1964 Hillman Super Minx - Project/Resto

[PardonTheWait]

So... There was a bit of interest when I posted this up in the show us your motors thread so I'll make a thread to keep my progress in, in case anyone's interested. It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but hopefully it'll be interesting to some.

I've been missing the Rover P6 V8 I sold at the end of last year (because it was a heap) and decided to spend a little more money this time and to get something to keep garaged and just use for shows while keeping on top of maintenance and making some mods/improvements.

Fast forward a bit and on Saturday I picked up this 1964 Hillman Super Minx. It's a 1600 with a 3-speed, column shift automatic gearbox, making a terrific 58bhp (when new). I picked it up from Norfolk near my parents house, and she made it that far with no apparent issues:





So it was onwards (at a cruising speed of 60-65mph according to GPS) back home to Essex, and her temporary home at my sister's house just down the road from my flat.



The car's had filler on all four arches, but to a pretty fair standard. The rear arches want attention at some point, but they're not structural and look good until you get pretty close and start inspecting, so there's no urgency.

It's had inner and outer sills done quite recently, and to a very good standard actually. Underneath she's really very solid.

She hasn't shown any real issues at this point, after a 120 mile journey - mostly the A14 and A12, cruising quite happily and alarmingly overtaking some proper bank holiday weekend plodders. Stayed at a nice temperature, we got caught in some traffic and she didn't creep up even to halfway into the 'normal' temperature area. The exhaust has a nice rattle/knock to it - I need to get her up on stands and see what's up.

So we get to Bank Holiday Monday, my girlfriend's at work and I get bored, so I decide that I'll go to Halfords close to where I live, pick up a jack and axle stands that I'll be needing in the near future, and bring the Super Minx back to hers (we live about 40 miles apart), and then drive it to work Tuesday morning - it did that with no issue as well despite getting stuck in loads of traffic. But at lunch, I ran it round the block to pick up my new wheels and saw a bit of smoke coming from the front end while stopped, which was obviously a bit of a concern. Saw some while driving home as well - but when I pulled over to investigate, nothing... If you leave it with the bonnet up, there's no smoke... just a bit of a waft sometimes when you pull up. Possibly some oil from a leak getting to the exhaust? Possibly a breather dribbling out onto something hot? Not sure at this point, but it's brief and happens just as I pull up, then goes. I'll investigate.

Here's what I was picking up on the lunchtime drive:



13" x 5.5j Rostyles from a mkII Cortina - these should fit the Super Minx nicely. As you can probably see from the picture, they're a little battered. The top one on the pile is by far in the worst shape, the others don't have the corrosion you can see on the mating surface, and are much rounder! I should be able, hopefully, to rub that one down to get a nice seal, and to go at it with a mallet to help the curbing damage. As long as they seem to be true enough (which they do on first inspection), I'll have them chemically stripped and paint them up at home. They were £40 from eBay so worth the risk in my opinion.

I'm not a fan of the current wheels - or hubcaps at least. It has the hubcaps off a later hillman (I forget which) but I'm not fond. I'm going to find some standard dome style hubcaps, and paint up the standard steels in off-white to match the roof, and between those and the Rostyles I should have two nice sets of wheels to use. I do love me a rostyle though so hopefully they're good enough to refurb and use.

The car actually drives lovely. It's really engaging to drive around the lanes, demanding a lot more attention than a modern car due to the nature of it. It's a lot of fun to drive at pretty sedate speeds, and gets loads of attention wherever you go.

Immediate plans:

• Fluid change
• New discs, pads and shoes - she judders a bit under heavy braking, and with brakes like these, all the braking is heavy.
• Fit stereo (the car's already been converted to negative earth, and has had speakers on the parcel shelf at some point - I'll be fitting speakers with minimal molestation to the very tidy and original interior)
• Lowering 2" - I've got lowering blocks for the (leaf spring) rear end on the way, and am arranging to have some 2" lowered springs made by Sheffield Coil Springs for the front.
• Refurbish the Rostyle steels and get some tyres on them
• Wrap the wooden laminate parts of the dash in gloss red to match the exterior... I'm not a huge fan of the wood dash on this, it's not a standout feature for me and the door tops and elsewhere don't feature any wood:

It's also cracked.
• Mooneyes metalflake red 3-spoke steering wheel to replace the damaged original (damaged by previous owners crooklock)
• New carpet set - the current set is very tired and haggard.
• Ditch the AA badge and spotlights - it's already gone!
• De-badge the grille - the grille continues behind the Hillman badge and it looks much cleaner without
• Fit a peep mirror to the driver's side quarter light - the wing mounted mirrors look great in my eyes but they are useless.
• Find out what the smoke's about! It might be pretty much nothing, but I'm looking into it.
• Stop the exhaust rattling - it probably needs a mount replacing somewhere.
• Clean up and underseal the whole underside of the car - it's pretty solid down there, really good actually, but I want to preserve it so I'll be under there with a wire brush and then slapping a load of waxoyl/bilt hamber all over it sometime quite soon.

Long term plans:
• Possibly find a Holbay 1725cc engine to put in. These make over 100bhp and are literally a straight fit with a couple of component changes. 100bhp may not be much, but compared to 58bhp... rocket ship!
• I'm seriously considering having the white roof and visor resprayed in pearl white with a metalflake. This will only happen if I decide to keep the car long term.
• Remove pretty much all the badges - I'll only do this if I keep the car long term as they all leave holes when removed, and there are quite a few of them. If I do this, I'll also remove the wing mirrors and the wing-mounted aerial for a cleaner look. The car will need pretty much a respray if I do this, so honestly it's quite unlikely I'll go ahead with it. I don't mind the badges, or the mirrors or the aerial, but if I could make them disappear.. I would.
• Fit an alternator to replace the dynamo, and possibly electronic ignition. I'm a bit loath to do this at the moment as it starts on the button and is behaving itself. This car isn't going to be a daily driver, I'm only intending to use it for shows, car runs, and sunny day drives, so I'm not sure I'll bother with modernising the electrics while it's behaving itself.

Today I took it back to my sister's house after work and gave it a quick and dirty wash/polish/wax just to get some protection on there. It's come up really nice actually, especially from 10ft away, but I have found some quite bad overspray from previous repairs. A friend of mine is pretty handy with a mop and at some point is going to see if he can get all this off for me.

After polish and wax she's come up pretty well:





I know it's been a bit of a long post, but hopefully it's of some interest to a few of you. I'll update with pics as I go.

 

[PardonTheWait]

A couple of bits have started arriving, got my lowering blocks and I've ordered the springs to be made for the front. Five weeks for those though!

I've got some vinyl through that I ordered to wrap the wooden section of the dash, but I think it may be a bit bright. Need to hold it up to the car in daylight and see how it looks.

 

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Got my lockup sorted! It is however a bit tight!



Terrible picture as the light was going, but I got rid of the spotlights, grille badge and AA badge the other night:



Also did the fan belt tonight, and dug out the previous owner's radio wiring and tidied it up ready for my unit to go in. The radio works, just need to decide where to put it. Possibly glovebox, maybe under the dash, or considering putting it under the seat. It's a modern mechless bluetooth unit so it's only small.

Was going to change my oil but of course it's a weird drain plug tool, and of course you can't buy it on its own, so of course I've done £20 on a set that includes it

Still, I'll have them in the future.

 

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Oil change done, brake pads done. Could practically see my face in the old ones.



This has got rid of the judder while braking, braking is still pretty shabby though so I'm going to drop and replace the fluid at the weekend or possibly on wednesday if there's a spare foot around to help.

However it is notably better, and the pads aren't bedded in yet.

A better picture of the debadged grille:



Still need to remove it and hit the vertical sections with satin black as per original finish so you can't see them. The only parts where you can't see the verticals are where I removed the centre badge as it protected the black.

And I have removed the wood panels from the dash. Originally I planned to wrap them in red vinyl, but the cracks and other damage showed through really badly, and with it being untreated wood on the back the vinyl definitely didn't want to stick - but the 'normal' dash finish is just there underneath. This one doesn't have the same trim rings around the switchgear as it would have had, and the chrome trim has an 'unfinished' part behind the wood, but honestly.. I prefer it naked. For now I will satin black the lower part of the chrome trim so it doesn't stand out so much, and I think I will have an acrylic gloss black replacement made up at some point, but other than that I'm going to leave it. Really not a big fan of wooden dashboards.



Had a bit of a spend up this weekend for a job that's next on the list... new carpets. I had some samples sent through which was obviously a mistake as obviously now I've had a fondle of them all I had to go for the most expensive shag carpet option! £180 for a full set and some overmats.

