Car 47

Just found the car getting work done at another shop!

2011-03-02T10:03:00.000-05:00

Now this is cool! I just posted a picture at minimania of a mural we did in our playroom:

And found out that the car is being worked on at Boot 2 Bonnet Restoration in California. Looks like they're doing some really nice work to fix the front clip and windshield since the guy who owned it after me somehow flipped the front end up while driving and smashed it up a little. The current owner is taking care of it nicely! So cool to see it again.

Relavent posts at boot2bonnet.com:
Metal work and fitment done
Another front clip

What's it been like a year?

2010-03-31T16:49:00.003-04:00

Probably because I sold the little car this past summer. Had a kid, moved to the suburbs, bought a house, and prioritized on family. Funds from selling the car became more important than the car itself, and I figure I can always play with cars again in the future. To buy a house where we bought it with the housing market doing what it was doing was a much more rare perfect storm of opportunity. So maybe this blog will return later! But for now ... peace out!

Peugeot Madness

2009-02-23T02:35:00.002-05:00

Did a whole ton of work on the LeMons Peugeot yesterday!

Before:

After:

A bunch more photos and a sweet video at:

http://500dollarpug.blogspot.com

The car is totally sweet.

Grainy Black and Whites

2009-01-06T07:56:00.002-05:00

The other day at DSG's site they posted a bunch of awesome looking old black and white photos. They inspired me to make a simple 75mm Black and White Film action in Photoshop, through which I ran a whole ton of old mini photos. A couple of the photos ended up looking really nice with the effect, and I posted 'em over at flickr.

The full gallery is here.

Widescreen Youtube

2008-11-25T13:55:00.003-05:00

Youtube has just gone widescreen! Kinda cool, but I'm especially pumped cause a bunch of my videos are actually in the appropriate widescreen format and look pretty good. Check 'em out at my youtube channel.

Good night, moon.

2008-11-23T22:17:00.002-05:00

So, due to recent life events, car stuff hasn't had a whole ton of attention lately. And now it's getting cold as hell, and with the impending threat of snow and salty roads I figured it'd be a good time to stow away the little monster for the duration.

Have a good rest, you little freak! I'll see you when it's warm out, and we can try to work out some of your kinks.

Hillclimb: Ascutney II, VT

2008-09-14T18:17:00.006-04:00

Friday night, my long lost friend Steve joined me from NYC for a trip up to VT. It was a shitty rainy night and the going was slow, but it was a good drive after we met up with Alex of DSG with his 1JZGTE powered Dodge Raider. That's the twin turbo motor from a toyota Supra. His latest project car used to tow his race car ( EVO II GSR ). A totally awesome setup.

We conked out immediately when we got to the hotel at 1am.

The next morning the event began and the course was still pretty wet from the previous nights' rain. I wasn't too worried because FWD in the wet isn't treacherous. Just a guess, but this guy will probably do pretty well:

I could make a "hot chicks with douchebags" reference here, but I won't.

Here's some video Alex got of the GTR launching:

Anyway -- we had a full day of runs and it was fantastic. I was really scared at the beginning of the day -- the surface and quality of the road made the mini VERY sketchy, and the wet pavement made the car feel like it was sliding all over the place and a little out of control. I went slow. But the road dried up bit by bit as the day wore on, and the last run of the day was almost dry, so I had a lot more confidence. Also, by my fourth run I was starting to learn the course a bit.

Who is this jackass?

I think I absorbed the details of this course slower than I would have normally; the first two runs of the day I was paying attention to nothing but keeping the car on the road. Wait; actually I was paying a great deal of attention to the details of the course, the crowns, the camber, the wet spots, the different edges of the asphalt, but I was not learning the overall layout of the course at all. Kinda dumb. I need to learn to just relax and pay attention.

Here's my best run of the day:

Saturday night we went to an awesome restaurant for dinner in stabbyville. Shep left his number for the waitress. He never got a call.

Sunday we awoke to pouring rain with thunderstorms. BOOOOO. So Sunday's runs were cancelled and Steve and I went to breakfast at a seriously ass kicking Diner in Stab Vegas. Doesn't Alex look pumped?

It's time for another PHOTO POST!

2008-08-25T20:25:00.004-04:00

Before I post a bunch of photos, I'll say that I bought a new radiator and it arrived today. It's much thicker than my current radiator so hopefully that'll help with the cooling.

On Saturday I washed and waxed the monster, and my friend Mike and I went and shot some silly and artypants shots in downtown Boston. We had a ball and came away with some pretty rad shots. Rad means totally sweet, by the way.

The rest are here if you're curious / bored.

Weight and balancing

2008-08-13T22:30:00.002-04:00

Got the car corner balanced today. It made a pretty big difference in handling and braking, but it'll be much more quantifiable when I'm on the track or at a hillclimb. Torque steer lessened, and under heavy braking it now squats straight instead of squiggly. I'm really pleased with the results!

Now for some numbers.
The car weighs 1588lbs all by itself.
The hood/front weighs 42 pounds.

Before the corner balancing the values with me in the driver's seat were:
LF: 558
RF: 519
LR: 317
RR: 295

After corner balancing:
LF: 555
RF: 519
LR: 353
RR: 310

Now, I'm not sure exactly what is trying to be accomplished with this stuff, but it started out pretty close, but he got it SUPER close. So that's awesome.

I gotta say I'm a little disappointed by the total weight of the car; I was hoping it would be in the 1400's like it was before the transplant. But I guess when you put a bigger, heavier motor in .... your car weighs more even if you take out the heater core and put in lighter seats and take out carpeting and put on lighter wheels and rear trailing arms and lighter disc brakes and ... stuff. And apparently the minitec subframe is heavier than the stock front subframe too. But it's cool. A 1588 pound car is still a pretty light car. And it's cute!

