Mk 1 Project Zippy. Looking Like a Car.

[MrBounce]

Apologies to everyone who keeps tabs on this project - I have been a busy boy and haven't had much time for the garage. Shame on me.

There have been bits of engine sitting on the bench for a while now and it is time I did something with them. So I thought to myself: "What will an engineering shop need to see?" I have the block (with big-ends attached), crank, old bearings to determine size, pistons, rods, bare head, and the flywheel and backplate. I loaded these heavy bits of metal into my trusty Bora's boot (big enough to swallow 8, possibly even 10 12" wheels with tyres so no problem with this lot!) and am about to head off to a couple of engineering shops to get some quotes; the bores look good but I am no expert. I'll get some idea of the cost of a new set of pistons (next size up if needed) with a higher compression, full balancing, possibly lighten the flywheel and backplate with all new bearings and a much modified version of my head. Then I will start saving. Eek...

I want to recondition the Mistral alloys (still after a centre cap to replace the missing one as I only have 3...) but to do this I needed to make a frame to move the shell around on (this will probably made in due course) or buy some more axle stands. Or get myself another set of wheels. Thanks to a very helpful user on The Mini Forum (Cheers Matt!) I was able to get hold of a set of 4 steel wheels and tyres for the grand total of nothing. Nada. £0. Christmas has come early! So the alloys were whipped off and replaced with the steelies. I'll get the tyres taken off then have a look at getting all the paint and dirt off the alloys before painting. I am thinking black/polished rim to be a good contrast to the colour I am thinking of painting the car (Orange)... Any other suggestions?

Block on bench



Crank which looks good generally - I am hoping that it will need nothing more than a polish.



The very standard cylinder head. This will not look like this by the time I'm done with it. Expect bigger valves and porting.



Standard size low compression pistons. Not long for this world...



Old bearing shells and cam followers - they were just in the same box - and there are 4 more followers and plenty more bearing shells!



Flywheel and backplate. Time to lighten???



Free steelies!!



Alloys now off the car awaiting removal of the tyres.



Looking like a proper project now with dirty steels...

[MrBounce]

Well, off I trotted on Friday to see the local Engineering Shop and what I came across was a bit of a shock. It had closed down. There was no sign of any machinery inside, no cars in the carpark and the side door had been kicked in. It was out in the sticks so am unsure whether that was part of their downfall. There was nothing on their website about relocation, so I guess it was curtains for them. Sign of the times I guess

Engineering shop take 2: Went to Clacton and popped into a small, family-run engineering shop I have used before. They did an excellent job making my old Mayfair head Unleaded-ready about 12 years ago, they've been going for 43 years plus I went to the same junior school as the guy who now does most of the work (his father who started the business appears to have taken a back seat). They have taken the block and crank to have a decent measure up and will give me a quote next week. They said the block may just need a hone but there were rust marks that might not come out. For the sake of a few quid I think I'll go for a rebore anyway as the pistons will be replaced as a matter of course; the ones I have are of unknown quality and are low-compression. Will keep you posted.

[MrBounce]

Scratch that last comment. In my haste to get some quotes I didn't do my research properly. The aforementioned engineering shop that had "gone" had simply moved to a different location. Oops...

I am glad of this as they're very good from what I've heard. So they will at least get some of my work as they do their balancing on site, unlike the shop that has the block and crank at the moment.

[MrBounce]

Ok, so now the Christmas holidays and the delights of all that came with it (a full set of braided brake & clutch hoses plus a fuse box for the Midas, 108 Jaffa Cakes and the Novovirus) are now over it was time to get back into the garage.

I am going to be using the older, non-verto style of clutch but with A+ drop gears; this will enable me to not have to faff about changing the first motion gearwheel to suit the A-series drops. I have both the A-series and the A+ flywheel housings; and yes of course there was a problem. It looked like the A+ housing had been repaired with chemical metal or similar around where the starter motor sits. A light tap with MC Hammer and my fears were realised. It fell to bits and is therefore useless. I have another A+ housing (for scrap), which has also broken in the same area. Is this a common problem?

