping to get the loom in for the rear then carpets can go down, rear lights, tank and then boot lid although I know there is some bumps on that road but will be nice to see some parts going on over the next month or so.
Sunday 5 January 2020
Highs and lows
Well I last let the project mumbling and grumbling to my self. Today I researched allsorts of engine re building stages, did lots of checking, oh and may have split the engine and box. My word the block is still bloody heavy! There was a very brief moment I thought 2 things may happen, A I might follow through, B is my back really going to take this and what happens if I get half way and it does go when I left my steel toe cap boots inside! Luckily I managed it.
Splitting the block was a bit of a big thing for me, as I said, never gone that far before and all to aware of the need for specialist tools to re assemble quite a lot of the parts exposed if they did have to come off. After a lot of checking the gear box was given the all clear and after a massive amount of checking, thinking and then double checking with the father in law I have gone for the far easier option and going to chance the crank with a bit of a gnarled end. We are convinced through trial fitting of the clutch parts and the mechanics of the assembled parts we can get it to work.
With that finally decided, I could then actually do something other than price up a vast amount of parts! The bottom half of the conrod was taken apart and the piston pushed out to check the piston rings, this was on one of the pistons that had very quickly lost the wd40 we sprayed into it when the head came off. A slight tell tale of something wrong with the bore or rings, the bores looked good so as the block was split I had to suck it in and go for it. Well it all checked out good, good rings and all free also crank bearings all good as well.
So after a very slow reluctant start today we seem to have ended the day on a high, well apart from the growing list of parts in the shopping basket. I seem to have forgotten about engine and subframe mounts let alone the clutch kit, oil seals, gasket set for engine re assembly oh and a clutch slave cylinder as it will probably be useful at some point! But this will make a fairly well overhauled engine and better play ball aka no arsing me around for at least 10 000 miles ...you would have thought ? It is a mini though, so expect the unexpected.
Looks like I have a few days of cleaning gaskets off, booooo
Splitting the block was a bit of a big thing for me, as I said, never gone that far before and all to aware of the need for specialist tools to re assemble quite a lot of the parts exposed if they did have to come off. After a lot of checking the gear box was given the all clear and after a massive amount of checking, thinking and then double checking with the father in law I have gone for the far easier option and going to chance the crank with a bit of a gnarled end. We are convinced through trial fitting of the clutch parts and the mechanics of the assembled parts we can get it to work.
With that finally decided, I could then actually do something other than price up a vast amount of parts! The bottom half of the conrod was taken apart and the piston pushed out to check the piston rings, this was on one of the pistons that had very quickly lost the wd40 we sprayed into it when the head came off. A slight tell tale of something wrong with the bore or rings, the bores looked good so as the block was split I had to suck it in and go for it. Well it all checked out good, good rings and all free also crank bearings all good as well.
So after a very slow reluctant start today we seem to have ended the day on a high, well apart from the growing list of parts in the shopping basket. I seem to have forgotten about engine and subframe mounts let alone the clutch kit, oil seals, gasket set for engine re assembly oh and a clutch slave cylinder as it will probably be useful at some point! But this will make a fairly well overhauled engine and better play ball aka no arsing me around for at least 10 000 miles ...you would have thought ? It is a mini though, so expect the unexpected.
Looks like I have a few days of cleaning gaskets off, booooo
Saturday 4 January 2020
Trying to get my head round it
So I have managed to grab a few hours whilst waiting for tools to arrive and done the not very fun task of cleaning the engine up so it can be painted.
Also managed to grab a nice unit that helps with a cradle start up of the engine. But today the clutch came off. I managed to borrow an air impact driver and the propper tool that bolts on through the starter hole and locks the fly wheel, so not much effort needed. Then the locating washer fell out in 2 halves (it is not supposed to be in 2) and then the clutch came off to reveal a fairly scored shaft. That shaft would be the end of the crank shaft so tat would be a knackered boss in the clutch and a knackered crank. The boss is only a few pounds and easy to swop ...the crank is a ball ache of a game changer to the engine project. This is make or brake for this engine financially, so the father in law is lined up to come round and guide/help me tomorrow to strip a load of stuff off and hopefully split the block and gear box. At that point I am hopeing that the gear box can be checked over and the piston rings can be checked. It really isn't going to take many more broken parts to justify trying to get another engine :( or just bollocks !!!
