What did you do in your shop today?

[BruceK]

I am being stupid. I pulled out a slot cat set that includes items from the 60s and stuff I added when my children were young. My children are in their 30s now.

I am finishing off a wiring project that I never completed close to 20 years ago.

As you can see in the background there are bins of old mini parts to be sorted and new parts to be installed. Yet here i am trying to make a "vintage" slot car set run again...

Cool!  I've never seen Mini slot cars before.

[MPlayle]

I used to have a Ninco brand set of the new (BMW) MINI.

[MiniDave]

All the news that's fit to....erm, type!

So, business is picking up in MiniDave's little shop of horrors  ;D

Right now I have 2 Sprite gearboxes waiting for parts, both are getting close ratio straight cut gears - one will be used in a racecar, the other in a street Lotus 7 that will get autocrossed.....which I think is a mistake unless he plans to run the whole course in first gear. These gearsets have a very tall first gear, on a racecar at 7500 rpm they'll do almost 70 mph! so it will be miserable from a standing start - all the current race classes for Sprites do a 40 mph or so rolling start, but autocrosses are all standing start. We'll see......

I also have a Mini gearbox coming in on Sat for a final drive change - the owner is tired of it "revving it's nuts off" on the highway (his words) so we're going tall - 2.76.

At the same time they're dropping 2 Sprite motors (both 1275's) off to be rebuilt .....at my leisure.

I have a 998 being shipped in from Boston of all places for a complete overhaul, and maybe another coming from new forum member Dale in Illinois. The Boston one has been pulled from the car and is on a pallet and ready to ship......Dale's is out but he's wondering if he might find a good 1275 instead.....

Oh, and some work to do to the Racing Green to get ready for our Texas trip and an Innocenti to finish, and a basement to finish cleaning out so I can put in a new electrical panel and a new air compressor and blast tank and......and......and.....whew!

About 20 years ago the bride and I bought a few acres out south of town to build our dream and forever home on, it's a fantastic bit of countryside, south facing, gentle rolling hills, lots of trees, a nice sized pond....looks almost like a park. Unfortunately she was diagnosed with cancer about a year after we bought it, and by the time she was healthy again (thank dog) we were in the middle of a recession and she was concerned about spending THAT much money. On top of that the construction costs were WAY above what we had expected - as much a twice to three times as much - so we put it on pause, but not before we had spent about $10K in architect's fees trying to get a place we could both love and still afford. Then I was "retired" and the money stopped coming in so that pretty much killed the whole project. Since then I've been mowing and keeping the brush at bay while we waited for the market to come back - which it finally has. We put it on the market this past summer at a fairly stiff price as it's literally the only open piece of buildable property within about 10 miles of it's location, location, location. A few days ago we got a low ball offer, I countered at just a few thou off my asking and when they countered a few thou up I just told them no thanks. Today they came back with a serious offer and if we work out the details, it's sold. I'll be happy not to have to mow it anymore, but sad that we never got to do what we wanted. In a weird bit of symmetry, it was almost exactly this date in January when we bought it.

Moral of the story.....don't wait, even if it looks scary - go ahead and jump in!

[tmsmini]

I used to have a Ninco brand set of the new (BMW) MINI.

I got the slot cars working, but some things need attention. At least I am not laying on my back on concrete or hitting may head on a bonnet latch. We have a set of Ninco BMW MINIs as well. Just like a real vintage car, it is not good to site and not be used.

https://www.facebook.com/terry.smith.75873/videos/10100384435999741/

[Willie_B]

Even though it looks so simple I spent probably 3 hours fitting the moke bonnet. Bend here, reform the side curve on the other side then tweak the pivot point up one side and down on the other.

[MiniDave]

Looks good now. are you going to do something with the wrinkles in the front panel at the curve there?

[Willie_B]

Not sure. They may have been left that way when new. Might try some filler just to see. Also ordered some sanding boards and sandpaper. Getting ready for that step.

[Jimini II]

Not sure. They may have been left that way when new. Might try some filler just to see. Also ordered some sanding boards and sandpaper. Getting ready for that step.

