Post by browno on Jan 18, 2017 11:30:47 GMT
Apologies in advance, but I fear a large essay is imminent on my 1985 Mini City E, which is a VERY long term project, but I hope it is of interest - I know everyone loves a good project! The initial history below is a bit of a consolidation and compilation of old posts from other forums, so please excuse any repetition or jumps!
To get to the start of the project, we need to go all the way back to the summer of 1993, when I was 16 and eager to get behind the wheel. I had saved up a fair bit of money from my holiday jobs, and was keen to get myself a car that I could tidy up in the six months before I could start driving. My Dad had spotted a mini that was being repaired at a garage owned by my mate’s Dad, and was up for sale as the owner’s husband had been banned. So, a week or so later (on August 31st 1993, in fact), I became the proud owner of a 1985 Mini City E, which had a new MOT that day and had recorded 47420 miles. It was in good condition, but hadn’t been cleaned in a long time, so on the first day it looked like this (with me & my brother in it looking very young & of course stylish!)
So I got my most stylish gear on and got to work giving it a clean, and got rid of the fetching brown interior, after which it looked a lot tidier:
The only visible fault was a small rust hole in the bonnet, so I got rid of that:
Then we thought it would be worthwhile getting it into the garage so that we could whip out the rust-prone rear subframe to repair it as needed and paint the floor in that area:
The good news was that the original subframe was in great condition, as was the boot floor, so we stripped everything back, gave it all several coats of hammerite to protect it from the elements and reassembled it all looking much better:
So far, so good – in fact we’d found it quite straightforward – and at this point is where things changed from a quick tidy up into a more serious project. Having sorted out the rear end, I also stripped and painted the floor in the middle of the car without any problems. Then we decided to up the ante by taking out the front subframe – achieved by simply lifting the body off the front running gear, which was then wheeled out.
Then the engine/gearbox and all brake and suspension components were separated from the subframe and it was built back to give us a rolling shell (so that the engine could be rebuilt and put back into the shell later). This resulted in a shell that was well protected underneath and looked like this:
As it had turned into more than a quick tidy-up, and I wasn’t going to have it ready for when I did my test, I decided that the paintwork wasn’t great, and could be improved – so it was sent off to a mate’s garage for a paintjob… He assured me that he’d take great care of my pride & joy for me…
The car was prepped and primed, but then the project stalled for the first time, as it was being painted as a favour, it was low priority – so spent about 2 years sitting in a shed at the garage awaiting attention. Eventually, when I was at Uni, and had nice long summer holidays I got cracking on with it again – I built the engine up which is based on the original 998cc unit, but significantly upgraded (I was concerned about insurance at the time, and the engine was in such good nick, I decided to modify it, rather than transplant it) with the following bits:
Minisport stage 1 kit (alloy inlet & LCB exhaust manifolds, superflow exhaust & K&N filter)
Minisport stage 3 cylinder head
Minisport road/rally cam
Single 1 ¾” SU HIF44 carb
Aldon electronic ignition conversion
After a bit of nudging, the car then got painted in Ferrari Rosso Corse with a Ford Diamond White roof – and I had a motor that looked like this:
So the motor was fitted (and sounded fantastic) – then the spending then started on shiny bits for it including lots of trim, a six-point safety devices roll cage, a pair of cobra low-back buckets and all sorts of other stuff. With a big push on to fit this lot up, the car was looking pretty good and just needed some trim and wiring finishing before it was ready:
However, at this point things changed again, and the project stalled for the second, longer time. I ended up staying on at Uni for 3 more years to do a PhD and towards the end of that 3 years, my dad (who can be seen in some of the earlier pictures) died suddenly aged just 49.
Eventually I ended up finishing uni and getting myself a job, which was back near home, and bought a house – so got a mate with a truck to bring the car over into my new garage – so, we are up to 2004, 11 years after I bought it, and it looked like this:
Finally after lots of failed attempts, in 2008, I decided to have a big push and finally get it on the road, as it has become such a huge joke with all my friends and family that I have the infamous unfinished mini that it needs to be finished! I also figured that since it’s something that I’ve worked so hard on with my Dad and Brother that I need to finish it off as a memory of him too.
I stripped the top end of the engine again and rebuilt the head, rebuilt the carb and got the engine running again before I started work on some of the other jobs that need doing – some that weren’t done originally, others that need doing because of the lay-up.
After a lot of work, it didn’t look much different – but it had a lot of jobs attended to:
The electrics all worked, and the remaining jobs were focussed on sorting out the interior and tidying all the wiring. One of the big jobs was getting out both screens to fit new seals, which meant I could also take out the dash and retrim it. It was then looking lots better – but taking lots of time to get the details sorted out – things like the heater, which had a leaky matrix has been taken out, stripped and all the parts painted and reassembled with a new matrix, and replacing just about everything in the cooling system (new water pump, thermostat and everything else flushed out) - only to find that the pipes into the heater matrix were also leaky, so were also replaced!
