A Little Long-Term Project

No no filters normally.

You can put one on. Make sure all the hoses are good. It’s the location to the exhaust that always worries me

No, but it’s easy enough to retrofit one. Means replacing a bit of hard line with rubber and extending the run from the fuel pump. I thought just cleaning the tank out would be enough but I was obviously wrong!

Yes, the fuel lines right above the exhaust are a little worrying!

You didn’t get far if that’s the Red Indigo as you leave town 🙂

Tapping the float chamber with a wooden hammer handle was usually a good enough bodge to get you home again. From memory, with a fair bit of throttle.

In this case, I would suggest stripping and cleaning the carb and checking it’s built as it should be. I’ve seen 1.1/4 and 1.1/2” bits mixed up before. It looks not quite right but can be hard to spot.

I’m enjoying this! Please keep updating!

Tbf Andy I’d expect that on a waxstat carb and I’m pretty sure no hs2 was ever waxstat equipped.

Tbf a carb rebuild is a nice afternoon job. Just need a reamer to do the carb body if its baggy. Though most of the time a new spindle gets them near enough.

My carb cars are all on twins I do have a 28/36 down draught in a box somewhere too.

Got a lovely set of brass levered H4s as well.

The tapping technique didn’t work sadly and yes a full carb rebuild is on the list for the winter. Would have done it earlier but I ran out of time with all the other jobs and as it was working it fell down to the bottom of the list.

You didn’t get far if that’s the Red Indigo as you leave town 🙂

Yep, although I still call it The Swan. Grand total of 1.2 miles. The potholed tarmac just past the primary school must have jiggled the crap around blocking the carb up!

I will keep the updates coming as things happen, didn’t want to spam it with every little trip I take. The next worry is the MOT which I plan to do at the end of September, that will dictate whether it’s just more fettling over the winter or time for the proper Man Tools 😁

Yep, although I still call it The Swan.

Correcting myself here, The White Hart! Used to be the go-to place to watch the rugby as you got free sausages and chips at half time. The Swan was the pub with a pool table.

Well yesterday I fitted a new fuel line and filter. Took a while as I had to remove the carb so as to get access to the fuel line from the pump (everything is in the way of itself down there) but it’s now done.

navy near me

It’s temporarily cable tied to the bulkhead wiring prong, I’ll make a proper bracket using a P clip when I get the chance. That position should mean that any further issues with crap being sucked from the tank should be easily resolved by swapping in a new filter that’s now in the ‘Running repairs’ stache in the rear bin! I also had a look in the float chamber of the carb for any more crap in there but it was still clean from where the RAC guy had cleaned it out, hopefully I was just unlucky to suck through a bit of crap and everything should be fine now with the filter on there. I did have a look in the tank but there’s no visible crap in it.

I thought it would be a bit of a mission getting a smal enough clear filter but as soon as I explained what I was doing and said it was for an old Mini the guy behind the counter knew exactly what I needed and had it for me in under a minute, so good to deal with people in the trade who know how older cars work.

While under the bonnet I also secured the hazard relay that has been rattling around under there since the engine went back in and I lost the clip for it!

So to celebrate I took her out for a run to get a 99 (or two…) in the Beacons and she ran perfectly.

If anything there’s now a bit more poke at full throttle and she revs a bit better above 4k too so there must have been a small restriction in the old metal file pipe that’s now replaced with the filter and new hose. Or it could be that I treated her to some Shell V Power unleaded. Either way it should all be good for the end of the summer.

Speaking of which, I’ve got to start looking at getting her through the MOT. It’s due at the end of November but I’ll do it at the end of September. The result of that will decide whether this coming winter is either a few small jobs ready for next year or that it’s time to start planning for the next stage in the project. If it’s the latter then I need to start keeping an eye on the Aldi Aisle of Dreams for power tools!

