The rebuild of Jemima Puddleduck

[jimmyjamjar]

Well not much progress visible the last while but I was doing a lot of those small things that seem to take a lot of time yet not much visible progress. THe big news and relief all round is that I got the motor running Whoopee! I am so relieved that after more than 12 years the beast lives! I battled a bit at first checking all the settings and clearances and timing etc. but it would just not run  but then I discovered the carb was not functioning, the piston would not lift properly and so when i squirted some pewtrol in it would briefly fire but not carry on. I also found the jet was not set up properly. I took the carb off and put my spare on and hey prest Vroom Vroom!

My front taper roller front wheel bearing kits arrived only to discover that one of the boxes had no oil seals in it , Mini Spares appologised and have sent mew the missing seals which should arrive any day now . I nervously tackled the cutting of the wheel arches on the front for the new 13" wheels. I did not fancy cutting and bending a a new stiffening lip as suggested in the literature and opted for pop riveting a portion of the cut out piece onto the edge of the cut and it seems to be nice and rigiid again. I was surprised at how tough the metal was as I had to use a new jig saw blade for each cut.

Then on Sunday when we had the family round for a birthday celebration I roped the guys in to help me push the car round to the garage, one small hitch the Mini is 3.1 meters long and the beam that  have my hoist connected to puts the engine at 2.9 meters! so we had to lift the engine up and two of the family pushed the engine and then i let it down 30 cm deeper into the garage so we could close the door. I am getting quite excited for the day when I will hoist the motor into the car. I just need to get some stainless bolts forthe mountings.