1975_mini

I few folks have asked for the 24th, so I can make that work

Ok, as of now the weather is saying snow from 1 to 3 inches (probably closer to one) smack during the run. So unfortunately we need to slide the run. Next Saturday the 23rd is saying 50 degrees, so we are going to slide to then. Sorry for any inconvenience. I will change the date tomorrow and write everyone that has RSVPed to ensure all are aware of the change.

The little bit of rain in the morning has shifted to snow in the forecast. I will be following the weather, and make a call once the forecast has solidified a little more. I will have an update by Thursday evening.

The cell signal is non-existent still last year.

I signed up for the brewery run on Thursday, and the lake tour Friday.

those are the ones, they definately have good thread life, they are good just really noisy

The route sheets have been added to the main post

so is Roxy, and they moan more than a pornstar!!

Be careful what you wish for, remember Roxy is setting the pace, lol.

I am looking at the brewery run n Friday, and our DCMM on Saturday. Get some sunrise runs on the dragon Wednesday and Thursday. Other than that just going with the flow.

If Ross doesn't take you up on it I will, it just me this year.

Just avoid the route of the ice cream and apple pie runs, as those two start after the photo

You can add me as a tie breaker, or whatever else you need. I am also right next to Glenn burnie

I made this last year for myself to get a better visual of what events are going when, and which ones conflict with each other. I have updated it for this year as the events appear now. I will check for changes and update as needed. Hope so other newer attendees find it helpful. 2019 Dragon Schedule.pdf

I will have an extra

Brandy and I will sweep if you still need one

I am not missing prepaying for cobbler mountain like we did last year, right? Got my growler ready!

It has been a bit since my last update, I have been keeping busy with the boring stuff like cleaning and prepping parts and waiting on ordered parts to arrive. So first came A LOT of elbow grease to get 40 plus years of road grime, grease, and rust off the upper and lower control arms as they will be reused in the manual subframe. So after several hours of degreaser, wire brushes, and a few other tricks we got back to bare metal. Here is an untouched upper control arm next to a cleaned one. Untitled One down only three more pieces to go, but a few more hours and we got there Untitled Now that all the parts are clean it was time to mask off surfaces and get a coat of gloss black chassis paint on them, pretty happy with the way they came out. Untitled I hit the clutch/brake pedal box with a new coat of paint, and decided I was tired of braking things down and was ready to put something back. The space is a bit tight, but with a little spatial reasoning I was able to work the pedals around the steering column and into place. That’s right, Watson is officially living the three pedal life. Untitled I also ran into my first unexpected problem in the project. I needed to separate the trumpets from the rubber cones. The trumpet has a lip that sits inside the rubber cone, this creates a lot of surface area for the two to rust weld together over the years. Think or the hub centric wheels you have battle with getting off and that was only a few years. So then you have a cone on one side and a half sphere on the other, not my top two picks for shapes to get a grip on. This was not the unexpected problem, I knew this was coming. The surprise came as I was looking at one of the trumpets and saw a hair line crack, I gave it a frim wack with the rubber mallet and SURPRISE it broke right off. Untitled I had been debating upgrading to adjustable hi/low trumpets, but had decided to hold off. Watson’s had a different plan so upgrade it is. So I still had to get the one broken trumpet and the one still good trumpet out of the cones. So it was time to come up with a Rube Goldberg machine. I decide that a combination of a large bearing separator, three clawed puller, crowbar, rubber mallet, and some PB blast should get the job done. So here was the plan use the bearing separator to create a gap, this worked well tightening the separator created about a 1/8” gap. I loosened the separator and use the new gap to get PB blast into the collar. I let is do its magic for about an hour, then tightened the separator in past the edge of the trumpet so I could use it to pull. I attached the puller to the edges of the separator and began to add pressure. You could hear it making all those fun creaking noises, and I would give it a few taps with the mallet. A few turns on the puller, and back an fourth. Sorry no photos of the process as I was more focused on not snapping the trumpet and sending metal flying in all directions. Finally they let go and there was no bodily harm. Here are the tools used and the final result. Untitled Untitled So at this point I was at the mercy of the shipping guy waiting on parts (this was a whole another debacle) so I spend my snow day straightening the garage and tidying up some little things while running to the garage door every time a heard a truck hoping it would be the delivery guy. No Luck Untitled Final this Thursday the parts box arrived with Hi/low trumpets, new tie rods (the old one made Elton John look straight), and a bunch of new bushings and seals for the suspension components. Hey @Gearhead60 check out those engine mounts with built in nutserts!! Untitled So the goal over the long weekend is to get the subframe back together and into Watson. We are moving in the right direction now.

