Six Cylinders Motoring Notes

[quicksilver]

21 hours ago, Six-cylinder said:

The Big News of the day is the Mini Mayfair is back!

The rotten wreck that had been off the road for 25 years has been transformed into a legal running driving Mini again.

 

Wow, that's quite a transformation! When Pete pulled it out I thought it would be a spares donor at best so I'm delighted to be proved wrong. Seeing both of those cars being driven after so many years laid up is fantastic and it looks like all the other vehicles from that hoard found good homes too.

[Six-cylinder]

4 hours ago, ianbmw said:

Well that sounds achievable with biscuits and such like! 

 

 

[Six-cylinder]

@ianbmw Which is a nicer steering wheel, a plastic GL or or leather Club!

[hairnet]

29 minutes ago, Six-cylinder said:

 

 

❤️

 

[ianbmw]

17 minutes ago, Six-cylinder said:

@ianbmw Which is a nicer steering wheel, a plastic GL or or leather Club!

I didn’t know the saloon was missings it’s radio, let me see what I can find!

[Six-cylinder]

14 minutes ago, ianbmw said:

I didn’t know the saloon was missings it’s radio, let me see what I can find!

I should worry if it is ever going to run again before you worry about engaging an orchestra! 

[Six-cylinder]

[24vdiamond]

5 hours ago, Six-cylinder said:

Non standard wheels?

Its just rolling on some GSI wheels so the proper ones can be tidied up, its a ways off needing wheels though 😁

[Six-cylinder]

12 minutes ago, 24vdiamond said:

Its just rolling on some GSI wheels so the proper ones can be tidied up, its a ways off needing wheels though 😁

My 2.0i Club came on Omega wheels that look ok. I have the original cross spokes, but they need a refurb and tyres.

The best bit about the early 1.8i MK3 Saloon we have  is missing, the wheel trims.

[Zelandeth]

On 06/10/2024 at 18:16, Six-cylinder said:

April this year Colin a Mini owning friend from Milton Keynes Classic Car Club encouraged me to buy this Mini saying he would help me. He then volunteered his Mini owning friend Geoff to do the welding needed. He fitted a fair bit of metal work, but not the worst he had seen. It had both sill, cross members, floor sections and half the boot floor.

Geoff’s involvement was supposed to end with the welding, but he asked me if I needed the brake pipe behind the rear subframe replaced while he had it in the air as it looked rusty! Then Geoff asked if I wanted him to go through all the brakes, of course I did, the car had not been used for 25 years. New wheel cylinder, master cylinder, flex pipe as a matter of course and metal pipes as needed.

Next message was I would like to get it started. It was missing the oil filter housing so that got fitted   and after a bit of a struggle it started. I added oil and acetone in the bores as the engine was a bit seized when I got it. That sprayed out all over Geoff’s garage as a gunge.

Geoff says the worst bit for him was finding the clutch was stuck in spite of new slave and master cylinders. Once he took it apart and gently chiselled it unstuck. Everything was in good condition and works well now.

This is the abridged version. I am so pleased with Geoff, a man I had not met before for all his efforts to save this Mini that would have died without him.

Yes there are still jobs to do the heater matrix is weeping and the interior needs preparing and refitting along with a few other jobs.

The paint has been rattle canned which has made it tidy, but I want to use the car so there is no plan to do any more with it.

If they'd be interested in some (considerably!) less extensive welding on a Trabant and/or a Renault 25, cash and an easy to work with client is definitely waiting...

[richardmorris]

1 hour ago, Six-cylinder said:

Is that a blue cloud from the exhaust?

[ianbmw]

2 hours ago, Six-cylinder said:

My 2.0i Club came on Omega wheels that look ok. I have the original cross spokes, but they need a refurb and tyres.

The best bit about the early 1.8i MK3 Saloon we have  is missing, the wheel trims.

Sure there not in the boot?

[Six-cylinder]

4 minutes ago, ianbmw said:

Sure there not in the boot?

They are gone.

This is how it looks now, are you sure about doing this one!

[Dick Cheeseburger]

On 06/10/2024 at 16:53, Six-cylinder said:

The Big News of the day is the Mini Mayfair is back!

The rotten wreck that had been off the road for 25 years has been transformed into a legal running driving Mini again.

 

That's fantastic. Being honest, I didn't expect it to be an even vaguely viable project once your welder fella started poking around properly underneath. Clearly the first impressions were worse than the reality. Great work!

[Six-cylinder]

1 hour ago, richardmorris said:

Is that a blue cloud from the exhaust?

Yes.

Colin followed the Mini and it smoked very badly when they left Geoff's house. Colin thought it was stuck rings and we would have to strip the engine. 12 miles later the smoking stopped and we think it was probably still burning off the oil we put down the plug holes to unseize it.

[Zelandeth]

41 minutes ago, Six-cylinder said:

They are gone.

This is how it looks now, are you sure about doing this one!

To be honest, bit of time with some airbags in the doors would have that looking a thousand times better.

That really must have looked like an incredibly clean and almost futuristic looking design in 86.

[24vdiamond]

4 hours ago, Six-cylinder said:

My 2.0i Club came on Omega wheels that look ok. I have the original cross spokes, but they need a refurb and tyres.

The best bit about the early 1.8i MK3 Saloon we have  is missing, the wheel trims.