Well as mentioned above it’s time to think about the impending MOT which is booked for the beginning of October. First thing to note is of you need an MOT anytime soon is to get it booked up early! I’ve had to commit a carnal sin and book her into a Kwik Fit 20 miles away as every garage within that radius is fully booked for the next 2 months! Blame that MOT extension during lockdown, it’s heavily loaded the MOT demand to between September and March. My daily driver is due at the end of December so will have to look at getting that booked from around early November.

So time to draw up a list of niggles to sort. These are the bits I know need looking at as possible fails:

Wipers don’t self-park due to a failed proximity switch. The part has been unavailable for over a year, don’t know if it will be an issue.
Check the rear subframe for rust. It was welded for the last MOT so will have a quick look as I haven’t done anything to it.
New battery. The current one has a cracked terminal that still clamps up fine but I can see how it could be flagged as not secure. As it’s the negative terminal that I disconnect every time I put her in the garage I’ve been keeping an eye on it and it hasn’t got any worse but as the battery is old I’ll probably just chuck a new one on.
Passenger’s seatbelt doesn’t retract unless helped. Hopefully just down to complete lack of use and a bit of lube and working it in and out should sort it.
Fog light bracket has a habit of working loose. It never comes more than just wobbly so new bolts and a bit of locking compound should sort that easily.
Washer jets need aiming to hit the screen when stationary. They’re currently aimed to just hit the bottom as otherwise when used at speed they just go over the roof, got to love 1950’s aerodynamics!
Replace the locking wheel nuts with standard ones. I had one fail to hold torque a few weeks ago so put a spare standard one on in it’s place so will just change them all for peace of mind.

Apart from that it’s down to whether there is any structural issues. The only thing that has me worried is that there is still a knocking noise from the front left suspension that I’ve never fully found on big bumps. Nothing is loose and the mechanic who did the wheel bearing for me couldn’t find it either so it’s either a worn lower ball joint (which is only really diagnosed by replacing it thanks to the loading spring inside it) or a faulty shock. Neither have play or visible leaks so should pass fine. I’m not going to do any more than general prep for the MOT as if it fails on anything major then I have the whole winter to fix it and it may also trigger the next stage of the project: a full body rebuild, respray etc. Another year of adventures before that happens would be nice but is not a problem if it doesn’t materialise.

Roll on judgement day!

Well I took her for the MOT yesterday, didn’t fail! Or Pass.

I got through the list of jobs above easily enough: wipers park correctly now after a new switch on the motor, rear subframe still looks solid, borrowed a battery to fit temporarily (will replace mine in the spring, seems silly to fit a new battery only for it to sit all winter), seatbelt adjusted, fog light bracket fixed, washer jets adjusted and new wheel nuts fitted. Gave the inside a good hoovering and it was off into the rain to the MOT station.

The drive to Monmouth was fine but the horn stopped working about halfway there, most likely due to water getting inside but that’s an easy fix so not worried. Got there and the guy on reception seemed rather happy to have an old Mini to test, turns out he used to have one. He asked if it was carb or injection then said it would be about an hour so I went off into town to get some food at the Punch House. Had a lovely fish and chips but just as I was finishing it I got a phone call. They had been in the middle of testing the lights when the engine died and they couldn’t get it started again. They checked the obvious stuff but managed to trace it down to a loose earth cable. As it couldn’t be started they abandoned the test and asked it if it was ok to push it out into the car park.

Finished my food then made my way back to the garage to see what was wrong.
First thing I did was try the key and it started first time. The guy was adamant it wouldn’t start for them on the ramp so I popped the bonnet to have a look. Found this:

You can see a small bit of bolt sticking out of the block, that is a snapped engine mount bolt. There is normally a bracket that also braces the mount (the silver rod with a rubber bushing) but that was dangling from the snapped end of the bolt and it’s second bolt was missing. It seems like the first bolt has rattled out allowing all the stress to go through the main bolt which has given up while the car was being put on the ramp. The earth strap was attached to the engine mount bolt so when it snapped the earth was lost.

