Kate and I had a ball at the 750MC awards dinner, last weekend which meant that garage time was somewhat curtailed, as we hopped in the car quite early on Saturday and headed off for a night on the tiles. 
Like the Autosport show marks the start of the new season and re-fires the enthusiasm, the dinner reminds us all that we’ve only got about 8 weeks before the new season starts in earnest. All My RGB mates were chatting about their winter plans, and whether they were on track against plan, and there was me thinking…. “I’ve got an awfully long way to go”. Gulp
Lots of people commented on the blog and asked about the Sabre, but they also asked me for a bit more information about the mini. So here’s a bit more info and I’ll start future updates with a paragraph on the mini.
Firstly its a 1979 1275GT mini, which I bought Kate for Christmas last year. Its the same age and model the she was driving when we first met and she dearly loved it then. Well, two babies came along, and it ceased to be practical. It slipped into rusty old banger territory and at that time I didn’t have the tools, money or experience to maintain it, so we sadly parted with it. Last year, with the Kids grown, I found an identical car (except this one is blue and the original was red)… even the interior is identical. Genuinely 2 lady owners, 45,000 miles and used to drive to the shops and back for the last 10 years. (circa 200 miles per year acording to the MOT certificates). It seemed pretty sound although the front wings and A panels were perforated.
Driving it home proved that it was straight and the engine was pulling well, so we were pretty happy and Kate had a huge happy mini grin when she got out of it . The original plan was to do the wings and A panels, give it a quick re-spray and get it out for last summer, thusI started work on it last Easter. Unfortunately that deadline came and went in the wake of finding the need to weld in 2 new wings, 2 new inner panels, 2 new A posts. 2 partial flitch panels, 2 new door skins, 2 new outer sills, 2 partial inner sills, 2 new floors and 2 new rear boot floor corners, 2 rear wheel arch segments, 2 rear subframe mounts and 1 new rear valance. So you can see that the welding got a bit out of hand But we’re on the home stretch now.
The current status, is that the welding is all done bar fitting one front wing, and new rear seatbelts mounts (which weren’t originally fitted anyway). The shell is now very sound and the complete rear subframe has been removed, painted and refitted, along with all new brake pipes, new suspension cones, new A arm bearings, new brake cyclinders, and new dampers…. well basically everything is new bar the major castings.
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‘m currently working on the front subframe and engine bay. Some numpty in the past has spilled brake fluid all over the front bulkhead, this had lifted the paint and was merrily turning the front bulkhead to dust. It only surface pitting now, but in 5 years it would have been a latticework of doom. So the engine is currently out, the front subframe is sitting on the floor, awaiting removal of 30 years accumulated grot and then the full renewal treatment. Current objective is to get it back on it’s wheels and ready for painting around the end of February. Lets see if I can hit that deadline.
So a couple of grainy pictures. of the old (complete with youngsters who are now aged 20 and 16)
TheThe to-d0 list before she is sent off for painting currently consists of.
- Fit and paint 1 new wing
- Weld in new seatbelt mounts
- Smooth off all external welds
- Paint and refurb front subframe and all front suspension components.
- Prep and paint engine bay.
- Change clutch, water & fuel pumps on engine
- Paint engine
- Refit engine to subframe, and subframe to car.
- Replace all control cables
- Replace cylinder head with one with unleaded valve inserts
- Remove all glass, and remaining exterior and interior trim, door locks etc
- Clean and paint 50% of underside
- Seam seal all new welds
- POR 15 all external seams and seam trim interior edges.
Which in itself is quite a long list…. hmm
Here’s a picture of how she currently looks, the bulkhead has just been painted with PO15, and the subframe is stripped and sitting on the floor awaiting attention. I’m currently awaiting a huge box of mini bits.
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