The Register

The E-Newsletter of The Mini Register

December 2007

Merry Christmas

and a Happy New Year

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New Members

We would like to extend a very warm welcome to The Mini Register to:

John Lieberman, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA

 John's very specialised Mini started off as a 1965 Austin Saloon, it is now used just for SCCA autocross events where it runs in the G-Prepared class. The list of modifications is impressive

• 1275 punched .040 over with 12:1 Omega flattop pistons and A+ rods.
• 4-bolt center main cap.  
• Lightened flywheel.
• Ported, polished, and relieved head with 1.5 roller-tip rockers and 260 lb. Isky springs.
• Button clutch.  
• Wilwood brake and clutch master cylinders with inboard reservoirs.  
• 4.11 diff with Phantom Grip limited slip.  
• Metro Turbo 4-pots.  
• Fully-adjustable suspension with GAZ shocks.  
• Delrin bushings all around.  
• AutoPower roll bar.  
• Kirkey aluminum driver's seat.  
• Summit Racing ignition box with adjustable rev limiter.  
• Aldon yellow dizzy with Pertronix Ignitor and Summit Racing 51kv coil.  
• 20x7-13 slicks on Diamond Racing Wheels.  

"Needless to say, this car is a trailer queen"

Mike Williams-Kenny, Ontario, Canada

As you can see, Mike has a great collection of Minis

"I emigrated to Hamilton Ontario Canada in 1974 and returned back to the UK in 1993, after 10 years we returned back to Canada. I have a great passion for classic minis having worked on them in my garage in Chester UK for many years. I went to the UK 2 years ago and purchased a Rover Mayfair 1990, 1 owner, in VGC."

Roger Whitty, Tarpeena, South East Australia

Roger's White 1974 Clubman was refurbished 3 Years ago, including the body, paint and interior. It is now fitted with 12" mag wheels, 8.4 disk brakes and a 1275 Cooper S engine.

Signe Nielsen, Stjær, Denmark

This is Signe's 1992  British Open Special that she calls Lille-vilde, if the on-line translator is correct, this means Little Savage.

"This is my first Mini. I chose it after driving big 4x4's for years. He is by far the funniest car I've ever had, and I hope He will last forever. I have a few minor projects to complete, but He was in very good shape when I bought him. I plan no modifications, because He is very close to original, and I would like to keep Him that way."

Rob and Sharon Harrison, Leicester, UK

Rob and Sharron own an Island Blue Automatic Delux from 1968.

"We have owned this Mini since 2003 and are in the process of restoring her. She is named after Launa from the Italian Job, our previous Mini was called Mr Bridger."

Members update

Jon Scott has sent us this photo of him competing in his Nota Fang at a very wet Phillip Island near Melbourne. As he says "A good handfull of courage was needed"

Awie of Kuala Terengganu in Malaysia has let us know that his Mini is a stage nearer completion, as it has now left the paint shop - we look forward to some photos of the car.

NZ AA Van

Thanks to Chris Lee for these photos of a New Zealand AA Mini patrol van, spotted in the Geraldine Vintage Car & Machinery Museum at Geraldine near Christchurch.

Mini Reshell

The beginning of the story, a 1983 Mini 1000, which had been pushed sideways, halfway round a roundabout by a large truck. I would have replaced the damaged panels, but corrosion problems in the floor pan & bulkhead dictated the need for another shell.

Dashboard, seats, interior trim, glass & carpets are easily removed in an hour or so.

Another couple of hours sees the engine & gearbox, hydraulic cylinders & wiper assembly out of the way. Personally, I do not disconnect the front suspension joints to remove the driveshafts, having given the pot joints a tap to free the clips, I find it easy to ‘buttonhole’ them out of the gearbox, as the engine is raised. A lot of people disagree with me on that but whichever way you find easier has to be best for you.

Now the time consuming work begins, refurbishing all the re-useable components, as an example, here’s a ‘before & after’ shot of the rear brake pressure reducing valve. I’ve previously seen shell changes where all the components are just swapped from one to the other, in whatever their condition happens to be, but in my mind, it doesn’t do justice to a beautifully prepared replacement shell.

The engine & gearbox, waiting to be separated, as there was a weak synchro On 2nd gear, the opportunity was taken to fix it during the rebuild. I had rebuilt the engine about 7000 miles previous to the accident, so that just  needed cleaning & was sealed in bubble wrap until the gearbox was fixed.

Engine & box re-united & treated to some nice new paint. Note that the clevis pin on which the clutch release arm pivots, has the split pin, (or in this case. An ‘R’ clip) facing upwards. If it is ever necessary to remove it in the future, it’s so much easier. The missing end case bolt, to the left of clutch release assembly is intentional, it’s the one that’s a pig to get to if you need to change a clutch without removing the engine.

The shell eventually arrives, loosely sitting on it’s frames for ease of transport. This is a refurbished shell supplied by a local Mini Centre, originally intended for Rallying, (I was first told it was destined for Miglia Racing) beautifully prepared & very strong.

The first thing I did was to clean all the dust out of the engine bay & give it two good coats of Hammerite, not only does it look good, it does wonders for the life expectancy of the inner wings & bulkhead.

MINI SUV on its way

BMW is to out-source the production of the fourth model in the MINI range to Austrian firm Magna Steyr, under the project name of MINI SAV (Sports Activity Vehicle), it is to be an SUV, probably based on the new MINI Clubman. Close co-operation between the MINI designers in Munich and the engineers in Magna Steyr will ensure that it retains the MINI identity. As the project will involve significant drive train development, it seems reasonable to assume that the car will feature 4 wheel drive.

Picture: Hans Lehmann

Although no official details of the car have been released yet, it is rumoured that the model will be called the Colorado, which would make sense as the US market is expected to be the main target.

Freestyle build

More progress again this month on the Freestyle autotester build, not a lot, but definitely in the right direction.

After trying out a few designs for the fiddle brake bracket, including one that made it as far as a cardboard prototype, the final design proved to be the simplest and has now been welded up and fitted.

The bracket holds two master cylinders, one for each of the rear wheels, the principle being that in order tighten a turn, for example when performing a 360 degree turn around a cone, the lever for the inside wheel is pulled which slows the inside wheel, letting the diff direct the drive to the outside wheel where it can push the rear of the car around.

The fiddle brake master cylinders are plumbed into the rear brake circuit; the output from the foot brake master cylinder is fed through a T-piece into the inputs of the fiddle brake cylinders. This requires a special brake nut as the input fitting is a 7/16 UNF rather than the usual 3/8 UNF. 7/16 nuts are usually used for 1/4 inch pipe, so the special nut has the 7/16 UNF thread but the 3/16 inch hole.

Next up was the gear change, with the engine at the back, the Freestyle kit comes with a shaped rod that passes under the gearbox to a standard Mini rod change unit turned through 180 degrees. The gear change is normally mounted forward of the seat, but in this case it needs to be behind the fiddle brake levers for the minimum hand travel between gear leaver and brake levers.

In order to clear the side of the seat, brackets were made to mount the gear change at an angle.

Start of Freestyle Build

Events

Sunday 13th January - The excellent Wirral Minis Llandudno run along the North Wales coast, book early it is very popular.

Sunday 13th January - Mini Owners of Southern Africa will be taking part in the SAMCA Run to the Vaal event.

Sunday 27th January - British Mini Fair, Bingley Hall, Stafford

That's it, please let us know what is going on in your part of the world.

Keep in touch

Mike Bennett
theregister@miniregister.co.uk

The opinions expressed in The Register are those of the members and not necessarily those of The Mini Register.

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