Ben–350Z Posted July 3, 2019 Share Posted July 3, 2019 Just found this thread - read it all in one go. Excellent work! Makes me want a project car of my own... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Posted July 3, 2019 Share Posted July 3, 2019 Slightly off topic. how do you find your ramps to use? what kind of lift do they give you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rabbitstew Posted July 4, 2019 Author Share Posted July 4, 2019 12 hours ago, Ian said: Slightly off topic. how do you find your ramps to use? what kind of lift do they give you? The ramps are awesome. I ummed & ahhed about them initially when I bought them the other year as they arnt cheap, but having used them a lot on the mini they have certainly paid for themselves. They are really easy to use. You just slide each ramp under the side of the car, make sue the blocks are inline with the cars jacking points. Connect the ramps compressor to a car battery, hit the up button and off it goes. There are 2 height settings. One which I guess is just if you want to get the wheels off, the other is a good 2 1/2 feet or so off the ground. Certainly high enough to do anything you are likely to need to do. I dropped the exhaust manifold out from under the car easily and the car was high enough that stuff isnt "in your face". Mines the quickjack BL5000. Rated to 5000lb. So much easier & quicker then having to jack the car up and mess about with axle stands. When I was setting the suspension up, i could raise it, adjust the ride height, then drop it to see what difference it made, then raise it again to adjust some more. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowzi Posted July 4, 2019 Share Posted July 4, 2019 Awesome write up Really fancy doing something similar myself, if I ever locate a project car good enough I might tap you up for some of the places to purchase parts if that's ok? One question, you mentioned you had the mushrooming suspension towers, you aren't looking at something like this to avoid the issue recurring...or did I miss that post? https://orranje.co.uk/product/kavs-motorsport-strut-reinforcement-plates-srps Cheers Mark 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rabbitstew Posted July 5, 2019 Author Share Posted July 5, 2019 10 hours ago, bowzi said: Awesome write up Really fancy doing something similar myself, if I ever locate a project car good enough I might tap you up for some of the places to purchase parts if that's ok? One question, you mentioned you had the mushrooming suspension towers, you aren't looking at something like this to avoid the issue recurring...or did I miss that post? https://orranje.co.uk/product/kavs-motorsport-strut-reinforcement-plates-srps Cheers Mark No problem, always happy to help. I looked at those protectors, and to be honest they are a bit over priced for what they are. I would just get some sheet steel and make my own. I didn't get them as the replacement top mounts I got (old one were broke) are huge adjustable ones, so they should offer similar protection. Also hopefully I will avoid pot holes which is what causes this. Some people add a strut brace but I am reading that it doesn't make any difference to handling on mini. But I can see it would offer more protection to the strut tower so I may get one at some point! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowzi Posted July 5, 2019 Share Posted July 5, 2019 51 minutes ago, rabbitstew said: I looked at those protectors, and to be honest they are a bit over priced for what they are. I would just get some sheet steel and make my own. I've even more garage envy than I had previous 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rabbitstew Posted July 5, 2019 Author Share Posted July 5, 2019 2 hours ago, bowzi said: I've even more garage envy than I had previous Nar you just need an angle grinder to cut to the sheet of metal to shape, then a drill & hack saw to cut the holes out and hole for the strut top to go through and bobs your Uncle. TBH working on a car in a garage is still a novelty to me. For most of my life I have always had to work under cars on axle stands on the drive. Not fun in winter etc. but you still can get the job done. I remember when I was at Uni, the suspension on my mini collapsed. I pinched some bricks off the building site opposite - jacked the mini up in the Uni carpark. Stuck it on the bricks, took the old suspension off, walked to the local scrap yard and bought a 2nd hand unit, came back and fitted it. Only had bare minimal tools at that stage too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rabbitstew Posted July 23, 2019 Author Share Posted July 23, 2019 Well its been a good few weeks since the last update and I am happy to report that the mini is going really well. Its proving to be a good fun car, especially when I am wringing its neck down B-roads on the way to work & back. It has a surprising turn of speed, especially when overtaking. Only downside is the mpg, but then I knew that when I got it. For practically I maybe should have gone for a Cooper and not a Cooper S. A couple of extra spends... I had the rear window re-tinted as the old