Finished stipping rear brake and hub components. Dismantled steering column to send the inner part away to Dave Smart (the manufacturer of the kit) to be modified.
Gave the garage a good clean in preparation for starting work on the actual car.
Time spent - 3 hours
Money spent - Nowt
Kind of rolled the engine out of the subframe in a very unorthadox manner - unsafe to both me and the engine.
Removed brakes and hubs from one side of the rear subframe.
Cleaned a lot of the crap off the subframe, still needs a more thorough clean and possibly paint. Also started to clean up clutch master cylinder.
Time spent - 3 hours
Money spent - Nothing
Took all the scrap to the tip this morning in the back of my Dad’s 4×4, leaving me loads more room in the garage.
Removed suspension and driveshaft from the nearside. Got the driveshaft nut off ok while still on the subframe. Undid all necessary bits to lift engine off subframe when I get some help.
Time spent - 2 hours
Money spent – Nothing
Removed rear subframe and chopped up the back section of the car today. That’s hopefully all the cutting up I will need to do. My dad is coming over tomorrow to help me cart all the scrap metal to the tip.
Hacksawed one of the the drive shaft nuts off that I should have removed while on the car.
Time spent - 3 hours
Cash spent - Nothing
The screwfix order with the grinding disks etc arrived today so I was able to start cutting up the shell to free a bit of space up in the garage. Managed to get the front end and the roof cut up in to small pieces that will fit in the car. Just the back half to do now when it’s been stripped.
Time spent- 2 Hours
Cash spent - Nothing on car parts. £40 on tools and consumables
My Screwfix order including grinder disks and hacksaw blades didn’t turn up today so I wil have to postpone the cutting up of the shell which was today’s planned task. Instead I continued strip down of shell. The only thing left to remove from the front half now is the radiator expansion tank.
After this I had another play with the chassis bits, trying again to figure out what went where. Also, I did a couple of things with the Mini’s gear selector, removing the steady bar and turning the bottom plate around which changes the position of the reverse gate to the opposite side. The gear selector is then mounted on the kit facing backwards so you have reverse where it should be (and 1st becomes 4th,2nd becomes 3rd and so on) The gear selector rod is extended and bends round the bottom of the engine, come backs on its self and enters the gearbox as it would normally.
After that I started to strip down the front suspension. This is when I realised my first mistake. I should have removed the drive shaft retaining nuts while the subframe was on the car, preferably with someone with their foot on the brake. If I try to put any decent force on them now i will just end up turning the driveshaft and wheels. I might try doing it with the driveshaft in a vice later but I think I’ll end up using nut splitters or a hacksaw to remove them.
Time spent - 3 Hours
Money spent - Nothing
Keith (the previous owner) turned up with the chassis today. Hooray! I bought it off eBay and it looks as though there are a couple of bits missing although there are a couple of bits I wasn’t expecting and its powder coated too which was a nice surprise.
Anyway, back to the Mini. Removed fuel tank (should have been done at the start really for safety reasons) and clutch master cylinder and brake servo along with a few other things.
Managed to get back to Halfords to take my broken breaker bar back and in the process upgraded to a longer one. Eventually after a lot of swearing and sweating I removed the final subframe bolt and lifted the body over the subframe and engine. The Haynes manual says you need 3 or 4 people to do this but with no interior, no roof and no fear of scratching any paintwork or anything, I did it on my own, although it was a little out of control. Anyway, it came off ok, I didn’t get crushed or anything and the garage still stands. Next I cut the floor in half with a mini-grinder in preparation for cutting it up into bits small enough to take to the tip in my dad’s 4×4. Photos show the pictures of the chassis that were sent to me by the previous owner.
Time spent - 5 hours
Cash Spent - £400 on car and delivery, £35 on tools and consumables
Spent a while in the garage this afternoon but didn’t get a massive amount done as I was quite tired from a wedding over the weekend. Spent a lot of time tidying around and doing really useless things that didn’t need doing. Need to make sure I have more of a plan in future.
Untangled loads of the wiring loom, its nearly ready to come out now and most of it is labelled so if I need to use it later life will be a lot easier.
Cut the roof off. Hacksawed through the pillars. Moving in and around the car is a lot simpler now. Also removed a couple of other bits of body that get in the way like the front crossmember.
Removed brake master cylinder, wiper motor and steering column.
Did a few other odds and ends.
Time spent - 3 hours
Money spent - Nowt pounds nowty.
Cleared up the spare parts from yesterday and stashed them in the loft and then continued stripping down the engine bay etc in preparation for subframe/engine removal. All went to plan until I got to removing the final, large subframe to body bolts. My breaker bar didn’t give me enough torque, so against my better judgement I attached a piece of exhaust to it which freed the first bolt but broke the end of the breaker bar while trying the second one. Bah. Left it there for today.
Time spent: 6 Hours
Money spent: Nada
Had conformation that the chassis will be arriving on Monday which leaves much work to be done before then as I can’t fit both the donor and the chassis in the garage and I don’t want to leave the chassis outside for too long.
I’m off to my Tomo’s (my brother) wedding on Friday so that only really leaves today, tomorrow and possibly a little on Sunday evening to get anything substantial done.
Got a couple of hours this afternoon so started work on stripping the donor. Removed bonnet, boot, exterior trim, lights, fittings, bumpers etc.
Came back in the evening for another 4 hours and removed most of the interior and glass, labelled all wiring as parts were removed. Started a couple of little jobs in preparation for engine removal: drained oil and coolant and removed carb and air cleaner.
No problems today at all (except for not finishing till 2am). I feel like I have made good progress. Everything went reasonably smoothly, even getting the bottom hose off to drain the coolant, a job which from past experience is a right royal pain in the arse. This time however, I was prepared and armed myself with the mother of all screwdrivers which reached down into the bottom of the engine bay and the job was done in 5 mins.
The photos show the car as it was when I finished and the terrible mess around my garage.
Time taken: 6 Hours
Money spent: Nothing (The donor was worthless after being sat at the back of the house on grass for 2 years so I don’t really count that)