I think I've a couple of new wheel trims tucked away, they must have been an expensive trim to make back in the day

[Six-cylinder]

2 minutes ago, 24vdiamond said:

I think I've a couple of new wheel trims tucked away, they must have been an expensive trim to make back in the day

When I bought the 9 Vauxhall/Opel car collection it was to own the 1976 Manta 1.9 Coupe Auto. The deal with the red Carlton Estate was always a bit separate because I promised Ianbmw I would do my best to save it. The rest were to be sold to finance the Manta project. Except Mrs6C decided she wanted to keep the Bedford CF and the blue Carlton Saloon and if I could bring home 8 cars she could pick any she liked to keep!

[LightBulbFun]

13 minutes ago, Six-cylinder said:

Except Mrs6C decided she wanted to keep the Bedford CF

not sure what it says about me, but the Bedford CF is the one I am most rooting for!  which reminds me did they fuel pump thingy get reinstated in the end? (IIRC it would not start because some issue with that, and as such no fuel was getting to the fuel distribution thingy that sends fuel off to each individual injector)

[Zelandeth]

48 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

not sure what it says about me, but the Bedford CF is the one I am most rooting for!  which reminds me did they fuel pump thingy get reinstated in the end? (IIRC it would not start because some issue with that, and as such no fuel was getting to the fuel distribution thingy that sends fuel off to each individual injector)

I need to go poke the fuel pump again at some point.  The issues with it basically stem from the fact that when it had been sitting for god knows how long there was more water in it than diesel.  I've cleaned up what I can and it's been left pickling in a jug of fresh diesel since I last looked at it.  It really wants either sending to a specialist or replacing though.  I've made a point of not dismantling it any further than I was confident it would go back together from though in case we end up at some point making one good pump out of two or something like that.  I did have a theory in my head as to what was likely sticking and wanted to find a decent exploded diagram to see if it was viable for me to go digging, but I've forgotten what that idea was now!  As it's not mine I'm not so inclined to just take things apart to see and have a spray of springs and check balls scatter all over the garage never to be seen again.

[Tommyboy12]

13 hours ago, Six-cylinder said:

Yes.

Colin followed the Mini and it smoked very badly when they left Geoff's house. Colin thought it was stuck rings and we would have to strip the engine. 12 miles later the smoking stopped and we think it was probably still burning off the oil we put down the plug holes to unseize it.

I think every Mini in the country has a light blue plume following it nowadays!

[ianbmw]

11 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

I need to go poke the fuel pump again at some point.  The issues with it basically stem from the fact that when it had been sitting for god knows how long there was more water in it than diesel.  I've cleaned up what I can and it's been left pickling in a jug of fresh diesel since I last looked at it.  It really wants either sending to a specialist or replacing though.  I've made a point of not dismantling it any further than I was confident it would go back together from though in case we end up at some point making one good pump out of two or something like that.  I did have a theory in my head as to what was likely sticking and wanted to find a decent exploded diagram to see if it was viable for me to go digging, but I've forgotten what that idea was now!  As it's not mine I'm not so inclined to just take things apart to see and have a spray of springs and check balls scatter all over the garage never to be seen again.

To be fair, that’s probably best you can do!

i honestly don’t think it’s worth fixing that old CF, but I’m happy to help refit it and throw brake cleaner down it and prove it a god awlful thing and should be scrapped.

I say this, as the only man alive who’s actually driven it!

[24vdiamond]

On 07/10/2024 at 22:55, Six-cylinder said:

When I bought the 9 Vauxhall/Opel car collection it was to own the 1976 Manta 1.9 Coupe Auto. The deal with the red Carlton Estate was always a bit separate because I promised Ianbmw I would do my best to save it. The rest were to be sold to finance the Manta project. Except Mrs6C decided she wanted to keep the Bedford CF and the blue Carlton Saloon and if I could bring home 8 cars she could pick any she liked to keep!

Excellent collection, was this some of the stuff from the late Ians estate?

[24vdiamond]

On 08/10/2024 at 00:06, Zelandeth said:

I need to go poke the fuel pump again at some point.  The issues with it basically stem from the fact that when it had been sitting for god knows how long there was more water in it than diesel.  I've cleaned up what I can and it's been left pickling in a jug of fresh diesel since I last looked at it.  It really wants either sending to a specialist or replacing though.  I've made a point of not dismantling it any further than I was confident it would go back together from though in case we end up at some point making one good pump out of two or something like that.  I did have a theory in my head as to what was likely sticking and wanted to find a decent exploded diagram to see if it was viable for me to go digging, but I've forgotten what that idea was now!  As it's not mine I'm not so inclined to just take things apart to see and have a spray of springs and check balls scatter all over the garage never to be seen again.

What engine is in the CF? Perkins or the Opel diesel?

[ianbmw]

5 hours ago, 24vdiamond said:

What engine is in the CF? Perkins or the Opel diesel?

It’s CIH 2.3 Vauxhall jobbie.

attached to a significant amount of filler that identifies as a CF cab.

can you tell I like that thing?

[Mrs6C]

1 hour ago, ianbmw said:

It’s CIH 2.3 Vauxhall jobbie.

attached to a significant amount of filler that identifies as a CF cab.

can you tell I like that thing?

I'll just leave this here...

[Dyslexic Viking]

24 minutes ago, Mrs6C said:

I'll just leave this here...

I think this should be saved and get back on the road.

And it would be very useful to have around.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

On 07/10/2024 at 20:28, Six-cylinder said:

They are gone.

This is how it looks now, are you sure about doing this one!

What happened to the doors on the Carlton? 

[hairnet]

beko

[richardmorris]

6 minutes ago, Dick Longbridge said:

What happened to the doors on the Carlton? 

A fork lift truck I think. Farmer too eager to clear the cars.