To much to read.. haha

Stick at it..

I have had my clubby for 8 years now.. now building a new motor for it..
after 8 years and this build it owes me 9K see pics at

www.users.tpg.com.ua/codyabel/gt1310

Now 9 months into my second mini project.. Evil850 I have spent over 13K now and am still LEAST 13K of from having it done the way I want..

\But in saying that.. dont do what I do and Go nuts on things like custom mags worht 2500.00 without rubber

Or on the other end of the scale there's my Sports850 , all up in the 14 or so years I've owned it , excluding rego/fuel , it's cost me a grand total of about $3,000 including purchase price and maintenance , they don't have to be expensive to be fun . Just depends what sort of mini you want .

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True, that why I've called my mini "Pricey" it's not only mini's which are expensive on parts. My old man has a 1953 Pontiac, has to order parts from the states.

I agree with this if you are mindful that you have drum brakes and they are suseptible to brake fade then you should be alert to it if you feel your brake pedal getting spongy then back off. You should really be doing this for any car IMO any brakes can be cooked if they are worked hard enough.

If you are going down a long steep hill you should ALWAYS use your engine to provide braking!!! You can control your speed using your brakes by using short hard braking and then let the engine do the braking again this gives your brakes enough time to cool down in between if you experience brake fade or you can smell you brakes your going too fast and you should be down another gear.

One rule is that these sort of hills you should go down the hill in the same or lower gear than it took or would take to go up the same hill. If you follow these sort of rules then you shouldn't fry your brakes.

If you want to drive 'spiritedly' do so on the way up the hill or on the flat but never down IMO

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Roads need more corners
A Deluxe(CG13DE), 2 Clubbies(998 and 1275) and 2 Morris 1100Ss

Prices to run cars can be a piece of string, where is the end? We are at the end of the time when minis were cheap and that is unfortunate, but then one man's cheap is someone elses expensive. Those that have the money won't blink and those that don't, find it hard to believe that minis can have become a desirable investment for some. Any mini bought should be closely checked out bodywise. The body is the most expensive part to fix IMO for those that can't do the work themselves. I kinow of a Cooper S that has cost the owner 20K to have the body ready for rego. That is not a misprint and the figure came from the panel beater. The panel beater can't believe anyone could be so stupid as to spend that sort of money on an S and I agree, but obviously the owner didn't. So all up this car on the road will owe the owner well over 30K. It is this sort of thing that we are starting to see and is pushing the market.
There are always two markets in restoring cars, the enthusiast and those that have money. Those that have money drive the market prices and in the end the enthusiast is driven out. I have some parts for sale as some will be aware of, I want my money back. Those on this forum being mainly enthusiasts can't bring themselves to pay what I want for one of those parts so I am forced to go elsewhere to sell it. Now in my thinking it would be more cost effective to buy what I have, save a lot of time and effort and a bucket load of money (for some) and buy it. I am not wanting any more than I paid for it and the money I have put into it since. Unfortunately others don't see it that way and I have not sold the body. I will now ebay it and I bet it goes OS unless sold beforehand as there are a couple of outstanding queries on it at the moment. The New Zealanders have had their mini population absolutely decimated by those OS who are buying minis and exporting them to the US etc. Money talks in this situation and unfortunately the enthusiast loses out once again. So we are in the last of the times that we as enthusiasts can afford these cars, so enjoy. Before starting on any rebuild decide what level you want to go to and price the parts and labour and add 50% for contingincies (sp)

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Chris

Everything I like is either
illegal, immoral or fattening.

thanks for the advice, and yes i would have to agree that brakes are one part which should not be missed to save moeny . i allready do use the engine to brake anyway cause the only kind of driving i do at the moment is counrtyish driving. although when i was in the city i used the brakes a fair bit as well as trying to juggle them with the gears and engine .

out here i useually only use the brakes if i won't to stop of i see something that might possibly jump infront of my car and stuff up the paint or/and body work.

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Sunday Morning Mini Sprint http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtGuzqBQ32Q my "rendezvous"

Brakes are a very personal thing. I could drive a full house car all week and not have trouble, others couldn't. Get some decent linings, vent the back plates, add ducts, find some minifins, get some good brake fluid, this last is always overlooked and I would bet they would last longer than people think. Even with discs I would add ducting as the 7.5 are not a real good setup. Sooner or later with either discs or drums if you exceed eithers capacity you will hit something. It is all up to the driver's judgement. We used to rally a supercharged deluxe with this setup and never ran out of picks because we knew what the limitation was and we drove it using the handling to go quick.

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Chris

Everything I like is either
illegal, immoral or fattening.