Most liked posts in thread: Mini Innocenti 1300 Export

Yes, he did a beautiful job...he's finishing up the details, installing the door mirrors, painting the fuel tanks and so on. I should see it in about 2 weeks.

I need to get the motor built and into the stand as right now I'm using the lift as a table and a workbench

 

New mirrors and front turn signals too.....

 

When Dan finished with the paint, it felt like glass! Way better than anything that ever came out of the factory when they were new!

 

Took the block over to the machine shop to have the deck surfaced, I put a straight edge on it and could see light at the junctions between the cylinders. It won't take much maybe 3-5 thou to straighten it out.

 

The block and head came back from the machine shop, it only took 2 thou to clean it up. The parts also came in from MiniSpares too, so tomorrow I'll run them up to the cranky shop and hope they can get me set up quickly. In the meantime I've got plenty to do...….

 

Working on the back end, got all the wiring to the lights sorted, the taillights installed and the right side tank in, along with the Monza fuel cap. Doesn't sound like much but there are a hundred little jobs leading up to this point, painting the tank retaining strips, new gaskets under the hinges, sorting the wires and so on. I still need to install the fuel cross pipe and hoses. I couldn't find another 2" 5/16 -24 bolt for the retainer strap so I made one out of a piece of all thread.




Tomorrow I'll get the left tank installed and trimmed out, the sending unit installed, the fuel pump installed and wired up and the em. brake cables installed. Once the back is buttoned up I'll move up to the front and start working on the front wiring harness and lights while I'm waiting for the engine parts to come back from the crank shop.

 

Yes, we're trying to keep it as close to how it was built originally as possible, at least in appearance. that's why I spent the money to buy the OEM interior and the right grill and lights. So I bought a modern electronic fuel pump in an old style body!

I got the pump installed already, but my camera decided to turn into a potato, so I'll have to get a better pic tomorrow.

I modified my post to better reflect my audiences' experience with classics!

 

Thanks Dave - and the other 4 people who are actually reading this!

After I got the hand brake cables installed I realized that they would rub on the brake lines, so I had to take the brake lines loose and reposition them, no issue since there's no brake fluid in them yet. Now they're good. I also got the tank vent lines installed. I can't find my battery hold down bracket - I'm sure it's here somewhere - so till then I think that's the last thing in the back, time to head around to the front and repair all the wiring for the head lights, side markers and turn signals. That's going to be a bit of a challenge - the headlight buckets are covered in some kind of undercoating that it seems I can only scrape off, none of the solvents I have seem to touch it. Then I have to sort out what goes where and figure out how to both tie it in to the existing harness and find a way to sheath it since it's in the engine compartment. I bought some new headlight buckets from Vicky Brits, but wouldn't you know it - Innocenti buckets are made differently and the Lucas buckets won't fit, so I'll have to clean and repaint these.






The interior will be in Tues afternoon, so I'll run the components and the front seats up to the interior shop so he can get them installed, with any luck he'll be done by Friday but there's no rush now. I can do the backs as its simply stretched over the foam....I'm pretty sure I can handle that, if no he's only 6 blocks away.

I still haven't heard from the crank guy, I had hoped that since the crank had already been there 2 weeks when my parts came in that I was further up the que, but I think they took me to the back of the line again!

I was planning to drop the front subframe again when I install the engine, but now I'm thinking I may just go in from the top so I can save some work. There are advantages to doing it both ways so I may change my mind once the engine is built and ready to go back in....we'll see

 

I also may have found some headlight buckets at VB that will work, turns out they're for very early Sprites - 3 adjusters instead of two.

Just in case I went ahead and cleaned up the originals, they were coated heavily in some kind of thick undercoat that I could not begin to scrape off, so I got out my trusty heat gun and blasting that at the inside while I scraped the outside did the trick!

I have some new headlight harnesses that I can modify to work with the bulbs in the car, the wire colors wont be right but I'll tape or sheath over them anyway so it won't matter as long as they work properly.

Here's a before/after pic of the H/L buckets, these are still pretty rusty in places but I think if I have to I can get them cleaned up and serviceable.

 

Got the left side installed and wired up. Now I need to do the same on the right, then tie them together in the middle and its done....



The Innocenti interior came in today but the upholstery shop is closed for the holiday so I'll take it all up tomorrow.

 

This was the manifold as I took it off the car, you can see that it wasn't lined up to the ports at all, now it will be in line and stay in line.

 

Got tired of chasing electrical gremlins and ordered a new wiring harness for the Inno today. I kept finding problems and fixing them only to have something else quit working. I was surprised that anyone even HAD a wiring harness for it - complete and brandy new for about $350 shipped. It's on it's way now.....

 

Me too. Today I got an email from Minispares saying they didn't have one of the items from my Sunday order asking what I wanted to do - as the item was something I can get at the local Britparts store I told them just to go ahead and ship what they had, but the good news is that the delay means they can combine yesterdays order with Sunday's and as they're all small parts I won't have double shipping, saves me about $30. So, more delays but less money out of pocket. Now I won't expect to see parts till the middle of next week at the earliest.....

 

Wiring harness showed up today, on first exam it looks like it has all the right stuff, correct headlight ends (which I just redid) and all the right colored wires. I'm only planning to replace the front part as to do the rear I would have to pull down the headliner, at least on the left side since it's glued on at the edges.

