Craig the Princess

after a successful hoon around weardale for twixfest, the Exo was needing a wash



 
no matter how careful i am with the bucket and spong, things do tend to get a bit damp. so i didn’t bother trying to be careful and settled for getting it clean instead  



aye, very good - now how to get all that sheep shitty water out of the footwell ?
break out the wet vac

surprisingly effective 


a quick hoon round the block and it’s dry as a bone  

not quite spotless but a big improvement 



 

https://angliacarauctions.co.uk/classic-auctions/2613-04-Nov-2023?fbclid=IwAR1RCKwqrrwibnRV2SkBRNFZaVQBZvoRmrW_5ZairKyZNIgoU3GmQpQZmhQ
Weighing up which non vital organs I can sell to bid on some of these. 
 

Next job is to pull the engine and box.
Here's the o/s hub stripped down ready to pop the inner driveshaft joint out:

The roll pin is out of the gearchange linkage, and the rear lower engine stay is unbolted.
Still to do are the n/s hub dismantled just like the o/s, front lower engine stay, and finally the engine mounts before I pop the driveshafts out.
O/s engine mount is a right bastard if I remember, so not looking forward to that.

Sounds like a majority of votes for the 998 so far.
Fitting discs means either 12" wheels, or going for a 60's Cooper disc conversion to stay with the 10" ones. All doable, and bear in mind I'm used to tenuous drum brakes from many kiles of Series Land Rover driving.
Anyway, more progress.
Car up on stands now and wheels off:

I had a mate helping today, so with another pair of hands we decided to tackle the rear subframe.
BANG and the subframe's gone!

Covered in scale and filth, but plenty of prodding suggests it's sound and no obvious holes or weak areas:

I'll clean it up and it can go again. Obvs I just chopped through the seized handbrake cables, although I did nicely remove the brake pipe union. One of the shocks came undone OK, the other ended up having the top nut sliced off with the electric spanner.
The most fantastic thing was this. All of the front subframe bolts came out whole and fairly easily with a gentle and sensitive hand on the ratchet. What a fuckin relief. Second brilliant thing was that the heelboard is sound. The pics might not show it too well, but a bit of dirt and scale is all there is. Here's the n/s:

and here's the o/s:

Might not look much, but between those two things there's several days of making and welding saved right there. The 25 was FAR worse in that area, with loads of fabbing needed on the n/s and a good bit on the o/s, mostly because the local garage had rammed it full of filler at some point in the past. Little tinkers.
Here's one of the worst bits though - the boot floor:

Not much left of that. But, you can buy a complete floor for £300 and as the subframe's saveable there's money in the kitty for it.
All the pick-up points around the perimeter of the panel are good and solid too - arches, rear panel, firewall - so the rusty old floor can be unpicked and a new one welded in without too much making good.
So far, no surprises and plenty of areas which could be awful but aren't, so I'm pleased.

https://angliacarauctions.co.uk/classic-auctions/2613-04-Nov-2023?fbclid=IwAR1RCKwqrrwibnRV2SkBRNFZaVQBZvoRmrW_5ZairKyZNIgoU3GmQpQZmhQ
Weighing up which non vital organs I can sell to bid on some of these. 
 

Today was a @Slowsilver afternoon. First was cure a misfire the Metro had developed coming back from BL day, turned out to be the points had closed to 8/1000 inch, a reset and test drive solved that one. The front o-s bumper was rattley as the bolt insert had broken away from the plastic corner bumper. A fuel hose clip and glue seems to have resolved the problem but we still need to see how long the repair lasts.  The Metro showed low antifreeze strength and was a strange colour so it had a cooling system drain. New antifreeze at 33% and it is all fit.
Next was the Rolls Royce, it came without a jack and originals are rare, old and expensive so I opted for a hydraulic bottle jack. I selected the 10 ton one not because the car is that heavy but it is taller at min height as a starting point for lifting the car. Slowsilver performed an experimental lift and we were happy it does the job. Next to fit it under the bonnet in the jack storage spot and again it fits nicely. We rubber covered the jack storage base plate with thick rubber and drilled holes for the tie down straps but ran out of time today so that will have to be finished another day.

