Project: Pippin

It's been a while!

2012-06-24T11:43:00.001-04:00

Now I've gotta be honest, I've just been too lazy to update this blog (I'd like to call it "busy"). We actually have had stuff done to Pippin since our last post, and honestly, he's just about road legal now!

A few weeks ago we did a lot of hard work on him. We managed to get his brakes working (mostly), fixed all his lights and got most of the electrical problems worked out! We were so excited.

After all was said and done, we started putting the interior back in.


Instead of being useful, I took the opportunity to walk around and take pictures.

See what I mean? Not being useful at all. There was a fly just walking back and forth on the mirror.


Our 2006 Cooper S. Just felt like taking a picture of her... because I can. ;)

Yay, the interior is back in! We'll replace it with something nicer later on. :)

Luckily, we have an industrial park literally across the street from our house. We decided to take Pippin's first flight down through their parking lots.

This is where we learned that apparently his speedometer doesn't work - it went to roughly 15mph and just stayed there.

And we're off! Across the street and through the industrial park!

Jimmy said he had a bit of trouble driving in his boots. The pedals are very, very small and close together.

The speedo - stuck. Not sure how fast we were actually going. Also, apparently, the gas gauge doesn't work either.

After we finished up the little test drive. Apparently his driver's side back brake likes to stick - he left quite a few marks in the driveway.

Unfortunately, we haven't been able to work with him since then. We've had quite a bit of stuff come up - new jobs for the both of us (at the same time -- eep!) and other various things. Once things even out we'll work on it more. Looking forward to it!

Also, I forgot to post all of our stuff for MotD, which was a blast mind you! We took the '06 this time around, had a great time. Took plenty of photos and drove all over the place. Here are the photos:

Facebook Album: MotD 2012

MOTD Time! MINIs on the Dragon 10

2012-04-14T01:09:00.000-04:00

Ok so the classic is on hold until after MINIs on the Dragon 10.
In the next 2 weeks, I will be doing new front brake pads and rotors, brake fluid flush, spark plugs and an oil change to get ready. Already got new tires mounted and on the MINI ready to go.

For those of you not familiar with The Tail of the Dragon, here is a video of a run I did on my first trip in 2005. The music may be a little dated... But I made this in 2005.. :)

Well, enjoy, I will post pictures and updates of the work being done to the new MINI as well as hopefully start up with working on Pippin the Mini again soon!
Oh and plenty of pictures from MOTD X

-Jimmy

On Hold

2012-04-04T01:03:00.004-04:00

Sorry everyone for no updates lately. Fell off my motorcycle about 2 weeks ago and hurt my shoulder, haven't been able to work on Pippin too much.

PS: I should be fine in a week and the bike made it through almost unscathed!

Hope to bring you more Mini updates and super happy fun time soon!

Oh and here is a Kitten and child playing nicely...

-Jimmy

It lights up!

2012-03-11T20:29:00.001-04:00

Not much of an update... But...
Got all the dash working worked out...
The ignition was wired to a random switch.
The heater was wired to a switch taped to the steering column.
There are 2 horns wired to separate buttons, one of which is labeled as the washer sprayer.
The windshield sprayer button does nothing. That system has been removed...
The heater switch does nothing as it is broken, will hopefully be repairable as I can not find a replacement.
Half the wires are the wrong color but thanks to the wiring diagram and some good guess work, everything now does what it should!

Next up... Make a new filter element out of a K&N filter from a '75 camero.
Then to put the bonnet back on and get it inspected and registered!

Sorry, no mini pictures this time so here is a picture of a kitten (not ours).

Obsession

2012-03-10T18:20:00.003-05:00

We have one.

It stops!

2012-03-10T18:20:00.001-05:00

Got the engine fired up on the last update. Well this weekend, got the brakes bled so that now we can stop! Along with some new tail lights we are all set!

It runs!!