So with that figured out I had to try and reattach the earth strap so I could at least drive home. They let me use some spanners and with a bit of manipulating of stuff I got the earth strap attached to a bolt on the gearbox housing, not great but enough to get home slowly. I’ve got breakdown cover but I don’t know whether it would get me from a garage to home, if I could get a few miles down the road then that wouldn’t be an issue. Before I left I checked how much of the test had been done and if they had found any issues. They said the left rear brake is not working on the pedal or the handbrake and the horn wasn’t working, that’s as far as they got. So set off for home and actually managed to get all the way by being gentle and with only a few stutters on more than half throttle, which meant going at 50mph on 20 miles of dual carriageway in rain, not fun in a car that small and with old filament lights!

So she’s now parked back up in the garage drying out for a few days. I did do a quick check on the rear brakes when home, they work but the left is a bit weak. The issue I’ve got now is two things: they didn’t do a full test so I still don’t know if anything major is wrong and that snapped bolt. Getting it out is not the major issue, getting tools to it is. The space between it and the inner wing is too tight for a drill so it looks like to fix it I’ll have to take the engine out. If I’m doing that then it seems a lot of effort to go through, put it back together then get it tested again only to fail on something else. It’s a conundrum as I really wanted the test to tell me whether it’s a winter of fixing little things or getting ready for a full body rebuild.

A bit of thinking time is called for I think.

There’s a repair bracket for that.

Though a 90deg on a lh drill will normally spin it out.

I always use a top ultimate engine Steady any way.

Brakes will be a cylinder probably. Razz the drum off…

If you’ve booked a KF test, will they schedule a retest (or complete the original test) without going to the back of the queue? Quick fettle on the broken stud/weak brake/soggy horn and then back in for an updated list of doom? Gives you your prioritised work schedule then at least…

BTW, I never fix anything more complex than a bicycle so take the above with a couple of KG’s of salt. That’s what garages are for (for me)… 😉

There’s a repair bracket for that.

Is there? I’ll want to get the broken bolt out anyway but might be handy if I decide to just get everything ready for another MOT for a better full picture.

Brakes will be a cylinder probably. Razz the drum off…

Both rears have pretty new cylinders, checked them when I did the rear wheel bearing. My hunch is on the bearing seal failing and grease has contaminated the shoes as the brake pedal is lovely and solid and it hasn’t used any fluid since I rebled it after the front lines started leaking.

If you’ve booked a KF test, will they schedule a retest (or complete the original test) without going to the back of the queue?

No, it’s classed the same as if you didn’t turn up. You lose the fee and no free retest. If I do decide to get things fixed rather than start a rebuild I’ll take her down to the local friendly garage for an inspection, probably more thorough than an MOT! He’s usually quiet around November time so will see if he can fit me in. He’s less than a mile from my parent’s house and likes Minis so should be fine. I was going to get him to do the MOT but he is fully booked on them until December, blame the MOT extension moving everyone to the same dates rather than spread through the year.

Still might decide to just crack on with the rebuild/restoration, depends on a few things.

Had a bit of success, the broken bolt is out!

Managed to borrow a Dremel and cut a small groove in what was left if the bolt, enough to get a screwdriver but in it and slowly tease it out.

The marks on the block are from using a small file to flatten the broken bit flat, it’s not a sealing surface so purely cosmetic.
Was surprising how little of the bolt was actually in the block though!

A huge relief to get it out though without talking the engine out.

Will get the replacement bolts ordered up with a few other bits and have now decided to have a go at getting her prepped for another MOT, a few things to work through but they’re all things that will need doing regardless so got nothing to lose by doing them.

Time for an update. Haven’t done much work over the winter as I’ve had other things taking up my time but the last few weeks I’ve made a start on attempting to get her through another MOT.

The known faults are as follows:

* Horn doesn’t work.
* Main beam flash does not work.
* Left rear brake works but does not generate any power on foot or handbrake.

