Frankenstein

[DomMINIque]

K&N air filter element from the UK.
One that can be washed and re oiled.

Yep Uno rad, I bought the car like that.

It seems to work really well but the car also takes very long to come up to temp. I think this is because the thermostat has been removed. I have not yet opened up the system to see.
I've been meaning to buy a thermostat but every time I go to the spares shop I forget.
It is mounted about 10mm too low for my liking as it is quite difficult to bleed to system. But it can be bled.

It's a mod I would consider doing again however it would have to be a much neater job as this was sort of "backyard Rambo with a grinder" type of workmanship.

[Quinny1293]

making some nice progress there the last few days Dom! really coming together nicely

[DomMINIque]

A panoramic shot from the jacaranda run a few Sunday's ago.
20161023_093427 by Dominique Bernardino, on Flickr

Then some really bad driving selfies trying to get the convoy in the picture but clearly I'm no selfie pro...

20161023_104417 by Dominique Bernardino, on Flickr

20161023_104553 by Dominique Bernardino, on Flickr

Me chasing Leon's mini after zipping through one of the many traffic circles in Pretoria

20161023_104843 by Dominique Bernardino, on Flickr

The last time I was stopped with the convoy and got to take some nice shots under the jacaranda trees.

20161023_105659 by Dominique Bernardino, on Flickr

The I got stuck in PTA CBD, the mini just gave up on my. At first I thought it was fuel but wasn't sure about this as the gauge was reading just under half. 
Nevertheless a taxi driver who was washing his "cab" offered a 6l bottle to me so I could go and get some petrol. So after a walk down the block and putting petrol in the car, still no cigar. But the coil was extremely hot, you couldn't even touch it. 
So I put my Money down to that. 

Anyways I waited for the car to cool down and then started it again to hopefully meet the convoy at their final meeting point for lunch. 
On my way there the temp gauge started rising more than it normally does and when it was bordering on 100 then I knew something wasn't lekker. But the final point was 700m away according to the GPS so I took it home so it could stop and cool down while I ate lunch. 

SOme very helpful gentleman, Sean1380 included helped me top up the radiator for the groot trek home. 
On my way home I stopped at a petrol station on the highway to buy some water as I was also stating to overheat now. 

Came back to a puddle under the car....
Luckily but unluckily it was only water. 

Driver the car around the corner filled the radiator resovior to the top and then made my way home. 
I knew it was leaking and watched that temp gauge all the time, I decided to gun it home as the longer the car ran the more water it was going to loose. 

Right side of the highway and speedo off the clock some of the bigger cars really wasn't sure what was happening when this little thing came "flying" past them. 

Nevertheless I got home in one piece opened the bonnet with a temp reading of 95 deg to find this...... 

(this is actually a video, if you click on the image it'll take you to the actual video uploaded to flickr, not sure why it doesn't display as such here)
20161023_143140 by Dominique Bernardino, on Flickr

Parked the car, left the bonnet open and let it all cool down, then moved it into it's parking bay until it can receive some much needed attention. 

Worked out my mileage for the day, for a 45 year old car of which I have no idea about the history I don't think it did that badly considering the mileage it covered. 

Mileage for Jacaranda run by Dominique Bernardino, on Flickr

Nevertheless it was a really cool run and very cool to meet some of the guys who have been around minis for longer than what my parents have been alive for.

[Jared Mk3]

Good going Dom Pity about the trouble, but at least you got home safe.

[Vinay-RS]

Glad that you got back properly and it's great to see photos from that run. Amazing photos with beautiful cars and flowers.

[DomMINIque]

So the mini has been standing for the last few weeks because of the water leak.

I eventually got an opportunity to sort it out. Got it sorted and took it for a test drive... no brakes no matter how many time you pum the pedal.

Upon further inspection front left brake line is leaking...
So got these made up, hopefully I can fit them this weekend and get the mini back on the road by Christmas.

20161203_111149 by Dominique Bernardino, on Flickr

[Sean1380]

Goodness - those hoses were shot !!!

[DomMINIque]

Those are off another one of the cars. Should get around to changing these this weekend...

[Jared Mk3]

New ones look good Dom.

[DomMINIque]

So since Sean says the forum is too quiet I took some photos to do some updates.

20170204_112602 by Dominique Bernardino, on Flickr

My January box of tricks. For this car there was the following:
Brake slave cylinders front and rear.
Choke cable piece to join cable to carb.
Windscreen wiper grommets
Drum brake securing screws.

I changed the leaking slave cylinder last week and gravity bled the brakes.
Still had no brake pedal by the end of the weekend.

Convinced my brother to help me out this morning as the job is definetly much easier with two people.

Tried bleeding the brakes got 3 wheels happy but the forth wasn't interested.
Had a look for leaks and couldn't see anything.

Now I'm a firm believer of If something doesnt want to work you keep pushing it until it is totally broken. Then you know where the issue is and can fix it. - My troubleshooting methodology.

So i did just that and truth betold, the line for the problematic wheel started showing a leak.

So 2 new rear brake hoses are on the cards.

Nevertheless i then decided to carry on with some smaller items on the car that had been bugging me for a while.

Got myself one of these because cold starting the car without the choke cable is a total pain in the @ss.

20170204_114946 by Dominique Bernardino, on Flickr

Nevertheless I ovrr tightened the dumb thing and ended up breaking the bolt inside with the end of the cable attached.

Not impressed, i tickled that 1 tiny creative bone i have in my body.

Ended up cutting the cable to release it from the choke thing and cutting some of the housing to compensate for the shorter length.

Once i got the length correct again i sourced a bolt from "the garage" cut it to the correct length and drilled a 2mm hole through the middle.
Threaded the cable through and tighten it all up onto the carb.

I'll post a picture of this tommorow once I've taken one.

---

The next task at hand was the wiper grommets.

How it started:

20170204_131533 by Dominique Bernardino, on Flickr

In progress:

20170204_131535 by Dominique Bernardino, on Flickr

Completed:

20170204_132544 by Dominique Bernardino, on Flickr

20170204_132546 by Dominique Bernardino, on Flickr

Excuse the horribly dusty car. Hasn't been able to have a wash in a while.
Readjusted the wipers to their correct place at the end of the cycle so they aren't going off the glass and onto the car.

Then all my door furniture had fallen off the door and it was rather painful to try and do anythinb. So sorted that all out and wala.
Not the prettiest but at least now it has function.

20170204_153452 by Dominique Bernardino, on Flickr

While i was busy with the door furniture i did a test on the cooling system. Left the car to idle and get up to temperature to test the fan and see if there were any leaks.

Well that didn't turn out well. Got to 80° and i had steam bellowing from the bonnet. Switched the car off and one of the pipes had decided to no longer hold on.

Put everything back together. Tightened everything and refilled the system and attempted my test again.
Got to 80° again and went to inspect.

20170204_153505 by Dominique Bernardino, on Flickr

Thd join towards the bottom of the picture, the two pipes were touching. Upon inspection they were starting to seperate again so i switched the car off and left it to cool down. Need to reassess all the joins in the system and whether or not they are necessary as they are creating havoc.

The car at the moment seems to be playing weakest link with me....