Ashamed Part 2

continuation from the last post.....

2013

We found out the coilovers we purchased way back when (probably around 5ish years ago?) needed to be sent to GAZ and adjusting as they lower eye needed to be offset instead of centre  They arrived back around a week ago, it took GAZ only a couple of weeks to adjust them - excellent customer service and I wouldn't hesitate to use them again in future. I will eventually change my front coilovers to GAZ too. 

After a bit of a foul up with a gear linkage we purchased from eBay being for a metro rather than a mini we had to source another which was more difficult than you'd expect, it seems certain parts are hard to obtain or people attempt to sell them for silly money. Eventually a friend managed to find one in his stockpile of parts. It's now fitted and but still needs the sleeve and roll pins.

(The failing of the metro gearlinkage!)

The current task is the wiring loom which was taken from a friends 'scrapper' shell. Surprisingly for a Mini there had been very few alterations (after that many years on the road you expect a few 'hacks' for extra lights, stereos etc..). A few new connectors and some updating to remove the factory in-line fuses and integrate the Clifford alarm we salvaged from a previous 'project' car and it'll be ready to go onto/into Mutley.

(Factory fresh hacks! Wow.)

(Electrical Spaghetti)

2013 - I'm ashamed of the lack of updates I've made.

If anyone is still reading I applaud you, my lack of updates have been pitiful and non-existent, however Mutley still lives on and is still a "WIP".

Progress has and is being made and money is finally being spent, so progress should be of a fast paced nature (hopefully).

So let's try and get everything back up to date.....

2012

The car was in the state that it was on a four wheels, had a roof lining fitted and the engine in the vauxhall subframe fitted and mounted.

(Vauxhall subframe mounted with suspension, brakes and wheels)

It was then going to Miniworld Action Day at Castle Combe race circuit that a realisation dawned upon us, EVERYONE was doing what we where doing and it was become such a common occurrence and very 'samey'.
It was decided that we'd go back to the "A" Series engine and pretty much a few days later we'd organised to buy one from a friend and collect it in November. The engine was stripped down, cleaned and rebuilt. We then had to source a subframe which was sourced locally from "The Mini Forum". It was the the task of stripping and painting the subframe and then assembling all of this into the car.

From this....

to this.... 

(1275 painted in BMW Silver)

(1275 mounted into refurbished subframe with brakes, suspension and

wheels!)

So, it's been about a year since I made the effort to update everyone on my progress (or lack of).

Finished painting the shell on the 31st October 2009, and it got moved to the new house (with garage - casa del mutley) around November and has pretty much sat since.

Fast forward 12 months and finally some progress - bought a new headlining and in the process of fitting and also some rose jointed heavy duty tie bars and lower arms. Which means a few more modifications and added parts to the subframe to fit them. Pretty much only need a few more parts to get the old boy on wheels now!

Enough yapping, a few pictures so you can see that 'he' is actually still alive and well and I haven't given up just yet!

Painted Shell - Latest Pictures

Colour to Door, Rear Arches & Bootlid

Some colour added to the rear arches, one of the doors and the F/G bootlid. Plus a token picture of the car with some sunshine on - wow. Left to go at the moment is the other door and obviously the most important part - the car. Fibreglass front end and front arches to be done at a later date, but this all needs to be done as we're on a deadline to move the car from our workshop now we have a garage at our new house!

Interior Painted

The interior is now finally got it's coat of colour. Sorry about the poor quality pictures - it's hard to see the actual colour true in these due to the lighting. Plus a token picture of the contrast which looks gorgeous (in my opinion of course!)

Black Roof

We finally have some colour on the car! It's a major achievement and it's been a long time coming, it went very well considering it was the first time we've sprayed. Was a few runs, but as quoted "It was a mind-fart rather than anything technical".