Nice to see you both this morning and put a couple of faces to names. Apologies for the random introduction 😆
Good to meet you too, as you say always nice to put a face to a name. It was a good weekend, the Mini and Metro did well, nearly 500 miles over the weekend. Really sunburnt now and another snag list to fix before the next show.
I think it's about time for an update! Life has really got in the way the last month or so.
I finally got round to getting the glue from those trims off and sanded the sides of the car in preparation for some paint.
Goofy then stayed like this for a few weeks including going to wonderland classic car show with some mates
By this point I had bought some of the stickers for the livery and couldn't resist having the headlight ones on straight away.
Actually the same evening we got back from the show we thought sod it, and started getting the engine ready to come out still red hot from the run home.
The following evening we pulled the engine, which was a pleasure, there is so much room! And of course put the 1275 straight back in its place.
It was a bit of a pain to get running unfortunately. I'd hoped we could just leave everything set as it was and it would just run nicely. That was wishful thinking. In the end it needed the coil off the 998 and we got it going.
It has needed a couple of hours driving round and setting the mixture. I'm still not entirely happy with it. It has a hesitation when I'm holding on the tinyest amount of throttle possible like when your following some slow coaches, so I guess I'll have another play soon.
I've got a bit bored with engine work today though and wanted to finally get some paint and stickers on. I have a full livery kit now, my local signwriters have sorted the majority of it for £60 and the rest was from I say ding dong.
So I got sanding and masking. the white initially went on with stonechip, I thought it would cover better than it did but it did go on OK and we gave it a couple of gloss white coats on the top for some shine.
Then some stickers of course
This is also a new bonnet I picked up ages ago as the original is badly misshapen from the crash that killed the original rad.
I'm so happy how it's coming along. The plan for tomorrow is to get the bonnet, bumper and front wings painted so the front end is finished.
You've been cruising through Matlock Bath I see...
Ah that's me driving too! Pretty sure we were 4 up on the way to Alton Towers. A friend of mine mentioned he'd seen a photo on a facebook group but we couldn't find it. As you can see it's made some progress in the last few months, I'll have to remind Melody to update this as a lot has happened.
Hey, sorry for the delay in updates. I'm a bit overdue...
So I finally got round to finishing the white before the weather started getting shady as you can see. I wanted to do it right which is more time consuming but I found a sunny weekend and cracked on.
Then the stickers of course....
And the rear bumper to finish. This needed some repair as it was missing a couple of fixings and the side mount had snapped, all is well now though.
I took him to The other place gathering at Mallory park in his new colours, here he is looking at the sunrise..
Just making sure the wheels are clean for the display. god forbid a grubby wheel! It was really dusty there so all the cars were ditched.
Now the shows are finished, the next job on the list was the rear spoiler. That went really well apart from when I dropped a socket into the boot lid . Still need to get that back out actually...
As you can see the weather is starting to interfere. The blue top half and the rest of the stickers will have to wait till spring.
Another job that has been hanging over me was the odd seats in the front so I got to it sticking the second MGF seat in. This went a little faster than the first as I knew what to do this time but it was still a 3 hour job as there was lots of modifying to do.
A productive couple of weekends here and there at least. The new seating position is really nice, a fraction lower and much comfier. They don't have a lever to throw them forward for passenger access but sometimes you have to make sacrifices to look good
I forgot to finish the story of the engine too! This has been DRAMA.
So the 1275 went in but after a couple of weeks of driving round I was messing about and tried a wheel spin (not possible as a 998) and it made a horrendous judder and wouldn't drive. It turned out to be the driveshaft slipping out the pot joint, however after changing the pot joint it happened again so we surmised something must have gone pop in the gearbox or diff.
Engine out again! The gearbox on the 1275 was disappointingly a bit crap anyway. 2nd gear synchro was shot (got robbed there) so it didn't seem like a bad plan to stick the 998 box on the 1275 block. We ripped an engine mount in half unfortunately on this second lift but massively short on time and needing the car on the road, I repaired it with Q-Bond and forgot about it.
That done we are back in business, no slippage. brilliant.
The mixture was being a nightmare to sort though, I seemed to get it just right and it would then just richen off till it was sooting the plugs up and needed leaning right back off again. A bit more driving and it's running too lean and needs richening off again. The cycle continues! Frustrated I did some research and found the 1275 Minis used to run a HIF38 with and AA needle in so I took the good HIF38 off the 998, stuck the correct needle in it and flogged the HIF44. Problem thankfully solved, he runs great even if I'm in the 1275 for £1200 to only use the block!
Fast forward to the last month and we've had a incident of a really rough road throwing the car out of gear and a suspected slip of the driveshaft again. This is the final straw, the car is feeling crashier than ever and I think I've got to get some suspension back so I book him in to have Hydrogas and Hydrolastic Services come and fit all refurbed units with machining work to make him 30mm lower than standard. Booked for 06/02/2023, they're rather busy!. Now I'm back to babying the car around, this takes us up to getting papped in Matlock bath above.
My brother and his girlfriend came for the weekend and we were off to Alton towers for the day, you can see on the pic that the car has never been lower but we made it there and back without incident. The problems arose when I decided to teach them both to drive in him the following day. I didn't even consider that this might be a bad idea considering the impending death and the need to baby him.
Inevitably after lots of fun and frivolity teaching two people to drive the fun was ended with the driveshaft slipping again and us walking home . Oops.
We rescued him later that night and ordered another new pot joint. On removal the old one looked like this...
we just finished changing it and I went to rotate my wheels, as I'm already halfway down the front tyres, and the weather did this...
Went for a test ride but only 3 miles in it starts slipping again! The car is just too god damn low but we don't have another so were buggered at this point. So I went back to the lovely people ay Hydragas and Hydrolastic Services and they did some juggling for me and came out this Tuesday just gone. They really saved us. The suspension is lovely and smooth but the main thing is the driveshaft is far enough in the pot joint that we won't have that problem again. Phew.
Here he now is 30mm lower than standard..
You think that might be the end of the issues, however it's just my luck that yesterday the engine mount (the one I glued ) ripped back in half..... frick..... engine mount incoming and I'll remember to post again soon...
I have a history with these, and had to get another before the prices became unachievable.
This one is an NA Auto with a blown head gasket and no MOT and still set me back £4250, but I'm delighted to just have it sat there even though I can't really afford to do anything to it.
I'll start a thread when I've done more than just replace the E10 petrol with E5 lol
I remember having my Metro 4 up with 4 kit bags squashed in the boot on the way to Sunday League footy and the cabin starting filling with smoke as the rear tyres slowly burnt their sidewalls away on the rear arches. The lads in the back looked a bit panicked.
A friend of mine is good mates with Patrick Watts. He lives just up the road from the industrial estate we are on. He still has his Metro Turbo race car that he campaigned in the ‘80s. Still pretty much the same as when he raced it,with handwritten sign writing. Only changes really is the engine has been to swift tune for a bit more power and reliability 😊
. Still need to get that back out actually...
) ripped back in half..... frick..... engine mount incoming and I'll remember to post again soon... 