This car is really coming along!

2008-08-13T18:52:00.003-04:00

It's the little things. I mean ... obviously it's the big things. New motor, new interior, new electronics, all of that makes this car what I love. But as I live with it and make the little changes to make it fit better or work better, it really becomes the car I adore. And I really do adore it. It's getting to be what I've always wanted: a real custom-fit race car.

The little things:

1) I got new sparco grip pedals which do a couple things: they bring the pedals that teeny bit closer to my feet, which makes it more comfortable. Also, they make the car easier to control and heel-toeing much easier.

2) The new bigger steering wheel does 2 great things: 1, its is closer to me so it's easier to control it. 2, it is a much bigger diameter so it makes it MUCH easier to handle the torque steer. Love it. Plus it looks sweet.

3) The gas pedal was at a weird angle where it would start almost perpendicular to the sole of my shoe, so when getting on the gas, the change in angle would make a really jerky transition which made smooth application of throttle really difficult. So Bill got the blow torch out and heated the pedal arm till it was glowing red, and bent it to a way better angle. He is very much like a samurai sword maker in his mastery of metals.

4) The fuel level sender wire kept disconnecting so we fixed that and now I know how much fuel is in the tank. Handy.

5) The oil pressure sender was acting like a crazy fool and giving me all sorts of ridinculous readings, so bill switched the ground and power wires and that seemed to do the trick. Rock and roll.

So none of these things are a really big deal in and of themselves, but in combination they really make the cockpit a nice place to be, and fill me with pride and paint my face with smiles.

I love my gas station.

2008-08-09T11:33:00.003-04:00

I went to get an inspection today. I was worried about the headlight situation: the right headlight is much dimmer than the left, and when you turn on the high beams it turns off for a second and then slowly fades on. Pretty cool feature!

The guy I was dealing with was a very nice middle-aged russian dude. He noticed the headlight problem and then just proceeded to check the blinkers. He gave me all P's and printed the sticker.

Thanks Expo Motors Inc. in Brighton!

Finally!

2008-08-08T17:13:00.003-04:00

I was successful at last, installing the new wheel. It is a Momo Mod 8 - 390mm diameter, 90mm of dish. I wanted it as close to me as I could possibly get it. I came home from work and went to auto zone and found some lug nut washers which fit pretty well around the steering column. Hoorays!

I don't have a fisheye lens, but I really want one. So I made that ridiculous thing. There's a super hi rez version of it if you click it. Silliness, I swear.

I took it for a little drive and found that the wheel size makes a pretty big difference. The car is much easier to steer at slow speeds, and the torque steer on hard acceleration is much more manageable. I can't lie to you, I'm pretty fucking pumped about how this car is sorting out.

I need to bend the gas pedal towards me though because it's at a funny angle which makes it very difficult to modulate smoothly; you start off with the thing almost perpendicular to the bottom of your shoe. That ain't right.

Next week I'm getting the car corner balanced at DSG; we'll see how that improves the torque steer situation. Apparently, according to other VTEC mini owners, it is very effective. I'm not holding my breath, but I'm remaining optimistic.

Wheel and pedals... almost.

2008-08-05T23:09:00.002-04:00

So I installed the pedals. It was more of a byatch than I thought it would because the mini pedals are very small, so there aren't a lot of options in terms of placement. Also, the pedals are a rounded, so it's tough to drill them where you marked em, and also tough to get the pedals to actually bolt on straight. Anyway, enough bitching, they're pretty sweet but I'm totally unused to them so they're kinda weird and annoying; we'll see how that goes. They accentuate the problem that the pedal action isn't very smooth. I have to work on that.

I ALMOST installed the wheel. I finally got the right size socket ( that would be 1 and 5/16ths ) but stupidly got it with a 3/4" drive. My impact drill is 1/2". So today I got a 1/2" to 3/4" adapter and was finally able to remove the old wheel with the help of Scott's puller. Yay! BUT the new adapter allows more threads through, and a bit of the spline so when I screw down the bolt all the way, there's still a little play.

Currently on the lookout for some big ass washers.

Photos to come when wheel is properly installed.

Hillclimb: Okemo II

2008-07-21T08:50:00.004-04:00

The FJ finally got to fulfill its destiny as a tow vehicle this weekend, and it did its job well. Tristan and I hooked it up to a uhaul trailer and wehauled the mini 4 hours north to Ludlow VT. Frankly, it's not a 4 hour trip, but I'm inexperienced at this towing thing, and hovered around 60 on the highway, and went quite slowly on the backcountry squiggly roads. But she towed like a champ and I'm proud of its V6, air conditioning, stereo, and plush ride. Way nicer than driving to the event in the competition vehicle.

Quy took this awesome photo of the mini taking off at start:

The mini went so fast it was blurry in photographs. But not so fast that it did particularly well in the results. In fact, I got last in my class. But I beat 2 911 Carrera 4 S's, and that makes me glad. I also didn't stuff it into the trees so that makes me even more glad. I had an absolute blast driving this car, it is totally ridiculous. If I can eliminate or just lessen the torque steer it will not only be more fun to drive, but more competitive I'm sure. After watching my in car footage I can see about 17,047 places where I could have done something better; especially the point where I mistook esses for a hairpin. Gotta learn the course.

Also gotta fix the cooling problem - I only got 2 full runs up the mountain; the 3rd time up I overheated towards the end and had to let up and coast. Balls.

