Progress on my 75 Morris Mini Pickup

[richard1]

Two years ago I started on this project after finishing my 1960 Corvair. For the curious, here are before and after shots of the Corvair.



So I finally talked a carpenter into selling the Mini Pickup that had been sitting in his garden for several years.


He had stretched out the front and cut out almost all of the subframe to squeeze a Suzuki engine into it. But it couldn't stand on all four wheels.



I immediately located an engine in Santiago, and ordered a bunch of parts from MiniSport . The engine still hasn't gotten here, so I bought a whole front clip in the port of Iquique in Chile and am now able to go full speed on this.

Meanwhile I have cleaned up the old rear suspension and the new front one, and a few other things, all posted on my site www.widman.biz/Mini/English/index.html

If I ever get the other engine I'll have to find another Mini for it or sell it with some extra parts I will now have after buying a whole front clip.
Since the front clip came with adjusta-rides, I have ordered a set for the back, which should be here in 10 days.













Still got a bit to go, but I'll be putting the 62 Renault on the back burner for a while until I get this one on the road.

[silve1999]

this is awesome, love the progress keep the pics coming

[richard1]

Now we are getting somewhere. No welds yet, but it is aligning nicely.

[richard1]

Lots of progress on the engine, and some on the body. I've ordered all the rings and bearings, and cleaned up various parts.

The body shop has started welding everything together

[shoutforjoy]

This is a great project. It's going to look great when it's finished. Keep the progress updates coming.

[minimanryan]

keep the pics comin g looking good

[richard1]

A couple of small hydraulic jacks to square up the body


Also got my heat shield back from my Chrome guy


and my box of parts from Mini Sport

[richard1]

Gotten a little done this month, but can't finish since I discovered the lifters were shot. Got to wait for a new set from the UK.

But I have gotten a lot prepared to assemble, including honing the cylinders and painting the parts








I got a nice polyurethane with hardener for the engine








Body shop is moving along, but it isn't that easy to fit the Saloon doors to the pickup, since they are so different.

[niceboy1275]

Looks great! Any more progress shots?

[minimanryan]

love it im doing the same front end prosses with my estate have you any more pics as its good help cheers

[richard1]

Yep, a little more progress to report, and Ill be going back to Tarija on wednesday to assemble the engine and whatever else I can do in my spare time this week.
Here are the tail light bezels I made from melted beer cans






I also have the seats and door panels upholstered and ready to position this week to make the mounts.



And the floors are joined, with the door frames mated to the new doors


The rear panel under the window had to be fabricated also





The tailgate was rotted through, so my body guy made a new lower section


I'll be forming the fender flares from steel, and wanted something to cover the seal below the doors, so I made stainless covers for them. Still have to put them on the buffer when I get to Tarija.

[richard1]

here is yesterday's progress, assembling the engine and finishing up the trim piece.

[notamini]

I would be happy with just 1/3rd your talent!!

[richard1]

Body work is also coming together. Here is the left side before, during, and after stretching the cabin to meet the doors.




Here it is aligned, and we tested the Targa Red I was considering (front of fender) against the Fire Red of the A panel. Fire Red won.

[richard1]

In the weekend I just spent in Tarija I got a few things done.

First put the rear wheels with 3/4" spacers on. From there we could see what needed to happen to finish the design of the flares, bringing the rear in closer to the wheel well and narrowing it a bit so it just passes the tire position. What you see here is the final design (except it is missing a little tail piece in the front.

Then the front discs. They will set the track 6 cm wider in front than the rears with the spacers, so the flares needed to be 3 cm wider than the rears on each side.

So a little forming, welding, forming, etc. In these pics the front one still needs some rounding, plus forming of the ends. But you get the idea. Then we will add the inner liner, welded to the inner wheel well.


Final design







heating to bend to wheel well

[(minisniper)]

It's looking great and what a lot of hard word and love you have put into it, I'm sure when it's finished you will be so proud, I know for me I'm looking forward to more from you so good luck .

[minimanryan]

Wow id love to even have a tiny bit of your talent car looks amazing alit of hard work has gone into this

[richard1]

Finished up the fenders




Then took few hours away from work to get into details, as we approach the painting stage. Putting in the seats I found that the steering wheel is too far inboard to center on the ones I bought with the arm rests, so I went to the used auto parts store and picked up a couple of u-joints, relocating the steering column a few inches to the outside.



