Mk 1 Project Zippy. Looking Like a Car.

[MrBounce]

I stayed away from the garage for a few days to think about the top rail. Am still thinking... Went I went back in I realised I needed to clear up the workbench (again) as it was such a state. This meant finishing off rebuilding the carb, which I had put to one side when I had my bearing issues. When I took it apart, I had painstakingly taken photos of where the springs were. Since then, we have changed computers and I cannot find where the file is. So after an SOS call to the Mini Forum, a very kind chap provided me with some pics (Thanks Stu!).

As the engine isn't a massive state of tune, I haven't done anything special to the carb other than clean the innards and use a service pack as I did not know its previous life. Given the state of the rest of the engine, I reckon it'd been sat in a box for several years. I have replaced the needle with a BDL item as the engine is a very similar state of tune to the MG Metro - it should be a good starting point. The outside is not particularly shiny - in fact it's a bit grubby & pitted but I don't really mind - the insides are beautiful. This car has been built to use, not show, and spending several hours polishing bits won't make it go any faster - 'tis a functional piece of kit! Now all I need to do is fit it to the manifold and chuck on throttle and choke cables. Success!

Slowly going back together with new BDL needle (Apologies for rubbish photo).



New throttle disc screws applied and split. I didn't want bits of the old ones going down the inlet...



Carb is finished, if a bit scruffy. Really nice inside though!!

[MrBounce]

Had a pretty busy weekend so haven't had much garage time. I have however managed to grab an hour or so and started on a couple of small jobs. The abutment bracket for the carb (and the spacer) were pretty disgusting having sat in a box with other bits for quite a while. I have given them both a clean up and also a coat of primer. I just had enough to do 2 coats and the primer ran out. Got my money's worth out of that can...

I also had a look at the heater valve that I'd got from Guessworks on eBay (cheers John!). The valve itself works perfectly - it just had a bit of surface rust and fine covering of radiator silt on the inside. I split the two bits and cleaned up the metal using a wire brush. There are a couple of pockmarks from the surface rust so a quick blow-over with some satin black and a smear of grease should keep it in fine order. The valve itself will go in with the nest load of washing up. Plastic parts always seem to respond well to warm soapy water! More soon.

Abutment plate and spacer in primer. Platinum silver coat to follow.



Heater valve in its component parts - a bit rusty and dirty.



Valve mechanism cleaned up. Platinum silver or satin black? Hmmm...

[Geoff Butcher]

Hi, Bouncy, will you be going to Stoneleigh in it?

[MrBounce]

Unless I win the lottery Geoff, no...

Back to garage and a few more little jobs done. It doesn't look much but it's the little things take time. The carb is now finished and has been put "together" with the inlet manifold, spacer and abutment plate for safe keeping. I have sprayed the metal part of the heater valve (no pictures yet) and have also primed and sprayed the spreader plates I made for the front subframe rear mounts. I also took the time to paint my front hubs. I had put them to one side ages ago meaning to do it and never got round to it. There was also a balljoint that I wasn't 100% happy with so I re-shimmed it and now feel satisfied. The hubs themselves are not perfect but anything is better than the rusty brown they were!

Last of all I have grabbed the driver's door in order to recondition the window winding mechanism and door locks. I will leave the picture of it to amuse everyone. It's a state, and this is the good one...

Carb is finished all bar cables and gaskets.



Spreader plates primed...



...and painted.

[MrBounce]

Hubs painted and looking a bit more presentable.



Driver's door internals. Not looking too good at the moment...

[MrBounce]

A quick update as I had an hour or two after work this evening. The driver's door needed to be stripped and the first thing I needed to do was to release the window. I used the tried and trusted method of jamming the glass with a block of wood whilst winding the winder down to take the channel off the glass. Some hope. Seized solid. So out came the WD40 and a small hammer. A few taps with a flat blade screwdriver got it moving and it eventually popped off. I will be removing the frame eventually as I will need to replace the window seals but this may take some time so don't hold your breath!!

I then had to remove the plate which holds all the winding mechanism. This was held in place by about a dozen rivets. A few minutes with a drill and they were all out although they did fight a bit. I unhooked the door release mechanism and then withdrew the plate and the window winding gubbins. Unsurprisingly, the winder mechanism was covered in surface rust (as was the plate). I cleaned up the winder mechanism using the wire brush attachment on the angle grinder, masked off the greasy areas and gave it a coat of primer. I shall make sure it looks a lot better when it goes back in.