Summary:
Main things:
It's awesome.
I need to fix the cooling
I need to fix the torque steer

Little things
I need to fix the speedometer
I need a window net so I can feel the breeze
That's all I can think of for now.

I leave you for now with 2 videos, one Tristan got of me zooming by, and one of the in-car from my best (though crappy) run up the hill.

Toon

2008-07-17T17:12:00.003-04:00

Ran to DSG for lunch today and Matt squeezed me into his schedule so I could have a tuned car for the hillclimb. Yay! It went well.

Two things: the car made more power than I could possibly imagine. It's like Ben Kenobi after Darth Vader struck him down. AND Matt, the genius that he is, found out that that there is no vacuum leak, and fixed the weird idle. The car feels SO MUCH better now. Plus fast.

Now, 146.4 may not seem like a lot to you. But let's take a look at what this means. With the stock motor, it made 55 at the wheels. This is TRIPLE THE POWER of the last motor. Which was a bored 1293cc cammed / headered / intaked tweaked A+. And this thing is BONE STOCK!! With a 15% power train loss, 146.4whp equates to about 172bhp. That's just awesome.

And note the smoothness of the line. There is no HONK when VTEC comes on, so I won't die. Again; nice work Matt.

I am pleased.

First VTEC video

2008-07-10T19:52:00.002-04:00

I wanted to hear what the crap the car sounded like from outside the cabin. So I put the camera on the sidewalk and drove by it a couple times. I didn't want to break any laws too bad so I didn't go that fast so don't gimme no lip about lack of tire smoke or not stringing out 2nd gear. There were families present and I didn't want to be "that guy" any more than I already was.

My first NASCAR parts.

2008-07-09T13:59:00.001-04:00

The fans I ordered just arrived! They are bigger than I thought they'd be ... I hope they fit! The construction is really nice, they have fuses and connectors and ... fans.

Aligned!

2008-07-09T12:02:00.003-04:00

Got the car aligned at Direct Tire and they really did a great job. Alignment specs:

Front
Toe - In: 0.125" total
Camber - neg 0.5 degrees
Caster - L: 4.75, R: 4.5

Back
Toe - Out: 0.125"
Camber - neg 0.5 degrees

They got as close as they could, but found that the camber plates in the rear didn't allow for much toe adjustment so we're kinda stuck with a little extra toe in on the back right. Whadayagonna do.

It drives much better now though, more predictable, goes more straight when you stomp on it (but still not completely). I haven't really opened it up yet, I was babying it to work this morning in the 90 degree heat -- it's still having overheating problems. Sure would like to figure that out.

Gravel on my back

2008-07-07T22:18:00.002-04:00

Doing a little work in the driveway. It got dark. There was something jiggly wiggly going on with the steering, and with some help from alex, the folks at minimania and the folks at vtecminis.com, I narrowed down the issue to loose bolts on the spindle side of the connecting arm to the steering rack. I tightened 'em up and now there's no play in the system. Yay! So now it's ready for an alignment, which should make it much more fun to drive.

Hello little green.

Side note: bought some carbon fiber inline fans from a NASCAR nextel cup car to use as the defogger. I can't wait to install that shit.

The car is in the driveway.

2008-07-03T19:59:00.002-04:00

I'd like to say I'm thrilled through the roof and gazing with swoon eyes out the window at the little car, but I'm just kinda ... still in limbo.

First, the good:
The car looks great.
There is gobs of power. I think there is approximately 1 lightning bolt worth of power in there.
The interior is dope. The seats are sick, the dash is very cool; it's so clean and roomy and comfortable and I feel very in control. I love the gear shift.
The car feels like a race car. It is raw, and it is beautiful.

So there is a lot of amazing stuff going on; it's great, but there are still bits that aren't working. Now, none of these things are real show-stoppers, but they make me wonder why I didn't just leave it till it's done. I guess I was a little excited.

There's an "unfixable" vacuum leak so the idle sounds like a roller-coaster ride.
The radiator fan doesn't work so it overheated all the way home.
It was raining so the front windscreen fogged up and I couldn't see anything at all because we never installed fans for the windscreen vents. Couldn't drive it until it stopped raining. If there's a rainy or cold track day or hillclimb, I won't be able to compete.
The alignment is totally screwed and the car goes all over the place when you apply any gas. I have no idea how much power the car has because I can't apply any. And yes, I am expecting the car to have torque steer and bump steer, but the alignment is BAD. Think of the wheels as those googlie eyes on puppets. Yeah; they face all different directions regardless of which way I point the wheel. And the local alignment shop couldn't do the alignment because the wheels are too small for their fancy ass machine. Balls.

Basically, I know we can fix this stuff, but I don't want to get in the car and drive it. I just want to leave it alone till it works right, because I have no fucking clue how to fix what's wrong. So I don't know why it's sitting right over there ->

Damn I can't wait till the quirks are ironed out because the car frigg'n rules.

Hmph.

Holy Shit!

2008-06-03T15:56:00.002-04:00

The Mini is running!!
I just got a call from Nick at DSG and behind him I could hear the sweet sound of the B16. It sounded a lot like digital compression noise but that's okay. I am so pumped I'm having difficulty remaining in my seat at work. AAAAAAA!

Still needs a bit of work before it's roadworthy; none of the guages are connected, it's missing the oil pressure sender, and it needs an alignment worse than your momma, but other than that it's so frickin' close I can taste it!

Yargh!

More news as it progresses...