I'm not going to go for underfelt, I'm going to use dodomat throughout the cabin, and before I do that I should really be removing the old sound deadening, and then wire wheeling the floor, using rust converter on any rust, and repainting it before I lay the sound deadening. WHat started out as 'ooh, a carpet set is £109 on ebay' very quickly turned into the nearly £300 in carpet, tools, sound deadening, paint and rust converter!

It'll look ace though - the carpet is a total state and really lets down the car interior-wise. I decided to just spend the money and do it right, rather than just slap a new carpet over a manky floor (the floor is actually very good to be fair from where I've pulled up the old carpet but I want to be sure).

I'm also going to experiment with placing these speaker pods - and may decide to go for cutting up my door cards to put normal speakers in them. There's the whole hooha with running cables to the doors though with that, and also mashing up the standard interior, so I suspect they may end up attached under the seats.

The stereo's in the glovebox and I'm making up an MDF blank to put it in more permanently, so when you open the glovebox there will just be a flat panel with the head unit, sort of like this:



The carpet's 2-3 weeks away and the springs are probably 3 weeks away now, so it's all boring mundane stuff for now, but hoping for a flurry of activity later this month. Got to get her ready for show season!

One more picture of her looking handsome for good measure:

 

[PardonTheWait]

Over the last week or so:



Interior out, carpet out, old skanky underlay out. filled a couple of holes in the floor with metal filler. This is a bit of a temporary measure - I'm going to see how the repairs hold up in six months or so and probably have it in for some welding. All the holes go through to daylight and none are structural so here's hoping they hold up ok.

I've started throwing on a coat of red Hammerite just to get paint on the floor, it's all going to be covered with sound deadening and then new carpet (a set is being made at the moment). No pics of it, forgot! Got about two thirds of the floor done today.

Got sick of my nasty Halfords tiny jack, bought this, it's amazing:



And then remembered Battlesbridge was on on Sunday so I threw the seats back in, and the accelerator pedal, put the grille back on, and went down, found her friend:

 

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Floor de-rusted and painted, some sound deadening down while I wait for new carpet (should be this week):



Lowered 2" both ends:



Took her to a show:



Hubcaps are off because a) I hate them and b) it kept spitting one off because they don't fit properly. Also they are chewing up the valves.

She's on stands at my sister's place at the moment - I'm taking the wheels to Banded Steels Essex to have the rears banded by 1.5", and all four shot blasted and powder coated in off-white.

I've ordered up some chrome wheel nuts and push-through bullet caps. Going to go with a mild custom look for the wheels rather than the Rostyles, which I've gone off for this car. Probably will move them on, but will keep them for now in case I change my mind again.

Got a couple of jobs to do as well. When I fitted the blocks on the rear, I noticed that the leaf pack on the right really wants some attention, it needs bolting back together properly as the bolt holding the pack together has been long snapped. I've got the bolt, just need to get on it. It's secure, the u-bolts etc hold it, but to ride properly they want to be properly bolted. I'm going to grease up both spring packs also.

At the front, it just wants a real going over and rust treating before I waxoyl it.

I can get another inch, inch and a half off the front by either changing the spring cushions to Mustang 2 ones, or by removing them entirely. However while I'd really like the look, its actually quite low now and has trouble with some speed bumps, so for now at least I am leaning towards leaving it as is.

Kickdown cable needs adjusting. It's not really shifting right, it wants to stay in each gear much too long even at fairly moderate throttle, and clunks back into first quite badly when coming to a stop sometimes. Should hopefully just be a matter of slackening up the kickdown cable slightly.

 

[PardonTheWait]

Few more updates. I've been keeping busy while the wheels have been off to be banded, I was quoted up to three weeks but it ended up taking a month as the place had a breakdown with one of their machines, which is a bit of bad luck, but they did a great job on the wheels so I'm more than happy.

New carpets fitted:





Not completely happy with the carpet to be honest - it was a bit of a stingy fit, and I needed to use some offcuts from my girlfriend's dad to make it good. The carpet itself is lovely but the fit was lacking imo. There were gaps between the floor sections but I've filled them and all is good. Happy with end result. Also moved my speakers from the front parcel shelf to the floor under the seats - screwed them to some small MDF boards that I've put under the carpet and they're both hidden and sound much better.