Seeing as I needed to investigate why the left rear brake was lacking power and that I hadn’t done any work to the rear at all last time I decided to take the rear subframe off. It’s known to be crusty so having a good look at it and maybe giving it some paint seemed like a good idea.

First task was to remove the fuel tank as it blocks access to the left damper mounting. That meant taking the battery out for safety reasons and despite the negative being disconnected the terminals had gone all furry!

The positive terminal was so bad it was stuck on so I just hacked the cable, it’s got a good 8″ of excess so plenty to put a new terminal on it. Plus a new battery as it was reading 4.7v.

With that done the tank came out easily but did give up a little secret that explains why the boot smelled of petrol every time I hadn’t used her for a week or more:

early bird special bbq

That’s the remains of the breather pipe that goes from the top of the tank through the boot floor. I’m guessing it didn’t like having fuel with ethanol (I’ve been running her on a mix of E5 and E10) and had rotted. It was very brittle and snapped easily, it was still in reasonable nick last winter so has gone bad over the last 7 months.

The tank also gave up another secret that I’d missed when I gave it a quick flush last winter:

local restaurants wilmington nc[/url]

The remains of an old filler cap. That would explain the rattle I got when it was low on fuel and when filling the tank. They’re not from the current cap but it is a replacement one so it’s been in there a while. I thought the rattle was the fuel sender float having a bit of play in it! It only dropped out after I inverted the tank to put it on a shelf for safe keeping after giving it another flush so the bits must have been hiding somehow.

So on to the main job: dropping the subframe. Easily removed the exhaust and brake lines as I’d done them previously last winter. The issue I hit was the damper top mounts. The original dampers are easy, just undo the top nut as they locate in notch. These though are Gaz units and you need to hold the shaft steady with a spanner while undoing the nut. The left hand side came off easily but the right one had a damaged shaft flat so I was unable to get a spanner on it. The god one:

The bad one:

Doesn’t look much but it was impossible to get it undone, even after a variety of techniques. So admitting defeat the subframe is staying on as I’d need to cut the damper shaft to remove it and they’re pretty expensive. The plan now is to see what the fail list (guaranteed to be one, it’s a 33 year old Mini…) says and take it from there.

So on to the next job, the left rear brake not biting.

Took the wheels off and removed the drum to be greeted by this:

And this:

Obviously grease had escaped from the wheel bearing, which is what I suspected seeing as there was no obvious loss of brake fluid. You can see in the second picture where the brake shoes have swelled slightly and have polished up from no friction to roughen them up, they’re actually slightly gooey to touch too.

Removed the hub to investigate and found a real mess inside:

The inner bearing was covered in burnt grease and dirt with a deformed seal behind it. Serves me right for fitting a cheap bearing last summer! I couldn’t get a decent Timpkin one so went with a Quinton Hazell one thinking it would last a few thousand miles at least. It’s dead after 700 miles. Buy cheap, buy twice.

So a decent few blasts with brake cleaner and the drum and backing plate are lovely and clean!

chops diner castle hayne menu

All ready for new shoes and a new bearing. That’s as far as I’ve got at the moment as I’ll have to order parts plus I’m short of time to do any work as I’m back in full-time employment and having to juggle other hobbies and duties around too. It doesn’t mean I’ll be stalling on the project but it does mean getting her MOT’d at the end of March might fall back to the end of April depending on how quickly I get through the list. There is an upside to it though: I can now start to plan the second stage of the project as I now have a steady income. If I can get her MOT’d for this year I’ll be taking her to a few different workshops to get her assessed ready for a full body refurb. Hopefully the cost won’t be too horrific but the worst-case scenario is it costing more than a new shell which is roughly £11k. I would really like to keep things original but it does set a top end on what I need to commit to having a shell ready for paint. I said at the beginning (and in the title) that this is a long term project, the current stage is having some fun with her and getting the mechanicals, especially the engine, reliable and running smoothly. If it takes a decade to complete I’m fine with that (although I do wonder which will be completed first Georgie or Binky…) but hopefully I can get it all done in under that.