2012-03-04T01:09:00.002-05:00

I'll post more in the morning, but Jimmy just woke me up to let me know that the rebuilt carburetor fixed the starting issue. Pippin fired right up! I went outside to see for myself... He sounds good (for not being successfully started up in two years)!
For now, I'll go back to sleep. :)

I'm all too lazy to edit this with all the updated information, so I'm stealing this from a post Jimmy made on NAM:

The fuel issue was with the cut off needle not working right... wasn't seated all the way. I like the one that was in it more than the one that I just got from MiniMania so if it keeps leaking, the old set is going back in...

Here is a video... Click me

So to get it on the road...
New tires
Throttle return spring
New left rear blinker bulb
Put the seats back in
New wipers
New door locks (didn't come with keys)
Get everything wired up right
Should be ready by summer!

Bad weather, new tail lights + carb rebuild kit

2012-03-02T22:04:00.002-05:00

So I don't know if you've heard about the horrendous string of weather that Kentucky's been putting up with for this past week... particularly today. We've been told for the past few days that it could either be nothing or absolutely horrible. Then we hear that "Storm Chasers" (the TV show) and a few other prominent figures have traveled here to follow the storm... that was a bit worrying, I assure you.

We were getting ready to go to work and I saw our room mate coming home early. Apparently her entire building was sent home early because of the weather. Even more unnerving. She says she's going to her parents' house since it has a basement.
We headed to work anyways, expecting this to all be over exaggeration (or at least, hoping it would be). Besides, our building NEVER closes. Within minutes of being work they evacuated the building and locked it down. Even scarier.
Here are some photos of today's storm, taken from various people: http://www.whas11.com/news/slideshows/Your-photos-Second-round-of-storms-move-through-Friday-141176143.html

To sum all of this up, it was terrifying. The weather was NOT people overestimating it - it was just as dangerous (and unfortunately, deadly) as the professionals had warned. A town about 20 miles away was completely leveled. Several houses nearby were damaged. Tennis ball sized hail in surrounding areas (our house was the ONLY house I know of that actually got *no* hail). Being a coward, I hid in the bathroom while the sirens were wailing. Jimmy watched the storm from the garage. This went on for hours. Luckily we had no damage to our house, property or cars.

It was all over after about three hours... and we still had sunlight left afterwards. We decided to use this opportunity to actually work on the Mini. Yep, dangerous weather makes us want to fix cars. This morning we got in our new tail lights and carburetor rebuild kit from Mini Mania, so we set to it.

We haven't gotten a whole lot of progress on it as of right now, we're waiting for the parts to finish soaking overnight... but most of the carburetor has been cleaned and from what I understand just needs to be put back together. Hopefully then the Mini will start! I'm really hoping for it.

And, since I haven't had any photos in a while, here's a few updates!

With bonnet removed!

With the carburetor removed.

Cleaning everything.

Just a shot of the back without the tail lights. We'll be installing the new ones soon.

Just an interior shot for now. Yes, that is a bucket being used as a seat.

Bad carburetor.

2012-02-23T13:16:00.000-05:00

It's been a white since there's been a post here. Sorry about that - our weekends have consisted of everything but working on Pippin recently.

However, last Sunday, Jimmy did some work with Pippin to see what he could manage. We have a new battery also. I went to one of our club's meets so I didn't actually get to see any of the magic - we conversed through text messages. He informed me that he found out why the car wouldn't start. He discovered that someone working on the car previously had swapped the ignition switch and the windshield wipers switch. Once he got that figured out he actually got the Mini to fire up. Progress!

Sadly, the car did not stay on long. It apparently isn't getting any fuel, which he deemed as a bad carburetor. We already knew that it needed work, so at least there's that. Looks like that's the next thing on our list.

I'll make an effort to get some updated pictures of Pippin this weekend, providing the weather cooperates.

Bad battery. Local parts.

2012-02-05T22:01:00.001-05:00

Sorry guys, no pictures with this update. At least not yet... I may update this tomorrow with pictures. :)

Yesterday we spent a little time with Pippin, once again trying to find out why he wouldn't start. Noticed that the battery hadn't charged at all overnight. Jimmy took the battery to a local store to get it tested - it was trickle charged for 4 hours before checked to see if it worked. The machine simply said, "Please connect battery".
Yep. That would explain a lot. We'll be buying a new battery with our next paycheck for sure.

