Poured half a bottle of isoHeet into each tank, shook it around, pumped the hell out of the gas pedal and cranked enough to pull all the old gas through the lines and out the pipe. Then removed and dried each (severely flooded) plug, replaced them all, and it started first time.
I went ahead and picked up Ronan at school in the mini, and also K at the ferry. The kids had a blast sitting up front and living on the edge. So with a little drive behind me, tonight it was time to get started, and the interior was first on the block.
By the end of the night, I had removed all of the interior except the dash, all wheel arches, both bumpers, chrome down both sides, grille, mustache, hockey sticks, doors and bonnet. It was mostly good news--surface rust in most places, with one small perforation on the flitch panel on the left side.
The book "Mini Restoration Manual" and words of advice from my original mini mentor (Brandon) are slowly convincing me that perhaps I should do my own body work. I would need to get a welder again, but it seems like I could probably handle the level of welding required. Will see as things develop. For now, I'm still working on getting it all torn down. Tomorrow I'll pull the boot lid, windows, and who knows what else. I'm really torn on whether to remove the dash--it is metal covered with vinyl (glued on), and it's in spectacular original condition. It would be very hard to duplicate that, and if it can be masked off for spraying, that would be my preference. But that would also mean that I have to prep the body by hand instead of by acid dip or walnut shell blasting. I'm also torn about the headliner for the same reason--other than a small tear by the dome light, it is perfect original condition.
Under the rear seat I found three coins that add up to 4.05 Australian dollars (2x2, 1x.05). Also a thick bronze key. I'll have to think about this--maybe there's a car name hidden in there somewhere? 4Bucks? The 405?
Color is another problem--seeing how great the body is on this one makes me second guess my leanings towards keeping the '66, and I think perhaps I need to take the '66 apart also before I make a decision on things. Or at least sand off some paint in critical spots so I can see what I've got in that car also. If I were to keep the '70, I'm not sure I'd want to retain the original Tamarisk Green, but that also means repainting everything, inside and out, to do the job right. In any case, given how fast disassembly is going, I could probably tear down the '66 also and then work both bodies simultaneously. How's this for a nice original detail?
I imagine I'll have the car totally disassembled in another 2-3 evenings, and then the real work starts. Demolition is always fast and easy; it's the rebuilding that takes time... Tonight I got a little manic about things, and it's now 2:09 AM (oops) and Ronan and Megan will come knocking at 7:30 in spite of my late night. I'll have to keep better track of that next time, but I was just having too much fun...
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