Moved stereo from glove box to under dash in place of ashtray:



Prefer the look without it, but it was a pain in the arse in the glove box, and this is very much removable. I've put two small self-tappers in the bottom of the (metal) dash and if I take it out, they won't notice. Much more convenient, it is actually the proper place for a factory fit radio, and looks ok to me. Happy with it.

Also fitted stupid dice gear knob which I actually love. And dice door lock pulls which you can't see.

Now the wheels:

Fronts powdercoated, with tyres re-fitted:



Rears, with 1.5" bands and powdercoated:



Really impressed with the work done on these. When I had the tyres fitted today they've had one weight on each wheel, on the inside, and there's no shake. Considering they've had a band of steel welded in which can cause wonkiness and warping often, they balanced out really easy according to the tyre place. Nice finish too.

Finished articles on the car (excuse tyre lube, the whole car is pretty filthy and needs a wash but that's going to get done on the weekend before Maldon motor show):



This is with some polished push through centre caps meant for Superlite mini wheels, and some chromed wheel nuts to dress the bare wheels up.

The rear wheels fill the arches absolutely perfect and it makes a huge difference to the look while keeping a close to stock look - but better.

Dead happy with all of it honestly.

I also got some new numberplates which are nice, but the rear plate is smaller than what it replaced and, surprise surprise, it's had paint to the boot which some idiot decided to do AROUND the number plate, so there's some crap paint around the new plate. Need to find some touch up paint which is proving difficult, but will have the boot (and possibly the whole car) sprayed at some point.

That's a flattering picture and makes it look like I have the exact rake that I want - in reality it's pretty much dead level. I have three options now.

a) Fit slightly lower profile tyres to the front
b) Remove the rubber spring pads from the front and replace with Mustang II spring pads for about a 20mm or so drop
c) Remove the rubber spring pads from the front and either use a bit of hose on the springs, or nothing, for about.. apparently... another 60-75mm drop.

Can't deny I'm tempted by the last option, but I don't think it would be very driveable. It already bottoms out on the speed bumps in the work car park.

I'm not 100% convinced it's level at the front and think possibly the spring pad on one side is a bit crunched up, so I think I will have to have the springs out regardless, but I really feel like it just needs an ever so slight drop at the front to make it look just right. I could actually remove some rubber from the stock spring pads as option d) so I may do that. It just wants a tiny tiny bit of rake in my opinion.

Plans (for now) from here are:

Sort front suspension situation and (dare I say it) stance.

Get some new Furflex for the door deals - it's old, brown and tatty. About £90 to do the car though for a minor improvement in looks so it'll wait. It's only visible with doors open!

New front screen rubber. It's leaking a bit through there when it really hammers down and it gets to the floor, but the car lives in a garage.

Wire brush and waxoyl the underside.

Fit new centre pins to rear leaf packs to bring the axle back to centre.

Pinstriping to bonnet and boot.

Moon metalflake steering wheel (been ordered by my girlfriend for my birthday)

Sort rear speaker situation - either fit another set of speakers on the parcel shelf, which I don't want to do, or make a 6.5" dual voice coil speaker fit the 6" speaker hole, cut the rear parcel shelf board, and cover with acoustic cloth. Not in a hurry, it sounds ok.

 

[PardonTheWait]

Better?

It's going to get a proper clean and wax tomorrow morning because I'm going to Maldon Motor Show on Sunday.

 

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Swapped the mirrors for Lucas style ones with convex glass - much better - and blanked the aerial hole.

Also fitted my Moon steering wheel. So expensive with the adaptors taken into account, but I love it!

They're $95 in the US, so expensive once you get it over here, or buy it from over here. £35 of adaptor and £30 of boss too

 

[PardonTheWait]

So. A bit of an update.

The car has been with a restorer for a while now, having just an ungodly amount of work done. Found some pretty nasty rust on one of the outriggers, went digging, found a bit more. Sent if off to have that seen to, and as often happens, one thing led to another.

End result is all the bottom (red) part of the car is now properly solid. All four wheel arches have been properly sorted as well as being rolled out, and significant work's been carried out all over, with inner and outer panels having been made and fitted.

While this was going on I got to thinking about what I want the car to be when it's finished, and it's not your owner's club, original classic. So I have had all the badges removed, the wing-mounted mirrors removed, chrome side trims and boot trims off, aerial hole covered, and (aftermarket) reverse lights removed. The car currently is in primer and paint is due this week.

