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I love the "sports" rocker cover And the wee Amos wheels are gorgeous. Look forward to seeing a pic with those on the car. Thanks! I've got to sort out the wheel nuts for the new wheels as I haven't found an off the shelf solution yet. I've got too many half-baked ideas and projects on the go at the moment and need to get some of them done... Wheels - fine some nuts and then strip and repaint Gearbox - assemble Engine - assemble and many parts to still buy Les Leston wheel - boss needs machining and painting and need to re-lacquer the wood Heater - purchased this week in unknown condition Seats - finish making brackets (currently first priority as it makes a mess) Dashboard - hook up the gauges, tidy tacho wiring Spotlights - find some appropriate bulbs and wire in Sports rocker cover - polish and repaint Engine bay - general tidy up (paint and wiring/plumbing) Etc!
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nice mini first thing i did on my 1963 cooper were inside bonnet lock lander door locks and then tilling wind up windows. all nice till it got wrote off by a nut in a gt capri still all bits now gone on my 63 mini van
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The heater mentioned in the post above turned up this week. It's a "fresh air" style heater which were standard on the Aussie automatic cars (Morris Mini-Matic) and optional on the Deluxe models. I thought it'd be nice to have a little bit of heat in the car and having some form of demisting for the front window would be nice too. It should be easy enough to install and also adds in some extra cooling capacity through the additional coolant volume and the heater matrix. I hadn't really had a close look at one till this one turned up, they are really simple, just a couple of pivoting flaps inside and the heater matrix. The outer case will need a repaint as its a bit scruffy (the heater matrix is removed in these photos) A quick diagram of how it works.. On the "cool air" setting it directs fresh air from the front of the car into the cabin. The hot air is directed out the side of the unit. On the "hot air" setting the hot air is directed into the cabin and the fresh air is blocked off. It's very simple and there is no fan to push the air through! The heater matrix looks to be in good condition. I flushed it through with tap water this afternoon and it came out nice and clear from the beginning, with no chunks or nasty bits coming out. It has a very minor leak at the moment so will need to get fixed and pressure tested It should fit in about here, but the coil and horn will need moving (and maybe some other things) and I need to find or make a lower bracket for the inner panel. Here is a photo of one installed for reference car-from-uk.com/sale.php?id=131722
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Jan 12, 2018 10:17:15 GMT
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An easy way to clean and pressure test the heater matrix at the same time is fill it with coke block off one end drop a mentoes in the open end and block that off and wait if there are any holes it will find them and the coke will clean the brass/copper of the matrix.
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Jan 23, 2018 11:17:03 GMT
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An easy way to clean and pressure test the heater matrix at the same time is fill it with coke block off one end drop a mentoes in the open end and block that off and wait if there are any holes it will find them and the coke will clean the brass/copper of the matrix. I ended up getting the radiator shop to take care of the patching and pressure testing We made it to another MITG show and shine, which is the 6th one I've been to! It was running really hot too, and I think I've finally got that sorted out.. When I hooked up the inlet manifold a while ago I used the heater take off on the top of the head and fed the coolant through the manifold and back to the bottom radiator hose, just like how a normal heater is plumbed in. What I didn't realise at the time was that the hot coolant flowing from the top of the head was going straight back into the block and bypassing the radiator completely. The fresh air heater being plumbed in here means it'll be cooling the engine instead I took the heater core in to get repaired and pressure tested. The corner got patched so it's now watertight too! I then thought I'd start to get the fresh air heater box installed. The first problem was the front top bracket was interfering with the bonnet stay bracket. I'd never noticed before that they moved this during production, on later cars it's further back and in the middle of the two brackets The next thing to figure out was the bottom bracket. There is a rubber clip the same as the bonnet stay holder on the inside of the bonnet. This clips to the modified u-bolt I started drilling at the top and lined everything up and installed the lower bracket The front bracket was removed and then I bolted it on a bit further back so it now misses the bonnet stay bracket. A quick coat of paint made it look a bit nicer And now assembled with a new layer of foam to seal the heater core And here it is installed and filled with coolant. I ran it up to temp and there's no leaks so far, I'll need to take it for a test drive sometime to make sure it's all working as it should I still need to figure out a final position for the coil and horn and then work out the plumbing for the air from the heater box to the inside of the car, and also mount the heater cable I've got some plastic demisting vents to go in and hopefully a reasonable way to control the air.
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Last Edit: Jan 29, 2018 6:04:00 GMT by timmy201
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Mar 14, 2018 10:32:57 GMT
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I've got too many half-baked ideas and projects on the go at the moment and need to get some of them done... Wheels - fine some nuts and then strip and repaint Gearbox - assemble Engine - assemble and many parts to still buy Les Leston wheel - boss needs machining and painting and need to re-lacquer the wood Heater - fit to engine bay & install desist vents Seats - finish making brackets (currently first priority as it makes a mess)Dashboard - hook up the gauges, tidy tacho wiring Spotlights - find some appropriate bulbs and wire in Sports rocker cover - polish and repaint Engine bay - general tidy up (paint and wiring/plumbing) Etc! I managed to get the seat brackets finished and the seats installed recently (only 11 months after buying them). During the last 12 months I've been working on getting some more comfortable seats for the long trips we do. The original seats are pretty uncomfortable, especially on the back where there is no support. It'd be great to rebuild the original seats, but the vinyl is very fragile and was only used for 1964 (and only on Australian cars) so getting some more trim was going to be tricky if I ripped them any further. I thought about some of the lowback "Cobra" style seats but they are pretty tight and relatively expensive, and won't match my interior trim anyway. I had a look around at some locally available new aftermarket and used seats and decided on getting some with detachable head restraints so that I could hopefully keep a classic look to the interior. I had a look through the wrecking yard and was after some reasonably narrow seats with some good support and no side airbags. These ones fit the bill and set me back just $100 and were out of a mid 90's Subaru Liberty (Legacy). After a bit of a clean they looked pretty nice, and they were spot on for width and a little bit taller than the stock ones The initial test fit was positive. They fit nicely for width and were short enough (with head restraints removed) to be near the window line (they are fitted to the car in the photo in the previous post) I made up some brackets to adapt them to the car, it's very simple to swap back to the old seats (5 minutes at the most). I also got some seat covers which match reasonably well to the original trim Here they are with the head restraints installed and the covers off. Best of all, they are super comfortable and will be great on our long trips They tilt & side so getting in the back is possible, and the drivers side has adjustment for the height of the base. The side bolsters are deep enough to hold you in during cornering too I've noticed quite a bit of oil building up in the air filter housing recently. It looked like the oil had been getting into the carb too, which isn't the best. I got a baffled oil catch can from the local parts shop which looked like it would fit. Finding room in the engine bay will be the trickiest part of the installation.. It just squeezed into the corner next to the wiper motor. The protective plastic wrap was on it for the test fitting The oil catch can is all plumbed in here, just two lengths of hose. Who knows if it'll do anything but if it stops any oil getting through the engine it'll be a bonus
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