Most liked posts in thread: So, Today This Happened.....

Yes a previous owner went to considerable expense to fit those front and rear, I'm not too sure how I feel about them......

I wonder if this is a Canadian market car...KM speedo, left drive and daylight running lights......

 

Well, sorta.....it does have 13" Rover wheels, but those sure aren't sportspack arches - I haven't figured out whose arches they are exactly, but I like them OK.

And thanks, wish I'd had it a few months ago when I went to MMW, but I'll have it for the next one I go to.

 

Sorry, I missed your question earlier, no those are Rover 13" wheels - I think. Either that or copies like those JBW sells......I have a set of those also.

I'll be taking it up to school to put it on the rack and do a few things - it needs the wheels balanced for sure, then I need to do a general inspection and see what all it needs before I take it out of town on our first classic Mini run in October.

I'm thinking seriously of pulling the engine and changing the final drive - that was one of the things I did on Buzz that really made the car more drivable for long distance runs. I'll go 3:1 instead of 2:76 this time, that was just a tiny bit too tall.

 

How I tell - Sportspack arches have little indentations at the top of the arch for the side marker light, and also pockets on the front for the bumper ends to fit into - these have neither.



Yesterday I took the car up to school and I'm happy to say I found no rust in the bottom of the car, sills, floors, boot etc are all solid.

I did find a leaking shift rod seal as expected but I also found evidence of some new parts - a new steering rack, outer CVs and tie rod ends. All good stuff, that.

While I had it on the rack I went ahead and balanced the front wheels, it had an irregular but strong shimmy in the front end and balancing the fronts only seemed to take care of 95% of it. I may take another run at them and see if I can smooth them out even further, but I'm pleased that's all it was.

Now I'm ready to send an order off for some fun parts for the suspension, and get a few things done to make it mine.

I've decided to change the diff ratio over the winter from the 3.44:1 to a 3.01:1, that should drop hiway revs about 800, so 70mph will be more like 3700 than the current 4500.

I also did a little sleuthing on the vin - turns out the car was a 998 originally. Who knows what else was changed? I wonder if it might have been RHD after all and somebody swapped it over?

Edit: more research indicates it was LHD from the factory. based on the vin

A friend swapped his 3 clock dash over to a center binnacle and gave me his three clock instrument pod, which had a "miles' speedo with almost exactly the same mileage as this one, but with magnolia faces on the instruments. I'll be putting those in as soon as I figure out how to reach the wing nuts that hold the wood dash in place! Then I won't have to do math every time I look at the speedo to figure out how fast I'm going! :biggrin5:

More as it happens.....

 

Turns out all the wing nuts (3 sets) were reachable from below or from the glovebox, so I got the gauges changed now.....came out great!



Also, these showed up today.....

 

Yep, full on coilovers for classic Minis...they were reasonably affordable, and I'm hoping that because of the extra spring length and progressive windings it will improve the ride quality too.....I also bought the adjustable arms and camber adjusters for the rear.

It's a bit of a job to change them, you have to remove the cones, and in the back you have to remove the gas tank to get at the top nut.....

 

I had those on Buzz, and they were an improvement over the rock hard rubber donuts that were in there, but I thought I'd give these a shot this time.......

 

So, it's been a while since I updated this thread, since I got the car it's been all over Kansas and Missouri, and I towed it to the San Antonio area this past March and did about 600 miles running around the Texas Hill Country.



Of course doing that meant installing a trailer hitch and wiring on my Clubby too.

I was glad I changed out the radiator for an Ebay Chinesium one - worked perfectly and no more watching to see if the temp gauge is going to start climbing.

My rear windows would not stay open so I cut a couple short pieces if fuel hose - fit right into the brackets perfectly and the windows stay open now.



I also added a custom made Euro rear lic plate in the Kansas livery with the correct registration numbers on it - I don't know if the constabulary will appreciate it but so far no issues....

I did not change the final drive, which is why I flat towed it to Texas, plus too and also driving my '09 Clubby with A/C made the trip down and back SO much easier and more comfortable!

I have done a ton of work on the car - as is always the case when you get ready to do one thing you find 10 more that either need doing desperately or become "while I'm in there" repairs. For example, when I removed the upper control arms to get the front rubber donut springs out I found the bearings and shafts completely done in, fortunately I anticipated this and had ordered repair kits when I got the rest of the parts. I also had to replace all the ball joints too.









So, pretty much all new everythings up front, adjustable tie bars and lower control arms with all new bushings, rebuilt the upper control arms, put in the new coilover shock brackets and installed the coilovers, then spent a lot of time setting ride height and alignment.



In the rear, you have to remove the fuel tank in order to get to the top shock mount on the left, and while I had it out and drained I replaced the sending unit that had an intermittent fault. The new one works perfectly - it's absolutely accurate when it's full and when empty - the rest is always more of an estimate!



I installed all the new coilovers and took it to school for an alignment but the car did not drive "right", it wasn't bad but it was just a bit twitchy on turn in. I left it alone and took it to Texas, but when I got back I decided to tear down the rear suspension control arms and sure enough, I found the bearings back there just as bad or worse as the fronts.









While I was in there (heard that before?) I rebuilt the brakes, as I found a weeping wheels cylinder had contaminated the left rear shoes, cleaned and painted everything and once together the car handles normally again. I also replaced the rear wheel bearings and seals.

I also put on 4 new tires as the ones on the car were weather cracked.

Meanwhile, I had the clutch slave cylinder fail so a new one of those went in too.



Inside, I replaced the 3 clocks (speedo, tach , fuel/temp) with the Magnolia faced set in MPH, and added three new gauges, a voltmeter, clock and oil pressure gauge.



Adding the voltmeter told me the alternator was not performing correctly, so a new one was installed too. I also added an extra 4 fuse box to support the extra equipment and load, and a double power socket for my Garmin and dash cam.

I forgot to mention that when I did the front end I also put on new pads and rotors and replaced the wheel bearings.

since all this the car has been pretty dead reliable, it starts every time and seems to run really well...especially now that the alternator is keeping the battery fully charged.

I still have a few things I'd like to do like pull the heater and put fresh foam on the flap so it doesn't rattle, but right now I'm just having fun driving it - that can wait.

The next thing I did was rebuild the foam in the driver's seat - I found a place locally that had the correct density foam and bought some chunks, then spent a day with the electric carving knife shaping it to match the old. It was a bit of a job but the results we so worth it! However I decided the passenger seat was OK.



I wish I had done the differential, but oh well......

One last thing.....I installed a set of new Moulton Smooth a Rides rubber springs on a friend's car and now I'm totally jealous of his car - it rides so well, smooth as can be and handles sharp too. My coilovers are a bit stiff for my taste and I'm seriously considering taking them off and going with these cones. I can recover some of my cost on the coilovers by reselling them but I think the ride improvement might be worth it.

If anyone needs/wants a set of Pro Tech coilovers with only a couple thousand miles on them, sing out.