1981 Mini City 1000

[colinf1]

Looks like your making good progress! Inner wings are looking good, have you much to do around door frame?

Have you a company in mind for blasting? The blaster I used said it was pretty hard to get the epoxy off for welding prep, but I see plenty of people using it so can't be that bad?

[ctwomey]

Looks like your making good progress! Inner wings are looking good, have you much to do around door frame?

Have you a company in mind for blasting? The blaster I used said it was pretty hard to get the epoxy off for welding prep, but I see plenty of people using it so can't be that bad?

Driver side door step has rusted through but I have the replacement panel for it.

Thinking of FMK for the vapour blasting and epoxy.

[woody]

Looks better jnside than any sills I ever opened. quite solid. nice.

[ctwomey]

Busy few weeks with work and homeschooling like so many others, so haven't had as much time for the Mini. Managed to get out today and removed the driver side outer sill.

To get the piece of sill that is inside the rear closing panel you need to make this small cut in the corner to free up the weld.

Outer doorstep on the driver's side will need replacing as there are numerous holes in it.

Found the stamp on the outer inner sill indicating an '81

Also to keep the garage warm I purchased a small propane jet heater that is perfect for getting the cold out of the space.

Next is to finish up the areas where the outer sills join the floor and quarter panels, then on to replacing some steel on the inner wings that are damaged from where the front panel joins them.

[colinf1]

General consensus is operator ID, then Week 07, 1981

Looks like your making good progress, and keeping warm...

My heater is a hat and a jacket lol

[ctwomey]

General consensus is operator ID, then Week 07, 1981

That makes sense. The car was registered in early April ‘81

[ctwomey]

Good day in the garage today working on the mini

Removed all the seam sealer off the bottom of the car. Just a small bit in the engine bay and then the interior to do

Cut out a repair patch for the inside front wing on the passenger side.

Sometimes the gap looks big but you get great penetration on the weld.

Tacked up ok but will have to come back to finish it off.

[Dalcash]

Fantastic thread on restoring a classic. I'll being doing my own restoration shortly and a lot of very valuable info in this. Thank you very much for taking the time to document the build.

Quick one regarding the crankshaft endfloat. You said you have it .003" which is what the Haynes manual would suggest. Haynes says .002" to .003" endfloat. However, Cole at Classic Mini Diy had an issue with the crank endfloat and he says that the Haynes manual is wrong. He had .002" on his engine which is also in the Haynes spec but it caused issues, as when the engine was at temperature and he pressed the clutch the engine was binding and stalling. Turns out he had too low a clearance on the crank endfloat. He said that engine builders usually go with .005" - .007" crankshaft endfloat. When he disassembled the engine to fix the issue the endfloat was .0035" but still too tight. He increased the endfloat to .006" and this fixed the issue.

What are your thoughts on this. I'll need to do it myself soon and I have more questions then answers as to what the crank endfloat should be.

Here's a link to the video to better understand the issues he had
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx8HksuAw48

Thanks in advance. Best of luck with the build.

[ctwomey]

Fantastic thread on restoring a classic. I'll being doing my own restoration shortly and a lot of very valuable info in this. Thank you very much for taking the time to document the build.

Quick one regarding the crankshaft endfloat. You said you have it .003" which is what the Haynes manual would suggest. Haynes says .002" to .003" endfloat. However, Cole at Classic Mini Diy had an issue with the crank endfloat and he says that the Haynes manual is wrong. He had .002" on his engine which is also in the Haynes spec but it caused issues, as when the engine was at temperature and he pressed the clutch the engine was binding and stalling. Turns out he had too low a clearance on the crank endfloat. He said that engine builders usually go with .005" - .007" crankshaft endfloat. When he disassembled the engine to fix the issue the endfloat was .0035" but still too tight. He increased the endfloat to .006" and this fixed the issue.

What are your thoughts on this. I'll need to do it myself soon and I have more questions then answers as to what the crank endfloat should be.

Here's a link to the video to better understand the issues he had
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx8HksuAw48

Thanks in advance. Best of luck with the build.

Thanks for the feedback Dalcash. I didn't do videos because I wanted to enjoy my time in the garage away from all technology. At least with my phone in my pocket, I can take a few pictures and post them here along with some descriptions and build up the thread.

Yes, I saw Cole's video after I finished building the engine. I suppose I won't fully know until it is running in the car and I test the clutch. I did actuate the clutch using a metal bar when I had it running out of the car and it was ok, but the real test is when I put it back in the car. I wonder if it affects big bore engines more than small bore.

Hopefully, I can get back to the bodywork on the Mini over the next week or so.