It’s that time of the year again when you start thinking about the first kit car show of the season, and that is Stoneleigh kit car show. I thought this year would have been an easy year to get my road legal buggy ready for the kit car season, but it’s been a long task.
I have not had a great deal to do but everything I have had to do on the road buggy has taken ten times longer than it should have done and that job you start just explodes into being a more complicated job, and you start getting carried away with how much you change and repair.
What repairs did I have to do on the buggy?
Well, I had to change the bottom arm rose joint, which is a fairly easy task to do once you can find out, which rose joints you need but while I was there I noticed that the CV boots were deteriorating, and I thought what the hell I may as well change them as well and then once they were done I decided to have a look at doing the ball joints.
Ball Joints….
The task that I hate… Shimming ball joints up on my road legal buggy is a royal pain in the arse and seeing as they are the same as a mini’s ball joint anybody that knows minis will know what a pain they are to do… I must have spent all morning on one ball joint trying to get it just right. Yes, I probably have slight OCD when it comes to engineering, but that is because I have spent a lot of time over the years on the side of the road because I have forgotten to do something.
I must have spent two straight days in total changing all four ball joints on the road buggy and to be fair I was quite pleased with myself.
Then I thought the wheel bearings were showing signs of wear and thought while it was off I may as well change them as well. Well I decided to take the mini hub to my local mini specialist as I just could not be bothered to try to get the old ones out and after spending very little money getting an expert to do it? I decided to take the other wheel bearing as well just because I was wondering how long they would last.
With the ball joints done and the rose joints replaced and the CV boots replaced I turned my attention to the wheel studs and discovered that the threads on a couple of them were looking a little worn, so I thought it would be a good idea to replace them as well. As you can probably tell I was not going to leave anything to chance.
With Both rear hubs having new wheel studs and bearings, I was putting everything back on and was adjusting the rear brakes and the adjuster on the buggy was not adjusting and so once again I decided to strip that out on both sides and clean and rebuild, and I have to say I was quite pleased with myself.
So the back of the buggy is now back together and all that is left to do was touch in the paint on the chassis where the stones always seem to find themselves smashing the paintwork and every year it’s a task that I hate doing and the quality of the paint I am using at the moment is also very bad, so I will be changing supplier. Then hopefully next year I will have a better repair as to be honest this year’s repair is not my best.
MiniSpares Rocker Cover
I have Hi lift Roller tips on a Minispares sport head, and I bought a new rocker cover to replace the old one and after installing it and having to grind out the inside of it for the rollers to fit I decided to spend a bit more money and get the proper box for the head that will fit the rockers.
I phoned up minispares and told them what I had, and they told me that their rocker box was made for the job… I ordered it and it got to me within a week… as soon as it arrived, I noticed the filler cap fitted badly, and so I gave them a call and they send post it back…. So I did and then they sent me out a new one, and I had to literally battle with them to refund me my costs for posting the faulty one back….
The new one arrived, and I was pleased to see that the filler cap fitted…. wahoooo!!!!
I fitted it to the buggy and kicked the buggy over, and the damn rockers were hitting the cover still. This was annoying, so I had a look and with a bit more of a fiddle, I still could not stop them hitting the side of the rocker box. I was P’d off by now and decided to phone Minispares up and ask… they said either send it back or grind the inside out. So for two days I have been grinding the inside of the rocker box out and I my just about be there now…. But what an absolute joke…
How Minispares build engines when they can get a rocker cover right beats me..
Hopefully, in the next day or so I should have her properly running and getting the battery fully charged I can give her a blast through the lanes again.
Fingers crossed hey.