Tink: My '89 Mini

[MtyMous]

Everything will be good. Brexit is helping with that. lol

[94touring]

Baby on the way?

[MtyMous]

Yeaahhh... no... think total opposite. Basically I have entire control of all my cashflow now.

[94touring]

Doh  :-[   Well lots of time to mess with the mini then.

[MtyMous]

Doh  :-[   Well lots of time to mess with the mini then.

My exact thoughts. lol. I need about a month to normalize, so after Christmas, it's go time.

[MiniDave]

So, "baby" on the way out the door then......more time for cars!

It took about three years of steady work to restore my old Jag, having a girlfriend/wife in that time it would have taken........well it never would have been done!  ;D

[MtyMous]

Just placed orders from 4 different places. This should be fun. Pictures upon arrival as usual.

[MtyMous]

I don't think I could write my life story if I tried. Every freaking time I think I'm back on track, something else kicks my ass.

Synopsis of what has happened that has kept me from building this mini:

Family member diagnosed with terminal illness
Family crisis requiring me to go home and spend money on life and other things instead of cars
Another thing I don't care to talk about, outside of my control, causing me to drain my entire mini fund ($8k) to cover it

Then I saved up a bunch of money and my wife decided to up and leave one day. No explanation (nothing rational) and she would leave in a week. Cool. Freeze all of the funds to potentially pay for a lawyer... no more mini fund again.
And last Friday, the engine on my pickup (daily driver) decided to give up the ghost. Out of NOWHERE it sounds like I spun a bearing. Rebuilding a HEMI isn't exactly cheap, but it's cheaper than buying a new truck, so now all my money and time gets to go to that.

Thankfully I have my old pickup that I let my parents keep down in Florida so I'll be going to get that over Christmas and using that to daily.

WHAT THE HELL!?

2016 sucks. Glad it's over.

[MiniDave]

When you're that far down, the only way out is up, right?

Next year will be better, I promise....just ride it out and you'll be OK.

[94touring]

I've had a year like that twice.  It gets better. 

[stan360]

 

When you're that far down, the only way out is up, right?

Next year will be better, I promise....just ride it out and you'll be OK.

I agree with Dave .... Sorry to hear about all of this Cameron, especially difficult when someone in your family is hurting or sick.    Seems when we have to go through some rough times it just continues to pile up and  add up.  Thankfully you still have the Mini and didn't have to sell it or give it to the ex.  and its  to damn cold to be outside up here in the garage for long working on it.  Hopefully the Christmas trek to Florida will give you some time to regroup.

[John Gervais]

Yeah, when life repeatedly kicks you in the nuts, buy a cup. 

[John Gervais]

I knew I had seen this somewhere -

[jeff10049]

Sorry to hear about all that. When you rebuild the truck engine get all the valve seats in the heads replaced no matter how good they seem to be by a  machine shop that understands these engines, they love to drop valve seats out and hold the valve open then the piston hits and trashes the motor. you don't need that shit right after a rebuild of the lower end.

[MiniGene]

Sorry to hear about all the shite happening to you lately.  Hang in there.  Keep pluggin' away and stuff does get better.

[MtyMous]

3 Updates

1) I'm currently in the garage building the straight cut transmission up from a bare case on the Mini. Feels GREAT to finally be back out here doing some work on Tink. Looking to get the car running by this summer if nothing else stupid comes up. Really hoping to have it running by end of May for my birthday. That will depend on getting the engine built and wire harness built.

2) The engine is toast on the truck. My daily driver. Thank God I have saved money and have an emergency fund for exactly this reason. So I'm rebuilding the engine now. About $6k to get this thing all done. woohoo. But now it'll have a much more efficient torque converter with a higher stall, a MUCH better cam (a little more stout, too but still very streetable) andnew pushrods, springs, etc to make it all work better than stock. Should be done with that and have the truck back driving in a couple weeks.

3) I'm looking at buying a 2nd Gen Viper GTS.... stand by for mid-life/post-divorce irresponsible "investments". haha. But that will have to wait until I'm done with Tink.

[94touring]

When you get that viper I'm flying out to test drive it. 

[MtyMous]

I've already test driven 3 of them. 2 of which were ACR's. I'm hooked. Definitely gonna happen. Just a matter of when

[MiniDave]

Isn't MME somewhere near you this summer? That would be cool if you could get it running in time for that!

Edit: Yep, Columbus, June 29 - July 2......that would be a good goal to shoot for.

www.MiniMeeteast2017.com

[MtyMous]

Heck yeah. Done deal. Looks like I've got a goal now. Thanks Dave

[MiniDave]

If my Texas trip goes off well in March I'm going to try and make MME too.

[John Gervais]

Mmmmm, Viper....   Wicked Cool!   77.gif

[MtyMous]

Sooo. When I bought this motor and trans I was told that everything was there. Turns out I need a bunch of bolts. #pissed.

Anyone know if there's a "kit" I can buy of all the bolts needed for the trans? I'm to the point I don't care what anything costs anymore. I just want to buy the right stuff and be done with it.

[94touring]

Hmm, are they the same thread and lengths as everything else on the car?

[MtyMous]

Not too sure what each one is. I know that the transmission clutch cover and the drop gear housing to the rest of the gearbox are 5/16-18 thread, but not positive what the thread length needs to be on each. Same for the bolts from trans to block. I think those are 1/4 UNF (1/4 - 28) but I know they had lock washers and flanged bolts but no idea what the length on each one was. And I seem to remember a few of them being studs with nuts on my last engine because of the location. It's hard to find drawings that detail all of this out. Wish that existed somewhere. A lot of the drawings I can find online show studs instead of bolts which doesn't match up with what I have.