I just looked at two Mokes the one had slight marks which were very hard to see and as far as I can tell one re paint the other had none and has original paint.

[94touring]

Turned over the 66 to the owner and have shop space open again!  Just 3 or 5 more paint jobs to go before I'm free!

[gr8kornholio]

Congrats on finally sending that one on it's way.

[MiniDave]

I know it's been a real effort for Dan to get this one done, I'm sure he's happy to see the tail lights go over the curb.

Hope he takes some vid and pics of it and the happy owner!

[MiniDave]

I finished up and delivered a Mini engine back to it's owner after changing the final drive. I was lucky and was able to swap it without pulling the engine off the gearbox, sometimes the pinion nut just does not want to come off so you have to split them so you can engage two gears at once to hold the shaft while you break the nut loose. On this one I stuck it in gear and used my impact wrench and it came off.

this is a late enough gearbox that I didn't even have to machine the extra clearance on the bearing retainer like I did when I changed it on Buzz.

We went from a 3.44 to a 2.76, the owner said he was tired of hearing it "rev it's nuts off" on the highway!

New stub axle and shift shaft seals, all new gaskets and shimmed properly. I spent more time cleaning old gaskets off than doing the swap! Also new diff retainer bolts and locktabs.

[BruceK]

For the first time in about 45 years of oil changes I finally did the classic mess up.  I started adding fresh oil to the engine without first reinstalling the drain plug.  D'oh!    My synapses finally fired and I caught my idiotic mistake about 2 quarts in while pouring from a 5qt container.  Fortunately I still had the oil drain pan in place, so no mess on the floor.   I won't be making this mistake again! 

[94touring]

Lol Bruce  :-[

[Jims5543]

For the first time in about 45 years of oil changes I finally did the classic mess up.  I started adding fresh oil to the engine without first reinstalling the drain plug.  D'oh!    My synapses finally fired and I caught my idiotic mistake about 2 quarts in while pouring from a 5qt container.  Fortunately I still had the oil drain pan in place, so no mess on the floor.   I won't be making this mistake again!

My son came ovedr in his 05 Mini Cooper S to do an oil change and taught me a valuable lesson in too many cooks in the kitchen.

I was under the car draining the oil. I jumped out, he jumped in and did the filter, I sauntered away. 

He never put the drain plug back in and assumed I did.

He started filling the oil, like you, put 5 quarts in, never noticed it overflowing from the drain pan and running down the driveway.  He checked the dipstick and asked me, who was busy on something in the garage, what the capacity was. We walk to the side of the car... FUCK!!

Because I am nice and people are assholes, I lended out my gas powered pressure cleaner one time too many, my BIL who used it last returned in a year ago with gas still in it after being told to empty it. So it was dead. We ran to Home Depot and bought a cheap electric one, and 5 quarts of Mobile One.

We finished his car and pressure washed the driveway.

Been there done that got the T-shirt. We all do it, once..... and only once.

[Jims5543]

I have been trying like hell to find time to do a decent project on my FJ Cruiser, with 185K miles on it, I felt it was finally time to change the OEM Rotors and do the brakes. I have a set of 16x10 steelie rims that have been on it 9 years, they developed surface rust blisters on them 1 year after installing. The seller told me they would do right by me, they didn't. So I promised myself when these Bridgestone Revo's wore out, I would replace the rims too. I purchased 5 alloy rims from tire rack and had 4 new Revo's mounted. I will deal with the spare at my leisure. I do not even carry the spare on the truck unless I am on a road trip.

I pulled the front rims today and inspected the pads, they are at 50-70% still, much to my amazement, this truck is really easy on brakes. So I decided to shelve the brake job until it is really needed and just do the rim/tie swap.

I called the 16 y/o into the driveway, he did the lug installs while I did the anti-seize application. Then he helped re-install the center caps and I made him torque the lugs, which was fun to watch.  ;D

I took it for a test drive and it rode like a buckboard, I continued on my route, which was to swap a padlock on my storage unit then head to the beverage store for some tasty beer.

