A weekend away

No, no, no. I wasn't away, I don't think anywhere is even open to go to. It was a weekend largely away from the family tucked away in the garage. Some where around 16 hours squeezed in.
Well those hows achieved .... all the floor pan, bulk head and front wheel arches covered in underlay/sound proofing. A bit patch work as the set I picked up free with a carpet set wasn't quite a full set, some bits missing but some extra bits as well. A nice bit to go on the back of the rear seat and some extra rectangles which will go on the rear wheel arches. But flexed my mild upholstery skills and cobbled it all together, it's under the carpet so all is good.

Then the next day was time to dig the 2 carpet sets out and make a decision which one to use? I realised with my bespoke seat mounts this job wasn't just a question of throwing the carpets in and job done. I found a nice bit of card and slowly cut a template. It was close, so made a few extra lines to get it more accurate and set uo on the garden table ready to destroy a perfectly good carpet. Bit of a stare and I started getting twitchy, tried talking the neighbour into doing it so I could blame him if it went wrong :) then it was time for food. After tea I had to just get on with it, with some strategic cuts, I left a little wiggle room and trimming for when the carpet was in.
It didn't go to bad. With the rear carpet finally in attention was turned to the front wheel arches. Not quite happy with the fit I did some small re trimming and some relief cuts to stop it creasing up on the floor curve. With those glued in place I got my eldest so he could take the glory of fitting the last bit of carpet. It turned out it needed both of us to wiggle the carpet in place. The front brackets next to the tunnel where now very tight. Might have something to do with me double lining the tunnel with underlay to keep a bit of the exhaust noise down. But, that is just about all the carpet done and I even put the fresh air vents on. More just so I didn't knock them off and tread on them!

Quick steps

This week has been a busy one away from the mini, so grabbing a half hour or an hour here and there was as good as I could offer Marmite.
But I have managed to repair and paint 2 scratches.  Hoover and wash down the inside. Cleaned up the front door seals and fitted them glued on carpet on the inner sill by the door opening. The fresh air vents have been cleaned and there is a big pile of underlay inside the mini.

You could say it's not much but this is where I (and the patient family) get to see progress.

For quite a while I had been struggling with how much the project had run up. We are comfortable with what we have but treats and luxury is not often for us. So there is often the feeling "should I buy the parts, do we need the money for something else". Roughly, to date we are at £1900. Thats the shell, repaired and prepped, engine (that needs re building), lights, wiring, seats and door cards, roof liner, carb and refurb kit, hoses, brake pipes and a couple of fittings for that, complete new rear brakes, s /steel exhaust, all new subframe mounts, seatbelts, 2 sets of carpets and one underlay set, dizzy, alternator, heater and prob some other bits.
With all of that in mind, tonight I watched the last video from simpson classics on a budget crashed clubman resto to a painted shell. A great series by a proclaimed keen diyer at home. He is having a go and stretching his skills to get it all done while avoiding out sourcing any of the work. Obviously I have found this very interesting, he had to cut a lot out and replace where I did panel beating. But I could see similarities in our projects. The main goal was to end up with a restored and painted shell for £1500..... well that got me thinking about mine.
It is still early days and a pile of parts and the overall look and feel of the car is yet to be seen. But if it is just about the project budget, I'll reluctantly have to say I'm actually doing alright ... potentially. Like most petrol heads I have a reasonable eye for the quality and details but it's one thing to critic the project but another to be able to do it to a faultless level.
I suppose I'm saying on reluctant reflection I'm doing alright on the budget and should ease up on my self, but I'm not going to celebrate until all the parts come together.

Trim

It has been a long time coming. With the sunroof and insulation fitted it was to get on with the roof lining ... the job every.one chuckles and says good luck with that.
A quick read up and a good stare at the half fitted roof, and off I went. Slow and steady was the plan, after the initial stretch it was one section at a time mark, glue, check tension and sags then glue and stick. I found a little masking tape an the A &B pillars helped give me a good ref so I didn't put to much glue on the metal.

It took a few stints and the sun roof was a different approach compared to the rest but over the weekend the liner is in just leaving the trim under the back window and C pillar covers to fit. But over all, quite happy with the weekends progress.

Can't wait to put on the rubber door seals, bit I think the arpet and top dash rail need to go in before them. Need to get new side window seals and edge trim for the sunroof, then there will be another new skill to learn, front and rear glass to go in.

Wires be long

Having spent what feels like days laying out and changing the route, double checking, stripping an mpi loom for correct wires to extend and add a few mods and improvements.
We now have wires for front and rear internal under lighting (blue led strips) a modern stereo harness is now wired in, wiring for a glove box light, clock and usb socket is now there if I get that far.
Some nice spiral loom protector has been fitted and grommets made for the loom going through the cross member. Some tiny parts turned up a few days ago, door switches to complete a bit more wiring. Of course pattern parts so a little fetteling to get them.mounted and working just right.