Look forward to seeing them

These would be great for anyone looking for a set of rims for winter tires. Just saying.

We will bring baked Mac ‘n’ cheese

Guess I need to redo my aluminum can math, see above, good thing we have a Countryman to fill with cans.

The Dakar Rally is set to begin on Jan 6 and run through Jan 17th. The Dakar is considered the world's toughest off-road Rally, this year route will consist of 10 stages across some of the most difficult terrain in Peru. MINI X-raid will be fielding five rally cars in Dakar next year, including four established crews and one new one under the banner of ORLEN X-raid. This team will be composed of Jakub “Kuba” Przygonski and co-driver Tom Colsoul. Four wins in nine outings helped Przygonski secure the 2018 FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup championship title. You can follow the event here, https://www.dakar.com/en What is you option the MINI buggy that debuted last year?

As we all get back into the follow of things after the holidays, start thinking about the dish you are bringing to the holiday party. Please post below and I will consolidate into the original post. Las thing we need is 7 green bean casseroles, unless that is your jam. Thanks all

Today task list was to finish up removal/breakdown of the things that needed to come off, this consisted of removing the brake pedal only pedal box and stripped all the suspension components off of the old automatic subframe. I decided to start with the pedal box, as this requires a bit of standing on your head in cramped spaces best to start there while you still enthusiastic. The first step which is the worst by far is removing the cotter pin (I previously replaced with the nut and bolt) that connects the top of the brake pedal to the plunger from the brake master cylinder. As you can see in the photo it is set back in the firewall a bit, so there is a very limited space to access it. The problem is the brake master cylinder will begin to wear over time and the seals allow some brake fluid to run down the plunger and the cotter pin rusts in place, making breaking it loose and getting it out a really pain. Luckily I had this battle when I replaced the old single line master cylinder with a dual line setup a few years back. This is why I have a bolt in place of the pin, mine was rusted welded in place, and I just cut the head of the pin and punched it out. So today it came out very easy. Untitled by Corey Brown, on Flickr Next was detaching the the bolts holding the pedal box in place. First I had to undo the steering column bracket that is held by to bolts tucked under the dash pad at the circles. Untitled by Corey Brown, on Flickr Bonus points for anyone that can tell me what these weird bolt heads are for? Untitled by Corey Brown, on Flickr The pedal box is held in from the top by four nuts on studs the run up thought the firewall and also are used to hold the brake and clutch master cylinders. Last there are two bolt under the dash attaching the box to the firewall. Untitled by Corey Brown, on Flickr Once all the bolts were free, all that was left was to disconnect the wiring harness clip from the side of the box, and remove the defroster hose that is routed through the box. Once this was done it took a little wiggling, twisting, and it was out. Untitled by Corey Brown, on Flickr Now it was time to strip down the old automatic subframe, so that parts can be cleaned and prepped for the new subframe First was to remove the spindles and axles, I will be leaving the calipers attached to the spindles also. As the top ball joint had already separated to pull the axels from the engine, I still needed to use the ball joint separator on the lower. With both separated the last piece to disconnect the flex brake line from the hard line where it passed through the subframe. Last was to unseat the ball joints from the upper and lower control arms and slide the whole assembly out. Untitled by Corey Brown, on Flickr Next I removed the lower control a which consists first removing bolt my socket is on in the phot. Then encouraging the pin out with some swings from a rubber mallet (the persuader), if still stuck then the 2lb sledge (the BFH) until the “D” head from the subframe as shown in the second photo. Once the pin is out the lower arm just drops out. Untitled by Corey Brown, on Flickr Untitled by Corey Brown, on Flickr Next is the upper control arm, which is very much like the lower arm. First undo the bolt on both sides of the pin, and then remove the two smaller bolts to release the retaining plate. Once the plate is removed, use the same persuasive swings to release the pin from the subframe. Once out pull down releasing the arm from the bottom of the trumpet and pullfree of the tower. Untitled by Corey Brown, on Flickr Untitled by Corey Brown, on Flickr Coming to the end I have to next free the rubber cone and trumpet from the subframe tower. There is no good way to do this, it’s just a combination of pry bar, mallet, and elbow grease till it is free. The second photo shows how the cone and trumpet setup works. The classic Mini used a rubber cone in place of a spring in the suspension. Untitled by Corey Brown, on Flickr Untitled by Corey Brown, on Flickr Also I brought back the new subframe and pedal box from storage down south. I was also pleasantly surprised when I pull the subframe out to find that I had already clean, stripped, and repainted it a few years back. Winning!!! Untitled by Corey Brown, on Flickr