Progress pictures which I'll keep to highlights, absolutely none of this is my work, all down to the restorer:

 

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Further welding and fabbing in very rough order:

 

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Removal of trim, rust, badges, and other prep:

 

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Primer:











Last pic is of the kiddy car but there she is in the background.

This has cost me what I consider to be a lot of money but when you look at the amount of work this guy is putting in, and when you look at the finished standard of other cars he has worked on, absolutely worth it. He's very good at what he does and I can't wait to have the car back - hopefully not that long to go.

When it comes back, order of business is:

Rear suspension bushings replaced, that is leaf spring bushes, and shackle bushes. The rear of the car currently squirms about quite badly, and with the amount of new metal and filler in the rear arches (all this work has had a skim of filler as it's all custom fabricated as opposed to repair panels) I want to minimise damage to this so it's the first thing on the list.

Lower the front a further inch or so with new spring pads from a Mustang II.

Fit some sort of rear view mirror on the outside of the car. Currently leaning towards a single peep mirror on the top of the door but may end up fitting a door mirror.

Fit a Dynamator (alternator in a Lucas dynamo shell) as the dynamo is properly knackered currently.

New exhaust system probably from Pipecraft - a single cherry bomb silencer probably.

Remove the high level brake light which stands out like a sore thumb currently, reupholster the rear parcel shelf with some new vinyl, and fit some new speakers in the rear parcel shelf at the same time.

Further down the line:

Pinstriping from Tootall or Nefarious. Boot, bonnet/eyebrows, quite likely a full length stripe where the chrome trims were to accentuate the length of the car and give it some flow. This is as and when funds allow, probably will have it done at a show.

New bushes throughout the front suspension.

New shocks all round.

New brakes.

Brighter lights.

New engine. Was thinking MX5 unit... Now looking into the dimensions of a Rover V8 as it should mate up to the BW35 gearbox currently installed and let me keep the column shifter which I think gives the car a large portion of its excellent character. Also the noise - can't beat a V8 rumble in my eyes (ears) and the engine is period correct and appropriate.

I've no idea if it will even fit at the moment and I'm well aware that more power for less money can be had from a Lexus or Chevy engine, however I don't really want a lot of power as it's only ever going to be a cruising and posing car.

 

[PardonTheWait]

Thanks

It's going to be undersealed on the whole underside he says.

The MX-5 engine from what I actually understand is supposed to be a pretty easy replacement for the Rootes engine, I believe it actually sits on the mounts correctly, and the early ones are apparenly easy enough to either decomputerise, or use the ECU with it without any immobiliser etc.

The engine swap at this point is really a pipe dream but I definitely intend to do it at some point.

 

[PardonTheWait]

Out of paint, fuel tank back in, and undersealed. A couple of weeks ago I went and fitted new bushes throughout the rear, doesn't squirm about any more. Still slightly wonky right to left! Will have to see if I can address that. Or fit a panhard rod.

so:







Once I got her home, I addressed the mirror situation (i.e none). I used the mirror part of one peep mirror and adapted it to the stalk of another one. Pretty fair vision now.



Also drilled out my little Tiki and turned it into a gear knob for the column shift:

 

[PardonTheWait]

It's going to get pinstriping on the bonnet and boot, possibly elsewhere, and I may go for a coach line down the sides in a similar place to the trim. I don't think I will go for the coach line, but it's a possibility.

 

[PardonTheWait]

So. Bit of a saga coming up.

Before the car went to the restorer, I had a charging problem. Assumed faulty/tired dynamo. Ignition light flickering, then started to be on almost all the time, battery struggling all the time. Drove it to Kent and back for the Hayride, then up to Norfolk to the restorer, just made sure to charge the battery when I had to.

Got her home, charge light on, fitted a Dynamator - which is a modern alternator in a Lucas dynamo chassis to keep the original look. Charge light still on. I have very little clue about vehicle electrics, but I muddled through, however it's still flickering. But then I joined up two more wires, in a last ditch effort to fix my electrical issue. This made the oil light stay on all the time - even with ignition off and keys out. I undid that, but I had to go out so I went to have a shower. Then it hit me - why would a lubrication problem cause a light to stay on all the time?

