Finally,
and all the bits back on it. Its not been
polished since painting so its still quite
dull, but hope to polish it this week. I
pulled the front wheels off today in the
hope of removing the trumpets to install
the front HiLos but after removing the shocks,
getting the trumpets out is a lot harder
on the fronts than the rears. Its looks
like I'll need a cone compressor to squish
the cone to get the trumpets out... unless
I butcher the trumpets asI'll never need
them again.. so will see what tomorrow brings.
If I had an angle grinder they'd be history
by now, but I dont, so not sure how, but
I will get the trumpets out ;) Then it will
be lowered at the front and just about ready
for licensing... :) Yay!
All
I need to do before licensing is finish
installing the front HiLos and Koni shocks.
Connect up the air horns and rear LED brake
light, tidy up the cab, put the factory
rubber mat in (will carpet later).. and
reinstall the wiper arms (painted black
today). I think that will mean I can book
her in for licensing. Hopefully the HiLos
give me enough negative camber to pull the
tops of the front wheels in enough to keep
licensing happy. After licensing I'll be
starting on the interior fitout. Stereo,
dash, rear, including a 12" sub in
a custom built enclosure.
Finally, 4 broken
nails later, all four wheels are lowered,
still not polished.
Note the convex mirror inside the side mirror.
I dont think these are legal, but it really
does a great job of covering that huge blind
spot due to removing the rear windows. I knew
it would be a problem, but a problem I was
happy to accept.. and find a solution to..
convex mirrors :)
Unfortunately,
lowering didnt have the desired effect on
the camber of the front wheels so I still
have the problem of the wheels sticking outside
the wheel arches.. by quite a bit. I'm going
to hope licensing pass it anyway, but if they
dont, I'll have to look at adjustable lower
arms to change the camber enough to pull the
tops of the wheels in.
And
yes, I will paint the inside of the wheel
arches black.. I just havent got to that
yet.
It's licensed!!
Managed to pass the pits first go when I
finally got there.
Since then, I have polished most of it,
hired a buffer which wasn't a good idea
as I went through the paint in a couple
of small areas. I still have to finish polishing
the rest by hand, but its driving now, and
really looking good :) After everything
else is done I'll crank up the airbrush
and retouch any areas that need it.
I will get more pics soon I promise, but
I've been a little busy lately.. Its been
shopping a couple of times and even took
it out the bush last weekend and got a decent
load of wood!
I finally decided and bought the stereo
components, which include an Eclpise MP3
HU, Eclipse 4 channel amp, Lightning Globe
12" sub and a set of Alpine Type S
2 way speakers.
To install it has meant Ive had to bring
forward the dash building project which
is very nearly finished. Ive made an mdf
dash, and installed a third Mini guage,
which is a factory tacho from another Mini
wreck. I managed to get the tacho working
and its firmly secured. The dash is in but
yet to be covered, at this stage Im thinking
I'll cover it with black vinyl with a thin
foam underlay for padding. I'll use the
original Clubman dash surrounds, which fit
into the cutouts Ive made in the mdf dash.
I've got the Head Unit installed in a second
hand under dash centre console that Ive
mounted under the heater in the centre of
the cab. I'll be mounting the Amp behind
the drivers seat in a large cavity under
the van floor, and I'll be building a sub
box to house the sub. That will be mounted
at the back of the van facing the rear doors
and roof for maximum effectiveness. The
2 speakers will be mounted in the dash.
Ive laid the carpet to the rear of the van,
and hope to finish the rest of the carpet
in conjunction with the stereo install...
but here she is last weekend before setting
off on her first real job - a load of wood
from up in the hills :) Everything went
beautiful. Temp was good, wipers even worked!!
This was after buffer polishing but Ive
not yet finished the polishing, and it was
covered in dust from the buffer polish..
but after stereo and dash install I'll post
more pics of the whole car...
Its So much fun to drive! Cant wait till
it has music aswell :)
Well....
its still not polished properly, but at least
its had a wash :)
I laid the front of cab carpet underlay and
carpet today, and started shaping the sub
box.
The amp will mount perfectly under the passengers
seat, away from the battery, and RCA cables
will be down the passengers side of the car,
as far as possible from the major power source,
which should eliminate annoying background
noises from power based interferance.
Tomorrow I hope to work on the dash and
front speakers install, and finish the carpet
up the front wheel wells and under the seats.
I wanted to get a couple of closeups of the
roof spoiler, but the battery in the camera
died, so I'll get them next time.
Hmmmm, I wonder what that object in the
back of the van is?
Stay tuned for the stereo install :)
After removing the door
cards to retrim with black fur, holes in
the door panel that were previously covered
with tape were recovered with red vinyl.
After holes covered,
ready for retrimmed door cards.
Back of the door card before refitting back
in the car, fur attached.
The black fur is hard
to see, but finished door, oh and new steering
wheel, fur covered dash and you can see
one of the dash mounted Alpine speakers.
Interior walls and ceiling totally covered
in black fur, new black carpet throughout
and stereo in complete with Amp and 12"
Sub - yes, thats's the Sub! I made the Sub
enclosure out of 2 very heavy duty plastic
bins. Shaped to fit over the wheel arch, attached
to the floor via an mdf base, reinforced at
the top and base with mdf, two layers of bin
are separated by a layer of packing and then
the entire unit air-sealed and bolted to the
floor, then also covered in fur. The acoustics
are brilliant :)
The weber is now on but needs to be tuned,
very driveable but not quite perfect. Seat
covers to match the interior have been ordered,
I'll post pics of the cabin after they have
been fitted.
11.09.2006
The Mini Project continues...
I'm currently trying to locate jets for
the weber. When it (the weber) was rebuilt,
they replaced the 40mm chokes with 38mm
- that wasn't such a big deal IF they had
changed the jets to suit the smaller chokes.
So now I'm having to rejet it in order to
get it running "more street friendly".
The locals seem to give me funny looks when
the only speed it does is wheel spin 1st
and 2nd, then I have to just idle it down
the road, then give it another decent squirt.
Low to mid range is stuffed, but I know
what jets I need and they are hopefully
on their way!
3.10.2006
The new jets arrived and in they went. I scrounged
a couple of pump jets from a spare weber I
had, so now it's running 38mm chokes, 170
main jets, 180 air correctors, F2 Emulsion
tube, 45 pump jets, 50F2 idle jets and 4.5
auxillary vents. Its definitely an improvement
but still the same problem with missing and
farting about through low to mid range (but
not nearly as bad as before). I havent played
with the idle adjustment much as yet, so will
try that first, then with all the spare jets
I have I can now do a bit of "plug and
play" and see if I can improve its driveability/performance.
If that fails I'm going to go back to 40mm
chokes and a full race jet setup as thats
how it used to be and it used to run great.
I havent had my 40mm chokes since the rebuild,
but now I have them back I'll be able to rejet
it all as it was originally (if I cant get
it to run well on the 38mm chokes).
and once I finally get it running right...
I'm going to get it painted professionally.
I was really happy to have it red, but my
painting skills and or equipment, weren't
up to the challenge, so a decent paintjob
will be the go. See Chapter 6 for the new
paint job :)