tint had bubbled up and looked horrendous. TBH I removed the old tint myself (nightmare) and did try to tint it myself after watching some youtube videos, to save some money, but I just couldn't do it. So, I took it to a local place who did a perfect job for £40. They made it look so easy too. There is a nasty clunking/banging noise from the rear over some bumps. It doesn't affect the cars performance or handling, but when you hit a pot hole it sounds quite nasty. I have had a look and I cant see anything obvious catching. I have raised the rear ride height up on the coil overs to see if it was just too low and causing something to foul, but that's not made any difference. Googling suggests a couple of things to check. Firstly the ARB bushes - cant be them as they are new, shocks (again new), rear ARB drop links... hmmm.. could well be them as I just re-used the old ones. Apparently if you don't put loctitie on the nuts they can work a bit loose and cause a clunk on bumps. That sounds feasible to me, so I have just ordered a replacement set (£15 the pair). In addition I will double check all the bolts/nuts I had off the rear end and loctite them just to make sure. Someone suggested the shock top nut can work loose and allow some movement. Again, I will check this. I also took it to a bodyshop to get a quote for repainting the bonnet (paint is all cracked) and having the rust cut out of the boot and that repainted... £500 minimum the bloke said. Which tbh is a fair price, but for that money (baring in mind what the cars worth) I will just leave it. I have got all the spraying gear at home & a compressor, so when I get time I will give it a go myself. Hopefully will get some time on the car over the weekend so will update you about the banging in the rear (ooer missus) once I know more. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rabbitstew Posted August 5, 2019 Author Share Posted August 5, 2019 Brief update.. I managed to get the Mini in the garage over the weekend and up on the ramps. I checked over all the rear suspension and it was all torqued up correctly. hmmmm.. So then I took the rear shocks off - literally a 5 mins job if that - undo two 13mm bolts & one 21mm bolt. The top strut nut looked fine, but I tightened it up more until it wouldn't go any tighter. Reassembled and hey presto the very scary rear clunking noise has now gone. Hopefully it will stay like that! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rabbitstew Posted August 27, 2019 Author Share Posted August 27, 2019 Well the scorching weather this weekend lent itself perfectly for a bit of painting. So firstly I got some new tyres fitted, ditching the horrible dunlop runflats for some new Michlean PS4`s... Then I sanded the wheels down, primered and sprayed.... Left them to bake in the sun for a few hours and then fitted them to the car... Not bad for rattle cans and they look a lot better on the car than I expected. Think I will more than likely do the roof orange as well as some point, but may have to get some paint & use my compressor for that, rather than rattle cans. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stanski Posted August 27, 2019 Share Posted August 27, 2019 2 hours ago, rabbitstew said: Well the scorching weather this weekend lent itself perfectly for a bit of painting. So firstly I got some new tyres fitted, ditching the horrible dunlop runflats for some new Michlean PS4`s... Then I sanded the wheels down, primered and sprayed.... Left them to bake in the sun for a few hours and then fitted them to the car... Not bad for rattle cans and they look a lot better on the car than I expected. Think I will more than likely do the roof orange as well as some point, but may have to get some paint & use my compressor for that, rather than rattle cans. Excellent well done. Don't underestimate spray cans. I did all of the inside , wings and engine lid in them (a very long time ago) on my old Beetle and they came out fine. Only issue is the cost but they were cheaper then. Used a cheapo hobby compressor then an Aldi one which has been fab. Although I did invest in a nice devilbliss gun. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rabbitstew Posted September 10, 2019 Author Share Posted September 10, 2019 Last week I noticed that when I lifted off the throttle on the Mini there would be a bit of a clanging noise. It was fine under acceleration or braking, so I put up with it for a few days - just made sure I was either accelerating or braking all the time! The noise got a bit louder as the days went past and through process of elimination, I guessed it was the drivers side CV joint, so over the weekend I got the car in the garage and up on the ramps. Sure enough, turning both the front wheels by hand I could feel some play in the drivers side CV Joint, compared to the passengers side which felt fine. The CV Joint is very easy to replace and only costs £15, so once again the Mini is proving to be a cheap car to fix. The original joint had done 107,000 miles and I had been wringing its little neck since I got it, so it wasn't a surprise that it was a bit worn. To get to the joint, you undo the 32mm