Incoming! Smoll green A series thing....

[groovylee]

last night i didnt have much time due to working late and rugby training. but i did have time to make up some new hard lines for the front brakes. went to fit them and found that the nuts i ordered to secure the flexis were the wrong thread  oh well, back to ebay...

the front lights turned up, so i slapped them on loosely for a bit of a test. the main beam works, but the dips dont. could be wiring, could be the switch needing cleanining. more investigation required tonight.

more pics if i get time later.

Lee

[Mally]

I do that with the nuts M10/unf. long male/short male. I had them in separate boxes in the same drawer, but they are mostly mixed up now and I have to check each one every time.

Sometimes on your sort of thing they can be metric one end of a pipe and unf at the other, which is not ideal.

[groovylee]

1 hour ago, Mally said:

I do that with the nuts M10/unf. long male/short male. I had them in separate boxes in the same drawer, but they are mostly mixed up now and I have to check each one every time.

Sometimes on your sort of thing they can be metric one end of a pipe and unf at the other, which is not ideal.

yeah, i think thats what i have here, the end to the car is UNF, and the end to the caliper looks like it might be M10x1.0. i have some brake line fittings for the ranger which i believe are metric, so i'll try them on the end of the hose and see if they fit. if they do, then i know ive got to order them.

 

[groovylee]

On 30/08/2022 at 21:14, GagaStan said:

What a thing!! Very much enjoying the pantograph wiper moment.

You rang? 😬

[High Jetter]

4 hours ago, groovylee said:

You rang? 😬

Now that's a wipeout dance! It almost looks like the arms bend.

[GagaStan]

6 hours ago, groovylee said:

You rang? 😬

YESSS 🤩

it’s a thing of beauty!

[groovylee]

it still needs a little fettling, but its almost there. ive ordered a slightly shorter wiper blade to hopefully stop it hitting the bottom of the screen, and i need to stop it hitting the drivers side, but ultimately, its about right. i think i also need to whip out the motor and lube the bits up in there, and clean the connections, as it is a bugger to get to. so better to do it now before i finally (hopefully) button the 'bonnet' down for the last time.

i found the issue with the lights - the switch was full of gunk. i gave it a good scrub out, dried it off, cleaned the contacts with the trusty fibreglass pencil, and then popped some silicone lube in there. works like a charm now.

did the same with the wiper switch and the washer switch, and theyre smooth as silk again.

i found no evidence of hazard warning lights being fitted, so i'll need to get the wiring together for that. shouldn't be too troublesome. i found a ford switch that almost fit in the mk3 mini sized holes, so i filed the hole out a bit and now that is neatly installed ready.

working today till late, so no chance of getting on it today. will hopefully have a little tinkering time tomorrow evening after the wifes first rugby match. brave woman that!

next big jobs will be the rear mudguards, which im amassing bits for, and he exhaust, which is going to be messy, ugly, and far too involved. but im sure it'll work in the end..... WCPGW?

[groovylee]

nothing much to report today - had a busy weekend of rugby and work, so no real time to get anything done. 

i do, however, think i have the required parts to make some heavy duty rear cycle wing brackets. i think they'll mount on the rear steering arm bracket bolts, so i've ordered some 1/2" longer ones to account for the bracket.

with a bit of luck, i'll just need to weld the three parts together, at the required angles, and then paint them, and i'll be good to go!  something tells me it isn't going to be that simple, but hey, it's a starting point

 

Lee

[tooSavvy]

It's a balancing act, all the 'mind imagery' of how it will look AFTER chopping/fabbing/bolting on of components...

The line between 'organic'© & 'shed built' is somewhat subjective..... But you will hit the sweet spot, cos You Care 😉👍

🚙💨

[groovylee]

Tonight I'm mostly pissed off. Managed to enter the trial with lily in November, so the pressure is on to finish. Full of beans, I got home and set to fitting the calipers back on and plumbing them in. New brake lines made up, new flexis. All going well. Then I went to bleed the front calipers. Snap goes the bleed nipples. 😭🤬 All three of the damn things on one caliper.  And two on the other caliper are tight as you like. So they'll likely snap too.

I've managed to drill one out, but it was a right git. I've ordered the correct M7 tap set to hopefully clean up the threads. Fingers crossed..... I may be tempted to just run standard mini calipers in the short term while I try to sort these out....