Side note

2008-05-07T15:50:00.005-04:00

I was running out to the Asgard to get some Nachos for dinner because I'm on a healthy streak, and saw a bunch of kids standing around a parking lot testing what looked like a go kart on crack:

I couldn't help myself, so I stopped and got out to talk to the nearest guy, who turned out to be an MIT student. Turns out it was a project for a school competition where they have to build a car and make it fanancially viable as well as competitive on the track. They chose to build this space frame thing with the motor from a Honda CBR600RR (the rules are such that they have to use a motor under 600cc).

The thing sounded fierce, and weighed 450 pounds so it went like hell. The driver kept squiggling around and nodding his head with an "awwwww yeah" motion.

My nachos were cold by the time I picked them up.

Circles

2008-04-05T12:36:00.002-04:00

Those shiny round things are the new wheels for the car! Hoorays! Plus some kick ass Yokohama A048 tires. I'm very excited about these things. Wheels are 13x7, and will be my racing wheels since they have such nice rubber around them.

I think they look pretty awesome, but would be way sweeter if I got them powdercoated black. Haw.

Also the exhaust bits arrived! 2.25" stainless; a resonator and a silencer; I want this thing to be quiet. We looked under the car and decided that I don't need those 90 degree bends; it'll just be straight out the back. Oh well. I heart wasting money. Anybody need some stainless steel mandrel bent tubing?

Some progress, some pics...

2008-03-03T14:00:00.003-05:00

Fuel system is being fitted - here's a shot of the cell in the boot. A thing of beauty:

It was all custom fitted to plop right into the boot space, but we still need to modify the space a bit to hold it more securely. Kinda funny. Maybe I should have just gotten a square. Oh wellz!

Anyway, here's a shot of the dash, the remote reservoirs will be going in the passenger's lap, next to the fuses, next to the switches. Easy access is the name of the game.

Still needing work ( that I can think of ):
Finish fitting the fuel lines and mounting the cell
Clutch and brake lines
Complete dash and switches
Create Shifter and modify shift linkage
Get some wheels

There's probably more, but I can't think of it right now...

Fuel Cell Arrived!

2008-02-06T10:50:00.001-05:00

The fuel cell finally arrived on Monday - it is bananas! Behold:

Sway bar arrived!

2008-02-03T15:55:00.000-05:00

And here's a pic!

It has actually been here for a while, but was missing the end links. We just got the end links and installed that shit yo.

Still waiting for the Fuel Cell. Thumbs twiddling.

Now it's like a real car and shit.

2008-01-19T17:21:00.000-05:00

This morning Alex and I put the seats in. We were anticipating having to cut the floors' crossmember and stick 'em in through there and do all sorts of crazy fab to get the brackets to hold the seats in the right place. But; they totally fit BEHIND the crossmember.

Now; this is cool for a number of reasons. A) The driving position in the mini has always been something I'm not crazy about. The seats are too high and too close to the steering wheel, and the wheel is at a funny angle, and it generally doesn't feel like a sports car. The new seats being bolted directly to the floor behind the crossmember fixes this problem completely. I now sit nice and low, the pedals are the perfect distance away, and it just feels awesome. I'm pumped. 2) It's wicked easy to install them there!

One thing we're trying to figure out is the panel clearances for the hood; as you can see they're a little off. More on that as it progresses.

Nose job!

2008-01-16T09:17:00.000-05:00

Alex did a bunch of work manipulating the snout to get it to fit back on. The results are spectaculicious! He had to cut a little out of the mouth to accommodate the headers, but the cuts should be well masked by the grill when it is applied.

I'm just going to make the whole front of the car removeable, no need to utilize the old hood; leaving it detached would compromise the strength of the snoot.

In other news, the modified pedal box came back and has been installed:

Now we have to put in reservoirs and lines for the clutch and brakes. Damn, this shit never ends! At least it's really fun and interesting and ... expensive!

Waiting waiting waiting...

2008-01-09T11:43:00.000-05:00

Waiting on a number of things at the moment:
Pedal Box
Fuel Cell
Remote Oil Filter / Oil Cooler Kit
Sway bar ends for Disc Brakes from KAD (they're replacing them yay!)

And then there will be updates. But as for now ... waiting.

I cry for hytech

2007-12-28T17:02:00.000-05:00

I got the hytech headers today ( good thing they were so gentle with them during shipping ) and we bolted them onto the motor. Holy crap they're gorgeous. Holy crap they will NEVER fit on this kit. Fuck. So if anybody wants some sweet headers for a B-series honda motor ... I've got one for sale. Sadly, I didn't get a photo of them on the motor - I wasn't thinking.

The rear shocks did come from mini spares, so I've got a glamour shot of those for you.

Say hello to tow vehicle

2007-12-26T20:50:00.000-05:00

This is my new Toyota FJ Cruiser. It has a 5000 lb towing capacity, 239hp, 278tq, and a shit ton of foglights. I love foglights, I can't help it.

The interior is pretty sweet -- it's got no carpet, just plastic. And the fabric of the seats is water resistant, so you can practically hose it down when you throw up inside.

KAD WTF?

2007-12-20T23:57:00.000-05:00

I'm going to start by reporting some awesome progress. Nick is doing a kick ass job rewiring the car with the new harness. He's making it super clean and well organized. He also finished wiring the bonnet section up, including a kick ass single connector which goes to the lights and horn that stay attached to the bonnet when it's removed. It's looking awesome. Then Alex welded the actual bonnet onto the front portion of the car that we cut off, so it's going to be one solid piece. He did it in a clever way that prevented any exterior paint from being affected by the weld, so I don't have to repaint the whole frigg'n car. Yays!

