Hiatus

I've been taking a break from the Mini for the last month or so while I go through the process of buying my first home - hopefully I'll have the keys in my hand tomorrow! If all goes well, we (the Mini and I) will be all moved in and settled for August 1st. Until then, posting is going to be sparse.

Additionally, my Flickr Pro account (picture hosting site) is reverting back to a free account as of July 1 (instead of unlimited pictures, I will only be able to save 200). As much as I like to write, this blog would be pretty boring without pictures - so I'm also in the process of finding a new hosting site for all the blurry shots I'll hopefully be taking soon...


Stay tuned!

Restoration Day Four - WD-420

Continued deconstruction - this week I tackled stripping the engine bay.

I started with the wiring on the passenger side and removed anything bolted down along its path. This included the windshield fluid reservoir and tubes, parts of the steering mechanism, the clutch and gas lines (the previous owner must have filled the gas tank before he delivered the car - I had to wait about 20 minutes for it to drain into the large white cannister in the photo below), the passenger-side headlamp and casing and, finally, the plastic air intake tube.

I'm slowly developing my skills; getting better at remembering and judging the imperial sized tools, learning to "tap-and-turn" when removing stubborn or stripped screws and generally making some connections bewteen the work I'm doing and the functionality of the car.







Also, some good news - my dad has caught the Mini-bug again and may be acquiring his own classic Mini in the next few weeks! This means we may have a presentable car for the 50th Anniversary this year at Mini Meet North.

If all goes as planned, this also means the 1275 engine my dad picked up at Mr. Mini in March will be free to go into my Mini's engine bay. Vroom vroom! And of course, with more speed I'll need some serious stopping power so we're on the lookout for disc brakes for the front end.

There was also mention of some 7x13 rims


which would require the Sportspack wide wheel arches


This pleases me greatly as I love the chunky look and the wider arches will be perfect for the custom design I'm planning...

Bits!

I work overnights and have been trying to convince my employer (since they changed our schedule around eight months ago) that they need to give me my 4-day week back. I put through a proposal this week outlining all the benefits of not making me work 5 nights a week - added coverage for vacations and emergencies etc - unfortunately, the quick and polite reply was, "No."

This seriously screws with my plans for working on the Mini this summer; with only 2 days off a week, it makes it difficult to adjust my sleeping patterns to not only accomodate getting stuff done during daylight hours (appts, socializing), but also to allow enough time for me to drive the 5 hours (there and back) it takes to get to my dad's workshop.

So, while I try and figure out another way to convince the soulless capitalists it's worth their while to appease my 4-day work-week needs - here are some (blurry) pictures of the parts, panels and bits that my dad picked up last month at Mr Mini:

Driver's side front panel


Right floor panel


Gas A Just


Less blur, more bits!


Rad, totally.


Canuck bumper holder things


The support braces for the Canadian front bumper were an amazing find - these are original late 70s parts, still in the packaging. Although they didn't have a price marked on them, my father tossed them in with all the other stuff he was purchasing knowing that I'm dead set on keeping the car as Canadian as possible (even though he thinks the original bumpers are ugly and very un-mini).

When he took everything up to the counter to pay, the owner saw the bumper supports and told my dad he was one of only two people that had ever bothered to look at them. Apparently, over the last few years a man has come into the shop several times; every time he picks up the two supports and debates out loud whether they're worth the price, trying to elicit a discount. The owner has never waivered and the man always puts them back on the shelf and leaves without making a purchase.

Now that the store is going out of business, the man-who-wants-a-discount is sure to be back to finally buy the supports at the price he wants. So, just to have the pleasure of telling the man that they're gone - the owner gave them to my dad for free.

Restoration Day Three - Front Subframe

The weather has finally turned its face towards spring here - the lack of freezing rain, high winds and frozen fog (cold fog, btw, much harder to drive in than freezing rain), makes for a much less stressful drive to my father's place (2+hrs) to work on my Mini. Hopefully over the summer I'll be able to make more frequent trips, but it looks like it's going to be about a year before "Nacho" is on the road.

Yeah, I named my Mini "Nacho". Once the restoration is complete I have another name picked out, but for now this is Nacho Mini. As in, it's "not-your" Mini, it's mine. The final name won't be so cheesy.

This trip up I got my hands dirty. My father's machine shop business is now in full force and keeps him pretty busy, so while he works, I get my own "kid table" within yelling distance of him in the workshop. This also means I get to do all the grunt work needed before my dad helps again with the major work next winter.

