1966 Hillman Minx, 1725c with Borg-Warner auto.
Not really a fan of the dressed-as-a-hot rod style, but the price was very right and came with a years ticket and 4 new tyres, 2 shocks and discs. Was temped to gloss black it, just out of stubbornness... but it's a daily so must be restrained in playing with it.
26k on the lock. Could have gone round, but this little thing really does appear right for the miles. The interior is minty in an unrestored way, seats all good, headlining clean bar one small discoloured area. All paint I've found so far looks original, in the bay and boot and everywhere.
When I first got it, the heater motor was blowing the fuse (single fuse for all circuits except ign). Took it apart, and it'd pretty much exploded internally, just being a bunch of bits flying about in there. Luckily I had a spare one already stripped & sorted from my Landy, so that went in. Sorted.
Wouldn't mind lowering it a bit more, but it copes with the split bumps on my work route as it is, so maybe later.
I started by hammering out a dent a couple of dents, and de-badging. As opposed to de-badgering, which is a different thing entirely.
Later it'll get a fresh coat of satin black, but a couple of things need sorting first.
One of the pins holding the reg cover was stolen by Garage Monkeys. These lurk under benches and suchlike, waiting to nab any bits or tools that fall down. Hence why you never see these things again. B*stards. Probably related to the Beer Monkeys who re-arrange your place when you've been out sinking a few.
So made new pins, can pull these instead of having to push them.
Tried modifying a spare drill bit key, to be able to tweak the reg cams, seems nearly there. Cut one end off, put key in pillar drill chuck. "Turn" the pin down with a file.
Decided to seam-seal the arch lips. So got under there and did some scraping. This came away... dried hard:
All lips were the same. Hm. Then I spotted the undercoating was loose in places. Often it flaked off in sheets. Deep joy. This meant it'd led the cloud juice in and there was surface rusting under the dried glop. So out with chisel and knife etc, and start scraping.
Scraping great wads of glop and mud out revealed a couple of holes at sill level in the front wheel wells. I'm going to try hammerforming repair panels, if that doesn't work out well then pie cut and weldage will do.
So bit-by-bit I'll be scraping off wax, putting oxide on, and then stonechip it all later. Have to do this a bit at a time as it's my daily.
Aiming to start on the repair panels soon, probs make a start before long to keep the boredom of scraping the old shutz off....
Not really a fan of the dressed-as-a-hot rod style, but the price was very right and came with a years ticket and 4 new tyres, 2 shocks and discs. Was temped to gloss black it, just out of stubbornness... but it's a daily so must be restrained in playing with it.
26k on the lock. Could have gone round, but this little thing really does appear right for the miles. The interior is minty in an unrestored way, seats all good, headlining clean bar one small discoloured area. All paint I've found so far looks original, in the bay and boot and everywhere.
When I first got it, the heater motor was blowing the fuse (single fuse for all circuits except ign). Took it apart, and it'd pretty much exploded internally, just being a bunch of bits flying about in there. Luckily I had a spare one already stripped & sorted from my Landy, so that went in. Sorted.
Wouldn't mind lowering it a bit more, but it copes with the split bumps on my work route as it is, so maybe later.
I started by hammering out a dent a couple of dents, and de-badging. As opposed to de-badgering, which is a different thing entirely.
Later it'll get a fresh coat of satin black, but a couple of things need sorting first.
One of the pins holding the reg cover was stolen by Garage Monkeys. These lurk under benches and suchlike, waiting to nab any bits or tools that fall down. Hence why you never see these things again. B*stards. Probably related to the Beer Monkeys who re-arrange your place when you've been out sinking a few.
So made new pins, can pull these instead of having to push them.
Tried modifying a spare drill bit key, to be able to tweak the reg cams, seems nearly there. Cut one end off, put key in pillar drill chuck. "Turn" the pin down with a file.
Decided to seam-seal the arch lips. So got under there and did some scraping. This came away... dried hard:
All lips were the same. Hm. Then I spotted the undercoating was loose in places. Often it flaked off in sheets. Deep joy. This meant it'd led the cloud juice in and there was surface rusting under the dried glop. So out with chisel and knife etc, and start scraping.
Scraping great wads of glop and mud out revealed a couple of holes at sill level in the front wheel wells. I'm going to try hammerforming repair panels, if that doesn't work out well then pie cut and weldage will do.
So bit-by-bit I'll be scraping off wax, putting oxide on, and then stonechip it all later. Have to do this a bit at a time as it's my daily.
Aiming to start on the repair panels soon, probs make a start before long to keep the boredom of scraping the old shutz off....
Good news if you're not finding many holes too. 