Right, I need to order a load of parts. Haven’t had a Mini Spares delivery for a while!

* Turns out the forum doesn’t like having more than 4 picture per post, hence the split halfway!

Got a little update for those who are still interested! Just words this time though as I seem to have deleted the photos I took.

Been chipping away at the little jobs over the last few weeks.

Got the new wheel bearing fitted easily enough but fitting the new shoes was a small mission! If anyone has ever done new brake shoes they’ll know how much of a pain those little sprung retaining pins can be. Well I’ll never complain about them again as without them it’s nigh-on impossible to keep the shoes aligned while pushing the drum back on, Mini drums don’t use them. The tension springs work from the rear of the shoes (see the picture in the post above) and work fine normally but if you pull the drum back slightly they have a habit of flinging one of the shoes out at a random angle. They’re fine once they’ve been used a few times and settled in their homes but fresh shoes do not behave.

After a lot of electrical fault tracing I found out that all the electrical issues came down to a dodgy fuse box. Replaced that and suddenly everything worked again. Horn, headlight flasher, indicators stayed at a constant speed and the interior light suddenly made itself known for the first time too. Well, I say all but the number plate lights still refused to work. Plenty of volts getting to them (partly down to the new battery) but on taking it apart it turned out there were no bulbs in there and two of the connections were snapped and nowhere to be seen. I haven’t touched it since I got the car so how it passed the MOT back then I don’t know*. They’re only cheap so just replaced with new ones and they came on first time.

While the tank was out I replaced all the fuel and breather lines, they’re only a few quid so seemed silly not to.

So that rounded off the list. Time for another attempt at an MOT. Again I struggled to find a free slot anywhere so I ended up using Kwik Fit again but thins time in Merthyr Tydfil. Came to the day and it was glorious weather so the drive there was great. Saw plenty of other cars out too, mainly Caterhams (really want to build one of those one day!) but a few older things too. Everyone was happily waving to each other so I was in a good mood when I got to the test, although a new noise did appear a few miles before I got into Merthyr, a little clunk on big bumps but nothing I was overly worried about. Happy to find the tester was a Mini fan too, that’s two Kwik Fit’s with them, so was happy to just let the result be what it was. There have been a few horror stories on the Mini facebook groups recently of new testers failing cars for grease ‘leaking’ out of suspension bushes and balljoints, them not knowing that they’re designed to do it hence why they have grease nipples! No issues for me on that front! Was sat there for what felt like ages for the tester to call me in and see what it had failed on but it was a good hour before he made an appearance. Had it passed? No. But only failed on one item! The rear subframe was showing signs of delaminating so was a failure. The clunk I could hear on the way in turned out to be the jacking plate flapping around! Not a huge surprise as it had needed two plates welded in last time and is a known rust trap. There was also a small advisory for one of the exhaust mountings being a bit worn.

So actually a pretty decent result as I only have one part (admittedly a big one) to replace! Does mean I may have to bite the bullet and cut that errant shock shaft to get it off but if that’s the price of another summer or two of fun then so be it. Just got to track down a decent subframe now as only the expensive new ones are available at £500, the cheaper ones are all sold out and on long backorder times. The aim now is to gather up the parts I need and hopefully get it all fixed for the Jubilee weekend. What’s scary is that if I fix the two items flagged up I could have a 33 year old Mini with a clean MOT sheet, that would be a bit of a rarity.

As an aside, the drive back home made me realise why I like this car so much, it’s just able to put a massive grin on my face even at low speeds. I only took the most direct route there and back which is mostly dual carriageways but even just bouncing along at 60 made me grin. I definitely chose the right car for my long term project.

* I felt it was slightly iffy when I bought the car as the fix for the passenger wiper not sitting on the screen correctly was a new blade (that didn’t fit the arm…) sitting in the passenger seat!

Not terrible result.

Fuse boxes are the main issue As I’ve said before. Though the bullet connectors in the slam panel are a close 2nd.