Still waiting for my transmission parts on DHL, they say it will be here "by the end of the day" but I've seen them list me as out for delivery and still not show up. Bastiches…..

Edit: so they delivered while I was out and the bride forgot to tell me.. :-(

 

OK, the bushings will be reamed tomorrow at a friend's shop by one of his techs on his CNC machine, I can pick them up tomorrow afternoon, so that's good news.

In the meantime I'm working on the wiring harness - I got the entire front harness out of the car and it's even worse in the daylight than it looked in the car. Where the rear harness joins the front over by the wiper motor the wire ends are corroded and some of the insulation is broken in places, but Dan and I don't want to try and remove the headliner to fit the entire rear harness, so I will try and splice and repair what's there. The main part that was bad is the engine compartment and dash anyway....

If I can get the diff parts tomorrow I can start putting that back together this weekend, I hope there aren't any special shims I need to finish setting it up but you never know with new components till you start putting it together so you can measure things. I'm at east a month behind at this point, I really want to take it to the CMU 60 in early October, but I also want to get some miles on it first and make sure everything is right, plus Dan and I want to get it on the dyno along with his blue car and see how it does, and get it tuned out right.

More as it happens....

 

I found this cool bulkhead cover from a guy in Japan - the classic Mini scene is going really strong over there still, as Japan was a major importer of Minis in the 90's - and there is all kinds of cool Mini stuff available there if you know where to find it and who to ask. It's usually pretty spendy but very high quality



So while I have the main harness out I went ahead and fit the bulkhead cover - it's pretty simple. First I installed the foam seal in the machined groove on the back. Then I screwed the two halves together and put it up on the bulkhead so I could mark the holes. Once I drilled the holes I trial fit it and it fits perfectly. I think it looks great and it's bound to make things quieter compared to just having the hole open to the engine and carbs.

 

I'm working on the transmission today, and working thru all the inner bits to make sure they're assembled correctly - and work as they should.

On the early transmission cars they used a reverse light switch mounted on the front of the transmission, under the oil filter. I have that switch and everything I need to make it work except one thing, there is a small plunger that fits inside the detent spring that is pushed up by the detent plunger and activates the switch. I need that little rod that connects the plunger to the switch - or if someone can tell me the length and diameter I figure I can make one out of an old drill bit - but it needs to be the right length.

The plunger is at the bottom right of this picture....



after thinking it thru a bit I got out my old drill bits and found a 7/32" fit smoothly in the spring so after doing a bit of measuring and thinking about it I took a guess and cut one just over 1/2" long and ground the tip, then installed it and the switch and set up my ohm meter - it immediately squawked at me so I knew it was a bit too long. I took the bit back to the grinder and took it down to exactly 1/2" and tried it again......when I turned the ohm meter on it was quiet - so far so good. Now the real test, I pushed the link into reverse and it immediately squealed at me. Result! Now I know the reverse lights will work too, once hooked up. It's interesting that the wire ends in the new harness appear to be set up for a switch on the remote housing, but I've never seen one there - only on rod change gearboxes. So I may have to do a small mod on the harness to reach the switch on the front of the gearbox.

Pic of my switch, spring, plunger and detent

 

Ha! Thanks Dave.....

I mostly work on the later model rod change gearboxes, which really aren't all that different, just little things, mostly in the shift mechanism. It's all coming together slowly.....I need to go to the hardware store and see if I can get a couple of bolts and washers that I don't have.....I know they must have been in there when I took it apart but I sure can't find them now. They're nothing exotic at least.....

I still can't find that damn bulkhead insulation that I oh so carefully cut to fit.

 

Started with this, the remote shifter - hard to see in this pic but the shifter handle is coated in rust, not paint. The housing itself is dirty enough, but the insides are packed with rock hard grease (how? there are no zerk fittings, whatever grease is in there should have come from when it was built) and the shift rod was so stiff it would hardly move.



I got it all torn down and found the end that the shift ball locates to was completely loose. Also, there is an anti-rattle device - just a brass plunger that rides against the shift rod - but the fitting was absolutely tight in the housing and the corners completely rounded off. Nothing I had would get it loose, even a 6 point Snap On socket, so I cut a 1/2" nut in two and welded it to the part that was left, that way I could get it out (and back in again.)



Paint is drying so I won't be able to re-assemble it till tomorrow but it will certainly look like new - hopefully it will work like new too.

 

In order to sort it out I decided to go with the single carb and manifold - who knows, before I start it up I may change my mind



I did get the engine mounted into the engine stand and mostly hooked up, however I'm going to have to sort out the oil cooler situation before I can start it. Either I'll have a custom hose made to connect the block to the oil filter housing (probably) or have them make up two new hoses for the oil cooler and hope I get them the right length (ummm…….probably not) either way I need a fitting to match up the oil filter to the hose - that could be tricky....we'll see.



I tried to hook up the oil cooler to my green car just to sort out the hose lengths, but I could not get it even close to the right position to get a good measurement. The hoses on the coolers now are rock hard and weather cracked, so even if I could make it all reach they're not really usable. The MGB cooler that was in the Inno will not fit the green car at all, I don't know that I tried to fit the Inno oil cooler that I have as I can't get one of the hoses off, and the fittings don't match up. It's gong to take some thought to work this all out.