kev's Fleet, TR7V8,Lotus Elan, Morris Minor, Range Rover, MX5, StreetKA and Fiesta

[kevins]

Thought I'd start a thread for my fleet, I'll introduce them in the order I got them.

The first one us the TR7V8.

this was bought in 1993 as a restoration project, It had been ziebarted from new but still needed 3 wheelarches, door bottoms and a number of smaller repairs, plus a recon engine.  my wife ran it for 5 years as her everyday car  until our daughter came along.  I then used it for another 8 or 9 years until the recon engine blew a head gasket, I couldn't get ghe head off so fitted a £100 secondhand engine and started hunting for RV8 bits.  The engine I bought was stripped and looked/measured  fine,  I made the engine mountings, cooling sytem and twin exhaust and fitted it,  what a tranaformation!  only problem was when it got hot it had a knock, after 3 strip downs I concluded it must be something like a liner moving and fitted another short engine which has been fine ever since, it's also lowered, has improved brakes and 15" mg maestro wheels.  Future plans are to  sell It!  I have run out of space and there is a limit to how many open 2 seat cars one can drive.  Before that it needs some new tyres and a few other odds and ends tidying up.

[kevins]

next up is the Lotus,

 

bought in 1996 as a coupe I bought the parts from Chrstopher Niel and chopped the roof off,  adding some stiffening and a rear roll hoop, I've also fitted a Type9 5 speed gearbox. Otherwise there was new bodywork from the doors backwards after it was rear ended, an uprated cooljng system, improvements to the wiring and MX5 tombstone seats, the twin cam has been the most reliable bit All I've ever changed is a timing chain and done valve clearances.

Future plans are to use it more after I retire next year I also need to finoshe stripping  the paint off the front and re-do it, there are about 8 coats and it's got a few microblisters, I did the worst front wing a couple of years ago.

[kevins]

A bit of a gap to the next one (2 kids arrived).  I about 2008 my Wife said we need something more practical,  I went and bought a series 2 Landrover and restored it, but apparantly that was too practical, so I sold it made a bit of cash and bought a rusty 1986 Range Rover V8.  

It was mechanically pretty good but needed all the usual rust repairs. sills body mounts, floors kick panels and inner wings, pretty much all flat panels though so easy enough to fabricate repair panels, It also needed 2 new back doors and a lower tailgate. I then re-painted it in the older colour of lincoln green and started using it.

Good news is my wife likes it.

The fuel injection system has been a learning curve, eventually I found the main problem was 2 M6 unplugged threaded holes in the bottom of the plenium, 

I also re built thd AC system and got that working with R290.

The only other major issue was a failed Auto box, a new one from Ashcroft cost a  grand and took me a couple of weeks to fit but has been great ever since.

Future plans are MOT it in January,  change all the fuel lines and  go over the underside whic is getting a few areas of surface rust again. 

[kevins]

next was the Minor, this was a present for my son on his 11th birthday and we first drove it to his prom.

It looked a bit rough but was far worse, in the end we replaced, most of the bottom 6" of the car, A pillars, door shuts, gutters, roof edges, doors, boot and a couple of new wings (it had 2 newish front ones).  It was then stripped to a bare metal shell and painted. Mechanicaly it's a pretty standard 1098, initialy it had a secondhand engine and the original gerabox,  we've subsequently re-built both, only other mods are street Ka leather seats, 13" midget wheels properly fused wiring and a home made disc brake setvup using corsa c parts.

I has an interesting history it was one of 4 vehicles bought new by Bristol Omnibus for their inspectors, there are a few photos of them around and this one was modeled by corgi.

My son's future plans are twin carbs and a sports exhaust (we rebuilt the engine with ported head, higher CR and a warm cam), some minilite wheels and fix the weeping rear dampers and brake judder.

It was his every day car but now he has graduated and has  a long dual carriageway commute he uses my company car most days. 

We also have a maestro 1275 engine  which is a long term project to build up  for this.

 

[kevins]

Next was the Mx5 (more accurately a Eunos Roadster) as it is a grey import.

we got this in 2015 when my daughter passed her driving test, she drove my company car which was insured for her anyway and my wife bought this with what would have been the insurance cost for a car for my daughter. Aside from service items a clutch, a new soft,  top and some accident damage when a gate post stepped out into the car it's needed nothing else, it's a great little car that my wife used every day and we have been all over the UK in it, a couple of months ago we retired it from daily winter use when we got the fiesta but it will continue yo be used all summer.

plans for the future are to change the cam belt, repair the air con, and fit new seat covers, There are also a few bits of bodywork which could be improved.