Also, Bill is working on wiring the steering column and dash. It's a serious team effort and they are making it so dreamy. Like Marty McFly. I needed a Hazard switch so I went to a VW dealer to get one. Ended up with a nice square switch from a '08 Jetta. Funtimes!

The rear brake kit went in looking beautiful, but we ran into some snags which I have posted at Mini Mania for help. The rear sway bar isn't fitting right, and we're not sure the new brake hose coupling will fuse well with the stock hose. And the lug nutz feel funny.

Test fit ... check!

2007-12-15T16:46:00.001-05:00

A bunch of work has been done while I've been sitting behind a desk. The motor has been test fit - it needs a little adjustment: the intake manifold, despite being shortened, is hitting the firewall. And the alternator is also hitting the firewall.

After seeing the motor in and checking out the clearences, I'm guessing the Headers I bought are not going to fit, so those'll probably be up for sale on EBay as soon as they arrive.

I removed the pedal box so I could send it out to get it modified and turned into this:

And a fair amount of work has been done to rewire the car using modern electronics. Check it out, the fuse box is going to be on the dash. Bad ass!

More goodies...

2007-12-10T12:16:00.000-05:00

Ordered some hytech replica 4-2-2-1 headers for the VTEC motor, figured that'd be a good place to start with performance upgrades.

Also the KAD stuff I ordered arrived; mostly I'm excited about the sweet rear disc brake conversion:

Also included in that order is a sway bar, adjustable rear camber plates, and handbrake quadrants (kinda silly).

In other news, I bought a tow vehicle, which I will post pictures of as soon as I take delivery - which should be tonight. WEEEE!

Today I just painted a lot.

2007-12-01T23:47:00.000-05:00

Nothing mechanically exciting. I just spent all day preparing surfaces, grinding metal to smoothness, sanding shit down, priming, and applying POR-15. Not exactly thrilling, but the results are satisfying. Look how clean that shit looks! It's like a brand new car or something!

Also, I sold the original A+ motor today, and gave away a bunch of parts with it. It felt cathartic to see it all go, though a little sad. Good bye bacon!

No snoot!

2007-11-29T19:18:00.000-05:00

A TON of progress has been made. Let's see:

Mini motor pulled.
Exhaust removed.
Mini subframe removed.
Front of the car cut off.
All crappy old Lucas electronics removed.
Everything removed from firewall, including brake and clutch hard lines.
Holes drilled for new subframe in floor pan.
New seats purchased.
Window net purchased.
Old seats removed.
Carpeting removed.
Heater and other useless interior things removed.
Remaining sound deadening removed (my first time with an angle grinder yay!).
New wiring harness purchased.

It's pretty exciting to see this all coming together. Or rather, I suppose I should say coming apart.

Unsettling findings, but good progress.

2007-11-24T11:30:00.000-05:00

So I had Wednesday off work, so I went down to the shop and spent the day working on the car. Yay! We worked on that stupid bolt that was stuck:

And upon finally releasing it (it wouldn't break, it just slowly came undone with a ton of effort) found that it had indeed been stripped and also seemed to have been too long when installed, so it mushroomed at the end and was therefore REALLY tough to pull out:

With that done we pulled the motor out of the subframe, and removed the transmission to find that the clutch, pressure plate and flywheel were a rusted mess of toast:

So I bought a new clutch to go with the new flywheel. I think it was an ACT HDSS, but I don't remember at the moment. Basically at a standstill with the VTEC motor, I started disassembling the engine bay of the mini. Started with draining the oil and coolant, then removed the radiator, coil, intake manifold, carb, and a bunch of wires and crap. And that's about as far as I got. Overall a pretty productive day! yay!

Today I started doing stuff.

2007-11-17T21:15:00.000-05:00

I dropped the car off at the garage today, and tried to get started with the conversion. There wasn't a whole lot I could do, because there wasn't yet space in the garage to bring in the Mini, so I started working on the VTEC kit. I have an Integra Type R Limited Slip, and an ACT Prolight flywheel which need installing. So after asking Bill how the hell I should get started, I removed the radiator and cooling hoses from the motor, and started dismantling the suspension. But there was one bolt holding a coilover on that I just couldn't undo. I'll figure that out later when the kit's not in the corner and we can use a long ass bar to bust that bolt off.

But I have to say, MAN it felt good to get dirty and start tooling on this thing.

Hello VTEC!

2007-11-09T19:40:00.000-05:00

Today was a wonderful day. Kate came home from Japan! Plus, my motor and kit arrived at DSG! Holy bazangas! I got the call at noonish and left work. I couldn't help it.

The motor is a 100% JDM B16A. It's so pretty. The suspension setup is sick, and the brakes are bananas. Check the custom intake manifold and rad alternator bracket (yeah, I said rad). There's a whole bunch more images here.

Hooray!

Side note - Kate wrote: Adam's butt is hot

2 things

2007-10-25T10:12:00.000-04:00

1:
I totally forgot to write that I took 1st place in my class at the Okemo I Hillclimb! What's up! I'm the champion of S2!

2:
That VTEC kit that I ordered should be shipping this week, and arriving next week. I am pretty frigg'n excited, I'm not going to lie.

Do you hear that?

2007-07-30T16:48:00.001-04:00

The deep rumbling of the earth as it shakes. The glow of the heat as the surface cracks. The sky darkens. I can feel it in my very core.

The monster approaches.

210100 HONDA B16 VTEC ENGINE KIT
530000 MTB2 KIT
511200 COIL-OVER SHOCK KIT
220000 B2 ALUMINUM RADIATOR KIT
351100 BRAKE SETUP KIT
310000 SUPERBRAKE KIT
250100 CHIPPED ECU
250410 CONVERTED WIRING HARNESS
230210 LIMITED SLIP DIFFERENTIAL

The order has been placed. Money has changed hands. Assembly of the above has begun.