Can you get a vice grip and a spanner on the top of the gaz damper? Or sometimes an impact gun will get them off with out needing to lock the shaft.

My other thing to watch is that when you do the frame watch the bolts into the heal board. They snap like carrots and are a captive nut.

I’ve had them snap or even worse tear the nut out. Ended up having to cut the sill to get in to repair them.

Also be prepared for a bit of corrosion on the heal board.

It’s maybe worth planning for re-bushing the radius arms along with subframe replacement.

Looking forward to the body restoration. I’ve been following paulwigintonclassicvehicles on instagram who does seem really lovely work on minis, providing an almost daily commentary on what he’s up to.

The fuse box was meant to be changed a while back but they were always out of stock whenever I put an order in for stuff! Scary how much difference it made, almost like it gave the whole car a new lease of life.
Have tried a few things to get the shock off last time including vice grips etc, no bueno sadly. Haven’t tried an impact wrench so that’s an option.
Have heard about the bolts snapping so will replace them with new ones and hope the old ones come out without too much difficulty! The heel board is a worry but as the subframe will be off I’ll be cleaning and coating it as a matter of course. That was the original plan last winter but the shock issue meant I didn’t do it.
The radius arms will be renewed, seems silly not to when it’s all apart. New bushes all round too. The plan is to take the car for evaluation with regards to the bodywork if I can get it road legal, otherwise it’ll be a slower process of getting it around on a flatbed to wherever I need to. I want an honest opinion on what’s required, the costs and whether it’s viable. Then I can really start to make plans for funding etc.

I have seen people drill a little hole in the companion bin there’s a flat legde that makes up the heal board box section and use it to keep spraying oil in on the bolts

Getting to the back of the nuts somehow had crossed my mind. I’m hoping that everything should be relatively free though as they would have had to remove it to weld the patches on just before I bought the car, the patches are in the front and have been welded from the inside and outside so could only have been done off the car. Hopefully it won’t put up too much of a fight!

@reluctantjumper what a great thread. Just read the whole lot, thanks for posting with all the updates. Not sure how I’d previously missed this thread. Anyway keep up the good work 👍👍

This thread makes me wish I’d never sold my mini. I also had a G reg, it was a limited edition Racing Green. Think I sold it for about £150 about 20 years ago, it needed a little work to get it back on road. I had it was parked up and not in use and I kept getting people knock on door and ask if I’d sell it and kept saying no, but stupidly one day just said yes. And regretted ever since. No way I could afford one now looking at the prices.

I have a 2 post lift just round the corner from your folks (I think they are in Crick??) if you want to get a good look from below. Drop me a PM if you think it would be worth lifting it up for a look. Is the rear subframe beyond economic repair or could a tidy job be made if it was removed?
If you want I can ask my mate who works in the local motor factors and who has recently rebuild a mini himself if he can get hold of a cheaper rear subframe if you want to go replacement route.

@reluctantjumper

No idea if you have the special socket for the front ball joints, but I have one here (somewhere) that you’re welcome to. I’m near Trellech. PM me if you want it.

Good news! I have sourced a subframe.

There’s also a pair of freshly refurbished arms in there too. The subframe is brand new but bought privately, it has been painted in etch primer so just needs me to put a protective coating on it before I fit it.

@welshfarmer – don’t think I’ll need use of one at the moment as I’ve got plenty of room underneath using jacks and axle stands but if I do I’ll give you a shout. Would have made getting the engine out last winter a hell of a lot easier! Yes, the current subframe is beyond repair, it’s rusting from the inside outwards so I’m expecting it to turn into dust when I remove it.

@Marko – what special socket? I’ve got one of the Draper ones that’s like a clamp where you tighten a bolt to separate the joint which is bloody scary when the taper let’s go. If you’ve got something better I’m interested.

No way I could afford one now looking at the prices.

They’re only going one way! Starting prices for a runner with a MOT seem to have jumped £2k in the last year.

Still loving this thread, thanks for the updates.