hub nut and undo the bottom ball joint nut. Only took 10 seconds with the impact gun. A couple of wacks with a lump hammer and the ball joint comes out of the lower wishbone and you can pop the CV Joint and drive shaft out from the hub - like so... Now, often you then have to remove the whole drive shaft, put it in the vice & knock the CV Joint off with a hammer. However I didn't fancy that, so a couple more clouts with a lump hammer and off it came.. You can see how old & rusty it is. New one knocks straight on, pack it with grease, reattach the CV rubber boots and jobs a goodun. Or usually it is... however for some reason I didn't knock the CV joint on enough and on the test run the shaft popped out of the CV joint leaving me stranded on the side of the road. Doh. I've done dozens of these and never had a problem, so guess there's first time for everything but I did feel like a right idiot. So I weigh up my options. I could fix it on the side of the road, but I wasn't really in a safe position to do that. I've got RAC membership which I have never used, so give them a call. "Certainly Sir, no problem we will be there in 3 hours". Lovely. I am only about 5 mins from my house. I then remember my neighbour has a towbar on his transit van, so I give him a call. "Be there in 1 minute". That's a bit better, quick tow home and 5 mins later Mini is back on my drive all safe. Quickly jack it up, re-attach CV joint properly this time and its all back up & running. Lesson learnt! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davey_83 Posted September 10, 2019 Share Posted September 10, 2019 Yep lesson learnt, progress and car looking good. Good mate the weekend complete a head gasket replacement on his Cooper S. Then got couple hoses mixed up for the supercharger and had the unit off again eek. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rabbitstew Posted September 12, 2019 Author Share Posted September 12, 2019 On 10/09/2019 at 18:13, davey_83 said: Looks familiar seeing a Mini with the front end off! And good to see the essential tool there too - the lump hammer on top of the air box. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rabbitstew Posted September 24, 2019 Author Share Posted September 24, 2019 This weekend I managed to get a spare couple of hours in the garage. I had seen these vented A panels online and thought they looked pretty good.... but the £375 + £75 surcharge price tag didn't look as good... Cant be that hard to make them surely? So I bought a pair of 2nd hand A panels from the scrapyard for £20 each... then marked out the shape with a sharpie.. I then got the old angle grinder out and cut the shape out... Which went a lot better than I was expecting! Bent it in a bit to make the vented section. I then welded in some small triangle bits of metal... Which gave it some support. Excuse the welding, this wasn't the finished item but gives you an idea. Then I found some mesh in the shed and cut & bonded that in like so.... They still needs some finishing, some filler & a lick of paint but all in all im pretty pleased with the result for £20 and a couple of hours work! 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rabbitstew Posted August 24, 2021 Author Share Posted August 24, 2021 And so it begins again..... Picked this little baby up last week. I didn't really need it and am not looking forward to the inevitable "hairdresser" jokes, but it popped up on an alert I had setup and was too much of a bargain to turn down! Unlike the black one, this one doesn't really need much doing as it came with FSH, new MOT, brand new exhaust, new suspension bushes, 4 previous owners, bodywork pretty much mint with perfect panel gaps all around. New Uniroyal tyres, new DAB radio, new brake discs/pads and it looks like the wheels were refurbed not so long ago. It drives really well! Its also a mid 2006 model so its the facelifted R53. There's a few bits different to the earlier models, they came with a teflon coated super charger and a pop & bang map as standard which gave it a bit more power. Certainly a bargain for £1500! So what needs doing? Well it was sat under a tree so its covered in tree sap so I need to give it a good detailing. The reversing sensors dont work, it hasnt had its supercharger service yet and the hood has a couple of small patches so I need to see if there's a better way of repairing that. Like the black one it has the horrible 2 spoke steering wheel so I will upgrade that to the newer 3 spoke one. I did consider taking all the mods off the black one and putting on it, but its in such good condition I think I will keep it stock and just have fun throughout the summer in it. (when im not cutting hair!) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyser Posted August 24, 2021 Share Posted August 24, 2021 Looks like a fun project mate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stutopia Posted August 25, 2021 Share Posted August 25, 2021 You only get hairdresser jokes for one mini. If you have more than one, you move on to Estate Agent jokes. 😉 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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