Oh and the NHIS track day footage!

2007-07-27T10:41:00.000-04:00

Here's some in-car video of the track day at NHIS:

Okemo Hillclimb!

2007-07-03T20:11:00.000-04:00

So I finally got to compete in the mini. Was it everything I ever wanted it to be? In a way. The car handles and drives absolutely brilliantly. The steering and feel is incredible. The power delivery is smooth. Although, when going up a hill ... there isn't really any power. This thing was downright SLOW going up the mountain. Through the curves though, it was a blast; I didn't ever really need to lift, except for the hairpins.

Here's an in car video of the poor thing struggling against gravity for 3 minutes and 15 seconds.

A dash of salt, a dash of pepper...

2007-06-18T16:55:00.000-04:00

A dash of STACK!

All but the wheel speed sensor is connected to this thing of beauty. I wanted it mounted sorta high so I wouldn't have to take my eyes off the road too much. Can't wait to get into it and actually have a functioning tach and speedo.

I stopped by the garage before it was mounted, but after the sensors were installed, and turned the key to see the lights come on and the tach react to the gas pedal, and all sorts of voltage and oil warnings go off. It was pretty awesome, despite the fact that the cluster was dangling over the steering wheel. Good times.

Maybe some good news ...

2007-05-25T18:43:00.000-04:00

I post this holding my breath, whatever that means.
After getting some advice from the guys at The Forums I went and checked the connections on the distributor, and made sure the choke wasn't stuck, and then turned on the car.

It started right up, and then idled beautifully. What's up!

I let her idle for a good long while just listening, waiting for something to go wrong. But it never did. So I went inside and put on some shoes and took her for a spin.

She drives amazingly well. No more hesitation in 2nd gear WOT. If this thing feels like it did today when I go to the track I'll be thrilled. I have to say, it's funny to have a car with such variable driving characteristics. Fickle old thing.

Another point of virtue, which I'm not sure if I should point out or not, is that it was over 90 degrees today. I drove around the block like 4 times, at pretty good revs and the temp. needle didn't even go north of NORMAL until I stopped and parked in the driveway, and then it just barely went up.

I'm thinking the coolant system flush and descaling I did made a difference and it's now working as it should.

Either that or I just didn't drive it long enough to overheat. We'll see.

Double you tee eff.

2007-05-24T19:39:00.000-04:00

Have you ever seen that movie, "the money pit"? This little car I think is very much like the mansion in that movie -- including all the over the top humorous parts where you're like "that would never happen!"

I got the car back from the garage yesterday, where it had been determined that I'm a big idiot and that the problem I was experiencing where the car wouldn't start was because two wires fell off the coil. In my defense, there are 3 wires coming off the coil on one side and two on the other side, and two from the 3 wire side had fallen off and only if I had been particularly observant previously would I have known that those wires belonged there. Or if I knew a little bit more about "stuff." But anyway, the car was fixed yesterday.

Then I brought it to get inspected today after a joyous drive to work. It passed with flying colors. ( "Do all your lights work?" -- "Yes" -- "Here's a sticker." )

On the way out of the inspection joint the thing started idling REALLY rough and then it just died. And wouldn't start again.

Realized it was flooded with gas, let it sit, eventually it started. But it's driving like SHIT and if I sit for too long at a light or something it dies, and then requires a couple minutes of sitting to start up again.

Seriously -- can I have the car in good driving condition for more than a day before something goes wrong again? Please?

VTEC, take me away!!

Am I ever going to drive this stupid thing?

2007-05-18T11:06:00.000-04:00

So yesterday morning after feeling great about completing my cooling system flush / backflush / descaling / etc. I was excited to git 'er goin' and see if it had any effect on the cooling issues the car was having on hot days, and would presumably have during track days / hillclimbs.

And then it wouldn't start. Rarararararararararara said the starter motor.

What the crap.

So I don't know what's wrong with it, I'm trying to figure it out, but I'm missing the hillclimb and I'm pissed.

I need to save some dollars and get a nice, reliable honda conversion kit, or sell the car and get something that's not going to let me down when I need it the most.

Or just learn how to fix old british cars, I guess would be another good alternative.

Prep for the Hillclimb

2007-05-16T10:23:00.000-04:00

Let's see, what have we been up to ...
Last night Tristan and I drained the coolant and flushed the system and put in some descaler which I'm going to drain again tonight and clean out and replace with water and coolant and water wetter. Although it might all drain by itself because it looks like we didn't secure the bottom hose to the radiator well enough because it drips for quite a bit after driving. Awesome.

On a brighter note, the car had some electrical siezure action earlier this morning; driving along Storrow Drive and it just stopped. It was in gear and I didn't have the reaction time or presence of mind to put in the clutch that quickly because it bucked like crazy and then just died, but then there was no power anywhere on the car (except the horn! WTF!). So I sat there with cars whizzing by fiddling under the hood with connections, and eventually it just started again. God I love electrical Gremlins.

So now I have no faith in the car's reliability so I ordered an "Auto Transporter" from UHaul for the weekend, and Paul is going to be a dear and help me tow the car up and back with his F150. Sweet Cuppin' Cakes! We'll see how this goes.

PS - Richened the mixture in the Carb a bit and now the car's driving a bit better. Yay!