I'm finding it amazing how quickly the hours go by while I'm trying to get 30 yr old rusted bolts out of their holes. And I'm learning at every step - leverage, torque, resistance...physics is phun!

Here are some exciting (and over-exposed, still working on taking decent pictures) shots of my work on the front subframe:

The front subframe - before:

And from the other side:

My tools of destruction:

Mid-destruction:

All apart:

And from the other side:

Mini Money

Back in October, when I saw the ad for my Mini, I didn't actually have any money to buy it (I'm pretty much perpetually broke - a situation that probably wouldn't change even if I had millions). A couple weeks before, my dad had come with me to look at another Mini that was twice the price and although we lost that one to someone quicker, my dad had agreed to help me secure a loan.

The day we looked at the first Mini, my dad was actually on the way to the airport to start work in Darfur for a few months so we couldn't work out any finances - I thought it could wait until he came back to look for another car. But, only a couple of weeks later I spotted my Mini and the price was just too good to pass up.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get in touch with my dad - his only contact was through e-mail and his satellite connection wasn't always reliable. I needed to know if he thought it was a "good buy" and I needed to sort out how to pay the seller, but the longer I had to wait, the more chance there was that someone would get the car before me.

Once I went to look at the Mini, I immediately fell in love and did not want to miss out on a second chance at owning one. I figured, even if I managed to buy it without my father's approval and it turned out to be horrible, I would still have the chance to work on the car and learn - and most importantly, I would be a MINI OWNER.

I waited as long as I could (three days, thankfully the seller was as interested in selling to someone who could appreciate the car as I was in owning it) to hear back from my dad but it was looking like I might lose it to someone with cash on hand.

Bemoaning my predicament over coffee with my friends, Andrew and Emilie, Andrew suddenly offered to loan me the money until I could work out the finances with my dad. I don't normally like to borrow large amounts, especially from friends, but goddamn, IT WAS FOR A MINI. I had the cash in my hand the next day, got it out to the seller and my Mini was delivered a few days later!

As if this wasn't enough AWESOME - they also gifted me with a digital camera so I could document the whole restoration process. They are the meat beneath my wings and I am forever in their debt. (But not literally, once my dad returned I was able to get a bank loan and pay them back.)

Here they are in all their zombie glory:

The Mighty Canadian Mini

Big thanks to Miguel P. for these scans - this is a late 70s brochure for the Canadian Mini:


Check out Miguel's website - www.minipassionmini.50megs.com/gb/

Restoration Day Two - Spark it Up

Well, I think most of my involvement with this restoration project will be in the documentation department. I had hoped to be able to be more hands-on, but lack of experience (and really, basic knowledge) would make the process drag on far longer than needed. Instead, I'm going to pay very close attention to the work that gets done by my father, ask loads and loads of questions, take pictures and then research as much as possible in the weeks between visits to the Mini.

My second visit to the workshop revealed that my dad had removed the engine and front subframe and started on the panels that need repair or replacement. The engine is still a mystery to me (even with all my reading, things don't tend to come together for me until I can get my hands on them) but I'm looking forward to taking it all apart, cleaning it and putting it back together. This day however, I witnessed the first deep cuts into the front end to remove a rusted panel - much more impressive than the previous stabbing.






Slideshow here!
After discussing our options for replacing the panels - should we order new ones? maybe get an entire new body shell? - we decided to go on a field trip; a local guy had two rusted-out Mini shells for $100/ea and there might be some salvageable front panels.

It was only a 20 minute drive and "Fred" was home when we arrived. He let us know one of the shells had been sold and unfortunately, after looking at the one that was left it had a front end we couldn't use. Fred mentioned that the person who bought the other shell was also local and he only needed it for the struts as he's reinforcing a custom Mini pick-up. He gave us instructions on where to find it (under the railway bridge, around the corner and look down the driveways on the right - the Mini shell is in the back of the guy's Ford pick-up and you should be able to see the back end above the cab where it's parked in the backyard) and we dropped by on our way back to my dad's to leave our contact info. If the guy only needs the struts, we could split the cost and grab the front-end panels we need.

Before we left Fred though, we were invited in to his workshop to check out his recently restored Mini:


Along with the Mini, Fred's outbuildings are also sheltering several vintage motorcycles, a few more Austins (Americas?), an old pick-up truck and a wide selection of meticulously organized and catalogued parts, trim, upholstery, tools and other various wonders.