'81 Mini Clubman Estate

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Fred
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Re: '81 Mini Clubman Estate

Post by Fred »

The word "intends" leaves ample opportunity for many modes of failure :-D No pressure. But that is a sweet car and I'd love to see datalogs from you thrashing it :-)
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Re: '81 Mini Clubman Estate

Post by ehb »

Fred wrote:But that is a sweet car and I'd love to see datalogs from you thrashing it :-)
Thanks and yes, me too. :)

What's done:
- Cleaned up suspension parts, removing excess grease and dirt.
- Popped out steering tie rods, replaced steering boot, ordered replacement for steering tie rods. That's going to be a stress-test for the anti-seize stuff I've talked about..?
- Since the suspension needs to be readjusted completely anyways, I adjusted the front suspension to equal about 1 cm more clearance.
- Wishbone bushings are okay - what I meant were the tie bar bushes. Ordered those too.
- Found out there's a boot for the gear change rod - ordered.
- Removed front carpet (will have to be replaced eventually too). Also, the dents in the floor look even worse from the inside. When the front is back together, I'll start bumping those out first.
- Started trying to fix the gear lever play by disassembling the KAD quickshift kit. It's pretty worn out and of crap quality to begin with. Much work needed to fix it. The new version looks much more promising. Quoted a distributor here in Germany about pricing, else it would be 175€ in Holland or 102gbp (probably times 2.84923 for shipping and unforeseeable costs). Meh... we'll see.
- Cleaned up the place around the car, vacuumed. :) Made mess again.

That's mostly it for the last days.
Next:
- Grease all points of front suspension
- Wait for parts to arrive, reassemble
- Remove seats
- Remove amplifiers under back seat, replace with one amplifier that has been sitting here for 9 years for that purpose. Brand new.
- Remove back carpet, clean carpet or figure out carpet solution... No need for carpet for TÜV though. :)
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Re: '81 Mini Clubman Estate

Post by ehb »

Alright, some minor news.
I've dropped the chassis onto its corners and started straightening the floor.
First action: The rear floor parts were hanging down by about 1-2 cm, but easily pumped back in with these tools:
CIMG4401.small.JPG
The floors are really flimsy (I'm not chubby!) and I plan on making some seat mounts that will additionally stiffen up at least the back floor.

This is what the front section looked like (and worse):
CIMG4409.small.JPG
I've pretty much fixed the drivers side, now only the passenger side is left. Which has three (?) 1 inch holes in it, that are going to be patched up.

On other news: This is the trouble I've had with the current quick shift lever:
CIMG4393.small.JPG
CIMG4400.small.JPG
I could mill a new slot, file down what's bent up, make a new pin and still have a not-so-great setup. I decided to get the new version, however my usual distributor doesn't sell it. Neither does any other webshop in Germany and rarely from other EU countries.
Sooo I decided to quote KAD (UK) directly, who replied within a day. Total cost for me, incl. shipping and VAT, is 136.80 GBP, they said.
Great, so I paid by ordinary bank transfer. Something around 163 € - how nice, even cheaper than the shop from the Netherlands I found. Just now I checked my bank account and the transfer has risen to 197,96 €. Reason for transfer has been appended with:
GBP 136,80Kurs EUR/GBP 0,836900EUR-Ggw. 163,46Court. EUR 2,50Prov. EUR 12,00Fr.Sp. EUR 20,00
Now I remember what sucked about sending money to the UK. :)

Anyways, this means I'm expecting a new quickshift.
Also I finished cleaning and grease-flushing the front suspension. Waiting for the steering tie rods to arrive to finish it up.
Received the K&N cleaner kit, will use it too.

Fetched the old brand-new amplifier from the shelf, fitting the seats. :)
CIMG4382.small.JPG
And that's pretty much it for now. Waiting for parts, figuring out how to tackle rust and the underbelly.
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Fred
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Re: '81 Mini Clubman Estate

Post by Fred »

"Court. EUR 2,50Prov. EUR 12,00Fr.Sp. EUR 20,00"

What are each of these for? Was this an IBAN transfer or something? Could you not just pay with a credit card and be done? I bought stuff from the UK to Spain and had no issues like that, but I used a Spanish credit/debit card.

