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Memoirs from the Hard Shoulder: bASeman's Spot of the Year award.


BorniteIdentity

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That Speedo is the same as in my 1100 (and probably lots of other BL poverty chod). The extra amber is used as an oil change warning light on it. It does this by looking at the pressure difference between the inlet and outlet of the filter with a pressure switch. Don't think they were ever that reliable tbh. Or the filter was completely blocked by the time it lit.

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Yup, standard Smiths speedo of the era :)

 

Lots of different calibrations though.  BI's City E with its 10" wheels should have a 1248ish tpm unit (which is hard to find now!).  Standard diff cars with 10" wheels used a 1376.

 

Light on HRW switch is green.  Wiring another warning light into the unused locations in the speedo is a really good idea.

 

I've thought about adding an immobiliser-esque flashing LED in the same spot.  Would be invisible and look totally standard.

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Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't that a recycled unit from a different BL car, where red was Ign, green was oil pressure, blue brights and the orange lights were left/right indicator warning lights?

 

All of which meant the layout was pointless when mounted in the middle so half of it was rearranged?

 

Phil

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I'm sure that speedo unit features in various vans and commercials too, hence the slightly creative use of colours to denote various functions.

 

I had a mk3 Fiesta with a brake light switch that tended to stick on, so I wired in a dash light to show me when the rear bulbs were glowing. That way I could manually give the underside of the pedal a quick tap up with my toes if it hadn't sprung back quite enough. I think there was a handy ABS warning light in the cluster that I used, most Fiestas of the era weren't specified with that particular feature!

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Many years ago a phone call late one night from my aunt, who lived a hundred miles away, "There's a light on, on my car!" I eventually worked out, after establishing that she was home and then a load of questions, that it was the charging light. "You'd better go and see Robert" was my response.

Robert is my brother, who lived three miles from her and runs a garage. Aunt's reply, "I didn't want to bother him as he'll be busy"

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Right! Now. Where were we?

Ah yes. A shitbox Mini that’s not been inspected by the Ministry since 1998.

We’ve been hard at it (fnar fnar) every night this week, although I was AWOL last night. Progress is good yet frustrating. 

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Tappy Tappets no longer pay tribute to Danny La Rue. The car is whisper quiet (video on twitter @danielfoxfm if you fancy it)

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Float valve needle is being a “CuntPig” (patent pending) so a new one is being fitted later. 

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I didn’t think the car even HAD reverse lights, never mind twin ones! A few minutes were spent trying to make the offside one as bright as everything else. Having checked the earth and cleaned the bulb holder with a Dremel - closer inspection revealed a 24v bulb. Rather than adding a second battery to the car we compromised on a 12v bulb.

The near side headlight has never been right. So much rust around the wing rendered the bowl almost unattached. Fortunately, Alf had a Rivet gun and had been frothing at the mouth like a rabid dog at the thought of using it. 

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Job’s a goodun. 

Emissions are good!

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Now we just need to sort the back brakes. More on that in the next update as, as is always the case with me, nothing is ever straightforward. 

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These brakes then. 

Well, we first tried about 6 weeks ago to make it stop as well as it goes. A decision was taken to refresh everything that even looked suspect as, despite any assumptions you’ve made to the contrary, I rather enjoy both being alive and having use of my own legs. So the anchors had a complete refresh on fettling day 2, apart from the front to back pipe which looked fine. We were bleeding it all up, and feeling very positive, until all of a sudden it let go. Frustratingly, there was a short section of pipe which isn’t visible due to being routed above the rear subframe. Guess were it broke?! Anyway, better on my driveway than at the top of a slip road. 

A second attempt on Tuesday night was also fruitless; the so far brilliant MiniSpares unfortunately dropped an bollock (somehow) and sold me an incorrect replacement pipe. Further time wasted. So last night, with a fresh reel of pipe and road so flooded I had to sweep it down the drain, brakes were finished! 

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What a feeling! A car that goes AND NOW STOPS! 

And also strops.

I do understand though. I get it. 21 years is a long time to be on garden leave. To ask it to go from watching Judge Rinder each day to immediate conscription and onto the front line was a huge ask. First to pack up were the lights. Fortunately there are only FOUR fuses, so that was simple enough. I took it for a quick blez and it goes brilliantly. Braking, you’ll be pleased to know, is every bit as awful as nonservo 10” wheels suggest it might be. 

Back at Alf’s he jumped in the copilots seat and we went for a longer run. 