New Mini Photos

2007-05-06T19:14:00.000-04:00

This is totally a photo post:

Yarrowsport Primer

2007-05-06T19:08:00.000-04:00

I've never really been to a get together before, or a "GTG" as they call them in hip mechanonerd spheres. Some guys from work were going to this VW / Audi one, so I figured I'd bring the green monster and see what there is to see. There were some sweet rides, and I was too awed by most of them to get photos of 'em, but I took a couple snaps. Check 'em out in the media section. PS - on the way home from the "Primer" I drove like an idiot with an STi and a G35 and it felt good to feel sporty and behave like a jackass in public. It wasn't any dangerous driving though (disclaimer).

On another note, I totally forgot to post that I bought new Harnesses and installed them yesterday. I drove up to HMS Motorsport and bought 'em and brought 'em home and ripped out the old crappy ones and installed the new lovely 4 point modern style ones. They rock. It makes such a huge difference to be able to adjust your harnesses on the fly. I know, it seems like something one should expect from something as important as a seat belt. But neither of the harnesses installed on the blue mini or on the green one were any good. So now I'm comfy and strappable like you want me.

Hello mister fixit.

2007-04-28T19:52:00.000-04:00

So the bulk of the work on the green monster has been done by the guys at DSG. Today, however, after being inspired by the bout of shit that got done when Tristan was here, I rolled up my sleeves and dismantled the passenger side door. The forecast called for rain, but the driveway was sunny and gorgeous, and it was a perfect day to install the new window holder thingies. Which I did. Sweet! I still don't know if I did it well enough, I imagine they should be tighter than they are, but we'll see. They haven't rattled out yet. I'm hoping that the pressure of gravity and repeated rolling up and down will actually press them in to the proper tightness. I've left the inside skin of the door off temporarily so I can gain instant access just in case something goes awry.

I bought some doohickeys and gunk to put in the cooling system to clean it out. Prestone branded everything. I was going to do that today but then the rain started. Lame. Maybe tomorrow will be less wet.

But yay for doing it myself!

A little more work to do.

2007-04-27T09:02:00.000-04:00

So I ordered a car cover that doesn't fit. I'd be really annoyed by this, but I'm actually a little proud -- the reason it doesn't fit is that the cover is for a typical 1971 Morris 1000, but mine has had its stance widened by a couple inches ... bad ass! Frustrating though, so we'll see if the car cover company hooks me up with an alteration or replacement or something.

In other news, my passenger side window fell out of the thingies that hold it and carry it up and down with the winding mechanism. I pulled them out and they are rusted to hell. So I ordered new ones and will try to install them this weekend, though it might be raining all weekend.

Also, Tristan and I adjusted the seating position of the driver's seat by pulling out spacers and buying longer bolts and screwing. And we spend hours trying to figure out how to drain the cooling system only to find later that my motor never had the drain plug bored ( no wonder we couldn't find it! ), so I'll just have to
disconnect the hoses and let it rain.

I'm going to ask the MIT solar powered racing team to put one of those crazy bendie joints in my steering column so I can make the wheel angle less like a bus, and more like NASCAR!@!!111!!eleven I just want to say the car has SOMEthing to do with MIT racing because that's bad ass and nerdy at the same time.

Day 1 with the daily driven Green Monster

2007-04-20T08:57:00.000-04:00

Last night Kate and I fetched little green from the garage and it spent its first night in our parking lot in Cambridge outside the house. It looked cute next to John's BMW.

This morning I stuck the EZPass in there, and applied the AAA sticker to the rear bumper (gotta have frigg'n AAA with this thing) and affixed some Magic Robots stickers to the windows and body. Why the fuck not. I need some DSG stickers and then a giant number sticker and then I should be good. I usually hate stickers and crap, but for some reason I feel like this car is so over the top that trying to keep it mellow is like trying to stick a cork in a Metallica concert. Maybe not that extreme but whatever. It's a race car. How many cupholders does it have? None.

The car drives wonderfully. It needs some serious tuning--it lags quite a bit in 2nd and 3rd gear. The gearbox is solid as hell though, and sounds absolutely fierce. Handles like a dream, of course, although going over the teeniest of bumps sends it into the stratosphere. BOING!

I got a thumbs up from a guy driving a Porsche Carrera in the Starbuck's parking lot, and another from a guy in a gorgeous Jag E-Type. Hello!

Now it's sitting cheerily in the office parking lot. Must sign up for track days. Hillclimbs. Anything.

Incoming!

2007-04-09T10:18:00.000-04:00

Just bought a STACK ST8130 Instrument cluster. I've always thought the dash in the mini sucked, and it sucked even more when most of the guages didn't even work. So upgrading to 21st century tech for the display seemed like an awesome idea. I can't wait to install it!

Side Note

2007-02-13T07:47:00.000-05:00

So, I've been thinking about this for quite some time. If money was no object, what would be my dream car. I'm not going to say the Bugatti Veyron, though that would be pretty sweet. Perhaps something in the Lotus family?

How about a delorean, reskinned in Titanium, with a lightened chassis, with a custom AWD system (perhaps from a Skyline?) driven by like ... 4 souped up harley davidson motors. And then the interior would be something like that of the Jaguar F-Type Concept. I think the whole thing would cost at least 100k, for all the custom work. Plus Sheet Titanium can't be cheap. Okay, it'd probably be more than that then. But seriously; what's more original than an AWD Delorean driven by Harley motors?!

I think that would be sweet.

The bits are arriving.

