1983 Mini City

[colinf1]

Hi all, just a quick introduction...

Have this a few months now, a 1983 Leyland Mini City, 998cc.

Started out as a quick repair and drive, but has since turned into a full strip and rebuild task.

How it was when I got it...













Currently have only the engine, both subframes, front and rear screens left in the car.
Sitting on a wheeled pallet, limited space so its easier to push close to the shed if working on the other side.

[Billy]

Good luck with your Mini. Many's the project started off as a small repair and ended up as a major restoration.

Keep us updated.

Billy

[colinf1]

Hoping the result will be better than my last resto of an Aussie Mini (Clubman front end)

From this...


To this...

[woody]

Nice one, should have brought it over with you.

[colinf1]

Nice one, should have brought it over with you.

Shipping was way too expensive, we were saving for a house and couldn't justify it.

Anyways...on with the show..

Engine and subframe are out...



Had my brother out to give me a hand, had to fix my pallet as it started to break so we fixed that then decided to drop subframe.

Retaining pin on gear linkage was the hardest part to get out!

Exhaust isn't in great shape, it was held on at the back with builders strap and only a tiny portion of the hanger rubber remaining.



Pretty sure this isn't the correct mounting rubber for the subframe tower ..



Think it's an asics size 8??

Fuel tank and rear lamp also removed, large hole in boot floor under where fuel tank was...



Bulk head looks nice and solid



Also removed pedal box, both seemed to be slightly seized..

[countyhouse]

Making progress

[colinf1]

Got a good run at things this weekend.

Disassembled the gear linkage housing, was quite crusted up in gunk so took a good bit of elbow grease to get it cleaned.

Will need to replace the bobbins, rubber is pretty cracked and bolts are very rusty. Also need a few new roll pins, 1 was split in half when I removed it.

Onto today, decided to remove the front and rear screens. Pretty easy as rubbers and locking strip really past it so just cut through them.

All metal surrounding windows surprisingly good condition, was expected a bit of corrosion but nothing.



Had to drill out some screws on the mirror mounting bracket and one on sun-visor.
Managed to get them out without breaking any of the plastic pieces.



Also removed the headlining, this looks original, but it's very dirty, covered in red overspray. Going to try and clean it to reuse it.

Removed headlining sound deadening too, pretty horrible stuff, very dusty stuff, straight into the bin with that. Top dash rail removed, metal frame of this is very rusted, in the passenger side corner, must have been leaking around the screen seal.





Also noticed that the covering trim under rear screen was riveted on, where they fitted like this from factory?



Steering rack removed, need to get a rebuild kit for this.

Not much left to take out...rear subframe is about all that's left..

[woody]

The rusting of the window surrounds only became a problem in the nineties with the new wider rubber seal. Never noticed a rivet there before.

[colinf1]

The rusting of the window surrounds only became a problem in the nineties with the new wider rubber seal. Never noticed a rivet there before.

I was expecting something like this to be honest...



Minispares crate is getting full again lol

[colinf1]

A few more bit done today...
Moved my shed closer to the fence to give me more room to work round the car. I had left 400mm of a gap between shed and fence just to keep access for cutting the brambles that grow the other side.

Didn't have anyone to help and couldn't really ask my 8 month pregnant wife to do any pushing (not yet anyways)...
A lot of levering and jacking up bit by bit eventually got it moved with no damage to the shed, the stuff in the shed, or myself.

Then moved onto removing engine from subframe... without an engine hoist...

Stripped off the drivers side hub and arms, then drained oil, popped driveshafts out and then went about figuring out how to get it done...jacked up engine then slow removed each axle stand til I could slide in a wooden trolley, the pivot and shimmy it onto the trolley.





An interesting addition to one of the engine mount bolts...

[The Marcos Graveyard]

Was that on the inside or the outside?

[colinf1]

On clutch housing side to the rear. Must have been engine in with subframe in shell and was a bit tight to get in...

The mounts are completely destroyed, as soon as I released the bottom steady it was almost falling over, that was before I removed the engine mount bolts!!

[The Marcos Graveyard]

I have a spanner specifically bent for the engine mount bolts.

[colinf1]

Some work done on one of the upper arms, lower shock absorber bolt removed, roller bearings removed...

Bolt was total seized into the arm, even had it in a 50 Ton press and it wasn't budging!

Cut off most of it, then drill out the center, then punched it out.



Roller bearing where next up, a few different methods tried here, drift punch, expanding concrete bolts then found video on youtube saying to use a 22mm washer ground at the sides to 19mm.

Gave it a go and it popped both out in about 5 minutes!





This is the video...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U83AVdEz2o

Arm is now sandblasted and ready for painting, blasting done before bearing removal to protect machined surfaces.

I have the other arm soaking in diesel to hopefully make removal easier!

[colinf1]

Other side came out so much easier thanks to soaking it in diesel and knowing what to do

[The Marcos Graveyard]

It's a 30 second job with the correct Churchill tool. and it also does the idler bearing in the flywheel housing.

[colinf1]

Only a small amount of time spent on mini this weekend, baby due in 2 weeks but could be coming earlier!!!

Had started removal of rear subframe last weekend, so picked up there.