Re your shifter, I don't know how snug the original slot was on the pin, or how deeply the pin engaged the slot, but the factory Mazda one in my truck was the same design, and after 200,000km of dad and then I thrashing the poor thing it looked markedly worse than that! :-D I pulled another one out of a similarly high mileage box and it was near perfect. I think that's what's in my truck now. I have an even sweeter one to put in with the ratio set, but that's for another day.

Off topic: Any time I think about a chubby German, I think of only one man: Sergeant Hans Schultz, image search it :-) Apparently he died in 1973 well before I was born. I'm not sure how funny you'd find it, but I always enjoyed watching it as a kid. POHMs never knew what it was, being an American thing, but we got it here :-)
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Re: '81 Mini Clubman Estate

Post by ehb »

Fred wrote:"Court. EUR 2,50Prov. EUR 12,00Fr.Sp. EUR 20,00" --> What are each of these for?
I have no idea. Yes, this was an IBAN transfer. I don't own a credit card. :)
Fred wrote:I pulled another one out of a similarly high mileage box and it was near perfect.
Well, that gives me something to think about. I will closely watch my shifting in the future. :)

LOL @ Sergeant Hans Schultz. Never heard of him, but I can appreciate the comedy. :) Not sure every German would, most are unaware of what cliche or image we present in other nations.

Car updates:
The floor is now mostly straightened. Will need to remove the original unusable lift points and have a look from the bottom to straighten the rest of it.
CIMG4411.small.JPG
There is one more severe bend in the passenger side holm. Don't have the time to fix this right now, but I think it should be possible by welding some bolts to the right places and pulling at them. Not now though...
CIMG4422.small.JPG
Also on the above picture, you see a piece of copper on steel.
That's where I attached ground for TIGing those odd holes and can recommend the procedure:
CIMG4426.small.JPG
CIMG4429.small.JPG
The sheet metal patches aren't by me..

Elsewise, I'm still waiting for parts, except for one I won't need for a while. Thanks Klas. :)
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Fred
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Re: '81 Mini Clubman Estate

Post by Fred »

ehb wrote:I have no idea. Yes, this was an IBAN transfer. I don't own a credit card. :)
Ha! You can't blame the POHMs for that! What about debit? Get one or the other. You don't have to use it, but for overseas stuff, it's hard to beat. As you've found out :-D
ehb wrote:Well, that gives me something to think about. I will closely watch my shifting in the future. :)
I wouldn't worry. Drive it like you stole it, other things will fail first. :-p Or design something with a better more race like pivot system and more robust bearings? :-)
ehb wrote:LOL @ Sergeant Hans Schultz. Never heard of him, but I can appreciate the comedy. :) Not sure every German would, most are unaware of what cliche or image we present in other nations.
Hmmm, i don't think old Schultz fits my Kraut stereotype. :-D His boss Klink does, though. The Americans in that comedy don't fit my stereotype of them either :-D
ehb wrote:There is one more severe bend in the passenger side holm.
What's a holm? I searched a little, but? German word for sill?
ehb wrote:That's where I attached ground for TIGing those odd holes and can recommend the procedure:

The sheet metal patches aren't by me..
Curious about TIG vs MIG, perfectly round holes, perfectly round patches and holes in the middle of the patches. So I'll take a stab:

Holesaw cuts to produce consistent sized patches that match the holes cut with a different size hole saw? And the plug weld in the middle pulls it tight and makes it flat? Aside from that, I'm lost. I try to do minimal repairs. Did you post a before of those sections? Curious! Those TIG welds are wide and hot, too. Came out nicely though :-)
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Re: '81 Mini Clubman Estate

Post by ehb »

Fred wrote:Ha! You can't blame the POHMs for that! What about debit?
Debit not accepted, just credit cards. Well, I don't blame them for that, but I haven't received the quickshift yet either. ;)
Fred wrote:What's a holm? German word for sill?
Yes. Sometimes I have to use a dictionary, but it seems like I chose the wrong translation. Now I also learned that the outside of the sill is called the rocker panel. :)
Fred wrote:Holesaw cuts to produce consistent sized patches that match the holes cut with a different size hole saw?
Close and a good idea! :) I have no clue how the holes got into the body, they were there when I bought it. As they were all very close to 25,4 mm (+0,1 mm) I would also guess holesaw or die-cut. Not a bad idea to repair rust holes like that.