The road is never an easy straight forward one when your restoring a car, and the part engine strip was more of a side step leading to a better quality engine. This turn of events though is more of a kick in the knackers, I have just gained a truck load more hours on the job and the parts bill is almost certainly going to destroy all of the money from the reserves for this project. A brand new crank is £250 alone plus gaskets and bearings, I have already found a second hand one that has already been reground so it is good to go saving almost £100 but if that route is taken a full new clutch should be put in and a new oil pump has been suggested as well if I have it split down that much.
The other slight problem is I am in unknown territory from this point on, there will be a lot of reading going on and also finding out what specialist tools I need to get hold of as I already know that some of the parts need to be set up amazingly accurate. Like micrometer accurate, crazy clean and balanced. None of those 3 things I an very good at and balancing the clutch I am not even sure where to start sorting that out apart from moaning about a shite design creating an unnecessary complicated process. Even the workshop manual states it was an oversight.
But the engine looks shiny and the head is now painted ..... woo hooo ! Not as excited about that as I was this morning.
Also managed to grab a nice unit that helps with a cradle start up of the engine. But today the clutch came off. I managed to borrow an air impact driver and the propper tool that bolts on through the starter hole and locks the fly wheel, so not much effort needed. Then the locating washer fell out in 2 halves (it is not supposed to be in 2) and then the clutch came off to reveal a fairly scored shaft. That shaft would be the end of the crank shaft so tat would be a knackered boss in the clutch and a knackered crank. The boss is only a few pounds and easy to swop ...the crank is a ball ache of a game changer to the engine project. This is make or brake for this engine financially, so the father in law is lined up to come round and guide/help me tomorrow to strip a load of stuff off and hopefully split the block and gear box. At that point I am hopeing that the gear box can be checked over and the piston rings can be checked. It really isn't going to take many more broken parts to justify trying to get another engine :( or just bollocks !!!
The road is never an easy straight forward one when your restoring a car, and the part engine strip was more of a side step leading to a better quality engine. This turn of events though is more of a kick in the knackers, I have just gained a truck load more hours on the job and the parts bill is almost certainly going to destroy all of the money from the reserves for this project. A brand new crank is £250 alone plus gaskets and bearings, I have already found a second hand one that has already been reground so it is good to go saving almost £100 but if that route is taken a full new clutch should be put in and a new oil pump has been suggested as well if I have it split down that much.
The other slight problem is I am in unknown territory from this point on, there will be a lot of reading going on and also finding out what specialist tools I need to get hold of as I already know that some of the parts need to be set up amazingly accurate. Like micrometer accurate, crazy clean and balanced. None of those 3 things I an very good at and balancing the clutch I am not even sure where to start sorting that out apart from moaning about a shite design creating an unnecessary complicated process. Even the workshop manual states it was an oversight.
But the engine looks shiny and the head is now painted ..... woo hooo ! Not as excited about that as I was this morning.
Wednesday 1 January 2020
Engine work
Still loosing track of what day it is and what was done when due to Christmas. But with that aside What has been going on?
With the head of and just laying around (and the father in law now checking in regularly on progress) I have found a few slots where I could grab some garage time whilst I have to wait for supplies to do anything more to the shell. After fighting the sticky collets holding in the valves, that would be 3 times on each valve with the valve compressor tool with only one valve giving up and coming out. I set off round the father in laws with the head, the weather was ok so it was fine to set up the work mate in the garden (his garage makes me feel like mine is really tidy, but that would be his sons doing to be fair) we cut a few packers to go under the valves and turned the head over ready to show it who is boss. A large socket in a short extension bar and aided with a fair hammer he blasted through them and one half collet came straight out of most of them, a quick go with the valve compressor and I was stood there cleaning all the collets and springs whilst Harry was cleaning the vlaves up on the grinding wheel fitted with a wire brush. With a bit of chat as well I think it was just a 3/4 hour visit.
I shot off from there to the work shop to move the mini to another unit on the yard in a bid to delay it coming back home. But my friend Malcolm was fine with it living with him for a few days until Friday when it can move back into my works workshop for a final coat of clear. Oh had a quick go over the head in Malcolms parafin bath while I was there.
