Clubman Estate Barn Find - Co. Galway

[rosssmall]

Lookin unreal. Class job

[DANIEL]

Saw this mini in Nass yesterday. Very impressive work. The finish on the paint work was excellent. Have seen a lot of expensive work done in spray boots that was no better than this. Cant wait to see the completed project and hopefully chase it across the south of England next year.

[Billy]

Dan,

The real test will be Lithuania in 2015!

Billy

[Billy]

Out with the old, in with the new.

[Kenneth Murphy]

Would it not have been more in keeping with the memory of the original owner to do it yellow? Don't get me wrong I love the colour, but seeing as you said you were restoring it in memory for your friends father would yellow not have been a better choice?

[Billy]

Don't know what gave you that idea, Kenny. If I didn't rescue it, it would have rusted away to nothing. It's a car not a shrine.

My bobs, my choice of colour.

[Kenneth Murphy]

Ah I see, I picked it up wrong, as I said its a nice colour choice,

[Billy]

So after 2 years and 3 months of walking past it, I finally got motivated again to restart work on the Clubby. The fact that it's got to bring me to IMM2016 in Belgium and back was a great incentive. So first thing was to open up all the boxes of bits I'd accumulated to see what was needed:



I then started ordering some bits from MiniSpares and MiniSport

[Billy]

And painted the MPI engine the same colour green I paint all my engines:




The engine has been updated with a 4-pin diff and a modified head which I sourced here on the IMOC forum.

[Billy]

MPI subframes are different from earlier Minis in that there are brackets at the front for the front-mounted radiator.



Engine, brake setup and all pedals now in place:


Some welcome help from Johnny & Alan at Cork Mini Centre:

[Billy]

This morning I got a text from Parcel Motel to say there was a package waiting for collection. They have lockers of different sizes but even their biggest one was just big enough for the latest delivery:

[Billy]

Across from where I work in Midleton is a company called Flexible Connectors. A visit there this morning got the outlet pipe on the petrol tank sorted. I needed a 12mm outlet to match with the inline fuel pump which also has a 12mm inlet.

[DaveC]

Well done Billy, keep us updated with progress

[woody]

Looking good Billy.
Will you run back over and get me one of those fuel tank outlets please.

[Billy]

Anyone else want one before I go back to them?

[Billy]

New versus old. Spot the crack in the old casing. That's the second time I've seen an Mpi alternator like that.

[woody]

Thats the third one I've seen cracked, a warning to others not to over tighten the belt.

[Billy]

The cracked one came off a scrapper '99 Cooper I bought last year. It had seized solid.

[jocelynn]

That is looking very well billy

That would be a lot of MPI alternators i have see cracked right in the same spot to

[kerryminigringo]

Tick tock Billy Another Estate to add to the convoy hopefully.If you make it that will be 5 CE.Good to see you have finally got the finger out.

[jcrothers]

Looking good billy keep up the good work. Looking forward to seeing it in Belgium

[Billy]

Front hubs & brakes have been completely rebuilt and fitted.




A new front rad and electric fan posed a problem as the front panel of a Clubman is higher than a roundnose and so partially blocks the flow of air to the rad. A conference call to Joe Whyte who has done a similar conversion confirmed that this wasn't a problem as his Mpi-converted Clubby sat for 50 minutes during the Carrick-on-Shannon parade last week and didn't overheat so we took a decision to go for it .



You can also make out that we had to modify location of one of the top radiator brackets (another Joe Whyte tip) which seems to do the job.

Thanks to Johnny & Alan, Cork Mini Centre for all their hard work.

[woody]

Did not call Keith ,I thought he was the expert on Clubman front mounted rads

[Billy]

Did not call Keith ,I thought he was the expert on Clubman front mounted rads

Very bold, Ro. Keith's custom rad got us to Germany and back for IMM2010 (once he changed the thermostat on MTM2010!!!)

[knock.mini]

Looking very neat Billy! Great work!