Just as I was getting to the end of wiring and I thought a brake was on the card s, the sunroof fitter was in the area so I tidied the mini and today was the day, always great to see a pro on your car. The renault clio sunroof fits great, the inner frame has been padded for a better trim finish and new noise insulation fitted to the roof. 

The final job of the day was to hang the roof lining back up and run away from the evo stick fumes. 

As seems to be the norm I have been busy with life, but there is always at least a little time to sneek a little mini time in.
After yet another session of staring at the mini I thought it a good idea to check the tank didn't interfere with the loom.... the original filler neck was in the way. Out came the hack saw and off came the filler neck, left a nice stub to take the original foam washer so the tank does not squeek against the wing. Then after a lot of double checking it all went to my friends work shop where I ground a funky angle onto the filler neck and drilled a new hole in the tank. My friend welded a plate over the old hole and then welded on the revised neck.
Re painting has been a little trying, tiny contamination, sanded it back. Re sprayed in my garden and 10 min later my neighbor accidently sprayed it whilst water his garden!! Pot marks all over it. It is re sanded and waiting for paint to turn up

This afternoon I plucked up enough courage to look at the wiring again. Fresh eyes has found a slightly better route for the loom and drilled a hole, fitted grommet and the loom is in place and running on the floor pane. 

Drill died so cant drill the next hole. But attacked a spare loom for wire, protective sleeving and fittings. Starting to feel a bit more comfortable with this wiring business, some might not be looking at this :)

With some work around the house done I have ventured out to the garage a few times.
The rear loom was ordered and I have sourced extra wire and connectors for a few additions to the loom. The loom is now plugged into the rear lights and the main ground has been fitted with some (nerd alert) amazing ground washers. I forget there name but they will cut into the paint to give a nice connection to the body work. Genius :)

Whilst I'm nerding out, I also got some grommet material, so re routing the loom should be a little easier to do, just cut the U channel to length and pop it in.

I think I have decided on the best route for the loom to run and I can still pick up one the under rear seat lights and under dash lights, I have also found the right placed to add the modern stereo loom plug, usb charger and glove box light. The last 2 will prob be left capped to hook up later when the final dash is installed.

So it hasn't been quick or vast progress but a really good step forward. It does look like the loom is going to fall short of connecting to the engine loom but that will be easy enough to extend and worth doing to get the loom tucked away and safe.

Was on the sand blaster and powder coating again, black this time and while that was out I had to re do the bonnet catch. That red was just not working for me, so I'm happy now.

Bits going on !!

Well I know, it's been a little while. A little time out to catch up with other life stuff, and then mad times (covid 19) !! Yes work did close for a while but good weather meant a good chance to clean the slate of other daily life jobs. Leaking shower, painting, broken fence panels, the garden.
With quite a bit of that done the roof liner was unpacked. Courage was mustered and, I am missing one bar that suspends the liner. That's ordered with a rear loom and insulation.
So I moved onto the rear lights, I picked up some Jewel lights which are rounded instead of at 90° and are no longer made. So the broken stand off in the lense needed to screw it together was a problem I have been putting off for a long time. A rummage through the spare light lenses I found a clear standard one, cut through the lense to get as much of the stand off as I could, glued it to my lense and job done. Well that was a few hours for that, but no longer available so had to be done. Swopped out the bulb holder for a slightly better finished one which had the plugs still on the wires, thought it might be a bit better!

I fitted the bonnet catch loosely just to get it out of the way. Now I'm a bit overwhelmed by the red, will see how it looks when the painted engine is in, but thinking at least the lever needs to be black.

The next day optimism got the better of me.and moved onto the front side lights/indicators. Gathered up all the parts and gaskets..... and looked at the wires on the back of them.

Pause time, either way, short with no connectors or already had twisted wires attached. Realised I had no idea where they plugged to either, a quick shout on a forum and that was clarified so I can sort the leads and get them the right length straight away with connectors at a friends.
Was a bit deflated so didn't bother with the head lights that day while I worked out the wiring. But I found some screen jets in the box with the side lights. Now these have been in and out of a shopping basket quite a few times and current funds meant they came back out. Well at some point they didn't, that was quite close to buying another set! Still a quick fit, well after I realised the holes in the scuttle panel where not quite big enough, sigh. Drilled, primed and painted (hurray for a hot day and quick drying paint) but another job done.

As small a step as it's been, it is still nice to be taking just a few parts off the shelf for good. A bit mire space to rummage through the other parts.