The patches I made are from 1 mm sheet metal, scissored to an octagon, drilling a 4 mm hole in the middle and then screwing it onto two nuts in the jaw chuck on the lathe. Then turned the outside to ~25,4 mm. The plug weld in the center came out of necessity. ;) The welds I didn't do are those plates above the holes, that's pre-owner stuff.

I use TIG because I sold the MIG. :) I could never get the feed and current right the first time and I mostly do one-off jobs where I can't afford a screwed up weld. With TIG and an analog foot peddle, it's oh so easy to get at least something that holds, without piling up bulges of welds (or holes). It is much more tedious to weld in uncomfortable positions though.
That, and because I used a little too much welding rod in places, I went over some bumps a second time to let the metal flow flat. The copper beneath quickly sucks away the heat, so the welds can look much wider on the upside.

I hadn't posted, but this is the passenger inside before:
CIMG4385.small.JPG
It's not that easy to see, but I flattened quite a lot. :)
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Re: '81 Mini Clubman Estate

Post by Fred »

The whole/hole situation makes sense now :-D And you correctly guessed that I didn't understand your earlier comment re someone else doing the patches, but I did see that preexisting one and thought it was obviously both old and rough :-)

I've only seen "rocker panel" on forums, never heard anyone here say it in real life. But that's just one man's sample size.

I hear you re MIG and settings. I tend to leave my machine alone between jobs and only change it to go from panel to box/angle/plate or vice versa. It's also mandatory to have various thicknesses of scrap around to dial it in on before you do *the* job. I once did a small floor repair like that with stick on the side of the road for my sister. We'll both agree that stick is the worst tool for the job of the three :-D Gas would have been better :-)

Fair enough re weld width and heat. I've had OK luck with zinc plating preventing weld from sticking in the past, but it has to be just right or it will burn through the zinc and join.

Funny, I used my UK debit to buy stuff online a fair bit. I only got a credit card when I got back to NZ where, at the time, we didn't have debit. Instead we use eftpos, though debit is a thing here now too.
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Re: '81 Mini Clubman Estate

Post by ehb »

My days don't have enough hours... *sigh*
Fred wrote:We'll both agree that stick is the worst tool for the job of the three :-D
LOL yes, never been a friend of stick welding. Although I hear, it should be alright with fresh sticks. I want to try the stick weld feature of my machine some time. It has its place, I imagine fat strong welds to steel beams on a windy day, outside. It never happened that I would have had to weld a beam though. :)
Fred wrote:I've had OK luck with zinc plating preventing weld from sticking in the past
Never had zinc fume fever, eh? :) Copper as a backing plate works great for such jobs. Molten steel won't stick to it. But I lied, the welds are as wide on the bottom as on the upside... I do need more practice. ;)

Not much news on my side. I've received the quickshift from the UK - I like it so far, but am having trouble removing parts of the old one.
Got an email today that the steering tie rods will take another 1-2 weeks to arrive. :(

I started looking into my seat mounting options and realized the consoles are cut and welded all over, crooked (one seat won't slide easily), too low and doing anything with them would result in a hack job.
old_consoles.small.jpg
Sooo I started assembling my DIY kit to make new, larger and especially stiffer ones:
console_kit.small.jpg
If what I researched is true, then seat consoles in cars prior 1992 don't need approval, so I should be fine.
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Re: '81 Mini Clubman Estate

Post by KLAS »

ehb wrote: If what I researched is true, then seat consoles in cars prior 1992 don't need approval, so I should be fine.
that's true. the engineer just needs to be sure they will be strong enough to hold the seat to the car
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