Enterprise. 
I have a big work meeting tomorrow. Its basically the end of two years worth of work, so I'm under strict instructions to wear a suit and tie, and get to Luton for 8am. I'm also in meetings until 10pm tonight to prepare for it. 
Now, my company has a policy where if we need to drive for work and its more than 100 miles or so, we rent a car through them. Current provider is Enterprise, and I get booked a 'Focus or similar'. In theory this is great - they're happy to drop off and pick up cars at the office or to your house at a specific time. The problem is, last time I asked for it to be dropped off at home at 6:30pm and eventually, at quarter to ten, someone dropped off a 1.0 base spec Fabia (59bhp!), with the service light on. 
So, this time I've got a 2 hour gap in meetings so I'll go and pick it up on the way to get the kids from school. I turn up, and the car park is pretty empty. I go in, give them my name and driving licence. 
'That's great, thanks very much. Um - would you mind waiting a second until my manager gets off the phone?'
Oh balls. 
Manager comes over. 'Hi angle! I was just wondering, where are you going?'
Luton.
'Oh, OK. Where's that?'
North of London.
'So...about 150 miles away?'
Yeah, that's about right. 
'Riiiiight. Its just that, we've only got one car left and its electric (she points to an e-Corsa outside). Its only half charged, so its only got about 70 miles of range. There's a rapid charger at the Shell on York Road (a couple of miles away), if you left it on charge for a couple of hours that should be enough to fill it up?'
OK, but if its half full with a range of 70 miles, then a full charge still won't get me to Luton? And I don't have time to charge it tonight and I'm already leaving at half five. 
'Yeah. Yeah, OK. Um - what about a van?' She gestures to a LWB high-top Movano outside. 
*uncomfortable silence*
'No, no, OK. Um, let me make some calls.'
Which is how I found myself waiting outside a backstreet garage in Hartcliffe for a Nissan Juke to be MOTed, with the Corsa lurking around the corner with the Enterprise manager inside, like one of those Clarkson-era Top Gear episodes where they get followed round Bolivia by a Marina or an AMC Gremlin or, um, a Nissan Juke or something in case their Porsche breaks down. 
tldr; I've got to drive to Luton in a Nissan Juke. With the service light on. Fuck my life. 
 
 
 

Big, big thanks to @worldofceri for delivering a not-the-easiest job in the world today (its a bit frilly in places, to say the least, so loading/keeping stuff intact/unloading again had to be done a bit delicately!)
I know plenty of people on here know him/have used him before, but still worth pointing out to anyone who hasnt - cracking service for a cracking price and made it all go easily 👍  Cheers dude hope it didnt take you too long to sweep up any of it that decided to stay on your trailer afterwards 😂

Following this thread with interest - I had an '83 and an '85 back in the day, they were only 14 or 15 years old at the time and pretty rotten. Wouldn't stop me having another though if I had somewhere safe to keep it, I don't think they can be left on the street anymore unfortunately.
I'd stick with the 998. Mine taught me a lot about carrying momentum up hills and through the twistys. With a stage 1 kit it will push the needle round to the backwards '90' on that big speedo. The drums on the other hand taught me all about anticipation and keeping my distance - in the end I could adjust them by feel without taking the wheels off.

Putting my chemistry hat on for a moment, and not wanting to derail the thread too far, I think I can ease your concerns.
Petrol is produced by fractionally distilling the crude oil. It's heated up, various volatile  fractions boil off as gases, the gases rise out of the crude carried to a column were they are condensed back to a liquid and voila you have petrol. Clay does not evaporate, so even if the crude oil came to the refinery full of red clay, the production process would ensure it was left in the remains of the crude oil and would certainly not be carried over into the petrol.

Agreed.
That's kind of why I'd like to keep it tatty - so it looks like the kind that were everywhere 30 years ago and that many of us were driven to school in when we missed the bus

Personally I'd say keep it standard.  There are a billion modified Minis out there, the ones which always catch my eye are those which are standard to be honest.  
They weigh about as much as a paper bag anyway, the 998 if in good order is plenty sufficient to make good progress and put a silly grin on your face.

