My car's rebuild - 1380 T3 (Going 1380 N/A for a while)
Turbo Mini Forums

Nah I'll probably leave the driveshaft holes as they are for now, The bolts are for the sump guard, there's two more lower down for the back of it, just left the bolts in whilst painting so I didn't clog up the new captive nut threads with hammerite. The reason for the captive nuts is so that I can easily remove the sumpguard at any point for repairs or oil changes, had it without before and it was a pain to fit and remove.

That makes sence, good thinking.

Dazed and Confused....

Trying to do what I can when I get home from work (7pm), and tonight I got home to a nice parcel...

Which contained some goodies for the front subframe, and due to time constraints I only managed to do one top arm, but it was the one which was seized up. Just needs some paint now, the subframe needs it's second coat too.

Been trying to keep myself busy and make the time go faster, but getting a bit fed up of painting things and waiting for them to dry so I can paint them again etc etc, but I'm nearly through all that now thankfully. Slightly swiss cheesed my subframe, finished refurbing my top arms, adjustable bottom arms and tie rods are ready to be fitted now, painted my brake calipers, painted my brace bars, painted one of my hubs and driveshafts, made my handbrake look easier on the eye too. Tomorrow I'm hoping to have the suspension cones/hilos/top arms back in the subframe as those are the pita to fit/remove with the subframe on the car. I think the next jobs are to strip and paint the other hub and driveshaft, blast all the surface rust off the discs because they've been sat a while and to tidy up and paint the steering rack as that's got to be fitted before anything else on the front end.

Well I managed some of todays jobs as I fancied a day off from cleaning and painting so I refitted the cones, hilos, top arms, new rebound rubbers, new adjustable bottom arms, adjustable tie rods and the sumpguard.

Been and got my shell back off it's holiday at Jez's today. I must say the holiday has done it some good
It's come back looking a bit more refreshed than it left, It's had 2 new outer sills, 2 inner sills, a pair of door steps, a new lower dash rail as somebody royally butchered the original one trying to get the steering column off, a bulkhead box, part of bulkhead restored, boot floor corners, and loads of other bits and pieces done around the car. Just need to crack on with doing the bodywork now, done a little seam sealing on the back end tonight, got a bit of filling and priming to do in other places, and then a load of painting again. Not sure what to do with the inner wing stiffner brackets on both sides, as ones been modified and another added (god knows why but im cutting that out) So I was just thinking of cutting it around and trying to make something tidy of it both sides.

Stiffner bracket:


The rest of the shell!

Edited by Carlzilla on 14th May, 2014.

Looking good mate

13.95 1/4 mile on a 2.95 fd. Carnt be that hard to beat!

Looks great!

Cheers guys, I'm thinking about shell prep at the moment, and I can't decide what products to use on the underside of the car and any other high impact areas, and possibly all of the inside floor of the car. I was told about truck bed liner paint but it's bloody extortionate for the upol stuff. Any suggestions?

I've stonechipped mine and it's still perfect after two years

You missed a bit mate

On 15th May, 2014 apbellamy said:
I've stonechipped mine and it's still perfect after two years of no miles

Lol!

I've put upol gravitex on the underside of my minus. Was very easy to do. Put 2k straight over the top with no problems.

Can get it off eBay in 6 packs with a gun for about £60. I used 4 bottles to do the whole lot with a few heavy coats in the hard wearing areas.

Bought some underbody schutz today and a gun, I'll see how this goes on, hopefully it should do the job well. Might get a can of truck bed liner do do the inside floors with using the gun, should only cost me around £15-20 for a csn.

Well, the weather has been shocking lately and I ordered the car a shiny new gazebo to help keep the weather off it. Yet to get a front and back piece for it though.

Anyways, some stuff happened today, I'll let the pictures do most of the talking!

Some minor prep occured, then this happened....



Also done the underside of the boot floor and rear arches with what was left in the can, yet to do the underside. But I'll do that when the front wheels are on and I can get the shell higher up then.

Annnnnndddd then I got the spanners and ratchet out and this happened!



Happy with todays progress.

Edited by Carlzilla on 1st Jun, 2014.

Not a lot more done this week but had a few parts deliveries, one of which was my electric window kit, brand new second hand in its packaging off ebay for £50 less than new at minispares, also ordered a master cylinder plate from DSN and a rear subframe bolt set sunday and they arrived this morning, well pleased with that delivery time! And I'm picking up a 1275 on the weekend now, to get me on the road sooner, which then means I can take longer to buy all the parts I want for the turbo build, which may end up better spec'd than I was planning on. But with the 1275 I'm going to be putting in my preverto ultralight fly, doing all the usual vizard mods to the carb and head and fitting a better cam than stock, have an mg metro but may fit something like a 276. Still going to fit it all up with megajolt etc, and it does mean I have a spare engine when the turbo one goes in. Not going to sell this engine when it next comes out, already regret selling my old one!

Be worth a million dollarz by the time your other engine is built

They don't die, they just get faster!

Its old hat now but i always liked the piper 285 cam in a 1275. I know it might be a bit lumpy but i managed it fine in a daily driver.

Sw5 is also a really nice cam for a road car. I'd try to not get too caught up with engine though if it is a stop gap. Perhaps just work with what you've got?

Yeah I'm not going to do too much with it tbh, just try and get a bit more easy power out of it, probably going to stay in the car for a while so fancy making it a little more fun than my last engine, few more rpm and a lumpy cam does sound good tbh!

stick the MG cam in then unless you were going to use it for the turbo build

I was running a 270 with 1.5's which gave a good power and torque output and wasnt too bad to drive with either.

What the mind can conceive the mini can achieve
MITP 2012 17.01 seconds 1/4 mile against "The Don"
MITP 2013 16.83 seconds 1/4 mile

I was going to use the cam tbh, kinda shying away from preverto on my turbo build now as rts seems much better! So I'm going to use my flywheel and then have a verto setup for the turbo lump i can use.

Still can't get the idea of turbocharged A series out of my head. It's telling me 'put all the gear you have on the engine you just bought after a full strip down and rebuild and sell the Aseries stuff you've collected and purchase a set of pistons to lower CR' and run at lower boost for now. This disease is infectious! What would you guys do if you had 90% of the parts to literally strap to an engine, the temptation of putting everything on as standard with some head and carb vizardation with my cossie 4wd cooler is far too tempting. But I know I'll crank the boost and it will end in tears haha.

Do it once, how you want it. It will only cost more and take more time of you deviate from your plan.

In the 13's at last!.. Just

That's very true, I was just sat on the train for a few hours thinking and then the cogs started turning. Probably just stick with a mildly tuned 1275 for a bit as i have all of the parts minus a cam, a few clutch bits and gaskets etc.