[kevins]

That brings me to my daughters car, when she graduated she needed a car, I found the street ka for £900, it's was pretty much rust free and 5 years later  all I've done is service items, replaced most of the bushes and umpteen tyres and wheels. future plans for this are pretty much just to keep it tidy and reliable.

I did also splash out £170 on a hardtop for it.

 

8

[kevins]

And finaly we have ghe latest aquasition, a 2010 1.4 titanium Fiesta.

 

My wifes octagenarian parents were struggling with the mx5 so we bought this as a bit of a hack, its done 100,000 miles has just had the cam belt brakes tyres, and a major service.  We've done about 1000 miles in the month we have had it, only things we have had to do is replace a buckled wheel, and the badge on the front.  It needs a new cruise control switch (up doesen't work) and we're thinking about fitting mk7.5 half leather heated seats, there is also a strange patch on one sill which needs cutting off and doing properly, this summer it will also get a good waxoyling.

 

[Bren]

Nice fleet. Especially the TR8.

I have seen 2012 fiestas with sills that would fail an MOT.

 

[High Jetter]

Yup, welcome aboard, nice fleet there. 

[kevins]

8 hours ago, Bren said:

Nice fleet. Especially the TR8.

I have seen 2012 fiestas with sills that would fail an MOT.

 

it's a typical "to MOT standard repair (what they don't say is the minimum MOT standard!) with a large square patch slaped over the whole area  ,  the strange thing is there seems to be no other serious corrosion around there or any where else and the kerbside looks perfect, I wonder if it's been  damaged in some way and left to rust from the outside in.  I quite enjoy bodywork so it will be something to have a play with later in the year when the weather's nicer.

[kevins]

So what have I been doing recently, I learnt many years ago not to make too many plans for over xmas becasue I always failed to get most of it done, so true to form not a great deal happened on the cars,  On the mazda I stripped the painted dash back to it's original Tan colour, plan is to have a tan lower dash, and black crash pads, I've already fitted black mk2 carpets and black kick panels, Later this year I plan to splash out on new tan leather seat covers. to really tidy the interior up. 

On the Range Rover I took the washer bottle out and cleaned loads of horrible black gunk out of it hopefully it will stop blocking the jets all the time now, atfer I put it back together I realised the rear pump has also failed so I'll have to fit a new one at some point, gave aeveryhting else a quick look over before the mot next week, can't see anythin major, only thing I cna see is a bit of a leak form one of the swivel seals but I don't think thats an MOT item.

On the fiesta I fitted new rear light seals and replaced the damaged wheel nuts, not done the cruise control switch yet. ALs my Daghter borrowed it and buckled a wheel but I managed to knock it out with the  hide end of my copper hide hammer, as I think this is going to be a re-occurring issue I might look at making a wheel straightening rig.

The minor , it is a 1098 and when we re-built it we fitted a high lift cam , raised the compression ratio and did a bit of head and combustion champer porting but  it still has the original single HS2 carb and pea shooter exhaust, my son has been using it like this for a year and  it's certainly much better than it was (he was using for towing canoes over xmas). We have though bought a pari of twin SU's off a MG1300 and a LCB type exhaust, soI started stripping and cleaning  the SU's, the first parts are in the ultrasonic tank, now I did come accross one problem though, the heatsheild we bought for it was intended for Midget but the carb spacing on a midget appears to be about 20mm different to the MG1300, I'll probably cut it and rivet it back together narrower.

Carbs stripped from manifold and difference between carb spacing on MG midget vs Mg1300

In ultrrasonic tank

fluid was clear before

manifold afterwards.

As for the others appart form changing a worn tyre the Street KA has it's hard top on and has been running well, given the recent weather is not ideal for old british convertibles the TR and lotus have not been further than the end of the drive.

It will be an intersting year, It looks like I will be taking early retirement at some point so should have a bit more time,  None of the cars need  major work but there are quite a few smaller things which hopefully I will get the time to do, seats air con and timing belt on the MX5, changing the range rover fuel lines, changing the LCA's and rust proofing the fiesta etc, I'll also probably do a few things to tidy up the TR (mainly wheels and tyres) and sell it as it rarely gets used now as well.

 

 

 

 

[kevins]

Spent most of today with the family at the Harry Potter Studios, when I cot home a selection of connectors I ordered had arrived.  One of the things we want to do to the fiesta is fit mk7.5 heated seats, the seats and switch are easy enough to get hold of but the wiring connector for the switch is a problem, I thought computer ones looked similar and lo and behold they fit.

obviously don't lock in like the originals but they are a nice tight fit so I don't think that will be a problem, Using a multimeter and 9v battery I also worked out the pinouts.

