Engine on a trolley

Needing to get the engine out of the garage I went out to machine mart and purchased an engine stand which will enable me to rotate the block and work all round the engine.

Before lifting the engine on there I had to remove the cylinder head, clutch, and flywheel. In my normal manor I managed to drop the old flywheel on my knee and as per usual it was the sharp tooth edge which graced my knee. Why does it always have to be the sharp side and not something blunt?
Best way to remove the mini flywheel is to place a flat bladed screwdriver on the teeth to stop it rotating as you undo the bolts, a friendly hand always makes life that little bit easier.

Next to remove was the cylinder head. The cylinder head on the mini is quite easy to pull apart, with very few bolts to undo, just make sure your crack and break them in the correct order or anti clockwise. By removing the head studs I then set about removing the chain guides and tensioner. Once off this allowed me to lift the head off the block, with the exception of some soot the head and block are in very good condition and I would say this was a relatively low mileage engine.

Then to get on with taking the engine out of the garage and into the shed to start the build. I bolted the trolley head to the engine using some m12 bolts through the gearbox side, then knowing there was no way I was going to lift this on my own we laid the trolley on its back and almost tipped the engine on the trolley and then lifted it up in one go. (Thanks to BG for the lift)

Finishing structural welding P1

From last week I had started to remove the supporting frame from the car. Now that the roof is solid I no longer need any of the supporting frame.
Today I wanted to remove most of the frame so that I am able to move around within the car and finish off the welding and also to make enough room to grind and polish the metal.

Firstly armed with the angle grinder and a new cutting disc I tackled the box section holding the car together. The box section frame has been a pain the whole build having to crawl between the bars. Working on the inside of the car without the frame will be more of an enjoyable experience I hope...

Some pictures of the car with the frame removed.







With the frame out I decided that I would add an additional plate to the B pillar as was done with the drivers side. The extra plate is used to attach the roll cage too as will be seen later in the blog.



After welding the B pillar I decided that I would start cleaning and polishing the welds, I started with the A pillar and plan to get all the welds to a similar appearance ready for painting and where required I will use body filler to ensure I have a good finish

First bar out

Having spent quite a lot of time on other peoples cars this week I took it really easy and not really sure where the time went.

I managed to finish all the body welding so structurally the car is sorted. I still need to clean all the welds and add extra plates to the A and B pillar for the roll cage. Once the support is removed from the car I will be able to get custom cages round to measure the car.

towards the end of the day I removed the first part of the supporting frame and plan to remove the rest before I start to clean up all the welds.