last car I promise...Mini

The restoration of my cars or just miscellaneous ramblings of mine.
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mikeyr
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last car I promise...Mini

Post by mikeyr »

ok, I have been quiet because well I play with cars too much...boats too much, guns too much and motorcycles WAY too much.

I recently sold the Ferrari and now playing with a Mini. No not the Maxi that is currently being sold and called a Mini, a real Mini. But I had to promise the family this would be the last car I play with until one of the Singer's is done, luckily the Mini is going quickly its wonderful being able to buy parts when you need them.

Pulled the motor from the bottom with the front sub-frame and all goodies attached, pics don't show it but rear sub-frame is also out now and both have been sand blasted and primed. Glass still has to come out and get the body soda blasted, then rust repair, paint, gearbox, motor, suspension and get it out of the way so the Singer can be my only priority for a while...lets see how long my promise that this is the last car lasts.
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1953 Singer 4ADT (sold), 1934 Singer 9 Le Mans, 1934 Singer 1 1/2 4-Seater Sports (sold), 2009 BMW K1300GT
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Re: last car I promise...Mini

Post by Peter McKercher »

Seems like procrastination to me.
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Re: last car I promise...Mini

Post by mikeyr »

my wife says I go through cars like most women go through purses and shoes...so its not procrastination, its a hobby thing.

Although the club sure could do more to keep me active in the Singer world, being a member of many clubs its amazing how easily they build "excitement" about the cars and make you want to work on them...but this is about cars so back to work on the Mini

And I still want a Moggie :) ( Morgan )
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Re: last car I promise...Mini

Post by Peter McKercher »

I guess excitement is not a sanctioned item.
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Re: last car I promise...Mini

Post by Mark Thompson »

Mike,
Not to change the subject, but .........
I saw in your opening statement that you said that you play with guns too much. I didn't think that was possible until I blew my right leg off Memorial Weekend! I was shooting a 75 year old Japanese 8mm Nambu when it misfired. The bullet entered my right leg on the outside about 4 inches above the knee and exited 2 inches above the ankle on the inside of my leg. The bullet traveled 22 inches through my leg and fell out on the ground beside me. I was alone on the gun range in my backyard, but fortunately my wife was at home and I had cell service which usually only works about 1/3 of the time. Praise god I am still alive. My right leg was amputated above the knee. I only spent three days in the hospital. I received my prosthesis after 8 weeks, 11 days ago and I am able to get around with a cane until I get my balance better. Life is good and I am counting my blessings which are many! I have adapted my Singer with hand controls for the gas and brake and am looking forward to test driving it. Be careful when you play with guns too much!

Best regards,
Mark Thompson
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Re: last car I promise...Mini

Post by mikeyr »

OUCH !!! that sounds painful and all from what some people consider a weak round. I figure it was a military round, it can't be that weak and your story proves it, but it still sounds awfully painful. I think I still have the dies to reload 8mm Nambu but they may have gone with the gun. I do try to be super careful, unlike the lucky ones like you who have a range in the backyard, I have to drive 20+ minutes to my range and I prefer to go during the week when I am alone up there with no cell coverage, the weekends get crazy at the range so I know I have to be extra careful when I am there alone.

Good luck with the Singer hand controls, it should be fun to drive it that way, but be careful I imagine its very different from what you are used to.

On the mini...I have to make a jig to hold the head on the mill when I tap it so working on other parts, have the rear suspension mostly powdercoated and new bushings ready to go, I will likely have the rear sub-frame done this week and hopefully get the car back early next week after soda blasting so I can start rust repair. All this time and work and its not even my car...son-in-law's car but its a mini, I can't resist working on it, i love these little cars.
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Re: last car I promise...Mini

Post by mikeyr »

I was asked what my progress is on the mini. I guess you guys want to work on my Singer. Engine and gearbox are done. Conversion from LHD to RHD is ready, on a Mini that is mostly buying new parts. New brakes and suspension parts are ready. So it's down to body work. Some rust repair first then a coat of paint and reassemble

Fist a pic of the poor Singer Le Mans looking unloved
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Re: last car I promise...Mini

Post by mikeyr »

So the Mini took a left turn at Albuquerque and went wild. The front end was cut off to make a flip front. There was a very little rust, I would actually call this car rust free there was so little rust, but as you can see in the above pictures posted earlier what little rust there was had gone through the body and left Swiss cheese.