Immediately ran into trouble! A patch had been welded into the boot floor, but they used 3mm sheet! They also didn't leave enough space to get a 1/2" socket onto the bolt head! Had to pry around it with cold chisel to get enough space to get it onto it.



Both bolts removed without much hassle, then released handbrake cable and rear brake line.

Then went about removing the front bolts, literally got less than 1/4 turn and it sheared the head off...I thought "not too bad, at least the shaft of bolt is there to get vice grips onto..."
Next bolt...one turn, two turns, snap....sheared right off so the remaining bolt is flush with body...





Passenger side bolts came out fine, no issues at all...

Looks like 3 kitchen scouring pads were used instead of the felt pads.
Needs a really good clean to see how much metalwork needs to be done.





Center exhaust back box is held on with a coach bolt that's seized, so that'll need cutting off...

[colinf1]

Tried to make a new pedal pivot shaft on the lathe at work over lunch break, didn't go too good. It's not setup for an sort of precision work, it's mainly used for facing off cast steel pieces so surface finish isn't important as long as it's flat.

Tried to realign the headstock but was still running slightly off parallel so I've had to admit defeat and add it to my minispares basket...

Hopefully the weather is good for the weekend, try and get the subframes full stripped down ready for cleaning up.

[colinf1]

Started stripping down the rear subframe. Was literally a fight with every nut and bolt I had to remove...

Cut through the bolt holding on back box, then that went straight to the bin, full of holes.



Then set about removing radius arms. Had been applying plus gas to all the nuts and bolts over the week but still managed to shear another one, looks like they were heavily corroded just under the head.

Eventually wrestled out drivers side. Pin for handbrake quadrant was seized and pin for handbrake lever at rear of drum was incredibly difficult to remove considering how small it is.

My punch wasn't long enough to push the quadrant pin out fully, so dropped a hex screw bit down to give me some more length... didn't realize the casting of the arm is hollow...so that's staying in there permanently, just hope it doesn't rattle.









Overall it's not too bad, lots of surface rust but nothing too bad. Going to be interesting in how to get those snapped bolts out.

[colinf1]

Tried the same washer with flat edges to see if I could remove the radius arm bearing and bush, worked fine, drifted out bearing first, then the plastic liner pushed out through the bush, then drifted bush out.



What a mess that came out with it, years and years of grease and gunk. It was like a chocolate and toffee mix, pretty hard to clean it off the tools.

Also got my lost bit back

[colinf1]

Picked up a few pieces today, Leyland grill and top and lower dash rails.
Mine are beyond repair.



Back very rusty..


Picked up the grill as I don't like the chrome one that was on it.



Also picked up a NOS AA badge that should look nice when car is fully finished..

[colinf1]

finished stripping down the radius arms, also removed all wheel bearings and rubber cones from rear trumpets.

Knuckles put up a bit of a fight but eventually came out..



Nice amount of rubbish for the bin..



Made a start on rear subframe with knotted wheel on grinder, seems to be coming up nice...

[colinf1]

post moved to correct location...

[colinf1]

A few posts missing between last 2 updates,

18th October

Got a wee bit done today, removed all core plugs and gave the engine a going over with power hose.<br>

Still a fair amount of mud coming out of water jacket, also a few clumps of metal floating about there too, maybe flakes of old core plugs.<br>



Core plugs all very corroded, anyone could have burst if I had to have run the engine for any length of time.



Had hoped to have received my minispares order by now to get started on suspension rebuild, but hasn't even dispatched yet as they're waiting for inner wings to be back in stock...not like I have much spare time but wee lad is finally starting to settle into some sort of routine...for the moment

[colinf1]

Seem to be getting more done to the mini than proper sleep at the moment, but unfortunately its only been an hour or so a day...

Got a nice delivery from minispares, lots of suspension and subframe bits. Annoyingly its another part delivery from DHL, box 2 is supposedly "Access restricted by the Consignee or Regulatory body" and "Delivery will be arranged when restrictions are lifted"

I had painted the upper arms last week after blasting them a few weeks ago. New bearings installed along side new swivel grease nipple and a new knuckle joint and lower shock absorber pin.



Got some blank period style number plates delivered this evening, couldn't resist offering up my 3d printed numbers to see what they will look like.





I removed the head from the engine to see if it had any work done like unleaded valve seats, but doesn't look like it.

Also found out that the engine is not the original I had thought it was.

Logbook recorded as 99H791PZ 134199 and engine block has 99H997P 134199. Not that it makes much difference but it would have been nice to have it matching.

When I looked at it first, I think I just seen the 99H and the 199 either end and disregarded the other numbers and letters.


Guessworks engine decoder is giving me this info for 99H997P134199

A+ 998 cc Transverse mounted

Lucas 16AC alternator with -ve Earth

1st Alternative compression ratio

Mechanical petrol pump

ADO 20 Design variants



Std. Ratio Rod Change gearbox with Pot Joints

2.95:1 Final Drive



and this for 99H791PZ 134199


A Series 998 cc Transverse mounted

Lucas 16AC alternator with -ve Earth

1974 requirements

Mechanical petrol pumpGearbox features :

Std. Ratio Rod Change gearbox with Pot Joints

3.44:1 final drive

A Series Gear Ratios (A+ Mainshaft)