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Sigh... Well, even "perfect" projects can yield surprises. I found some rust in the sills around the jacking points. I contemplated cutting out the rusty area and patching, but determined that full replacement sills would be better, this way I can get inside the sills and make sure there is mo rust lurking, and the panel will be complete and continuous, as the factory intended. Should be able to get the sill in by the end of the weekend.

I added the damper pulley, I had a spare one so it seemed like a good idea.

Was that engine damper in place or did you ad that?

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Swindrum while at the Newton Commercial facebook page I found this interior photo that should interest you:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=171874299686879&set=a.141746656032977.1073741828.141737769367199&type=1&theater

The car photo is a different car than the interior.

The "new cast" mimics cast iron, I am not sure it would be a step forward on an aluminum head...

As far as speed of the restoration goes, I have been trying to do something every day since we started. It doesn't hurt when all the bolts come undone without any fight. With the exception of one of the bolts on the rear subframe that is.

Nice car!!

not sure if this is what Mur ment but the CDN cars had a different gas tank setup preventing puncture in case the left rear damper was to go through it in an accident...

cheers

This appears to be a record fast yet pretty restoration.

Coopertune Steve mentioned that he clear-coats his bare metal, but I have not yet found a hi-temp clear-coat that doesn't yellow and fall off.

I have an aluminum Pierce big-valve head and am so mentally unbalanced I'm considering polishing it, but your New-Cast sounds worth checking out.

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Last week, I popped the engine apart and gave everything a good clean and inspection. Bores, bearings and transmission were in incredible condition. New gaskets and seals were in order all around.
I de-coked the head, lapped the valves and re-installed. Carb has been soda blasted, disassembled and reassembled. Will determine if a rebuild is in order once we get it running.

Everything has a shiny new coat of paint as well.
The head and manifolds are painted with a product called "New-Cast" which I really like. Mimics the look of raw casting, but provides rust protection.

Malsal/Spitz

Thanks for the replies. Spitz has the photo I was looking for, the VIN on this car is on the windshield A-Post, but because the slam panel and inner wing on the radiator side were missing when I got the car, I wasn't sure exactly where it was supposed to go.

Poweder Coating Pros:

Someone else does it
Durable
Chemical resistant
Pretty

Cons

Not indestructable like people think
Can be difficult to remove if you need to re-do it
Can be expensive

Paint Pros

I use polyurethane, so fairly durable/chemical resistant
Shiny
Easy to apply

Cons

Have to do it yourself
Messy
Not as durable

Did all Canadian Minis of the bumper era have the external snail fan or was it an option in addition to the internal heater box/fan?

Terry

This is a 78.  You can see the tag on the slam panel  ( is that the tag you're meaning? )

Why can't I find a Mini in that kind of shape? Thats amazing, all of them I have seen so far have had a lot of floor cancer.

What's the pros and cons of painting vs. powder coating subframes? Or is it just a matter of personal preference? I'm trying to clean up mine. Thanks.

jia

mini from down under

On the slam panel on UK cars not sure if the CA Mini's were mounted differently. They used 3 rivets instead of 4 i believe the vin was to the left looking at it fron thee front of the car with a center rivet securing both the vin plate and the commission number (they were overlapped) BL's way of saving 3 pence per car i guess.

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Thanks Air, I am pretty happy with the colour, it is close enough to the original that I can keep the original paint on the inside.

It was a busy weekend, we took the sub-frames to the sandblaster and got a ton of parts painted.

That is an absoutely gorgeous color swindrum.  Great choice!

Hahaha, florn! they are too nice to cover back up with the sexy brown carpet!

Florn ( floor porn ) wow is right, I don't think many people have seen anything like that. I on the other hand did find about 12 square inches of floor that I can actually reuse on my FrankenTravelor floor. 

Sean,

I thumbed through your pics just now, got to this one of the rear floor and about fell off my chair.

WOW.

SCORE!  You win, your buddy wins, we all win!