Progress with my Mini rebuild

So my best efforts of keeping this blog up-to-date hasn’t gone all that well. I have been keeping myself very busy however, with work & getting my Mini done in time for this year’s London to Brighton Mini Run.

And talking of Mini, here’s some latest photos of mine…

Mini rebuild progress

Mini rebuild progress

Mini rebuild progress

Mini rebuild progress

And my MOT is booked for a week Saturday – very scary stuff since I’ve bulit this car pretty-much entirely from scatch and on my own! I’ve got lots of technical articles to write, and lots of photos to share, but for now this’ll have to do! :)

 

Current Mini rebuild – removed rear valance

I haven’t posted anything on this blog in a very long time with anything regarding my Mini, but I think that should change – after all this blog is a blog about things I like!

So, for those of you who don’t know, I own a 1983 Mini City E,  I’ve owned her for about 3 years and her name is… “The Mig”. However, almost 2 of those years has been spent in my garage in a state of re-build. She was a 998cc rally replica before I stripped her to bare shell and began the rebuild process. I’m converting her into a screaming race replica, Mini Miglia look-a-like which should be pretty nippy!

Here’s what she looks like at the moment…

For now though, I’m concentrating on getting her back on the road with a standard-ish 1275cc 8 valve A+ Mini engine, but with the brakes, suspension & general rest-of-car to near race-spec.

Over this weekend I’ve just done the job of removing my rear valance. I’ve been to a lot of Mini Miglia race meetings and I have a lot of photos of Mini Mig’s, and I notice almost all of them have their rear valance removed – perhaps for even less weight, or perhaps because the rear valance acts as a giant air-scoop which would slow down the car. Regardless of the reasons, mine is now gone! … But I did find a pretty large hole of rust after removing it. Bad times!

Not to worry too much – I have my own Mig welder and I’ve been saying to myself for months now that I will learn how to weld. I have metal, gas and a mask. And I have a hole to weld… watch this space!