A40 - Spitfire trunnions

[Joey spud]

I saw this A40 at Wrotham steam fair in 2018 and thought it was one of the best cars at the show it's loosely how I want my Minor to end up looking.

I spotted this at a Boxing day meet in Offham it's nice but a bit too perfect body wise for me.

[Matty]

 

Emergency head gasket

[MiniMinorMk3]

I wonder if it has any parts fitted.

Publication1 (mk1-performance-conversions.co.uk)

[vulgalour]

@martc cheers for the info!  Good to finally see an official line on it.

[Matty]

2 hours ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

I wonder if it has any parts fitted.

Publication1 (mk1-performance-conversions.co.uk)

If only those prices were current. I could beat a path to Yimkin engineering's door with nothing other than the contents of the young uns piggy bank.

[Matty]

Not much to report. Winters shite. Haven't had the car out since early December. So just batting through little jobs while I've the time. Speedo was now completely bolloxed and bounced from stop to stop. On a tip off from @Mally i stripped it out and dropped it at JDO instruments at Keighly on my way down Kent for work.

couldnt be happier, dropped off tuesday, picked it up on my way back Friday, nailed it back in the car this morning. A1, would use again.

[SiC]

Was it pricey? I invariably pull these things apart to fix them and make them worse 🤣

[Matty]

I've also bought a lovely wheel to replace my bus style original (don't worry, everything took off is kept and will stay with the car). Bought a second hand boss off a fella in the owners club, which after much research turns out to be for a Marina not an A40. Which is why it won't fit. Got my money back but now have to buy a new one at decent expense. Arse

[Matty]

Just now, SiC said:

Was it pricey? I invariably pull these things apart to fix them and make them worse 🤣

£115 Si. He replaced the main mechanism, serviced the rest of it, cleaned it all and reset the mileage after to where it was, so all in all I reckon its fair.

[Matty]

And finally, after putting the dash back together I put the battery back on and started it up to check all guages, warning lights etc work as intended.

Started first crack of the key, same as always. Not bad after standing a month and a bit, and it's still on points and condenser ignition. Bloody love this old thing.

[Matty]

Winters still shit and boring. So I'm doing little improvements to keep me going till better weather. Big improvements I want to make to the interior is seats and steering wheel. Seats cos they're out of a rover metro or summat and they're awful. Steering wheel cos as beautiful an old thing as it is, it's got a 16 and half inch diameter and it's as thin as a gnats pube, so not nice to use. So today I did this.

[Matty]

Won't please the purists I'm sure, but as always the old wheel is safe and can go back on at any point.

[Matty]

Flushed with success I banged the battery back on and cracked it up. Half a turn of the key again (if that's possible). Ran on 3 for the first 60 secs or so and chucked a shit load of smoke out (condensation? Bit of pooled oil? Unburned fuel due to running on 3? Do I care?) But pot 4 soon joined the party. Then drove it for the first time since early December. Just a few turns round the estate as I don't want it anywhere near salted main roads but reminded me what a blast it is. And it drove like it was last used yesterday. Really lit a fire under me to get the seats fitted as soon as. Then procure and fit the new exhaust!

[tooSavvy]

Exhaust, you say 🤣 ... 🚙💨

👍

[Matty]

2 minutes ago, tooSavvy said:

Exhaust, you say 🤣 ... 🚙💨

👍

I'm trying to go the other way! I've got a horrible home brewed effort that the PO built. Fits poorly and you can hear me two counties away! I'm already running a Maniflow tubular manifold, so I'm going to go for their fast road system. Bit less noise, bit nicer noise and better fit. Hopefully. Not bad money either, two hundred odd quid for a full system manifold back.

[barrett]

51 minutes ago, Matty said:

Steering wheel cos as beautiful an old thing as it is, it's got a 16 and half inch diameter and it's as thin as a gnats pube, so not nice to use. So today I did this.

I've heard more than one person say this about old cars and I just can't get my head round it. Thin, large-diameter wheels are so nice to handle compared to small, fat wheels. I'd go so far as to say it's one of the best things about older cars! So much more pleasant on a long run. Each to his own I guess!

[Matty]

13 minutes ago, barrett said:

I've heard more than one person say this about old cars and I just can't get my head round it. Thin, large-diameter wheels are so nice to handle compared to small, fat wheels. I'd go so far as to say it's one of the best things about older cars! So much more pleasant on a long run. Each to his own I guess!

Tell you what, it's really difficult. Obviously I read your thread, and your dedication to properly old cars is impressive, not just the cars themselves, but originality. I don't want my car to look that far from standard but I'm a bit of a tart and I like these little bits of mods which (for me) improve the experience of using the car, but can so easily be put back to standard. In my defence, and as a member of the A40 owners club, there are loads of them still on the road, in good nick and crucially standard. So mine can afford to be a bit different I reckon.

[tooSavvy]

+100% m8

My 'pieintheface' stock Suzzi wheel was, on no PAS, small + a turd 😵

My Classic* METRO wheel is thin + larger dia!