The next 2 days over a few short stints in the garage the head is now de coked, any blobby rust removed from outer and inner parts, the heart shaped chamber has been smoothed out removing the rough casting finish with just a quick clean of the valve guides needed to cross the T's and dot the i's on that sticky valve problem, although I need to find out if the engine is fitted with unleaded valve guides, if not they are going to be changed at Malcoms and the head will get a quick polish/surface grind on mating surfaces. Sounds easier than me sanding it with emery and a board. The valve seats look like they will be fine after the valves have been ground back in again when the paste and stick turns up, could have got M to re cut the valve seats and valves but doesn't look like it is needed.
Sadly an old school test on the piston rings is looking like a little bit more work on the engine. We sprayed a truck load of wd40 into the pistons and 2 drained fairly quickly and a third had drained by the next day. They could be stuck and free up after it being fired up, but with little doubts creeping in as the engine has sat up for at least 5 years and the engine not being in the car it does seem like the right thing to do is to get stuck in and double check as much as we can. On that note ... the bell housing is off and waiting for a clutch puller to turn up, I so still bloody had one from 20 years ago when I did a clutch change on my last mini. Well I saw the main part a few days ago but disappeared and the bolts, well just no. So the bell housing is off, cleaned inside and out and just needs a quick rub down before that gets painted ..... Red like it was and the same as the engine or silver ?
The bonus of "checking" the clutch, there is not much more to come off the engine and I can take the pistons out to check the rings.
Not sure at the moment how much more will happen this week, waiting on shit turning up. Could be lots, may be slow? But it is back to work tomorrow ... boooooo.
With the head of and just laying around (and the father in law now checking in regularly on progress) I have found a few slots where I could grab some garage time whilst I have to wait for supplies to do anything more to the shell. After fighting the sticky collets holding in the valves, that would be 3 times on each valve with the valve compressor tool with only one valve giving up and coming out. I set off round the father in laws with the head, the weather was ok so it was fine to set up the work mate in the garden (his garage makes me feel like mine is really tidy, but that would be his sons doing to be fair) we cut a few packers to go under the valves and turned the head over ready to show it who is boss. A large socket in a short extension bar and aided with a fair hammer he blasted through them and one half collet came straight out of most of them, a quick go with the valve compressor and I was stood there cleaning all the collets and springs whilst Harry was cleaning the vlaves up on the grinding wheel fitted with a wire brush. With a bit of chat as well I think it was just a 3/4 hour visit.
I shot off from there to the work shop to move the mini to another unit on the yard in a bid to delay it coming back home. But my friend Malcolm was fine with it living with him for a few days until Friday when it can move back into my works workshop for a final coat of clear. Oh had a quick go over the head in Malcolms parafin bath while I was there.
The next 2 days over a few short stints in the garage the head is now de coked, any blobby rust removed from outer and inner parts, the heart shaped chamber has been smoothed out removing the rough casting finish with just a quick clean of the valve guides needed to cross the T's and dot the i's on that sticky valve problem, although I need to find out if the engine is fitted with unleaded valve guides, if not they are going to be changed at Malcoms and the head will get a quick polish/surface grind on mating surfaces. Sounds easier than me sanding it with emery and a board. The valve seats look like they will be fine after the valves have been ground back in again when the paste and stick turns up, could have got M to re cut the valve seats and valves but doesn't look like it is needed.
Sadly an old school test on the piston rings is looking like a little bit more work on the engine. We sprayed a truck load of wd40 into the pistons and 2 drained fairly quickly and a third had drained by the next day. They could be stuck and free up after it being fired up, but with little doubts creeping in as the engine has sat up for at least 5 years and the engine not being in the car it does seem like the right thing to do is to get stuck in and double check as much as we can. On that note ... the bell housing is off and waiting for a clutch puller to turn up, I so still bloody had one from 20 years ago when I did a clutch change on my last mini. Well I saw the main part a few days ago but disappeared and the bolts, well just no. So the bell housing is off, cleaned inside and out and just needs a quick rub down before that gets painted ..... Red like it was and the same as the engine or silver ?
The bonus of "checking" the clutch, there is not much more to come off the engine and I can take the pistons out to check the rings.
Not sure at the moment how much more will happen this week, waiting on shit turning up. Could be lots, may be slow? But it is back to work tomorrow ... boooooo.
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