Now just need to make a loom to go to each switch, decide where to put the switch (replacing credit card holder is favourite) and of course get some seats, that will be another summer project.

[kevins]

Tried fitting the manifolds on a spare minor engine today.




manifolds fit OK but the carbs foul the exhaust.




that is with the spacer combination that came with the MG 1300 set up.

Options seem to be a new maniflow fabricated manifold at around £240 or lengthen the studs and make some thicker spacers which will cost around £30, I'm going for the later! using the spacers I have this seems to work.




which is a 50mm spacer behind the heatsheild and the std minor plastic block in front of it.

I think a big stack of the plastic spacers is asking for trouble though so I'll buy a 50mm square alloy block to make the main spacer out of.

For the stud it needs to be 3/8 UNC one end a 3/8 UNF at the other, digging around I found these 3/8 UNF bolts.




Which I can cut the head off and tap the other end to UNC, they are series Landrover front bumper bolts so 4 new ones were less than a fiver.

[kevins]

 

Range rover MOT today, first time the certificate has run to 2 pages all 15  monitor advisaries though so it passed, 4x rusty springs, 4 x seat belts slightly frayed, 4x brake pipes covered in grease, one for minor engine oil leak, 2 for tyres with minor damage and one for corroson but not signifcantly affecting structue.

Out of those the last is the only one which really needs any attention, there is a blister in the chassis near the rear spring, I intended to have a go at this area anyway before I change the fuel lines so that can wait till it warms up, one of the rear seat belts has a small nick in it so I will change that the others are just a bit frayed after 38 years. Tyres are small cuts and cracks they are 4 ply BF Goodridge so nothing to serious but they are getting on a bit so I may splash out n a new set later this year, the rest is insignifcant.

emissions were pretty good at 0.13% CO and 79ppm HC !

Just crawled under the back of it, he's right, it's not the surface rust the nearside rear body mount bracket is cracked on the body side, not the end of the world and very localised will be a bit of a fiddle  to get to but I'll find a way.

 

Had a bit more of a play with the minor carbs today, cut a couple of 50mm spacers, made a couple of longer studs and mounted the carbs.





cut some of the heatsheild away to give clearance for the linkage.




I think I'll probably cut the centre out completely and replace it with a lowered section.

[kevins]

50mm square block of aluminium arrived today, so I set to making the spacers for the carbs, went to cut it to length with my 2 years and 1 month old evolution saw to find it's packed up, turned out the stator has gone because this wire rubs on the rotor.







sent them a letter expressing my dissapointment and that I don't believe this is reasonable, we'll see how they reply.

so I dug out my old metal bandsaw,and cut it up with that.




drilled some holes in it then used the bandsaw to cut the sides at an angle.




to give me this.




checked the holes are square and parallel.




The bore is currently only an inch so I will either need to get a 1 1/4" drill or bore it out on the Lathe round my dads, the outside will probably be tidied up with the belt sander.

The studs I've done by hand are not true so I will do the new ones on the Lathe too.

 

[sdkrc]

Great write-ups and photos, also one hell of a fleet. Thanks for sharing, should be a cracking thread

[Matty]

My 1098 goes like stink. It's on a single HS4, minisport inlet manifold, maniflow full system and the head has been reworked. They do respond very well to breathing mods. I'd imagine what you're doing to the minor will see real benefits. Plus they are proper little torque monsters (obviously all things being relative)!

Following this with interest!

[Noel Tidybeard]

re range rooney washers- only use one type/brand washer fluid or they can react with each other and you've seen the result!

[kevins]

1 hour ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

re range rooney washers- only use one type/brand washer fluid or they can react with each other and you've seen the result!

Good pointwe are using prestone stuff which seems fine in the other cars.

[kevins]

3 hours ago, Matty said:

My 1098 goes like stink. It's on a single HS4, minisport inlet manifold, maniflow full system and the head has been reworked. They do respond very well to breathing mods. I'd imagine what you're doing to the minor will see real benefits. Plus they are proper little torque monsters (obviously all things being relative)!

Following this with interest!

I hope so, it's at 9:1 Cr, has a head I re-worked along Vizards lines and a high lift cam. even with the std carb the increase in torque is noticible.

[Matty]

44 minutes ago, kevins said:

I hope so, it's at 9:1 Cr, has a head I re-worked along Vizards lines and a high lift cam. even with the std carb the increase in torque is noticible.

