Most liked posts in thread: MINI Max has a new little brother, Buzz

Met some fascinating MOMO's along the way, broke bread, did a little wrenching......

 

Mid Ohio Mini Owners?

Thanks for the link to all the great pics, Crashton!

Yeah, it left one of these in my garage last night too.....sorry bout that, Metalman!

 

<Sighs>..........unfortunately my carb ministrations did little to nothing to quell Buzz' bad vibrations, I still have more work to do. to that end I'm going to pull the motor, while I have it out I'll do a little spiffing up of the engine bay, do some wiring repairs and upgrades, fix the oil leaks (more on that in a minute), clean and paint the engine (I may pull the head and have hardened seats installed while I have it out so it can run on unleaded, right now I'm just adding lead substitute) and in general get him ready for the East meets West event this summer in Milwaukee.

But today was headlight day.

The lights worked just fine, but they were English lights and they pointed the wrong way so to speak, so I bought some regular halogen sealed beams to replace them. I also noticed the left headlight bucket was completely rotted out, so I bought two new plastic ones designed to add sealed beams to Euro cars.

First I had to drill out the rivets to get the old bucket out....



The left bucket was rotted out....



I made up some new headlight harnesses as the ones in the buckets didn't look too good.....then installed the bucket with stainless screws and speed clips.



BTW, Victoria British has these exact same bucket kits $10 a piece cheaper than the Mini parts places, just sayin.....



Then it was lather, rinse, repeat on the other side - that bucket was OK, but you need some other parts to use the US sealed beams, these plastic bucket kits were an easy way to do the changeover.



The first time I lit them up the right one was far less bright than the left, but it turned out to be a poor ground - there's a lesson there - if you have dim lights, always check the ground connection first!

The driving lights are wired into the high beam circuit, they add a lot of light on those dark country roads, and my tired old eyes need all the help they can get!

 

Alrighty then, I managed to get the oil pump feed pipe and strainer out of the sump at last. all I had to do was remove the pinion gear retainer so I could release the inner shaft from the laygear. Once that was out I carefully maneuvered the laygear out of the box, then I had room to knock back the lock tabs on the strainer bracket, and once the bracket was off I wrangled the strainer out of there too. Then it was just a matter of putting it all back. It was good to see the laygear shaft and bearings were in really good shape so I won't have to do anything to the gearbox innards.
The new pipe goes into the left section in this pic, so I won't have to go thru any of these gymnastics to install it.

 

Today was a day for more cleaning and painting of the pieces parts, today it was the left axle, rotor and hub.....the right will have to wait till I get another opportunity to use the bead blaster at school - I can't use it during class time as the students are using it.



Out of the bead blaster and into the paint booth, which is a stool out in the back yard with a tarp draped over it. It's a challenge painting today as we've had some t-storms roll thru and it's a bit breezy - I just wait till the wind dies for a minute and hit it quick!



I'm using a brand new can of paint I found in the basement, only trouble is I bought that can when I was doing the rustoration on my old Jag - 20 years ago! - it still works perfectly tho!

Rotor came out nice too.....but no comments about my tape job, it's a brake rotor, the paint probably won't last more than a couple of months anyway!

 

Success! I found one of those arcane, backwoods tiny little suppliers that the UK seems to be full of and they have my rings ins stock, for a very reasonable $$$$

Now all I have to do is figure out how to process the order, I think their website is as old as the company!

Anyway, if you ever need engine parts for something weird, old and British, these seem to be "the guys"

Home - FW Thornton Wellington - Vintage Engine Parts

A brief history... FWT was established in 1922 in Wellington, Shropshire (UK). The company originally traded in a varied array of motor factor components including axle shafts, wheels, pinions, pulley blocks and road springs. In 1939 FWT moved to the Wyle Cop premises in Shrewsbury where we remained until December 2012. After the War, FWT diversified into engine components. John Thornton joined the business in 1948 and remains with the company today.

Please check out our new specialist website for motorcycle pistons from the early 1900's up to the 1980's.

Brands we sell include Hepolite, Glacier, Vandervell, AE, Payen, Wellworthy, ACL, KS, Mahle, TRW, JP, PHC and FP Diesels

The most popular vehicles we supply parts for include
Austin, Morris, Triumph, MG, Ford, Rolls Royce, Aston Martin, Jaguar, Bentley, Lister, Petter, AEC, Bedford, Gardner, Renault and Fiat.


Now that I have the rings sourced, I can go ahead with the orders for all the other bits and bobs and gears and such that I need. The ol bank balance is going to take a major hit.

 

A French car?



Or maybe you meant a "Twini"?

Anyway, today was time to get my red on.....

 

Slow but steady.....