****! I had my oil and ignition lights mixed up and I've been driving around for a couple of hundred miles chasing an electrical problem when I've actually got a lubrication issue! **** **** ***!

Checked my oil when I got home - levels still fine, just like last time I checked just before it went to restorer. However there's a bit of mayo in the oil filler. Not loads, but it's there. Possibly it could be condensation. Oil is moving round under the rocker cover.

Next step: flush the whole thing with supermarket oil, refill it with 20w50, see where I'm at. Also been pointed at a pressure relief spring to check.

After that if it's still the same.. head gasket >.<

However shouldn't be too horrendous on this car, the engine is fairly simple and there's quite a lot of room around it. I'll need help doing the valve clearances because I haven't done that on anything before but I'll see how I go.

On the upside, I made a tool board for my garage today:



No room for another toolbox so had to take another route to store some stuff.

 

[PardonTheWait]

A few updates. Doesn't seem to be any trouble with the head gasket - the mayo was minor enough that I'm sure it's just from the oil being mineral oil and air rushing over the rocker cover. The oil is clean when I drain a bit. I changed my oil pressure sender and all is good now so fingers crossed.

I'm useless at taking 'during' pictures, but I took out the original parcel shelf last week and re-covered it, also cut holes for speakers. However someone suggested replacing it with a thicker bit of MDF. Good for a few reasons - no need to drill the steel parcel shelf, will sound better, easier to cover because I can use staples.

So as I said, useless at during pictures but I do have before and after:

The holes already existing in the steel parcel shelf, including the original single speaker mount:





Decided to go with the outside set of holes.

Original parcel shelf looking pretty sorry for itself with the grilles in the position they'd go in, also I removed this hateful high-level brake light (to go with the removal of the awful third party reverse lights):





And the finished article:






Happy with that. Haven't wired it up yet because today's alternated between snowing and ****ing with rain, pretty grim out there.

I also used some flashing tape to sound deaden the parcel shelf. I've got sound deadening throughout the cabin but it's so expensive to buy especially in small amounts, I decided to get some of this instead. It's not as good but it's not bad hopefully. I'll use the rest of the roll to fill a few gaps elsewhere although it doesn't like to stick so I'll have to get hold a heat gun before I do the rest. Got away with it here, because it's sandwiched between the parcel shelf and the steel and it's screwed down so it won't go anywhere.

While we were out there we also put up some new shelving in the garage, replaced the work surface on my bench with 18mm instead of 6mm, and used some offcuts to put up more tool board inbetween the empty uprights of the shelving. This was all done from one sheet of MDF including the parcel shelf so that was nice.







Still plenty of room around the car. Well I say plenty.. I can walk down there! Wish I had room to work on the car inside but you can't have everything can ya.

Next jobs: Wire up the rear speakers when I get a bit of dry weather, and get new tyres on the front. I've realised why it looks front high, the front tyres are slightly taller than the rear (wheels are different widths). Going from 80 to 70 profile should sort that out. Then I have to decide if I use the new spring pads to lower it another 1.5in at the front. I do want to, slightly worried it will be too low.

Once that's done (or not) need to decide if I'm going to band the front wheels. They'll look better but I think they'll be too wide.

 

[PardonTheWait]

So, a bit of an update.

Got new tyres on the front - went from 165/80/13 to 70 profile. They're now slightly smaller diameter than the rears, and the car sits much better now:







Slightly nose down now, how I wanted it.

Rear speakers are wired in, sounds much better. They sound much better and louder than the fronts, with the fronts being under the seats. I think I should consider making up boxes to go on the front parcel shelf, but I know it's going to be a pain because that whole bit on old cars is made out of crap flimsy board. Maybe one day. Sounds ok though, happy with it. More important things to deal with! Im fact I wired up the back speakers because I had the hump with the brakes!

So, the brakes. The brakes are shocking on this thing, just shocking. They also felt like one or both front calipers might be slightly stuck. Loads of brake dust, sometimes very hot after a drive, but they do stop the car. Eventutally. However I'm not happy with them and I also have intentions towards a new engine in the future, if I end up going for an MX5 lump it will be between 100-130bhp at first, and these things are not going to cut the mustard then, and to be realistic aren't good enough now. First step to bleed them.

