Cleaning & Mini40 reassembly begins

Cleaning the quarterlights could have waited. As they were in my way over and over again, I stupidly started to clean them. A laborious, boring task that I wish I would have done later.

One of my readers from Canada sent me an email and pointed out that it is super easy to distinguish chrome and the later stainless steel quarterlights.

First – if you polish them long enough – the chrome version is shines much brighter, second the chrome version is not magnetic and a bit heavier and third the chrome version window channel looks like a U at the bottom – the stainless-steel version has an additional channel on the other side (see picture)

Talking about polishing: After doing this for a few hours – I decided to a) buy a stationary polishing wheel and b) reorganize my workbench to get parts like the quarterlights out of the way. Using an old pallet and some OSB cut-off pieces I had laying around – I build a ~60x60x110cm shelf at the very end of my workbench. This allows me to put the quarterlights away of now.
In the next couple days, I will also either put a layer of thin sheet metal – or coated board ontop of the OSB bench – this was planned all along, but I never got around actually doing it.

Storage space is also needed for a few rear axles, front crossmember and other items that don’t fit in a Euroboxes. But before I do this, I really need to get the Mini40 out of my garage. With almost all parts at hand – it was time to but start reassembly. The Mini engine bay got a thorough clean with nitro cleaner as well as some paint from the rattlecan. Using a wooden board beneath the front subframe made it dead simple to lift it into place with the trolley jack. New Poly bushes, washer and teardrops complete the overhauled subframe installation.

The old bulkhead insulation was destroyed by mice – this is the third time I installed a new insulation on a Mini and this time it only took minutes. New oil seals for the diff were another simple task and I believe I have everything in place to put the engine back into the Mini. If all goes to plan – the Mini40 should be out in a few days.