Project Trig - After 18 Months Away, Is Back In Town! by Mini 360

9 minute(s) of a 461 minute read

So you may have noticed theres bee little to no updates since the initial MOT failure last week.  Well thats because I've been a bit busy! With the MOT failed on emissions, headlight alignment and horn not working, I got it sorted and my dad took it for a retest on Thursday which is passed with no advisories.  Ready to go!  With MOT and tax in hand I got going with the show prep.  The rear wheels had been done a while back but the fronts still needed a lot of attention.  One had pitted quite badly, so it was out with the wet and dry and I set to work fixing it.  

it soon came up to a mirror sheen again after using autosol by machine and a final once over with mothers.  Protected with GTechniq C5 wheel armour as per the rear wheels. The rest of the car was showing signs of pollen drop, so I gave it a quick wipe down with AutoFinesse Finale to remove it.  Then I put on some sealant to protect it for the journey to tain, whatever the weather brought!  Wax on...wax off..... which resulted in this finish all over.  Happy with that! And with the final prep work done, tucked it into bed for the night before its big day. The following morning (6.30am on a Sunday!!!) I met up with some local Minis from the Aberdeen Mini Owners Club and we set off to Inverness where we met up with the Inverness Mini Owners Group to make a final convoy into Tain itself but we needed a Burger King breakfast first though We got there about 10.15 with no issues.  Relieved! Thanks to the well organised events team, we were distributed to our relevant classes within minutes.  I entered in the custom class as so much of the car features one off pieces.  It didnt really fit into the classic classes given its only 21yrs old and not to original spec. Within seconds the car had folk round it but I busied myself cleaning the grime off and got it to its fully open state.     Popped a couple of 'before' photos in the screen to show what it once was like.  So many people didnt believe it was the same shell! Spent most of the day talking to interested folk and the majority had one 'back in the day' so it was good to hear all their stories.  Kids loved it and a few got their photos taken in it.  Happy families all round.  Its what car shows are all about :)   The judges came round, asked a few questions and later on in the day one came back and handed me this..... We won the class! I was over the moon after all the hard work over the past three years.  It made it all worth it.  I had to go into the show ring at the end of the day for the prize giving and this Ferrari 360 was alongside.  Owner talked more about my car than his which was nice considering what he had! and heres the little trophy I got!  Ace! Also got another rosette as we entered the show. Drove home and got caught in a pretty bad rain shower and the car got pretty mucky.  Ran without fault though so I know the electrics are in good condition!  Helps its been converted to electronic dizzy though. Wont take much to clean as it was so well protected but will leave that for an evening this week. The car did develop a minor oil leak which I believe is coming from the speedo drive housing on the side of the gearbox but will investigate that tonight. So just shy of 250 miles round trip completed straight after rebuild, with no issues. I would say thats pretty good going! Loved driving the car all day and had a perma-smile throughout. It sounds brilliant, with lovely little pops and bangs on over run after a bit of heal and toe action. Need to edit my photos from the day sop expect better ones soon. Thanks to everyone for all the help, advice, banter and enthusiasm throughout the build. It helped me no end and I wouldn't have got it all done without you. So thanks! :) Oh and its now taking pride of place on my work computer desktop

6-18-2013

Got my photos quickly edited last night. Nothing fancy as I couldn't be bothered going into detail with them but here they are anyway :) In inverness, quickly trying to diagnose the oil leak location....    

Heres a pic of whats under the bonnet.  Scottish flag themed cross brace!

 In the show ring for the awards  

And the journey home (was followed by my folks in the Jaaaaag and mum took some photos)

Rough ride quality issue solved!  Thanks to '78 pickup' on scottishmini.co.uk it was pointed out my shock mounts were in fact on the wrong sides of the car....thus limiting the travel of the shocks by 50% as they were half compressed standing still!  This also meant it was raised far too high even on lowest Hi-Lo setting!

So set about swapping them over. Bolts were easy to undo but these two weren't so willing to come out. The threaded block behind the panel was rusted out at rebuild so we drilled it out and put a nyloc nut on the back. Never thinking we would have to remove them again......

With some persuasion of the panel and a thin spanner they were oot!



Swapped over the mounts, shocks back on and down on the ground again. Vast improvement!



And with jumping up and down on the door step....



We achieved our ride height  MUCH better!  Took it out a wee test run and the ride is 10x better.  Need to now stiffen up the fronts as they roll a little bit in the bends but that will come with time and fine tuning :)