Moving forward, I took out my newly refurbished heater, as the hoses to it were leaky...
Then connected up my new shiny silicone hoses, and fitted it up
After that, I started doing a bit more work on the interior - and fitted my rear door cards from retro retrims...
I then got the front door cards fitted and the interior looking pretty good (with a number of electrical gremlins lurking!)
Next, I solved my wheel dilemma, by buying a set of used minilites, and then went off down to the 2008 Bingley Hall show (and had a great day!), and have spent a small fortune on getting a load of bits that I need to finish up (and a couple of treats!)
The list was:
Full set of Hi-Lo's
Full set of Gaz Adjustables
Braided oil pressure gauge pipe
Grille surround set
Carpet underlay set
Gearknob
Wiper Mechanism (one of my guide tubes is bent, meaning the wipers are very sluggish)
Bonnet Badge
and various other odds & ends...
Firstly, I stripped the o/s rear suspension to start adding my new bits:
...and after lots of swearing and some serious work with the pliers and an old screwdriver to get out the nylon cup in the radius arm, I could compare the old and new parts...:
So I built up the rear end and dropped it onto the first of it's new wheels and then did the same things on the front o/s - to give this look - which I'm very happy with!!!...(perhaps set a bit too low for now - but we'll wait and see when all 4 corners are done!)
I also rebuilt the wiper mech again - but it wasn't too exciting, so I didn't take pics! I did then also get the remainder of the suspension done, but didn't take pics at the time.
The progress then stopped again for a while, as I had the combination of a house move and first child to contend with! So work stalled for another 3 1/2 years in fact!
I started by buying another new heater matrix (this time with solid pipe attachments) and fitting that. I then bought (another) new battery, and thought I'd try and get it fired up. So after first carefully making sure there was some oil around the top end, and then building oil pressure on the starter, I gave it a go and... Nothing! So, having checked for fuel, I double checked the static timing, then looked for a spark - which I didn't have. Then I remembered the 12v feed for the Aldon ingitor (I have ballasted ignition) - which was disconnected!
As soon as that was sorted, I tried again, and it sprung into life, and is sounding pretty healthy. I went to try and set up the timing, but the bulb in my light has gone - so I guess that's the next job!
Then I checked all the electrics over and had all lights working, replaced the wiper stalk (as it had been broken by an over-keen toddler playing in the car!), adjusted the rear suspension (there wasn't room for a finger between wheel and arch - so it's now at a more sensible level), and adjusted the rear drums, and also changed the plugs and checked over the carb. I then sorted out setting up the timing and getting the mixture set a bit better, so she's running quite nicely, which is good.
I then got busy tracing and rectifying a pretty elusive electrical fault - I mentioned before that the Washer pump and wipers weren't working, well neither was the heater fan either. Having spotted that they are all on the same circuit, it was time for some fault-finding. First, I discovered that they were only being fed about 6-8V which was switched with the ignition... So having checked and cleaned all the earths, it was then time to look to the feed - and I discovered that the ignition switch was showing very variable resistance on the ignition switched circuit as you moved the key. So I have now (after much drilling!) replaced the assembly, and all appears to be working, which is good!
I then also managed to move the car out of the garage under power to take a good look around, and discovered a trickle of brake fluid down the inside of the bulkhead - so I am now in the process of replacing the master cylinder, and checking the clutch master too. What an absolute pig of a job - I managed to get the brake master out with about an hour of swearing, but needed a lot more to get out the split pin and clevis pin for the clutch master, but eventually got both masters swapped over okay...
After that, I did manage to sustain some focus for a while on making progress and got new brake and clutch master cylinders installed and a selection more work done, but then the mini had to go off into storage at a friend's house for a while, as the old garage was demolished and we had the house extended to include a new garage, took around a year. The car then returned and I have had a few other jobs on since then - more mods to my MX5, repairing my wife's Clio 182 when it was rear-ended and declared cat d (for a rear bumper swap!) and more recently playing with a second Mazda (this time a late mk1) that I have bought to turn into an Exocet kit car.
One additional treat in the garage is that I thought I would save messing with jacks, so have installed a scissor lift - which is brilliant bit of kit!
So, going back to the mini (my plan to get me to be a little disciplined is that I can't start stripping the mazda to build the kit until the mini is MOT'd), I have been firstly sorting some wiring issues which means I now have a full complement of electrics, and also getting the bonnet and grille fitted...
So it is edging closer - I think that one of my next jobs is to go through carefully and make a snagging list to complete before getting it up to my mate's garage for MOT - which I don't think is far off - I need some amber bulbs in the indicators, clamps on the battery and other such jobs doing and we will be there all being well!