2007-02-07T17:31:00.000-05:00

So I spent thousands of dollars on parts a couple months ago ... it was a strangely surreal experience, shelling out over 2k for a gearbox that MiniSport would build in england and ship over. And then almost another 2k on a rollcage that would magically appear from overseas in a similar fashion. After a couple delays, I forgot about the money I spent and forgot about the parts I'd bought. But now, things are different. The cage appeared at DSG earlier this week, and I'm excited to tell you that there are a TON OF TUBES.
And checking my tracking number for "Parcelforce" (how british is that!) I see that my gearbox has indeed been shipped, and is going through customs in NYC. I'm fucking pumped! The bits come together! And by the time it's warm enough to drive her, she'll be back together and better than ever. Pumped.

News from the front

2007-01-05T13:39:00.000-05:00

2 things:

1) Ordered a rollcage for the Mini this morning. Historic T45 cage from Custom Cages. It's lighter and stronger than ... the other stainless they use, so that's awesome. I figure safety's important, especially in such a teeny, vulnerable car, so I'll spend money on it. It's a pretty sweet cage; way better than that safety devices thang I had in the other car.

b) Updated to Blogger 2.0 or whatever, so if you see any problems, blame Google. And tell me so I can fix it: adam ( @ ) magicrobots ( dot ) com. Thanks!

The Culprit

2006-12-12T17:38:00.000-05:00

Right! So the gearbox is open, and looks pretty broken and chipped and metal flying everywhere. This was expected. The good news is, I don't have to buy a new motor. I think. The bad news is, the gearbox I'm ordering from England costs 250 quid just to ship. That's 250 pounds. Sterling. That's 500 dollars. What the crap! I guess I'll just suck it up and not order that flatscreen TV I wanted. It's important to have a car, you know. It's also important to have 2 TV's, but whatever. I'm not surprised, but I'm really excited on pulling the trigger on the gearbox I'm interested in.

See ya later little guy.

2006-12-10T20:40:00.000-05:00

Herman from Mini Mania came up from Virginia today to pick up little blue and tow her to her new home down south. It was sad to see the little car disappear down the street, I'll really miss her. I'll miss the harsh ride, the view of the street beneath my feet, the jump starts, the snow coming in through the floor, the smell of burning rubber, little bits of the body falling off on the highway ... what a great trip it has been. I'll miss you guys.

Updates AHOY!!

2006-11-30T08:41:00.000-05:00

So I've sold little blue. It's a sad sad day, but I think concentrating on just ONE mini is way smarter than trying to wrangle two into functionality. Plus the electronics and wiring were starting to get crazy, and jumpstarting the car every morning just sorks.

Plus, I've amassed like fifteen hundred billion dollars in my account - which is JUST enough to start fixing the green monster. I flatbedded it down to DSG, and they have begun opening her up to see what's wrong. All they've done is drain the oil and they've already found some hairy shit:

Nice, right? That's the magnetic drain plug. And yes; that's a long piece of metal sticking out to the right. I'm hoping it's a bit of transmission, and not a bit of motor.

Progress

2006-09-11T09:55:00.000-04:00

So I put Little Blue up for sale and got a response from the guys at Mad House Minis offering a trade for some work hours. The plan now is to tow the Green Monster out there, drive Little Blue out there, and return to a functioning Green Monster a couple weeks later. I'll probably still have to pay 'em a little dough, but way less if the trade wasn't involved. Now to figure out the towing issue and find the time...

I hate everything.

2006-07-13T08:42:00.000-04:00

So then the car springs a mysterious gas leak. Call the fire department so they can throw down some kitty litter on the spill and syphon the gas into an external 5 gallon gas tank except I don't have a syphon so Alex, being the brilliant bastard that he is, disconnects the gas line to the carb, and sticks that in the 5 gallon tank, except I don't have a 5 gallon external tank so we put it in a bucket. Then we turn on the car to get the gas pump going to pump the gas out the line to the bucket, but I don't have the keys, so he connects the pump directly to the battery using jumper cables. Did I already mention that Alex is brilliant? It's true. So I have a bunch of gas in a bucket, and now I just have to pour it into the 5 gallon tank I bought last night. With a funnel that I don't have yet.

All of this on a night when the last fucking thing on earth I wanted to do was not be at home. Thanks a lot, you fucking green piece of shit car.

Love, Me.

The Plight of the Sucker

2006-07-06T09:31:00.000-04:00

I guess that sometimes with great excitement comes great disappointment.

I still don't know what's wrong with the green monster, and I won't know for quite some time. I can't afford to get any replacement parts or pull the engine to do the diagnostics, so I'm just putting the BRAND NEW little fucker in storage until ... I don't know. Guess I'll keep you updated. In the meantime, little blue will see sunlight once again.

Here's a thread at minimania describing the problem and a bunch of responses from some smart fellows. Should be helpful when I win the lottery and can afford surgery.

Then the transmission blew up.

2006-07-05T09:15:00.000-04:00

Ever since I got that car it had been making this weird clacking noise unpredictably when slipping the clutch in first, trying to get started from a standstill. It was unnerving.

Well, on Monday I was just trying to do a hill start, giving it a fair amount of gas and easing off the clutch when ClackCLACRAACK! and no power going to the wheels. I thought it had slipped out of gear so I tried to put it back in first, but it wouldn't go. Couldn't really get it into reverse either. And the idle felt different and weird and was bogging the engine. At idle. WTF. All I can think of is that first gear exploded.

We'll see.

This is how we roll.

2006-06-26T12:51:00.000-04:00

When you come to my house, you have to watch TV like this:

Oh yeah

2006-06-22T14:33:00.000-04:00

All the crap that used to be up here is now in the "past" section, and can be viewed by clicking "past" up in the left hand menu, or by clicking here.

Holy crap, my first inline link in my blog! I'm a fucking madman.

A HA!!

2005-02-24T13:12:00.000-05:00

I figured it out.
Now I click the button.