what's this. stick it up the marine engineers week
many of the old timers[me included] worked on lovely triple expansion steam engines and being mainly British [hornsby and ruston] all the bearings were cast white metal and as they wear the shims were taken out and the bearing hand scraped to suit.
The method is good for a old klunker flat out at 150 rpm but certainly not for a more modern design like a 60 year old "A" series

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Research is the difference between speculation and investment. Anyone who copys some one else will always be second
www.minisprintgt.com

Piston made from chunk of red wood. Friend of my father found it. Flat head Ford V8. The guy he bought it off was quite proud of his efforts. Apparently it was running pump for 40 years like it.

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1928 Chev 4 motor my dad had on an irrigation pump.
It ran fine for 15 years, but never was smooth, always a bit rough. One fine day, it broke the crank. RIP.
When we pulled it down, it had 3 cast iron pistons, and 1 aluminium one.
No wonder she ran rough!:shock:

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

I love the old flatties, oil and water was only an option back then they go forever as long as you dont rev em to hard and turn em into a 3 dimensional schematic drawing on the road

Every wiring loom of every mini I've ever owned. Some people have no clue whatsoever.

ooh i'll second that one!

my floor was "repaired" with a piece off another van except its hard to believe it was less rusty. The PO could not weld, beat, bog, cut or define rust....now lets open up that engine

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one van, one mini s, one knitted cardigan

Not so much dodgy repair as dodgy build, the more work I do on this car the more dodgyness I find.

Head has pretend cooper s bolts, holes drilled and bolts in but bolts are cut in half and only sit in the head to look the part.

No outrigger bearing fitted to gearbox.

No paint preparation, nice gloss black paint falling off in large chunks, doesnt even look like it was sanded, perfect smooth finish underneath.

I could go on but wont, what i thought was a perfect car is anything but. Only makes me angry when I think about it.

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1965 Riley Elf
1974 Ex Army Moke
1997 Rover Cooper
2002 JCW Cooper
2003 JCW Cooper S

my first mini about 10 years ago was a 65 deluxe - $800, not running but complete and looked restorable. The old bloke who sold it to me said he'd fixed most of the rust. should have checked it better before buying it as I later discovered he'd fixed it with silastic

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ex Cooper S owner
future Mini owner

Factory Dodgeyness is all the panels on my 1275LS , looks like they just threw on the front guards and apron and thought "yup , looks good" lets just spot weld it on there and my factory rear screen has a dirty big bubble in it

years ago when I was into restoring ford V8's [ xc's] I bought a 2 door that was not going for a resto. I got the engine running 351 clevland and it had a miss on one pot and was rough running. when I eventually pulled it down for re-build 1 piston on LH bank was not even fitted. A 8 running on 7 pots. The piston /rod had broken at some stage so the PO just took it out. My holden mates reckon it came from the factory like that

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Research is the difference between speculation and investment. Anyone who copys some one else will always be second
www.minisprintgt.com

BMC weren't above bogging panels on cars that got dented on the production line and repainting them, and not particularly well. One bloke on a TV programme remembers the bog falling off during final inspection. Imagine that - a new car with crash repairs before it left the factory...

I fit sunroofs for a living we used to get Alfa's in the 80's when you cut the hole in the roof they always had bog in them brand new from the factory Daren

I've been saying it for years....they all knew they were getting the bullet, they even pee'd in the paint! Ever noticed how the last of them seem to rust worse than any others built? I recon that the last was given to the National Motor Muzeum not because it was the last one, but that it is that poorly put together, no one would buy it!




A few years ago, while looking carrying out an audit at (one of the biggest car manufacturer's in the country), a car had fallen off the overhead cradle system the previous day. It did have a big fall and suffered extensive damage, clearly it was a write off....but no, no, no.....they recon they couldn't afford to write if off, so they pushed off in to a corner of the factory and had an apprentice (fitter!) and a labourer panel beating and bogging it. It ended up back on the line and eventually on the lot.....

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