[stuboy]

11 minutes ago, groovylee said:

Snap goes the bleed nipples. 😭🤬

i was told putting a drill bit inside the bleed nipple can go towards preventing it snapping off

 

[groovylee]

37 minutes ago, stuboy said:

i was told putting a drill bit inside the bleed nipple can go towards preventing it snapping off

 

Thanks mate, I'll give that a go on the other side

[groovylee]

started to mock up the rear mudguards:

then got busy with some metal bits and ended up with this:

then yesterday i finalised (for now) both side brackets, and got the mudguards mounted up, along with rear lights fitted:

happy with that. spent the rest of the day wiring up all of the lights, so i now have working indicators, rear lights and brake lights. the way that the gear linkage is set up means that there cant be a reversing light switch in the usual sense, so i need to wire one to a manual switch on the dash, as well as a rear fog light. at the end of the day i picked yup an exhaust that i hoped would fit, but it wasn't to be, so i will mostly be cutting and welding exhaust today, as well as hopefully manufacturing an engine cover / shelf on the back. i'll try to take more pics today

 

Lee

 

 

[Tommyboy12]

This looks awesome. I bet it's pretty nimble as it's so light.

[groovylee]

32 minutes ago, Tommyboy12 said:

This looks awesome. I bet it's pretty nimble as it's so light.

i'll let you know soon hopefully! fingers crossed i can get the exhaust done today, and then i might be able to get it started! although i guess brakes would be useful first.... 🤣

[Zelandeth]

This thing is fantastic.  Starting to look far less shed built now it's more complete.  The colour is absolutely perfect for it too.

That will be so much fun, especially with the A series soundtrack without any sound deadening.  

If you're ever in the Milton Keynes area I'd love to see it in the metal.

[groovylee]

15 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

This thing is fantastic.  Starting to look far less shed built now it's more complete.  The colour is absolutely perfect for it too.

That will be so much fun, especially with the A series soundtrack without any sound deadening.  

If you're ever in the Milton Keynes area I'd love to see it in the metal.

im only down in shefford, so once it is up and running, i'd be more than happy to come and have a play around a few roundabouts 😁

[2flags]

I must say that thing looks epic! 

[groovylee]

only just getting around to updating this from the weekend....

made a start on making a suitably shit(e) exhaust for this.  now bear in mind im doing this with a stick welder, so it was never going to be pretty....

first up. ah. that wont work.

time for a bit of dodgy cut and shut.

and then a bit more

couple more clampy bits

and a suitably shite exhaust hanger. this is only temporary...

[groovylee]

the intention is to get it running on this setup, get the first event out of the way, and then get it over to a custom exhaust place and ask them to make up a nice quiet stainless jobby for it. hopefully it wont cost too much, but i think it'll be worth it in the long run, as i can see this one not lasting forever......

 

[groovylee]

And this was the happy moment. I've got a new dissy on the way, as I don't trust this one, but it was good enough to check it runs. Forgive the blowy exhaust, I hadn't tightened up the manifold properly.

[groovylee]

forgot to add - new brake calipers arrived yesterday - standard mini ones for now, just so i can crack on until i sort out the bleed nipples on the 4 pot metro units. i am waiting on the hoses, and i ordered a new brake flaring tool, as i wasn't totally happy with the double flares on the current one.  this new one looks much better, so fingers crossed.

ive also got a load of new crimp bullets coming, so i can crack on with the front light wiring.

after that, it is a case of wiring in a reversing light, fog light, the compressor, and a USB socket for phone charging and a mini usb maplight i have.

then finally it will be sorting out the timing and mixture, then i should be in a position to road test it! fingers still firmly crossed for the beginning of november.

nothing much happening this weekend, as i am doing the edinburgh trial in the Rickman. hopefully i wont break anything on that, or i will have even more blockers....

 

Lee

[bigfella2]

I wouldn't worry too much about using regular mini calipers, metro turbo calipers might be a bit overkill with this, it looks very light.