Since we weren't really able to do any more diagnostics today, we took him outside and scrubbed out the interior. It was absolutely filthy in there, still is. It's really hard to scrub the metal. We found another rusty spot while cleaning, but this one looks like it can be repaired. The body is still in great shape, all things considered.
We ripped out almost all the fabric (having trouble with the panels in the doors, looks like they're embedded into the door's frame?) and it already smells substantially better in there. Removed the back seat's backing and the seat belts... so it looks pretty darn empty in there right now.

Also, fantastic news - looks like one of our club members actually used to own a 1960 Austin Mini 850... yep, exact same model/year as Pippin. He had a bunch of spare parts that he had been holding onto, we went there today and examined them all. There's plenty of stuff we need in the pile. I'm still shocked we found someone that actually had .... well, the same car! He showed us pictures of it. It was beautiful.

Well, looks like that's it for today. Maybe tomorrow we'll clean it out more.

Brought him outside.

2012-02-03T13:31:00.001-05:00

Today was the day to wash and scrub him until all the children's paint was gone.

I also used this as an excuse to bring out the 'nice' camera and get a few more shots of Pippin.

You can really see the rusted door sill in this one.

Well, I didn't get a chance to get any 'good' photos of him while he was still outside after giving him a scrub down, so I had to improvise and snap one while he was back in the garage. I also have to say that bringing him into the garage was my first time sitting in the driver's seat, it was .. interesting. We almost got him to start up again after asking nicely, looks like we need some starter fluid (?) and it should be all that's left. We also learned that the brakes are shot. They're also drum brakes, which we plan on swapping for disc brakes.


Sadly, it looks like some of the paint has stained. At least he's going to get repainted. :)

And, of course, I couldn't help but get a 'candid' shot of Jimmy. He's installing our new shop light. The camera was completely unfocused, so I'm surprised that it came out even remotely decent (but nowhere near great).

First night home.

2012-02-03T01:27:00.000-05:00

So as soon as we got home we went straight to work. Jimmy worked with gutting the interior to see what needed to be done in there, and I proceeded to clean it as much as I could. The paint comes off pretty easy, which is something I'm relieved about.

Once the interior was gutted, we proceeded to investigate and see the condition the floor was in. Surprisingly there is very little rust. It's worse on the driver's side (it's rusted through in a very small area just above the floor on the door sill), passenger's side is in great shape. The passenger side's door hinge is in very bad shape and needs to be repaired.

After we ran out of things to take apart in the interior, Jimmy set to trying to get the car to start (the battery was dead). We let it charge for a while before starting - we only got the lights to turn on and the windshield wipers instantly started up. It was definitely very interesting trying to figure out how to turn them off!

After a few hours we decided we were too tired to continue we finished it up. We've had a surprising amount of progress for having no real tools to work with (they're supposed to show up in the mail tomorrow), we're hoping to get it running and "street legal" by Summer. It'll be great.


The first photo I took of Pippin.


After vigorously scrubbing the side - discovered a large dent we hadn't seen in the pictures.

Welcome home!

2012-02-03T00:46:00.001-05:00

Hey there! I made this blog to keep track of our new (to us) Mini. We made plans to purchase him in January and finally received him at home on February 2nd, 2012. We were overjoyed to see him, and very excited to start working with him.

His name is "Pippin", and he is a 1960 Austin Mini 850 (as far as we know - correct us if necessary please :)). He's had several owners, the last one being a good friend of Jimmy's. We knew we were getting into something that would take a lot of hard work and love, especially more so when we saw a picture of him. He was very festively decorated with paint. He hasn't been started in 2 years. He was just garage kept for that long.

We were thrilled to hear that not only was he coming with an additional motor, he was coming with most (if not all) of the panels that needed to be replaced due to rusting. Fantastic!

He was brought up to our house around noon, we were so giddy that we were running around everywhere.

He was definitely very colourful when he arrived.

I'm sure you noticed that on the right, there is a new MINI - that's my baby. He's a 2009 base Cooper (Sorry, folks, not a turbo fan). We also have a 2006 MINI Cooper S, that's Jimmy's. Our room mate has a 2005 Cooper. We are very passionate about our cars.