Mitch gets a restoration! Now with bonus MOT!
Turbo Mini Forums

Wow you have been a busy boy!

I do like this car though, will it be looking the same as before?

Hi Nicolas! I counted today that i have been at it 6 months now, it NEEDS to be done by next summer regardless! It will remain the same except no holes in the bonnet, I have an Audi TT IC that will go behind the grill this time.

Not a huge lot more to show despite a couple of months of work. The rear subby mount areas were patched beyond belief and I needed a new hinge panel. Arches looked pretty rough too.





The hinge panel went on, then I used the boot floor repair sections for the rear of the boot floor and down both sides near the arches. Again, probably easier to replace the whole floor. I put in new arches too, it feels good to look into the boot and see nice black heritage arches.











I have the rear valance on now, in fact that's the last panel to go on the car, still heaps of small things left to do though.



I have started back inside the car and spotting the rear bulkhead onto the arches and companion bins to the replacement floor sections. After that it's moving up the car and finishing off the fiddly bits. Hopefully ready to be shipped off for paint in a month or so.

cracking job keep up the good work

Looks like mine bottomless money pit lol

Craig

my mini van http://www.turbominis.co.uk/forums/index.php?p=vt&tid=448248

nice work looks good

Done now needs redoing lol

looks good. Don't forget the re-enforcement plates for the rear of the subframe mounts. The ones normally of the valance closing panels

I got the door repaired and re-skinned. Its the first time I used a door skinning tool in anger and I think it went OK. The A panel/door gap is better on the passenger side, I think the car was hit on the drivers side at one point as things just weren't so easy to line up. It will need a bit more tweaking.







I am digging the filler/sealer out of the roof gutters, I found some rust on the two front corners but everything else seems OK. I did find a few holes around the drivers side rear quarter though.

The roof/A post will weld up. Get some flat copper bar about 2-3mm thick behind the hole and tight up to the panel. Clean the hole up and you should be able to weld the holes up without blowing loads of holes in the roof.

That said, the roof skin isn't that hard to change..

So 1 year in and I think I have all the welding done. I ended up replacing:

Wings
Scuttle
Bonnet
Both flitch panels
Sills
Tread plates
Rear foot wells
Most of the boot floor
Rear arches
Rear hinge panel
Rear valence
Door skin

Plus heaps of small repairs to the roof, rear quarters, rear seat, rear bulkhead, inner wings, companion bins, door bottom and windscreen corners. I have brush primed inside cavities and tried to seal things up as best as I can. I have heaps of waxoyl and denidrol ready to be applied after its all painted up.

I still have a a few welds to dress and some seam sealing/spot priming to do yet. I goes into the paint shop in a few weeks, can't wait! It going to get a nice coat of russet brown with a white/cream roof and will match the reverse rims and 3 point roll bar to the roof.





I stripped down the subframes and ditched the rear, I will get a new one this week and get the front and rear sandblasted and powdercoated. I have new wheel bearings/bushes to go in and top arms to rebuild but have painted up some of the suspension bits and pieces.



When its in the paint shop I'll build up the subbies and give the engine and gearbox a bit of a freshen up.

The other thing is, I got some metal in my eye whilst grinding despite wearing full PPE. Had to go to A&E, they sorted me out but I noticed my vision was a bit cloudy in 1 eye a few weeks later. It turns out I have some inflammation in my eye, 2 months of eye drops and it has cleared up a bit but won't find out if I have done permanent damage for another few weeks. Be careful in the garage folks!

Edited by Jay#2 on 12th May, 2012.

bet your glad all the weldings out of the way, ive not had anything in my eye but i have had weld spatter down my ear, luckily it burnt in just before my ear drum.
are you keeping the original colour?

one day boost will be mine!

How do you like my new wheels?







Should be OK for getting the shell on a trailer to the paint shop and back.





Still a few things to do but more or less ready for prep and paint, it will remain russet brown with an off white roof. I have started to detail bits and pieces for when the subframes are back from the powdercoaters.

Edited by Jay#2 on 2nd Jun, 2012.

On it's way to the paint shop.



We'll see how it turns out, I tend to get ripped of when it comes to this sort of thing. Starting to put bits together.

Cant wait to see it in the new coat of paint..

Looks nice!
I like the color coding..

Where did you get the grooved discs?

Dazed and Confused....

TBH I can't remember where I got the discs from as I have had them a few years, I think Min-its sell them and Minisport as well. I feel my mini is pretty under-braked, the standard caliper and solid disc is all that will easily go behind the reverse rim. I am going to try some redstuff pads rather than 1144s this time, apparently redstuff are similar to ds2500s.

Cheers for that.
Was just curious what make tose were.
I haven't tried my 7.5" disks with 1144s yet most of the people on here seem to think this combo is ok?

Dazed and Confused....

The standard caliper and slotted disc/M1144 combo worked pretty well for me, I did manage to fade them once but that's not bad in about 8 years with that combo on the car. I still would prefer 4 pots or a larger or vented disc though but since I can't I was going to try a pad with a slightly higher temp range.

Started the engine strip, I have found a few issues mainly knackered bores!

I knew I would find something like this as it was smoking quite badly, too much for it just being because the rings hadn't bedded in fully. When I was driving the car I had a few running issues caused by the piston sticking in the carb, mainly after a bit of a squirt. I noticed some swarf in the carb and felt it was coming from the intercooler or plenum that I got welded up. Looks like it has lead to scoring in the bores and damaged rings.









Some scores in the cam bearings and also mains and big ends.









Thrusts were a little scrubbed looking, I am using a grey diaphragm.



I will get the block measured up but I reckon a hone won't cut it, I say another set of cast omega next size up an rebore are required, only done 1000 miles too.

Looking good! and can't you sorce another block?? pistons and that should be fine??

I'd just hone it out to what it takes, as long piston to bore clearances arn't silly. like over 7 thou.

I do have a spare block I could use, I will get the current block to the machine shop this week and see what he says. Maybe a hone will do, we'll see. Other than that there shouldn't be too much to sort out on the engine.

Chocolaty brown goodness...



Roof is OEW this time but ended up quite creamy which is what I wanted.

Unfortunately I ended up needing new pistons, the hone did clean up the bores but the machinist didn't recommend reusing the pistons. I also managed to wear the valve and guides in the head! Not sure how that happened but I now have that sorted too.

Oh yeh!