Got her up on stands - first nipple stuck and rounded. Second nipple ok. Tried one of the fronts, stuck. I'm not going to bleed the system out of one nipple and I have no hope of getting them off with normal open ended spanners. It gets boring here for a bit so I'll skip to the end. I'm now the owner of a blowtorch, AF flare nut spanners, and these:



Which are magic as far as I'm concerned.

Anyway skip the end, they're off:





And as a bonus this explains part of it:



I can see my face in them! Super glazed, 0.5mm short of the rivets.

I've got new shoes here, presumably they fit! If they don't I'll still replace.

I'm speaking to a couple of companies and the plan is for replacement cylinders for the rear, replacement hoses, hopefully braided or reinforced with braiding, front and rear, and I'm going to have my calipers remanufactured for the front. Will get new pads while I'm about it - my pads are new but I'm going to see if I can get something better. The pads etc fit various cars including the very popular MGB, so there's a fair bit of choice. I think my discs are ok, they look fine to me anyway, so I'll leave them for now.

Hopefully putting all this on and bleeding it through won't muller my master cylinder, but I'm ready for it to. The way I've had it explained to me is that say your MC piston is 10cm long, it's spent however many years (as many as 54 in Mildred's case) travelling say 3cm, back and forth, over and over, and has worn itself nicely to that point. You drop your fluid, fill up, put the pedal to the floor, and immediately push past that 3cm and smoosh your o-rings etc all over everywhere when they hit the lip that's been worn into the cylinder. So I'll try to bleed it carefully but if/when I muller it, I'll replace that too.

Then my brakes should be running at their maximum capacity. I'm considering a brake booster, but they don't, from what I understand, actually provide any more braking power - just a lighter pedal feel. Maybe I will look into a larger master cylinder? I have no expertise in this at all though so I'll see how I go with this refresh of the braking system. Like I said, in its poor state it did stop the car, so when it's tip top I'm hoping it should be ok.

 

[PardonTheWait]

It's been a bit sporadic over winter, for your normal reasons.. cold, poor, can't be bothered!



Front calipers back from Bigg Red.



Rear shoes relined.

I did eventually get the calipers off, and got some new bolts for them, so they're all back on now and bled through.

Got new pads on as well - currently still got the old rear cylinders and master cylinder on.

Its been playing up also so I've cleaned and rebuilt the carb, new accelerator pump in there also. Fiancee's dad helped me tune it back up because I was having real trouble.

I've also secured the carpets properly as they were moving around everywhere and exposing the sound deadening.

Took all the ropey sealer off the leaky windscreen, and have put Captain Tolleys in there instead - it actually looks like it might have done the job, but I'm going to do the inside too.

Now on the lookout for a suitable rev counter to replace the non-functioning clock in the dash with.

Took her to the cinema a while back!



Was driving just horribly though. She went away for a bit after that, sorted some more brake bits out, getting somewhere with them now I think.

Failed the MOT the other week as I expected. One shock leaking badly, track rod ends knackered which isn't a bad result really.

I went to Gaz Shocks today and they're making me up some new adjustable dampers, slightly shorter than stock to account for the lowering. Four week lead time, but I should really use that time to do a few bits. I've ordered and received a full set of track rod ends also.

Long term I want the whole underside nice and clean - there's new underseal at the edges where the work was done, but I should get to the centre part too. Strip off old underseal, hit it with some Vactan, and put new underseal on. It might be a good time to do it now if I can get the access but it's just such a grim job I'm struggling for motivation!

On top of that I should re-bush the front end. I've got in touch with Powerflex to see if they have the sizes in their database, otherwise I may see if I can get it stripped down and measure up for bushes as I'm sure they're available.

What I'd really like to do is remove the whole front clip, clean it up, vactan it, and spray it over with some chassis black and do the bushes while I'm about it. Hoping the weather can motivate me to do it but she's currently on stands in a single garage so it's pretty tight!

Although I have a garage, I don't actually have a parking space so I can't leave her outside anywhere which is a bit of a pain but I think I should be able to get some bits done in the coming weeks, it's ideal really as she's laid up.

Got some real running issues as well at the moment - it's now idling lovely but stalls when put in gear. The BW gearboxes have a kickdown cable that apparently affects oil pressure in the box and really has a big effect on the whole operation of the box so I'm hoping that I've messed up the adjustment refitting it after the carb rebuild - I should be able to tell by running it with no kickdown cable. If it goes into gear happily, it's the culprit. Should be able to find time to investigate that over the bank holiday.