So...lets sand blast it down to bare metal...
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Ok now we have clean bare metal, I didn't take a pic of the underside but we flipped her on the side and did her bottom also :D

This is only the primer coat, but its progress. Engine and gearbox are done and ready to go in. Suspension bits have been blasted and powder coated, most nuts/bolts have been cad plated (I used CopyCad this time around and liked it better than what I used on the LM), new brake lines are more or less bent and flared in the right places, some tweaking will be required as we place them in the car. Its beginning to look like a large Meccanno project. Still have to figure out the hinge process for the front-end so it can flip and give full access to the drivetrain, most people do a flip-front with a fiberglass front-end and there are kits for that, but my sheet metal is in too good a shape to throw away so I am going to engineer a hinge system for the sheet metal.
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Re: last car I promise...Mini

Post by Peter McKercher »

Excellent work Mike
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Re: last car I promise...Mini

Post by mikeyr »

ALL the welding is DONE, not a spec of rust anywhere !!! I can't believe how much rust this little car had. I have cut out and made enough patch panels to last me a lifetime, it feels like I could have built a new car from scratch. I can't believe that in a earlier post, I actually said the car was rust free, the more we dug, the more rust we found. And the Brits did a fine job of making areas completely inaccessible to actually create more rust. 100% not 99.9% but 100% of the car was taken down to bare metal.
Roll cage is done !!!
Motor is done !!!
Gearbox is done !!!
Sub-frames are done !!!
Suspension and brake parts are done !!!
Parts purchased and conversion from LHD to RHD done !!!

interior still has some design issues, son-in-law wants racing seat for driver with harness, with the roll cage there will be no back seat anymore, so not sure what kind of seat for my daughter, either original or racing. Dashboard design still needs to be figured out, he wants all new design.

I have done a ton of body work with lead and also hammer and dolly so exterior needs minor (very happy to say very minor) bondo work and then final color shoot, we have test assembled everything before finishing welding and priming so it should go VERY quick from here on out. It has taken longer than I wanted since there was more rust than we thought and son-in-law had paycheck issues, like needing to pay rent and buy food with his paycheck instead of Mini parts.

But with all the major components already finished and ready to go, its one big jigsaw puzzle ready to go together. I really hope to be back on my Le Mans THIS summer. Car goes on its side this weekend for final color coat on the bottom, then color the inside and start installation of sub-frames and roll cage. It should be on its own 4 wheels by end of month (Jan 2019 for the skeptics out there) and then wiring, plumbing, etc.

The only modification from a real Mini we have made so far, is cut off the front end (I really hated doing that to a Mark 1 1959 Mini, I REALLY hated doing that), its going to be a flip-front and still have some design issues on the front hinge, etc. to do since Mark II hinges wont work on the early Mini's we have to make our own so there will be some lathe and mill work for me, that actually sounds like a fun project.

Step 2 will be much later, son-in-law plans on making this his daily driver so he wants to put in a 199x's Honda motor/gearbox in for reliability and better freeway speeds, there is some model 199x Honda out there that the motor will fit and its been done before. To make that happen, we upgraded the brakes to the larger Cooper brakes already. We also added the second fuel tank that a Cooper had, so there will be some plumbing issues. That swap was another reason for the flip-front, make that swap easier someday. I personally think he should make it a E-car and get rid of the internal combustion engine completely, now that would be fun. But he spent over $1,500 rebuilding the 1275 motor and gearbox before he thought about the Honda swap, so that is later.
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Re: last car I promise...Mini

Post by mikeyr »

Cool, ALL the body work is done on the Mini, I plan on spraying the final color coat this Thanksgiving week and then its all the little details like fuel lines, wiring, brake ilnes...car will be on the road in a few months if not before end of year and then its back to my LM.

Thinking of re-powering the LM, what do you guys think of this for power ? That should work right ? I had no tailgaters on the way home with that in the back of the truck :)
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Re: last car I promise...Mini

Post by mikeyr »

COVID progress :)

After some time stalled, the Mini is back on the main track and my Singer's are happy to be next on the list. Don't shoot me ok...its not my car, its my son-in-laws car and he wanted a different motor, it hurt me badly to cut up a 59 MK1 Mini and put in a fuel injected Yamaha R1 motorcycle motor in, but its his car. It will be a sleeper, externally look like a simple Mini...90MPH in second gear with 4 more to go in the sequential gearbox.

Yeah, yeah, upgraded the brakes to Cooper brakes, full racing cage, racing seats and multi-point harness. I still have to paint the front clip and we still have to wire the car up, make brake lines but moving right along quickly now.
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Re: last car I promise...Mini

Post by ColinB »

Looks pretty amazing Mike and its nice to ring the changes. I have just 'gone over to the dark side' as Arthur Michell puts it by buying a LDH MG TD US import for £8000 which is complete but needs some work. I would have liked a Le Mans but they are getting unaffordable with people asking twice this price for incomplete cars with the wrong engines. The TD is NOVA registered and has been identified as a 1951 car by the MG Car Club.
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Re: last car I promise...Mini

Post by mikeyr »

So just to close this thread...Mini is GONE. Son-in-law took it home about a month ago and this time it seems to be sticking around his place, its been gone before but now all the little bugs have been worked out. We did go back to the 1275 A-Series took out the Yamaha R1 motor which was just too much for the street, its GONE and he is daily driving it to work.

I learned an awful lot doing the body work and painting, mid-job I switched to a Turbine paint system and almost went back to my compressor gun to finish, the front end was painted 3 times, first 2 I had major orange peel as the Turbine system has a steep learning curve, but now I am ready for the Singer paint. I wanted the Turbine since they use much less paint and have tremendously less overspray and I spray in my garage.
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My garage...you can see the Singer on the right side behind all the JUNK that is Mini left overs and will be going to his place any day now. My garage is a Singer shop again.
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