The best way to ensure that you finish a project like this is to do something everyday, even if it's something small. There will be setbacks, parts that don't fit or get lost or things you find out later that you need and have to wait for, but in the end it will get done.

Yesterday I ordered some SS plugs and screws to fill in the extra spots that the Sprite block has and the Mini block doesn't. They should be here tomorrow.
McMaster Carr is the best place for stuff like this......

 

Today I got the paint sorted out for the firewall.....I posted a pick of Buzz on an English Clubman Estate Facebook page and someone in the club had one the same color and gave me the code. After trying for two weeks to get the paint code in the end it didn't matter as they couldn't make me up a spray can based on the formula alone. The only formula that they could mix was for a two pack, where you have to mix the color and hardener right before you spray them, so no way to make me up a spray can. Instead, I took the hood down to the paint store, they scanned it and made me up a pint. If I decide to spray it they'll put it in a spray can for $10, but right now I'm planning just to brush it on, since almost everything I'm painting is behind the subframe or other parts and barely shows.



Next I got word that all my parts have shipped and should be here by Friday, so then I can really get going on the re-assembly. To that end I spent about two hours this afternoon running a tap into about 100 holes in the block to make sure all the threads were clean so I can get accurate torque and good sealing when it goes back together.



With school ending, spring yard work and parts coming in, I am really going to be busy the next few weeks!

 

A few more parts have arrived.....

Springs and Hi-Lo's......came in thru Houston of all places.

 

Today was a day for catching up on the neglected "Honey do's", such as mowing, trimming, cleaning, vacuuming, laundry etc. I did manage to get in an hour or so at the local Micro car show, and I did a little more parts cleaning on Buzz. I also got his front shocks repainted.

One of the frustrating things the Artful Bodger did was brush paint some primer and paint under the fenders, and while he was at it he got it all over everywhere - the shocks, suspension bits, the fresh air tubes that run at the top of the inner fenders and so on, I've spent a lot of time removing those drips, splatters and gobs off of everything - it's not that I'm OCD, it's just that unlike Edd China, I can't put dirty, greasy, oversprayed, goobed up parts back on a car...as long as they're off the car I might as well give them a bit of sprucing up.

I'm spending a lot of time money and paint on sprucing......:blush2:

DHL left me a message that they will be delivering tomorrow, so that's good news. I just wish they could give me some indication as to when, so I don't have to sit here all day waiting for them. The last three deliveries were all pretty late in the afternoon, but you watch - if I run an errand in the morning, that's when they'll come and I'll have to wait yet another day!

 

The Strombergs actually work fine, but the rebuild kits were getting really expensive and a little hard to find, especially the hot temp valves and idle diaphragms and such.....the engine seems much smoother on the SU's and I know everything about how to work on them....

Today I started working on the insulation that will fit against the firewall, had to cut a number of holes and slits in all the right places, I only really missed the mark on one, and it will be hidden by the wiper motor. I already like the look, tho I still have some fitting and some more cuts to make to route everything where it needs to go....

I doubt it will make the tiniest bit of difference to the noise level, but it hides the firewall nicely and cleans up the look - plus my 62 Cooper S had it, so I wanted it on Buzz.



Like this one does....

 

At some point in time you just have to say "that's good enough" and shoot some paint on it.......primer first. Tomorrow I'll sand it out with some 600, and hopefully get the color on it.

 

Made a little more progress today.....

Got the rear springs and hi-lo's installed, now that I know which ones go where....I sent an email off last night to the place in England that supplied them to me and I had a response in my inbox this AM when I got up explaining how to tell which goes where. Would have been nice if they included that info in the box, but live and learn. My supposition proved correct, and they went in fairly painlessly. I don't have them set yet, that will wait till I have the car on the alignment rack but I'm definitely going to raise it up a bit. .....while it may look cool dragging the ground, when you only have about 3" of suspension travel to begin with, taking most of that away really makes the ride harsh.



I also got the new final drive gear installed onto the diff carrier, but the pinion gear will require a bit of modification of the bearing support before I can install it. The new pinion is quite a bit bigger in diameter, so you have to relieve the housing a little to make room for it. Not a big deal, a little time with a die grinder will take care of it. Once that's done I can finish assembling the whole transmission and there'll be another thing off my list. Still many, many things to go tho....

 

Of course......I take it you noticed the red trailing arms and such? :blush2:

Yeah....just not right now, too many things need to get done in the next two weeks to add yet another project!

But yes, I probably will drop the rear subframe and paint and clean up and such back there too at some point.

PS A buddy was over today with his classic and spotted the errant transmission detent ball right away! I didn't see it even when he pointed at it! I never would have found it, but I guess now I have a spare.