Only we didn’t. 

ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: 1st maintenance pause. 

Fortunately this was achieved at the top of a hill, so I coasted most of the way back before we pushed it, in disgrace, back home. 

Verdict? Shit from tank. Once the car was given the chance to chill, it started up fine. Hopefully this can all be resolved with an inline filter and a bit of luck. We also tidied up wiring from the coil and inspected the rotor arm which will get replaced. 

More on lights next time, and the final push to get this turd finished.

Again, huge thanks to my pal and all round nice guy Alf892. 

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Illumination. Not something you necessarily associate with Minis - especially those with sealed beam units. The nearside unit was fine, despite appearing to be the original Lucas unit. Offside was on strike, but fortunately Alf’s chum had one in his collection*

Once fitted it worked perfectly. For all of 5 minutes. Again, it’s hard to complain when you’re asking stuff to perform flawlessly when 5 minutes ago it was retired. The returns policy, being a 30 year old lamp, is debatable - so I’ve bitten the bullet and added an H4 modified set. They mostly just screw on, other than I needed to make a small adjustment with an angle grinder to simplify sidelight bulb changing. 

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First time I’ve ever armed myself with such a device. Terrifying. 10/10 would repeat. 

New fuel pump now fitted. Alf loved** this. Look at him practically humping the car!

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Now it’s just the small matter of presenting it for a test, which will happen when I find time. Having had 4 nights and a morning on this during this week alone, I probably need to give other things a bit of attention. 

One final pic. The effortlessly cool Alf in his best jumper and 50s style specs, chuffing a cigar and blezzing a Mini. This is what it’s all been about. 

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*hoard.

**opposite

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2 minutes ago, snagglepuss said:

Well done! Must be so satisfying the o get the ticket and the little thing back on the road.

It’s not really sunk in yet! I’ve been getting home from AlfTowers™️ At Midnight and getting up at 4am for work. You know when you’re so tired everything’s just a daze?!

It’s brilliant to have it all legal. The plan is to bang around for the summer and then, over the winter, smarten her up. Not a full restoration- but just make it something to be proud of. 

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Just now, SiC said:

Absolute congrats in getting this sorted. So quick to get it going, it puts us all to shame. 

Now just expect the odd and occasional* teething trouble as a car that's been dormant starts getting herself moving those joints again. 

Ha! Something is already banging away. It’ll be fine. It’s here to stay, so just have to pick off the issues as they reveal themselves. 

Doing the distance wasn’t really a concern. What’s the worst that can happen? You brake down - you get recovered. You overheat, you stop and cool down. You crash - you die. I think the only worry was the clutch completely seizing up. We freed it with mindless violence, but it’s on more borrowed time than Theresa May. 

Anyway. It’s for another day. Tonight, we drink (!)

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39 minutes ago, SiC said:

Absolute congrats in getting this sorted. So quick to get it going, it puts us all to shame. 

Now just expect the odd and occasional* teething trouble as a car that's been dormant starts getting herself moving those joints again. 

Light hearted lesson here Mr SiC.......make it go and drive it! Worst that can happen is you get towed home!

Also worthy of note that the FTPs on the way to and from test station were caused by new parts......namely a lovely new, super and improved needle valve. Fucked one......not original but spare fucked one........and it runs a treat.

 

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I'd had word that this little thing might be attending today, it was great to see it pull onto the park at Ipswich just after we arrived.

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Impressive enough that it could manage the drive along the A14 after so many years laid-up, but the drive down to Felixstowe is 15-odd miles of mostly stop-start crawl, quite a test. It was pleasing to see it in the queue behind us every so often and not making use of the rather massive breakdown truck that was bringing up the rear.

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We both ended up at the same end of the prom at Felixstowe, and it was great to see it there.

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People obviously loved the story behind it, there always seemed to be people reading the notices.

Well done Daniel and alf892 for working so hard on this, and good luck in getting other jobs gradually sorted.

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Haha, brilliant!! A superb and richly deserved result, hats off to both of you for getting it to that stage. Well done!

I'm well pleased for you, it’s a great little car and an (almost) unbelievable story to it aswell and to get it to a show, AND manage such mileage that soon after a lay-up that long is just the icing on the cake.

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Great to see the excellent news here and on Twunter. I'm sure your nan would be tickled that you brought her car back home, and have taken guardianship of it. 

One thing- where's the bonnet grille trim gone? Looks like it was fitted in the early photos. It is a weight saving exercise? ?

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