19. X-MAS Update 2010...

Look at what Santa left me under the tree...

Wooooo!!!

 Mini Sport 8.4" 4 Pot Alloy Brake Calipers
.... Thx Santa....!

 Mini Sport 8.4'' Vented Grooved Brake Discs and
 Mintex Pads...

To all you mini lovers a "Merry Christmas"

18. Rear Swing-Arms and Brakes...

Here are both the rear swing-arms with the drum brakes still attached.

Stripping the swing-arms is not as difficult as you might think. All you need is a half inch ratchet and spanner.

End result of about 30min worth of work...

 During the stripping session I discovered that one of my rear bearings must have failed at some point. I will let the picture do the rest of the talking...

This is what it should look like...

After dealing with the drive flanges I tackled the rear slave cylinders...

I must say after 20-odd minutes marinating in petrol, the cylinders are back from the dead...

Only problem seems to be that my cylinders do not match up... So I will only be fixing one of them. Luckily I know of a good forum where I can get a replacement...

It’s amazing what a steel brush, new service kit and some high heat red paint can do...

17. Big Parts Order...

It was like Christmas morning when I got back from vacation and found that my friend Wian had collected some of the parts I ordered threw the Mini forum. Like I stated on a previous post , you can never underestimate the worth of a good mini forum...

First up is a pair of GTS-spec rear brake drums. They can be distinguished from the normal rear brake drums by the 25mm built in spacer. These are needed when you go to 13" wide wheels...

Second on the list is a set of elongated wheel studs from Mini Spares in England...

Position number three belongs to a Duplex timing gear set also from Mini Spares. These are more of a insurance policy for my valves, as the simplex timing chain tends to stretch and snap.

Filling up position four is a 3.1:1 Ratio Final Drive. This part comes courtesy of Sean from the Mini forum. This will go along way to get the mini up to a 160Kph cruising speed...

Number five belongs to a pair of adjustable Tie-rods that Wian sourced from Capetown. These have the combination rubber and poly bushes. With full poly's on your tie-rods they tend to rip out of the mountings...

Getting on to the lower end of the list, number six is held by a full-car poly bush set. There is allot of diffident opinions as to the use of poly bushes over normal rubber ones. My reason for going poly is that I am tiered of removing the sub-frames every 3 years to replace the rubber ones.

Finally I kept the best for last ... 1.5:1 ratio Roller-tip rockers... With the CAM I am going to run they don't  have a big benefit, but it is something I have always wanted to put on my car...

Stay tuned for more....

16. Still Stripping The Suspension...

Well I am still busy with all the small time consuming stuff. One of witch is the front suspension cones and bump-stops...

As with all things in life , you can do anything if you have the correct tools...This is what I used to get the cone and adjustable-ride out.

So here is my target , now to get it out...

Some time , and a sore thumb later the rusty rubber and alloy cone was out...

Just to add insult to injury I had no "short" spanners to get in between the sub frame cone mounts and the locating holes for the front top bump-stops...

After all that work I noticed a small bend in the front sub-frame , If it turns out to be serous I will have to order a new one from England...


P.s. Stay tuned for my parts order post!!!

15. Stripping out the Dash...

When myself and Wian made up the custom harness last year , we knew we had to make it easily removable...

To my surprise it took under 2 minutes to get the removable part out...

And there she is , my custom made "Floppy , hardboard covered, fire hazard" old dash...

The black dials are up for sale on the Mini forum, and will be replaced by magnolia dials later...

Looking at the custom harness I remembered that it took 2 days to get it this way, man those plastic connectors are a pain to reattach. As per Wian’s suggestion I will be going a different rout with the new dash wiring...

Now that the removable part is gone it is time to start to rip out the rest of the wiring and interior...



14. Wheel Repair...

So I get back from work last week and find my one sport pack wheel on the ground "Prob knocked over by a ghost"....



After the heart attack…. I did some research and found a company able to do onsite mag- wheel repairs. I gave them a shout and the next day they stopped at my home with a mobile workstation.

15 Minutes later and it looks new!!!!

I will be posting there details on the shops and Services tab.





13. Sorting out the garage...

So this is what I was doing over the weekend…Sorting out the garage!!!

I took the time to strip out the front sub frame…

Took out the front drive shafts and hub assemblies...

Now to tackle the adjustable ride height ... They are a Bitch to remove when the cones get rusty....

Now to get all the stuff cleaned and back in the garage...