1973 b18 clubman weekender

[ardonfast]

sell to monkey,, needs some 6x10 silver minilights,,
down to teaste but wellers are a wheel but this needs something classer

[leon]

Agree with @ardonfast. Minilights or image split rims

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[Chris16v]

Love the paint!

[InstantCustard]

Banded 10" steels and chrome hubcaps!


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[InstantCustard]

Mine are 12" banded:



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[fordy]

Bit of an update.

Got the floors painted. Used furtan rust treatment then some good old smooth hammerite.



Rear lights fitted with new seals and fuel tank in. Turned out that I forgot to replace the tank stay bracket when I replaced the floor so had to fabricate one and weld it in.


Got the boot lid built up and fitted. I do have a problem though. Whilst replacing the rear corners,hinge panel etc I did fit the boot lid before i welded it all up to ensure good fitment. However I did not have the seal fitted at the time and now with it fitted I can't get the lid to close properly. It's proud on the top right hand side and not compressing the seal. In fact there is a gap between body and the seal. I've tried various things to rectify this, packed the hinges out, filed the holes more, fitted the later type seal which I couldn't even close it with that on.



Flush this end


Proud here


Has to be the seal as when I remove it, it sits fine.



While playing around with this, one of my brand new stainless nuts,that holds the hinge to the body decided to seize itself on to the pin. Which was only finger tight!! What a nightmare! Posi head then rounded off so had no choice but to drill it out! Replaced with another, roughly set the lid and moved on to something else. Will return to this at a later date. But any advice on how to sort this would be very much appreciated.

So thought I'd move on the getting the rear openers in.
I happened to have 3 sets of these, so thought no probs. How wrong was I. Like I said I have 3 sets, 1 clear, 1 with green tint and 1 with a dark tint. But turns out my front screen and door glass are clear and rear screen is green. So best way is to just get another clear rear screen and fit my clear side openers right. No such luck. The frames on my clear ones are rusty and scratched. So thought I could remove the dark tint from my other set and hopefully they will be clear underneath. Which was the case. So removed the tint, polished the frame and got it fitted. Again with new seal.





Came to strip the drivers side and one of the 2 fixed hinges has rusted through and snapped off. So now im in need of a good drivers side clear opener.

I was the going to get the doors fitted but will wait until I can get another set of hands to ensure I don't damage them.

As I still need to make some modifications to the front subframe I decided to get the engine in so I could make a start. These include changing the front mounts for the tie rods and making some tabs for the brake lines to secure to.
And as I needed to turn the car around in the garage it gave me chance to get it out in the sun for the first time so I could really appreciate the colour! So happy with it.



One of the doors in the sun.


Engine in place. Still un decided on cam cover colour.



As its a custom frame the tie rod mounts are parallel to the bulkhead which causes a problem when mounting the them. Their position also limits the full lock on the steering. So I'm looking at bending the tie rods very slightly to aid with the steering lock and also twisting the front mount. I have a spare set of tie rods so just mocking them up to get the correct angle then I will bend my others.



As you can see not much of a bend at all.
People may frown on this, and I do understand how heating the metal will change its properties and potentially weaken them. I will be making sure I don't get them too hot and carry out an anealing process afterwards. This should limit the amount that the metal is effected and may also carry out a crack test just to make sure.



Will bend the other side tomorrow and make sure that clears and go from there.
Feels like everything is taking ages! Even the little jobs but progress is progress is guess.

[ardonfast]

nice , take that limited period boot seal off and use later seal,

[fordy]

I did try it with the later seal on. Couldn't even get it closed.

[ardonfast]

yes cool , remove the original one stuck to boot lid.
you can have both, would even say leave the original one on,

[fordy]

No chance of fitting both as like I said I can't even close it with the later type seal on, so 2 would stand no chance.

Anyways Started mocking up for my brake lines, fitted drivers side caliper so I can see where to weld my tabs and..............


Yes! Caliper is hitting the tie rod end mount!!!
I've seen that people have had this problem in the past but not really found any definitive answer as to why or how to rectify it.

Rack is centralised, castor and camber are not set. Could this be as mine is a custom frame the front tie rod mount is higher than standard causing the tie rod to angle up to much??

Only way I can see to fix this is to add some rack limiters or some bottom ball joint steppers.
As the limiters are considerable cheaper I've just ordered some KAD ones so I'll go from there.

[ardonfast]

yes cool , remove the original one stuck to boot lid.
you can have both, would even say leave the original one on,

sorry pished spelling, try this amendment,

you cant have both,i would even say leave the original one on,,
that's the one joined to boot lid, take other off, sober lol

[fordy]

Been away with work for the past couple of weeks so made zero progress. However while away I did manage to order some KAD rack limiters and ball joint droppers from mondosport. These drop the ball joint by 30mm.

So stripped the hubs off and fitted the droppers first, as I was not convinced the limiters would solve the problem.

Got it all build back up and have worked a treat. Loads of clearance now both sides on full lock.



Then went on to angle the front tie rod mounts.







With the droppers fitted and the plates angled I thought I'd try and fit my straight tie bars and great news they fit fine. Plenty of clearance both sides.



So have now removed the engine.....again, hopefully the next time it goes in it will be in for good.
Removed the frame from the car and stripped it down. Welded up the front mounts, welded my tabs on for the braided brake lines and generally tidied it up ready to be sent for powder coating.

Next I have some of the bulkhead to re-paint as I'm not 100% happy with it and then get the drive shafts built up.
Finally feels like I'm making some progress.
Not looked at the boot lid again yet though!!

[fordy]

Update time.


While waiting for the frame to come back I painted some of the bulk head again in the wrinkle finish paint as I wasn't happy with some areas. As before needed heat to help wrinkle and cure the paint.



Also got the drive shafts built up.




Got the front frame back from the powder coaters, looks great. A bargain at £30!!



So assembly began. Secured the frame to the car and built upper and lower arms up. As with the rest of the car, using stainless fixings wherever possible.





Then started on the brake lines. Ridged into braided lines.





Pretty happy on how it's going together.
Ordered a new ap racing 14mm bore clutch master and mocked this up. Only needed to cut the rod to length and a small bit of fettling to fit, just waiting for some clevis pins and will get it in properly.



As it stands now.



Really happy with it. Dropped a clanger though and forgot to order some new engine mounts. So just waiting for these to come and I can get the engine in, hopefully for the final time. Have gone for some hasport billet mounts, these are a lot more ridged than standard which will hopefully prevent any excessive movement.

I have also added some sound proofing to the roof ready for the New head lining to go in.



Id love to get it done for Xmas but maybe asking a bit much. But have promised to treat myself if I can, in the form of some specialist components split rims.

Best get my ass in gear!!

[Mini Vlatko]

Very nice and clean! Like it!

[fordy]

Thanks man. Happy with it so far.

Had some goodies through the post. Stainless manifold and some hasport ridged mounts.




Managed to get the engine in for the final time today. Well hopefully it won't have to come out again.
Even managed to get it in without damaging or marking anything which was a result.

First made sure I wasn't going to mark the frame.



Then threw it in.



Looking good.



Now to build it up. Hopefully going to start and see some real progress now.
Still unsure on rocker cover colour. May just go for the wrinkled black to suit the bulkhead.