Also decided that the little chain and pin on the tailgate were not of the quality I wanted on the finished truck, so I bought some plastic coated stainless cable and a couple of stainless bolts, chopped off the threads, inserted the cable, etc.


And painted all the little parts that would need it. Here is the brake booster.


Finally I got the wooden dash from MiniSport out and modified it to receive the dash cluster from the 94 Rover, adding a tach, oil temp, and oil pressure gauges.

[(minisniper)]

This is taking shape and is actually beginning to look the part, I'm looking forward to more as you progress

[richard1]

Didn't get as much done as I wanted on this trip. Body shop was very busy and too many distractions. Then after painting the engine compartment, found the sub-frame is not the right one.

Cleaned up the gas tank

[notamini]

Care to share some details on this process? Looks great! Is there any neutralising or anything afterward?

[richard1]

About a half kg of caustic soda flakes in about 20 liters of water, with the positive lead to the tank and a negative scrap hanging in the middle. After rinsing I rinsed with a phosphate acid to protect it.

I've now modified my sub frame to fit the automatic. It was a matter of cutting about 1 cm from the two side rails and about 2 cm from the front rail, plus opening the oval side holes. (I found another mini to copy).

Body shop got caught up on their load or got tired of me nagging, so we made progress this week.

[richard1]

Finally something to add. Got a little done back in June, like getting the engine into my modified frame, but then dead time. I finally got back and spent most of the last couple of weeks visiting the body shop 4 to 6 times a day.

We installed Shoulder belts in the side panels




And I took the dashboard pieces to an upholster I knew could recover them (pic of before and after)


After finishing a lot of touch-up and sealing the bed to the fenders with foam


He got down to the paint, so here are the first pictures of it painted, with Sikkens poliester. 2 liters of base, two liters of top, and two liters of clear. Color: COF, sometimes called BLVC 818, called (from what I can determine) "Signal Red" from 69 to 77, "Flame Red" from 88 to 99, and in some models "Modena Red" in 88 and 89.




I had to return for a few days to Santa Cruz, but by the end of the week he should have his part assembled and I'll go back to connect the wires, cover the floors, headliner, etc.

[(minisniper)]

Amazing you are so close now I can't believe how well this is coming along and I have to say I have never enjoyed watching a rebuild as much as I have this one.

[richard1]

Finally brought it home this afternoon. Way too many delays at the body shop, and I've spent a lot of days over there working alongside them. Waiting on a module from the UK so I can fire up the engine, but the truck is now in my garage, washed and polished with Meguiars.

Tomorrow I'll fabricate the fuel lines and start on the interior.

[Stu]

Richard it looks amazing. You must be very pleased with it

[clambod]

Really brilliant job you have done there

[richard1]

Finally got the engine connections straightened out. Didn't have the control module. Got that and couldn't get it to fire, so diagnosed and replaced a diode in the computer. Now the Engine runs nicely, brakes working, etc.

But hopefully someone will answer my transmission question, since as soon as I put it in gear it pushes oil out of the filter gasket. Also still need to figure out where to put the spring that pulls it back to idle, but that is minor.

[richard1]

I thought I had updated this, but maybe just questions on the other posts.

I found the pressure plate of the forward clutch assembly broken and the discs bent. After getting a new assembled set from KMP Engineering, I installed it, replaced the engine and still did not have wheel movement, so after finding slightly low oil pressure at the filter, I pulled it again (practice makes perfect - 70 minutes to remove the engine and sub frame.

After separating the engine from the trans I replaced a few of the o-rings, adjusted the bands, and most importantly replaced a missing oil supply tube to the converter (when disassembling, apparently my brother-in-law pulled it out while I was getting the camera ready, so I assembles per pictures, and the tube ended up in the old engine parts).

Any way, all is back together, engine timed and set up. Runs fine in and out of the driveway, but I need to replace the brake and accelerator return springs to make it driveable. I finished the dash and steering column wiring, etc.

Next month I'll get to the little things, change the title and drive.

[richard1]

The day has come. 99% finished...... Just have to go back to work for a week before my Christmas trip to DC.

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