[groovylee]

well, the Edinburgh trial went well, in so much as i made it home under my own steam

unfortunately, after 39 hours awake, i succumbed to a bit of man flu, so i have been off work for the past two days.

daytime tv was getting on my tits, so i decided to go and tinker with a bit of wiring. so far i have managed to fit 4 little rocker switches - one for a reversing light, a fog light, the compressor, and the USB socket thing.  one currently spare, but im sure i'll think of something to connect to it.

i'll sort the final compressor wiring etc when i feel a bit better.

I also managed to fit a shelf above the engine, where i hope to build a bracket for the trolley jack.

 

pics to come later

[groovylee]

[tooSavvy]

On 13/10/2022 at 13:40, groovylee said:

........ Errr

[groovylee]

15 hours ago, tooSavvy said:

........ Errr

cheers! i couldnt figure out what went wrong with that!

[mexico]

On 10/15/2022 at 8:38 AM, groovylee said:

cheers! i couldnt figure out what went wrong with that!

hi, I found Chris Hollier on Youtube the other day and searched for images to see whether the Mosquito I helped build appeared (which it didn't) and found my way here.

I helped a mate build what was chassis number 005 I think in 1990/1, specifically for trialling - which is why I thought I'd msg you.

When it was first complete we took it to a kitcar track day at Castle Combe and once we'd got the tyre pressures right it was a real hoot and such an easy car to drive absolutely flat out.

He ran it on the road for a couple of months to make sure it all hung together and then started on the mods for trialling.  The biggest headache was always going to be ground clearance so we started with some Vauxhall 13" rims with 155/80 tyres and I fabricated raised mounts for the coilovers, bolted to the top arms much more substantially than the original C bracket.

We also fitted a sump guard and redesigned the gearchange to route above the floor and pop out below, just in front of the sump guard - not perfect but loads better than before.

Engine was changed to MG Metro 1300 with Mini flywheel and a lower diff, but it was still overgeared for trials tbh.

If you're serious about trialling with yours let me know and I'll talk you through what else we did.

[groovylee]

On 24/01/2023 at 10:16, mexico said:

hi, I found Chris Hollier on Youtube the other day and searched for images to see whether the Mosquito I helped build appeared (which it didn't) and found my way here.

I helped a mate build what was chassis number 005 I think in 1990/1, specifically for trialling - which is why I thought I'd msg you.

When it was first complete we took it to a kitcar track day at Castle Combe and once we'd got the tyre pressures right it was a real hoot and such an easy car to drive absolutely flat out.

He ran it on the road for a couple of months to make sure it all hung together and then started on the mods for trialling.  The biggest headache was always going to be ground clearance so we started with some Vauxhall 13" rims with 155/80 tyres and I fabricated raised mounts for the coilovers, bolted to the top arms much more substantially than the original C bracket.

We also fitted a sump guard and redesigned the gearchange to route above the floor and pop out below, just in front of the sump guard - not perfect but loads better than before.

Engine was changed to MG Metro 1300 with Mini flywheel and a lower diff, but it was still overgeared for trials tbh.

If you're serious about trialling with yours let me know and I'll talk you through what else we did.

cheers Mexico, thats great info. my first challenge is getting it running roughly right, then get a decent exhaust fabbed up for it, get it tuned up, and then go from there. I'll give you a shout when im getting to the stage of actually getting out on a trial.  

[groovylee]

this has sat doing nothing over the last few months, as work, life, and a general loss of mojo stopped me from wanting to go anywhere near it.

the work on the bantam has kind of kicked me out of my funk, so i have had a good clear out of the cockpit, and started to get on with it again.

first up, was the frankly shit exhaust that i lashed up to get it running quietly enough to try and get it timed up and tuned up.  it is obvious that a standard LCB was never going to fit, so i have decided to revert back to the old cast all-in-one manifold, as that has a single pipe exit, and is on a sort of knuckle arrangement, so it should give me some wriggle room to fit everything in.  i found a mild steel Klarius twin box exhaust with all clamps etc, that i think will fit my purposes for the princely sum of £70 delivered, and that is hopefully coming today. if the weather holds out, i'll get some pics and show you all what i intend to do, so people can hopefully tell me it'll work! or, if not, why not....

there are also the rear wheel cylinders to replace, which wont take long, and i should be able to get it back on it's wheels.  then it should just be tuning and fettling before i give it an actual road test. then the usual tweaks and adjustments before i can call it finished (not that a car like this is ever truly finished!)

pics to follow this evening