Great engines. I've a 1310 with a hotter cam I've built that's going in mine next month. Just hope I've done it right 😆

[rattlecan]

On 17/12/2023 at 23:14, kevins said:

That brings me to my daughters car, when she graduated she needed a car, I found the street ka for £900, it's was pretty much rust free and 5 years later  all I've done is service items, replaced most of the bushes and umpteen tyres and wheels. future plans for this are pretty much just to keep it tidy and reliable.

I did also splash out £170 on a hardtop for it.

 

8

My missus had one of these in metallic blue, brand new in 04 (I think) £13k it was. Great little cars (apart from the tin worm as we know)

Ive always wondered why no one has named theirs ‘Desire’ 🤣

[kevins]

4 hours ago, Matty said:

Great engines. I've a 1310 with a hotter cam I've built that's going in mine next month. Just hope I've done it right 😆

the engine I'm doing the carb build on is a maestro 1275, I have a plan to build this up with a mx5 gearbox one day.

[kevins]

4 hours ago, rattlecan said:

My missus had one of these in metallic blue, brand new in 04 (I think) £13k it was. Great little cars (apart from the tin worm as we know)

Ive always wondered why no one has named theirs ‘Desire’ 🤣

These aren't too bad for tin worm, they were made by pininfarina who seemed to have a much better paint plant than Valencia, after 18 years this had it 's first welding this year a small patch in the floor, It drives amazingly, the nearest modern to a proper Mini I have driven.

[Matty]

1 hour ago, kevins said:

the engine I'm doing the carb build on is a maestro 1275, I have a plan to build this up with a mx5 gearbox one day.

Gearing is the major limiting factor imo. I'm looking for a 3.9 diff to go with the new engine to lower the overall gearing for a bit less frantic 60 odd mph cruising.

Shame as the B(?) Series box is such a sweet little unit. If only it had a 5th cog or overdrive!

[kevins]

Yep, 3.9 works nicely but they are getting thin on the ground and expensive now.

[kevins]

today spent 3 hours standing in front of a lathe.

firstly the studs, I'm sure we have a die holder to go in the tailstock somewhere but I couldn't find it so started the die square using the chuck in the tailstock.







I have now tried them and all 4 are true.

next up boring the spacers out.


had to take it slowly as the 4 jaw chuck in not that rigidly mounted but got there in the end.

Then onto the air cleaner mount / intake trumpet, a bit rough but I will tidy them up with a drum sander on the dremal.



this is the 2 of them in the air cleaner backplate.

 

unfortunately the tool dug in so one has a groove in it, I'll probably coat them w5ith epoxy and sand that smooth.

one in place on the carb. will need to drill the mounting and vent holes this week.


when I got home I trial fitted the studs and spacers, all good.

Only thing which worries me with this is icing I'll add a spigot to the heatsheild so the air cleaner can be ducted to pick up hot air if need be.

It does get used in the winter a 150 mile round trip today to pick up a 110 year old canoe today.

[kevins]

Filled the groove in with epoxy mixed with alloy filings  and cleaned up the intakes,  using files and a sanding drum, then drilled them and fitted with some bolts.

Eventually they will be replaced with lengths of studding which will also hold the aircleaner on.

Next up will be finish the heatshield. I may also look at bracing the lower carb fixing down to the block, there's a lot of mass hanging off the not amazingly strong manifold to head joint.

Also checked the air cleaner fitted.

CCc 77anEed up and driiled the intake trumpets . teday Eventually  checked the air cleaner back plate fitted.   I've ordered some 5/16 studding and with that I should be able to put it all together. As there is a fair mass hanging off the manifold I'm also looking at bracing the bottom fixing of the carbs back to the block.

7

[Matty]

Excellent work. Well impressed 👍

[kevins]

Been to cold to gather any great enthiasm to go down the workshop, some threaded rod and dome nuts did turn up so I put this together.

 

 

next step will be to finish the heatshield.

Spent my lunchtime today on the Father in-Laws car, this, a proper Shitter.

For years he had an old Doblo but now has a dodgy foot so wanted an auto.

I told him to get something non turbo petrol with a conventional auto ideally VW or Ford . He bought a  dv6 automated manual Shitroen from a dodgy dealer.  Already its cost him the best part of a grand to get the electrics and leaking injectors sorted, and  a recent service highlighted it had locking wheel nuts and no key....

So that was my task for the day, blobs of mig and hammering sockets on got them all off and replaced with normal bolts.

 

And tomorrow I'm apparantly driving it round to surrey,  I've checked my AA is upto date!