So I have two options open to me. 1) Change the gearbox first motion gearwheel (not tempting I must be honest) or 2) Get another A+ housing. My good friend Shaun seems to think he has one in his garage. I will wait and see...

Once I had spent about 3 hours tidying and moving stuff around the garage (it was long overdue believe me!) I had a quick look at the nearside rear drum; I wasn't able to get round there before cleaning up so I was hoping that it wasn't going to be too bad. The adjuster was seized solid and the amount of rust on the drum and surrounding area did not fill me with confidence. However, some WD40 and a bit of wiggling with the brake spanner soon had it freed off and the screws once again came out easily. There was evidence of copious quantities of Copperslip grease in there so someone had been there before me! No obvious leakage and also the shoes looked pretty new. I wonder if previous owner Andy had done one side before calling it a day on the project? The rear brakes will be completely rebuilt anyway, so provided everything else comes apart easily enough (ha ha! ) I do not envisage further rear brake issues.

Broken flywheel housing with chemical metal bodge.



...which now resides with its mate outside.



Loads of rust!



Seized adjuster, amongst other things...



Shoes out, lots of meat on them. Had they even been used in anger?



Christmas Prezzies!

[All That Glisters]

I was once removing the flywheel and my brother in law was helping, using a hefty size hammer he wellied the flywheel through the starter motor hole and (as you've already guessed) he bashed the casing and snapped a bit off. I thought that this was a one off but from your experience I bet that it happens quite a lot

[MrBounce]

I have to admit that I am starting to get annoyed with this project. Seemingly simple things can really get on your nerves and make you question why you're doing it. Enjoyment? It doesn't really seem so at the moment...

I managed to get down to the tyre place (X-Spurt tyres in Ipswich - fantastic guys and reasonable too) who took the tyres off my 5 Mistrals. I am glad I wasn't planning on using these tyres: 3 had very visible cracks and according to the dates on them the youngest was 14 years old. The spare (an ancient Michelin which also had an inner tube) was 22 years old! They all fitted easily into my trusty Bora's boot. Unfortunately it's a VW, and not a Maserati...

I received a nice parcel from Bilt-Hamber which contained some of their De-ox-C rust remover and also some of their De-ox Gel for those things too big to go into a bucket. It was this I was going to use for the petrol tank. So out came the wire brush and I did the final once over before wipedown and wash which you need to do before application. The tank leaks. Tipping it on to its side showed it dribbled out by the seam. I am not one to do a bodge on a petrol tank, so it will need to be replaced. Mini Van/Pick-up/Estate tanks aren't cheap new (£110 +) so I will be on the lookout for a secondhand one once funds allow. B****cks!

To try to calm me down I mixed up 10 litres of Deox-C and threw in a load of stuff that has rust on it to see what happens. This included my cylinder head, which is in a bit of a poor state with loads of rust in the thermostat area. This head is either going to be highly modified (it's a standard Metro 12G940) or not used if I find a half decent head at a very decent price so I don't mind experimenting with it.

I also thought I needed to start stripping the final part of the interior, namely the door cards. Off came the window winder and the broken door pull. I really don't like these so may look into a different way of pulling the door shut when it gets rebuilt. The door pocket came off with no issues at all. Wow! That left the 5 screws on the door card itself. The first 4 were no trouble at all with a little persuasion. But of course, there's always one. The bottom front screw would not move and started to chew up. I first thought I would try drilling it, but then remembered just how tough this had been before. Out came the Dremel and I ground a fresh slot in the screw for a flat-bladed screwdriver. Thankfully this worked and I carefully wound the screw out.