I will keep updated as I make progress, but I hope that it will finally be done before I get to the 24th anniversary of buying the car which is in August!
To get to the start of the project, we need to go all the way back to the summer of 1993, when I was 16 and eager to get behind the wheel. I had saved up a fair bit of money from my holiday jobs, and was keen to get myself a car that I could tidy up in the six months before I could start driving. My Dad had spotted a mini that was being repaired at a garage owned by my mate’s Dad, and was up for sale as the owner’s husband had been banned. So, a week or so later (on August 31st 1993, in fact), I became the proud owner of a 1985 Mini City E, which had a new MOT that day and had recorded 47420 miles. It was in good condition, but hadn’t been cleaned in a long time, so on the first day it looked like this (with me & my brother in it looking very young & of course stylish!)
So I got my most stylish gear on and got to work giving it a clean, and got rid of the fetching brown interior, after which it looked a lot tidier:
The only visible fault was a small rust hole in the bonnet, so I got rid of that:
Then we thought it would be worthwhile getting it into the garage so that we could whip out the rust-prone rear subframe to repair it as needed and paint the floor in that area:
The good news was that the original subframe was in great condition, as was the boot floor, so we stripped everything back, gave it all several coats of hammerite to protect it from the elements and reassembled it all looking much better:
So far, so good – in fact we’d found it quite straightforward – and at this point is where things changed from a quick tidy up into a more serious project. Having sorted out the rear end, I also stripped and painted the floor in the middle of the car without any problems. Then we decided to up the ante by taking out the front subframe – achieved by simply lifting the body off the front running gear, which was then wheeled out.
Then the engine/gearbox and all brake and suspension components were separated from the subframe and it was built back to give us a rolling shell (so that the engine could be rebuilt and put back into the shell later). This resulted in a shell that was well protected underneath and looked like this:
As it had turned into more than a quick tidy-up, and I wasn’t going to have it ready for when I did my test, I decided that the paintwork wasn’t great, and could be improved – so it was sent off to a mate’s garage for a paintjob… He assured me that he’d take great care of my pride & joy for me…
The car was prepped and primed, but then the project stalled for the first time, as it was being painted as a favour, it was low priority – so spent about 2 years sitting in a shed at the garage awaiting attention. Eventually, when I was at Uni, and had nice long summer holidays I got cracking on with it again – I built the engine up which is based on the original 998cc unit, but significantly upgraded (I was concerned about insurance at the time, and the engine was in such good nick, I decided to modify it, rather than transplant it) with the following bits:
Minisport stage 1 kit (alloy inlet & LCB exhaust manifolds, superflow exhaust & K&N filter)
Minisport stage 3 cylinder head
Minisport road/rally cam
Single 1 ¾” SU HIF44 carb
Aldon electronic ignition conversion
After a bit of nudging, the car then got painted in Ferrari Rosso Corse with a Ford Diamond White roof – and I had a motor that looked like this:
So the motor was fitted (and sounded fantastic) – then the spending then started on shiny bits for it including lots of trim, a six-point safety devices roll cage, a pair of cobra low-back buckets and all sorts of other stuff. With a big push on to fit this lot up, the car was looking pretty good and just needed some trim and wiring finishing before it was ready:
However, at this point things changed again, and the project stalled for the second, longer time. I ended up staying on at Uni for 3 more years to do a PhD and towards the end of that 3 years, my dad (who can be seen in some of the earlier pictures) died suddenly aged just 49.
Eventually I ended up finishing uni and getting myself a job, which was back near home, and bought a house – so got a mate with a truck to bring the car over into my new garage – so, we are up to 2004, 11 years after I bought it, and it looked like this:
Finally after lots of failed attempts, in 2008, I decided to have a big push and finally get it on the road, as it has become such a huge joke with all my friends and family that I have the infamous unfinished mini that it needs to be finished! I also figured that since it’s something that I’ve worked so hard on with my Dad and Brother that I need to finish it off as a memory of him too.
I stripped the top end of the engine again and rebuilt the head, rebuilt the carb and got the engine running again before I started work on some of the other jobs that need doing – some that weren’t done originally, others that need doing because of the lay-up.
After a lot of work, it didn’t look much different – but it had a lot of jobs attended to:
The electrics all worked, and the remaining jobs were focussed on sorting out the interior and tidying all the wiring. One of the big jobs was getting out both screens to fit new seals, which meant I could also take out the dash and retrim it. It was then looking lots better – but taking lots of time to get the details sorted out – things like the heater, which had a leaky matrix has been taken out, stripped and all the parts painted and reassembled with a new matrix, and replacing just about everything in the cooling system (new water pump, thermostat and everything else flushed out) - only to find that the pipes into the heater matrix were also leaky, so were also replaced!