I am not sure whether to de-rust the plate or make a new one yet; there's only one section of it which looks horrid. However I don't have much steel and if I can get away without making it all the better. On the other hand, the passenger side plate is virtually see-through in places so I might do this one as practice for the other...

Channel removed. I had to hammer it off.



All rivets drilled out, plate removed.



Winder mechanism cleaned, masked and primed.

[MrBounce]

Today I have mostly been playing with metal plates. First job was to see a) how bad the rust was and b) if it didn't appear to be too bad, I should try to remove it. First job? Out with the angle grinder and wire brush and I cleaned up the plate as best as I could. Although the plate looked quite bad, it appeared that the majority was surface rust. A few minutes' judicious use of the loudest tool I have and most was gone, and seemingly only a couple of minor pinholes had shown themselves. Perhaps I was going to be lucky? The next tool in my box was a chemical-based one - Bilt-Hamber's De-Ox gel. I only have one word for this stuff - astonishing. I brushed it on, left it for half an hour and then used a hand-held wire brush to agitate it all into a horrid brown sludge. This is then wiped off and viola! The rust has disappeared. Sadly it also revealed more pinholes and pockmarks than I could shake a stick at.

I am currently looking into places to get a decent amount of steel for as little money as possible. I guess it's cardboard template time... To calm myself I gave the winder assembly a coating of satin black which made it look all pretty.

Rusty. Here's hoping I can make it look a little more useable.



Potentially still useable - time for De-ox gel to really make sure!



Gel on. It really is amazing stuff.

[MrBounce]

Most of the rust just wiped off after agitation. Still some left, but it had told me all I needed to know...



...that holes like this are too bad to ignore. It's template time. Pass the new steel...



Still, at least the winder mechanism looks good now!

[MrBounce]

Just a quick update tonight. I've finally got back in there and have finished repairing the door plate. I decided that the easiest thing to do was to cut off the rusty section, create a new one out of sheet steel then attach it. I chose to rivet it as a) it is really easy and b) I wanted to try my new rivet gun. I made up a template out of a Shreddies box, then cut what remaining steel I had to size. Then it was a simple matter of bending it in the right places, clamping it and drilling the holes for the rivets and then using the rivet gun to fuse them together. I then gave it a covering of the nearest rattle can to hand, which was stonechip paint. That should make sure there won't be a repeat of such corrosion.

Cardboard template.



Roughly bent to shape.



Riveted on and stonechipped.

[MrBounce]

The Manroom has been in a bit of a state recently and I have the battle scars to prove it as I've been falling over stuff. I spent the entire morning today tidying it up - I pushed the Midas out on to the driveway so I could have more room to play with and it is now a much happier place to be. So much so that it was time to crack on with the doors. The frames needed to come off as it is the only way to get the glass out short of smashing it. I REALLY need to change the channel rubbers and all the other window seals as they're so rotten - not a problem really, but the state of them is quite comical.

First thing was first was to remove the 7 screws holding the frame to the door. 2 of them go through each frame upright with 3 securing the end piece and 2 through the front edge of the top of the door beneath the quarterlight. These were horrible on the driver's door, and I have ended up bending the frame over these as they simply would not shift. Nothing a bit of hammer work won't cure. The others were all fine, with the exception of the screw through the upright near the rear of the door. I had to use an impact driver on this one in conjunction with some WD40. Didn't take too long though as I like hitting things with a hammer. The frame then came off with no real issues, and this was followed by the lock, latch and handle mechanisms. All easy!

The other side was next up. Firstly I drilled out all the rivets on the winder plates (the main one looked horrible!) and removed all the window winder gubbins and the door pull. I then moved on to the frame. The front screws were a struggle - I resorted to Dremel-ing a slot in them - the heat from this allowed the fibreglass to release its grip enough to let them turn. The back 3 again were no issue but the rearmost upright screw was a proper bar steward. Of course the head was just chewed enough so the impact driver wouldn't work and you could not get the Dremel in there to cut it off. I eventually released it using a very small pair of Molegrips, which took forever because I could only move it about an eighth of a turn at a time. Eventually it gave up and the frame parted company with the door.

I cut the rusty bit off the door plate and once again repeated the process of making a replacement part, riveting it on. I then hung it up and gave it a coat of stonechip. Am feeling good!

Frame finally off driver's door.



Handle and locking mechanism out.



Frame ready for refurbishing.