What I found underneath was pretty much as I expected. A little bit corroded here and there, with some sort of nasty moss growing in the window channels; a legacy of the car standing in the damp for 11 years. I will drill out the rivets on the rusty plate and see if it is salvageable. If not, I'll simply make another, probably out of aluminium. Will write more when I feel less annoyed...

Wheels in boot



Leaking tank. Whoop-di-doo.



Tub of De-ox-C with brackets and a head de-rusting overnight.



Mr Door Panel, it is time for you to be removed!



Broken Door Strap with enormous screws



Not-too-shabby door pocket



Poxy screw, which came out after "modification"



Plastic covering, held on with very powdery gaffa tape.



...and the rusty stuff underneath. Yay...

[Hans Efde]

Yep, sounds like the usual rebuild on this forum. Lots of Valerian pills might help. And I have a punching bag in my garage if something like that occurs to me.

[Rich]

Rather than binning the tank I'd recommend the Frost tank seal kit, you've already de-rusted it internally. Paint the outside with rustoleum or similar and you'll never have to worry about the tank again.

[MrBounce]

Everyone has good days, and everyone has bad days. Guess which one I have had? I have spent an afternoon in the Manroom and it has been one of frustration. Thought I would tidy up some of the last little bits in the interior before getting set to take the doors off and glass out. The Deox-C rust remover bath had worked very well on the small items I had immersed in it. The Y-piece from my LCB was somewhat brown, and after a soak and a scrub it really did remove most of it. More severe scrubbing would have probably removed it all. Impressive stuff.

There were other issues to contend with in the interior however. The front subframe was originally the older, solidly mounted twin-bolt item (which had a Cooper S engine attached to it), but this had been removed and after some minor surgery, a newer single bolt item had been mounted in its place. The original floor bolts had been left in place as they are in a different place, a couple of inches further back on the floorpan. And because they'd been left in place, they had got damp over the 11 years of standing around. Damp = rust. Yup, no longer recognisable as bolts and washers, they had become a small mound of rust-covered metal. No problem, I thought, and brought in the Dremel. This time however, I was thwarted. The cutting discs are very thin and were no match for the seemingly huge amounts of crud that had accumulated over the decade or so rusting away. After I had broken my fourth cutting disc, I thought I would try the angle grinder. I only had a grinding disc though, and quickly realised that this would do no more than set the car on fire with the extended use I would need to grind the bolts down. I left them alone and will come back to them with an alternative plan of action, by cutting them off from the bottom up once I get the car in the air.

After a generous soaking in WD-40, I managed to remove the rather knackered handbrake lever and the rear cable that attaches to it, which also shed a vast amount of rusty nastiness all over the interior. It doesn't look like a Mini cable - I will have to check in the build manual to find out what it is from. There were also the bolts attaching the seatbelt stalks, which looked like they had captive nuts on plates underneath. I managed to get them halfway out then of course said "captive" nuts were no longer captive. Without an assistant to hand, getting uder the car and in the car simultaneously is impossible so once again I will wait until I can get underneath easily. I do have a plan for this which will be revealed in due course.

I did have a quick look underneath whilst looking to see how to remove the actual seatbelts themselves, which looks nigh on impossible unless you've got a very strange shaped spanner. I got Mr Screwdriver out and had a good poke at the rear beam. It seems to be in fairly good nick, which probably means it'll fall to bits when I get it off the car...

One day this car will have no rusty bolts or screws on it and will be being rebuilt instead of stripped down... I think I will leave it for now and ignore it for a week. It is annoying me for silly reasons. Maybe I should have set it on fire...

Rusty bits now not so rusty...



Rust lumps on the floor back from the "new" subframe bolts. Poly mounts showing through!



Not much better, and you can just about see the remains of all the broken cutting discs.



Finally got the handbrake cable off, which shed rust everywhere.



...and the lever finally came off, after two of the toughest, rustiest nuts on the car (which still resemble nuts...)

[Stuart]

The front part of the handbrake cable is shorter than a standard mini one by about 3" I think roughly.