Each 2 their Own 😉

[Matty]

Tbf, at my age I should be buying a nova. 50s and 60s cars seem already on a bit of a slide value wise. Eventually they'll go the same way as even older stuff, the people that actually want them are too old or have left the building. At this point it's more important that people are taking them on and caring for them, not what they're doing to em. Case in point, I've never wanted a standard Minor, but I'd rock @Joey spuds Boris into the middle of next week. But crucially, Boris is subtle, it's not like the shells been hammered over a Mk4 Golf or owt. Period go faster mods that can be put back, love em

[Matty]

Case in point 2 . Scotty (Trevor) Parfitts Mk1 Road car. Scotty and his son run an historic race car prep engineering outfit. Scotty also campaigns "Doc" Shephards original A40 UCE 13. This is his road car. Same wheels as mine, uprated suspension front and back using what they've learnt from UCE 13 and a 1380cc a series. I mean, just look at it. Bet its fast as fuck too. Just a cool car

[barrett]

Don't get me wrong, I love modified cars, particularly period-style mods, and if I had an A40 I'd certainly be giving it a cafe racer look. Within reason, I don't care what other people do to their cars as long as they're not chopping up something really rare, or making irreversible changes like re-trimming a really nice original interior, or re-spraying a car with nice original paint. I just don't like small steering wheels! FWIW I think the direction you're going with this A40 is great and I'm enjoying watching it progress so please don't think I', 'anti' anything you're doing.

[Matty]

6 hours ago, barrett said:

Don't get me wrong, I love modified cars, particularly period-style mods, and if I had an A40 I'd certainly be giving it a cafe racer look. Within reason, I don't care what other people do to their cars as long as they're not chopping up something really rare, or making irreversible changes like re-trimming a really nice original interior, or re-spraying a car with nice original paint. I just don't like small steering wheels! FWIW I think the direction you're going with this A40 is great and I'm enjoying watching it progress so please don't think I', 'anti' anything you're doing.

Not taken the wrong way at all. I just know where you're coming from in terms of originality. The worst thing about the car is that non original paint job. Problem is I can't do anything about it now. Having it properly prepped and sprayed would cost a fortune I can't see spending and it still wouldn't be original. I really wish he hadn't done that.

[Joey spud]

I have got a soft spot for this moggy found on a 1275cc owners group.

The bumpers painted body colour and pulled in tight to the body (Dave Kindig / Bitchin' Rides trick) kicks the usual District Nurse vibe into the weeds.

Not quite sure on the 15" rims maybe 14" with a bit more sidewall showing is more my thing.

Actually if I run my Minor with bumpers then I will leave them badly chromed or painted silver and the rear lamps will need their mounting plinths trimmed back to tighten everything up much like this clever internet guy is doing here.

As for steering wheels the skinny spindly ones do feel a bit alien and look a bit sad these days. A nice chunky period one always raises the interior of an old car as long as it's not too small otherwise it makes steering a bit of a chore at parking time.

In my youth I put a chunky 10" one on my 850 Mini and it looked great but i had to concede that the car drove way nicer with the skinny big wheel back on so I wrapped its rim with many rolls of electrical tape and then stretched two steering wheel covers over it.

[Matty]

1 hour ago, Joey spud said:

I have got a soft spot for this moggy found on a 1275cc owners group.

The bumpers painted body colour and pulled in tight to the body (Dave Kindig / Bitchin' Rides trick) kicks the usual District Nurse vibe into the weeds.

Not quite sure on the 15" rims maybe 14" with a bit more sidewall showing is more my thing.

Actually if I run my Minor with bumpers then I will leave them badly chromed or painted silver and the rear lamps will need their mounting plinths trimmed back to tighten everything up much like this clever internet guy is doing here.

As for steering wheels the skinny spindly ones do feel a bit alien and look a bit sad these days. A nice chunky period one always raises the interior of an old car as long as it's not too small otherwise it makes steering a bit of a chore at parking time.

In my youth I put a chunky 10" one on my 850 Mini and it looked great but i had to concede that the car drove way nicer with the skinny big wheel back on so I compromised and wrapped its rim with many rolls of electrical tape and then stretched two steering wheel covers over it.

Bloody hell, at first glance I thought that was yours. I thought "he's had a busy christmas" 😄

[Matty]

Another non update cos I'm sat on the sofa drinking and I'm bored (sundays). One of the many small jobs for this winter was to replace a single speaker the PO had wired in under the dash shelf (which I blew up after I put a new second hand stereo in). 

I don't particularly want a stereo in this but with my Dad and Uncle I've found myself doing decent distance work in this. So it's nice to be able to have the radio on or a CD going when your knocking out 70/80 miles to somewhere. And music is my second major passion after cars.

I've nailed in an old Alpine CD radio which is old enough to be all black, with a simple green lcd  display so it doesn't stand out.

I didn't want to put speakers in the door cards (the horror) or even in the kick plates in the wheel Wells. I just don't want them to be seen. There was some old bits of mdf knocking about at work so I bought 2 speakers and knocked these up (disclaimer, I'm not a joiner and I only had half an hour)

[Matty]

There are some steel tabs on the bulk head which retain the under dash shelf which is just a thick sheet of lino in reality. So I'm going to use these to hang the speaker boxes right under the shelf in the wheel Wells so they can't be seen unless you fall to the floor in a dead faint. Also makes it easy to run the speaker cables to the stereo unseen too.

2

[Matty]

Just need to procure some black vinyl to clad the boxes in to make them even less obtrusive and wire them in.

Then seats.

Then exhaust.

Then finally start using it again (hate winter, hate rock salt).

Thanks for reading 

[Scrubworks]

Ahhh, speaker enclosures made of old plywood. The Max Power era lives on .

[Matty]

11 hours ago, Scrubworks said:

Ahhh, speaker enclosures made of old plywood. The Max Power era lives on .

Not much choice. Afterall it's not like I've got a parcel shelf to put my 6x9s in 🤭

[Scrubworks]

4 hours ago, Matty said:

Not much choice. Afterall it's not like I've got a parcel shelf to put my 6x9s in 🤭

Had to delete my parcel shelf to make space for the Marina pedals 😅. I'll probably mount mine under the gloveboxes or in the little chassis indents in front of the doors.