I'm not buying a new shell, so no worries there.
I wanted this one because it needs work. I'd like to get better at making and welding, so I'm happy to fix it as I go. The Mini's ideal because:
I've just rebuilt one so I know the structure, how it all fits together, and I've got another one to have a look at if I need to compare It's small and leaves loads of room to work around and is easy to get on a rotisserie The parts are as cheap as they come, and everything is available You can get repair panels for literally every part of the car, or whole new panels if you have more ££ There's loads of advice and videos online for literally any job you could imagine doing Time is not an issue - it takes as long as it takes - and I'm not a perfectionist so that makes life easier too. I'd like to end up with a structurally and mechanically sound but cosmetically tatty car. That's the outcome that would suit me best.

Progress so far: 
Engine bay mostly stripped down from this:

to this:

Still to do:
Remove lower engine stay
Unbolt engine mounts
Disconnect gear change linkage
Pop out both inner driveshaft joints
Then the engine and box can come out over the top of the front panel with the engine crane. I'm in two minds on the engine - a mate has a 1275 which I could buy off him, or I could stay 998. Someof it depends on what this engine is like when it comes apart, but what do we think?
Moar powah or moar originality?

Yes indeed.
I wish I had taken @Andyrew Allegro I have in my possession and found somebody to drive the Metro for me. 

Delivered into the Science Museum today. Not been since I was a kid, might have to come back when I'm not working 

Anyone who turns that into a "glamping pod" needs a good hard boot in the bollocks.

The second Milton Keynes show of Sunday had a very different flavour and had a lot of fast Fords and similar. Different but also enjoyable and worth going even in a Metro.

BL Day was a big success, I have never seen so many rubbish cars in one place!



 

Starting this now as I’ve got to start early doors.
Alarm set for 3:45AM
Mrs JJ has to deliver me to Ely train station for a 5:30AM departure to Birmingham New Street where I change and board the train to Shrewsbury. 
 

Pre purchase nervs poo count: 1 in progress as posting this. 
 

Stuck the mapped ECU on it today whilst I was swapping the battery over, also blanked the EGR as the new ECU has it disabled. 
 
Night and day difference. Doesn’t feel mapped, just feels normal now rather than scary slow. They claim 140bhp so if it’s anywhere near that I’m more than happy.

Just popped to Halfords for a battery as the chap was very honest in saying it likely wants one as it’s not been used much this summer. 
 
Really happy with it! Well worth the long day.

No pez shot as it was rammed so I needed to move. 
 
£50 in the tank, 3.5 hours home now

Made it to Ely in good time.
 
Half an hour until the train comes and I’m freezing.

Just how many of these things do the Autoshite collective currently own?  Got to be over half a dozen.  Why are they so popular, apart from the fact they are cheap?


Here’s mine that I purchased from @DaveDorson at the beginning of May.  2001 facelift 230 manual, 150k miles and like @Rod/b it’s resplendent in dog dick red.  A fiscally prudent way to have my midlife crisis.

Dave had done a fair bit sorting ball joints, brakes and tyres so it drives really well.  Steering is a bit inert compared to an MX-5 but that’s to be expected given it’s a cut-down C Class, and the gearchange is horrible (but I appreciate manuals are rare).  
I’m dailying it at the moment (and have done about 1500 miles so far) and it goes like a stabbed rat when you prod it yet will do 35mpg with restraint.  

Since buying it I’ve serviced it (oil filter £3, air filter £7, spark plugs £10 a set etc), replaced the belts, replaced the bonnet with a non-rusty one, repaired the bootlid rust (badly), replaced a rear wheel and tyre because the original was buckled ( my fault, Dave did warn me), repainted the mirrors (badly), and patched up the torn driver’s seat (badly).  
Next job is to reactivate the air conditioning - I’ve a new condenser and receiver dryer to fit when I have some spare time.  I’ll flush the coolant while I’m at it.
The only real fault it has is water leaks onto the seats directly beneath the windscreen header and roof join, although I discovered some drain holes in the A pillars which were clogged with dirt so hopefully that’s sorted.  But if anyone else has suffered and solved this, let me know.
Over to the other (current and former) owners!