Ball joint sockets a really deep single hex socket to go over the pin.

Duncan knows his Minis!

Most mechanics in their late 50s and older would have had this socket in their tool box. Very common MOT failure, fixed by either a new ball joint or removing shims.

Re the failed wheel bearing, QH aren’t known as Quinton Hassle for nothing!

@marko

Should do had enough of them. Still got 2 in bits. #speedsmith engineering lol.

Used to frequent alot of the mini forums and used to be one of the resident ask an expert one of them.

Basically I’m shit hot on anything pre 2002 then I backed away from spannering and went aftersales.

Ah, that would be very handy whe it comes to that job which is inevitable at some point. Don’t think I can make it up your way for a while though so I’ll send you a PM when I’m going to be that way if that’s ok?

Re the failed wheel bearing, QH aren’t known as Quinton Hassle for nothing!

They were all I could get at the time, wasn’t expecting anything special for £11! If it lasted only 2-4 thousand miles I’d be happy but to destroy itself in under 1000 miles is abysmal. Sticking with my usual mantra of buying the best quality I can from now on.

When I was running my Spitfire on a shoestring, I got a couple of QH UJs due to the price vs alternatives. The dust on the box should have been a give away to its shelf life. Quick learning experience of the cheap/twice buying ethos!

Qh used to be good kit now its just a boxing brand.

Managed to have a solid day on the spanners last weekend so plenty of progress has been made!

The sticking point last time was getting the near side shock undone. Thanks to a lightbulb moment by a neighbour it came off by using my stud extractor to hold the shaft still allowing me to undo the nut. Worked instantly and really annoyed with myself I didn’t think of it earlier. So with that done it was a matter of just disconnecting everything, supporting the shell on lots of wood on axle stands and the subframe came off really easily. My suspicion of the mounting bolts having come off for the last MOT seemed to be right as they all spun out without any binding issues or worrying noises. What was revealed wasn’t pretty though:

One very secondhand subframe! That’s the side that was against the floor, the side facing the road looked a lot better but was obviously not great. The worst bit was where it had rusted through right by where the cone sits:

It had started to delaminate where the yellow line is too so definitely not repairable.

The good news was the actual floor behind everything is absolutely fine, just one or two small bits of surface rust that I’ll treat before adding underseal:

So that’s all good news. I have made a start on stripping the subframe down and have found that the bolts through the rear mounts are rusted solid so I’ve just ordered new ones, saves wasting time getting the old ones off. Next stage is to swap everything over from the radius arms then start assembling everything on the new subframe, which has had a few coats of stonechip shield for protection. I’d ideally like to get it galvanised and powdercoated but I don’t have time to do it and as I got it cheap I’m not worried about it lasting forever.

I do have one question for @duncancallum though. When I took the cones out they had a circular black alloy plate behind them that is stuck to the subframe with glue. I can’t find any reference to them in documentation, either for the standard suspension or for the AdjustaRide setup I have. Are they necessary or can I not worry about transferring them over? They don’t seem to do anything, maybe help locate the cones a bit but other than that they seem pointless. You can just see it peeking through the gap in the picture above.

Good work fella,nice to see the floor’s in such good condition.

Odd

I don’t recall anything. They normally fit over a sort of lump. I certainly don’t remember anything glued on ln the ones I’ve done.

Any numbers on the cone? Wondering if it’s got a comfort ride or uprated cones?

The adjustable suspension kits are normally just the trumpet and knuckle.

More I look at that pic the more I can’t see why it’s there or what it does.

Cone looks like it’s sitting to far out of its mount.

That was my thought, seems completely pointless. Will get a proper picture of it just in case though next time. Oh and the arm is drooped so there’s no compression in the trumpet or cone in that shot, the cone sits in there fine otherwise.

Had a look at a frame in my garage n that’s not got them.

The only thing I thought was maybe it was a wet subframe converted to dry….

I’ve never had a wet suspension car though so couldn’t say if that was it