Moving forward, I took out my newly refurbished heater, as the hoses to it were leaky...
Then connected up my new shiny silicone hoses, and fitted it up
After that, I started doing a bit more work on the interior - and fitted my rear door cards from retro retrims...
I then got the front door cards fitted and the interior looking pretty good (with a number of electrical gremlins lurking!)
Next, I solved my wheel dilemma, by buying a set of used minilites, and then went off down to the 2008 Bingley Hall show (and had a great day!), and have spent a small fortune on getting a load of bits that I need to finish up (and a couple of treats!)
The list was:
Full set of Hi-Lo's
Full set of Gaz Adjustables
Braided oil pressure gauge pipe
Grille surround set
Carpet underlay set
Gearknob
Wiper Mechanism (one of my guide tubes is bent, meaning the wipers are very sluggish)
Bonnet Badge
and various other odds & ends...
Firstly, I stripped the o/s rear suspension to start adding my new bits:
...and after lots of swearing and some serious work with the pliers and an old screwdriver to get out the nylon cup in the radius arm, I could compare the old and new parts...:
So I built up the rear end and dropped it onto the first of it's new wheels and then did the same things on the front o/s - to give this look - which I'm very happy with!!!...(perhaps set a bit too low for now - but we'll wait and see when all 4 corners are done!)
I also rebuilt the wiper mech again - but it wasn't too exciting, so I didn't take pics! I did then also get the remainder of the suspension done, but didn't take pics at the time.
The progress then stopped again for a while, as I had the combination of a house move and first child to contend with! So work stalled for another 3 1/2 years in fact!
I started by buying another new heater matrix (this time with solid pipe attachments) and fitting that. I then bought (another) new battery, and thought I'd try and get it fired up. So after first carefully making sure there was some oil around the top end, and then building oil pressure on the starter, I gave it a go and... Nothing! So, having checked for fuel, I double checked the static timing, then looked for a spark - which I didn't have. Then I remembered the 12v feed for the Aldon ingitor (I have ballasted ignition) - which was disconnected!
As soon as that was sorted, I tried again, and it sprung into life, and is sounding pretty healthy. I went to try and set up the timing, but the bulb in my light has gone - so I guess that's the next job!
Then I checked all the electrics over and had all lights working, replaced the wiper stalk (as it had been broken by an over-keen toddler playing in the car!), adjusted the rear suspension (there wasn't room for a finger between wheel and arch - so it's now at a more sensible level), and adjusted the rear drums, and also changed the plugs and checked over the carb. I then sorted out setting up the timing and getting the mixture set a bit better, so she's running quite nicely, which is good.
I then got busy tracing and rectifying a pretty elusive electrical fault - I mentioned before that the Washer pump and wipers weren't working, well neither was the heater fan either. Having spotted that they are all on the same circuit, it was time for some fault-finding. First, I discovered that they were only being fed about 6-8V which was switched with the ignition... So having checked and cleaned all the earths, it was then time to look to the feed - and I discovered that the ignition switch was showing very variable resistance on the ignition switched circuit as you moved the key. So I have now (after much drilling!) replaced the assembly, and all appears to be working, which is good!
I then also managed to move the car out of the garage under power to take a good look around, and discovered a trickle of brake fluid down the inside of the bulkhead - so I am now in the process of replacing the master cylinder, and checking the clutch master too. What an absolute pig of a job - I managed to get the brake master out with about an hour of swearing, but needed a lot more to get out the split pin and clevis pin for the clutch master, but eventually got both masters swapped over okay...
After that, I did manage to sustain some focus for a while on making progress and got new brake and clutch master cylinders installed and a selection more work done, but then the mini had to go off into storage at a friend's house for a while, as the old garage was demolished and we had the house extended to include a new garage, took around a year. The car then returned and I have had a few other jobs on since then - more mods to my MX5, repairing my wife's Clio 182 when it was rear-ended and declared cat d (for a rear bumper swap!) and more recently playing with a second Mazda (this time a late mk1) that I have bought to turn into an Exocet kit car.
One additional treat in the garage is that I thought I would save messing with jacks, so have installed a scissor lift - which is brilliant bit of kit!
So, going back to the mini (my plan to get me to be a little disciplined is that I can't start stripping the mazda to build the kit until the mini is MOT'd), I have been firstly sorting some wiring issues which means I now have a full complement of electrics, and also getting the bonnet and grille fitted...
So it is edging closer - I think that one of my next jobs is to go through carefully and make a snagging list to complete before getting it up to my mate's garage for MOT - which I don't think is far off - I need some amber bulbs in the indicators, clamps on the battery and other such jobs doing and we will be there all being well!
I will keep updated as I make progress, but I hope that it will finally be done before I get to the 24th anniversary of buying the car which is in August!
le sigh