2 door VAE 306H

[kevin s]

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New pedal shaft made the tread needs to be trimmed (easier to cut cleanly if it is longer and the end could get damaged putting it together) but this will be done when it is assembled, old one is also drilled out of pedal.

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It has been made a interference fit so plan is to heat the pedal up in the log burner (gets steel to red hot) and press it in then finish off welding to the inboard side of the pedal as per the original.

[mogbob]

Kevin
You seem to be " cracking on " , is this your New Year's resolution ? Only joking ! The project's final straight is in view now and seeing it through to the end always brings a huge sense of pride. I expect your lad is getting more excited now as well.
Well done.
Bob

[kevin s]

The resolution is more along the lines of not buying any more projects, most of last year was spent replacing or repairing the sills, floors, rear arches body mounts back doors, tailgate and inner wings on a Range Rover I bought supposedly needing only a few simple repairs after which most of it was also re-painted. Bar painting the roof and anything it fails the MOT on on Wednesday that is pretty much done now, so this year I hope we will get most of the Minor bar the engine and gearbox done hopefully getting it finished in time for his prom in June 2018, plan is to do the brakes first including engineering a front disc conversion, then wiring and trim followed by painting / fitting the front wings and bonnet over the summer.

[mogbob]

Kevin
Good luck for the Range Rover's MOT tomorrow.
Bob

[kevin s]

Range Rover passed could be just in time for the weather which is on its way!

put the new shaft on the pedal last night, firslt warmed it up in the gas cylinder based log burner I made for the garage.

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the pressed the shaft in cleaned it up and gave it a coat of paint.

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Then I realised I had not welded the arm for a hydraulic clutch on so still need to do this before it can all go together.

[kevin s]

a frustrating few hours over weekend on the minor, all the pedal components are ready to go in then I realise I am missing the brake return spring, decide I will remove the handbrake lever to paint it, one of the bottom eyes has torn out (easily welded up) but the mounting bracket on the floor is also cracked, the floor is painted inside and out and I need to move other cars around to get the welder to it.

did manage to fit the throttle pedal and dip switch though!

[mogbob]

Kevin
More progress , well done. The " minor " frustrations soon lapse into history once the project is complete. On the plus side you usually end up being a little wiser next time around !
Bob

[kevin s]

Some progress,

Handbrake bracket welded up.

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now have 3 pedals and a dip switch.

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The brake pipe to the rear is also fitted, the handbrake lever welded and painted

obviously the repaired area needs some top coats and I still need to fit the outer master cyl bolts so the torsion bar has to come off, I will probably take the whole corner off tonight so I can do the disc brake set up on the bench.

But some real progress never the less.

[kevin s]

Over the weekend I removed the RH front suspension (pretty easy when it is all new!), the master cylinder is now fully bolted in and I have started measuring up for the disc brake conversion, plan is to progress this over the next week. I have also decided where to put the fluid reservoir, it will go where the dynamo control box originally went as this has now been removed due to the intention to fit an alternator.

I have bought some plastic coated copper pipe as used in LPG conversions to use for the reservoir to cylinder pipes so it should be a fairly neat installation

This is the brake master cylinder just before it was fitted, it's a lightly modified beetle cylinder (mounting flange narrowed) fitted in a custom bracket, the alloy spacer at the front is to give and even surface to bolt it up on (All joints are in compression so the bolts don't do much anyway).

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[kevin s]

some further progress, one thing I have not mentioned is the wiring, the original loom appeared in pretty good condition, so I have used this as the starting point, it was stripped and mounted on a board. I found one melted wire so this was replaced, then I modified it to include:

relays for headlamps, ignition and horn.
12 live fuses
12 ignition fuses
fuel pump inertia switch
wiring for tacho, temp gauge and brake fluid level
conversion to alternator.
100 amp master fuse

everything was then connected and then it was powered up and all tested.

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I have now started fitting it, I will wrap it when I am confident everything is in the right place, for now it is held together with cable ties.

I have also found a location and made a mounting bracket for the brake fluid reservoir.

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also machined the corsa disc to fit and ordered some 8mm plate to make the caliper bracket out of.

[kevin s]

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[kevin s]

spent this afternoon on it, firstly touched the thin areas of paint on the bottom of the cantrails inside the car with the airbrush, looks much better now.

Then cut and fitted felt to the firewall and found the rest of the cables and rods to go though it.

next up I started on the brake caliper brackets, I have bought two 6 inch square 8mm steel plates, these were marked for the centre of the spindle and the caliper holes which were then drilled to 12mm, next up it to mount it on the faceplate and turn the centre out to be a good fit on the spindle, I will then clamp it in place, drill through the 4 mounting holes and trim the outside edges and hopefully have fully functioning disc brakes for under £100.

[kevin s]

started on the caliper bracket, this is to mount vauxhall Corsa calipers (and discs) on a minor, the discs just needed the centre bore opening up, for the calipers a mounting bracket is being made from 8mm 150mm square plates. Firstly a mark was made for the centre of the spindle, then the 2 caliper mounting holes were marked and drilled, the spindle centre was then drilled to 5mm.

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next up the 5mm hole was used to centre it on the lathe faceplate.

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then it was bored out to be a snug fit on the spindle and the centre machined away to 4mm thick to give clearance to the rear of the hub

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a trial fit on the upright, just need to drill the 4 holes through from the upright and shape the outside edges.

[kevin s]

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[kevin s]

A pre-summer refresh on the mx5 has taken most of my time for the last month or so but that is all done for now so I have started back on the minor.

The focus is to get the brakes working first, the reservoir and dual circuit master cylinder are now connected and I am pushing forward on the disc brake conversion

The calliper mounting plates were drilled to match the upright (using the upright as a jig).

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the outer profile was then trimmed to clear the calliper and a trial assembly made.

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the rest of the metal was then trimmed off.

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.

The brackets are all painted now and I have ordered the parts to re-build the callipers (they seem fine but best to replace all seals anyway) so hopefully in a few days I should be in a position to build it all up for the last time, find some suitable hoses and plumb it all in.

[firedrake1942]

They are the pattern ones with the diagonal seam and very thin, if you can afford, replace. The only leaded seam was between the light and the front panel on the original wings and this was not done on the later models.

[firedrake1942]

sorry refers to wings on page 1 doh!

[kevin s]

As there appears to be virtually no rust in them (one still has the paper label under the paint on the outer surface!) I plan to use them for now to keep costs down, I will weld up the seams first though, that is unless they are like the front panel when I take the paint off, which looked solid enough but was actually badly dented and largely constructed of filler.

[firedrake1942]

Don't blame you for that, my experience of them was that no matter how well prepared, rust always seemed to peer out of the seam in next to no time as the seam is open at the back as well

jm

[kevin s]

Further progress yesterday, cleaned up and painted all the parts, re-assembled the front suspension and fitted the new caliper bracket then trial fitted the caliper to determine what length of brake hose I need, looks like a standard Corsa one should do the job, so that has been ordered. Just waiting for the new caliper seals then it can be assembled for the final time.

The final bit to sort out will be wheels, at the moment it sits on midget rostyles which will need a 9mm spacer, but standard wheels may fit without this as the ridge around the hubcap looks to be in the right place to clear the caliper. For the moment I have some 19mm spacers I will fit but before it hits the road I will get a set of standard wheels anyway and sort out whatever spacer is required for these.

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