I got home and tried to check the tire pressure, expecting 40-50 PSI, I was so wrong, none of my gauges registered the pressure, they all topped out at 90PSI and it took a long time of bleeding pressure to get under 90PSI, I am guessing 120-130 PSI... Why?????? I know they go that high to seat the tires, they typically drop it back down.

So I pulled the schrader valves on all 4 tires and sat and waited for minutes to get it down to 40 PSI, then put it in and dropped to 37 PSI... for now.

The aggressive offset was very noticeable.  I also noticed the new tires are easy 2" taller than the old tires. I had the old tires 1" off the ground and had to raise the truck another 1" to get the luges to line up. 83 pounds per tire, you do not want to lift much. 

Before:



After:



Offset:

[MiniDave]

Just FYI, When I was teaching automotive courses, we never went over 40psi to seat a tire on the rims.

[Jims5543]

Just FYI, When I was teaching automotive courses, we never went over 40psi to seat a tire on the rims.

Call Tire Rack and tell them.

I was astounded by the pressure. I am underestimating at 120-130 as it took a long time to get to the point where I could get a reading.

It was at that point I started to pull schaeder vales to make it go faster as I was trying to get he BGE smoker going at the same time. I was jumping back and forth.

I think I have an email with the salesman at T.R. still and will question why they went to 120PSI+.

Maybe I will have an answer.

[94touring]

Almost seems borderline dangerous if you sat those out in direct sun on a hot day at those pressures I'd think there's a risk for an explosion.

[MiniDave]

Or internal damage to the tire driving on them with that much pressure in them.

[gr8kornholio]

Gotta a worse oil story.  He Remembered the drain plug but forgot the filter.  This was on a Toyota 22r, so the filter is high on the passenger side of the block. He fired it up to check it and as he came around and realized what he'd done it was too late. Just pumping oil all over the engine bay and garage cause the hood was still up.  Oops.

[94touring]

My oil story is a buddy took off in a cessna 172 at night, forgot to put the dipstick back in before takeoff.  Landed at an airport 30 minutes away when he got a high oil temp.  Realized it dumped all the oil out which streaked down the side and belly of the plane, lucky it didn't seize on him.  I grabbed 8 quarts of oil and the dipstick still laying on the ramp and flew to his rescue.  One test lap to verify it was fine and away he went.

[Jims5543]

Almost seems borderline dangerous if you sat those out in direct sun on a hot day at those pressures I'd think there's a risk for an explosion.

Thank god it is relatively cool here in FloRida with temps in the 60's.


I only drove it 1.5 miles to my storage unit where it sat for 10 mins or so as I sorted out things there.

Then another 2 miles to the Beverage store, where I probably spent 5 minutes, then 2 miles home.

When I got home I was amazed... I will be contacting Tire Rack tomorrow and asking.. WTF??!!

[94touring]

Curious what they say.  I had some little 4 inch inflatable tires on a car dolly for minis that I apparently over inflated ( they probably held 15psi or something low and I went to 25 or something) anyways I sat the dolly outside in the morning, sun came up, temps rose, next thing I hear is a shotgun being fired outside.  Nope, 2 tires blew.

[MiniDave]

I used to hold shop days in my shop for the KC MINI club, one less than stellar mind wanted to change the oil on his R53. The cannister style oil filter is located on the back of the block under the exhaust manifold, impossible to see so you just have to feel your way. I explained about being careful that you didn't cut the o-ring when putting the cannister back in place and tightening it. He said he was sure he had it dead right, added oil closed the bonnet, jumped in, fired it up and backed out of my garage. Left the Exxon Valdez trail behind. Fortunately I saw it as he backed out and brought him back in again.

I pulled the cannister off and replaced the nicked o-ring and put it back on again, tightened it up, added oil and had him lay on the floor while I started it up and had him watch for leaks - exactly what i had told him to do the first time. It was fine so I tooped it off and he spent the next 2 hours cleaning my shop floor