Paddy's Garage

Mini Meet 2014 - Milwaukee, WI - July 2-6, 2014

http://www.MiniMeet2014.com

Chain Reaction: The New MINI. The New Original

No Minis/MINIs were harmed in the filming of this ad!

 

Classic Mini - Engine Bay Photos

 It's Winter and I'm getting ready to start a few projects . . . .but before that, I thought I'd take a few pictures of Paddy's engine bay to show the progress that's been made up to this point..

 Last Fall I decided to "clean up" the engine (motor) bay a bit by re-routing the fuel lines and upgrading the hoses to steel and wire braided.   I also swapped out the after-market plastic fuel filter for a glass one with a bit more bling.    The Lucas Sport Coil used to be located up on the firewall.  I've relocated it to the more common (for Mini) location to the front of the motor. 

                    

 

 

 

 The oil breather can has been cleaned and repainted and a K&N breather filter has been fitted.  I removed the large hose that used to connect the breather to the carburetor for a cleaner look.  The stock tappet cover has been re-sprayed and new chrome bolts added.  The SU HS4 carburettor dash pots were removed during the last tuning and given a polish with some aluminum metal polish.

 

Classic Mini - Safety Instructions

THANKS to Ydrolina.net for these GREAT "Safety Instructions"!

The Safetycard itself can be downloaded in a hi-res version by clicking on the image below. Print out and share as you wish.

Comments from Paddy's Engine Builder - 1380cc Engine - Torque Gain

From - Bill Gilcrease - Mincomp's Corner (May 1997)

No racing to talk about at the moment, so let me talk a bit about 1380cc motors.

I am deluged with “what’s the deal with 1380s?” or “Why?” Well the answer starts out quite simply, “bigger is better,” referring to more cubic centimeters (CCs) or in big car terms cubic inches. The basic fact is that with all things equal except fore bore size a 1380 will have about 15 HP more than a 1275. But the real advantage is the torque gain. (Torque is what pins your head back of the seat when you accelerate.) Once, again, all other things being equal a 1380 can give up to 25ft. lbs. more torque than a 1275. The real significance to the increased torque is that it allows your beloved Mini to become a rather comfortable freeway cruiser by lowering the RPM that are required at any given speed.

Building a successful 1380 is not just as simple as boring it for the larger pistons. In most every instance I have found that a cam designed for the 1275 just does not work very well in a 1380. Now I can sit here and wait for miscellaneous hate mail/Faxes/phone calls about that statement or the next one I’m about to make. In 1991 or 1992 I had one motor on my dyno playing with this cam thing and in the end I came up with a spec. that turned that 1380 to life. Up to that point I must admit that I never could see what all the hype was about but after I was done with this project I was a believer, at least in the 1380’s I was building.

I guess the whole reason I got into writing about the 1380 camshaft thing was because I just finished up a job here at the shop that was a duplicate of several that I do over a year’s span. People call me or bring in their prize 1380 that they or someone else built for them stating “I expected a lot more.” Well I advised them on what I believe the fix to be, and why.

The bottom line here is that every time I have done this cam change the customer has left smiling because he has gotten what he originally expected, and quite often more than he hoped for!

Previous Blog Post: Stages of Tune

Paddy Gets New Whiskers! Classic Mini Mk 1 Trim

 Below are some before and after shots of Paddy's front end trim                                            

                       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before Whisker Treatment

After Whiskers . . . 

Here are a couple of installation comments from the UK Mini Forum:

 

COMMENT 1:

 

The moustache? From memory, it's also secured with a handful of self tapping screws along its bottom/inner edge. The final dress-up are the moustache whiskers. Those are short chrome extensions that go on the ends of the moustache. To secure those is tricky.

The whiskers are secured with clips that are supposed to get screwed to the front panel. Fitting them as the factory intended is a pain. Instead, I modified the clips by soldering a nut to them, marked and drilled through-holes in the front panel and secured the clips by inserting machine screws from the back (inside of the front panel). This allows the clips to stay with the whisker (not on the car) when removed, and it makes it much easier to install the whiskers without damaging the paint.

COMMENT 2: 

http://www.theminiforum.co.uk/forums/topic/133481-race-car-back-to-retro-daily/page__st__30

Next, had to work out how to install whiskers, they took about an hour to put them on, a little fiddly:

1. Take off front flares
2. work out height of whiskers
3. rivet clips to body (tip I put a washer behind the clip so that they were not so hard up against the body)
4. spray silicone spray on clips, body and whiskers
5. slide whiskers on, over the end of the grill surround

http://i835.photobucket.com/albums/zz272/cobrav8/17092009478.jpg

 

http://i835.photobucket.com/albums/zz272/cobrav8/17092009476.jpg 

 

Paddy At Classic Minis United (CMU) 54 - Wytheville, AV

Last year the Classic Minis United (CMU) group chose Wytheville, VA as the base for the 3 day driving adventure - Mini 54. It was located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Wytheville is known as "The Hub of Southwest Virginia" and "the Crossroads of the Blue Ridge". As with all CMU events, we like to drive, and that's what we did. We had drives each of the three days with plenty of stops and things to see. Add in the nighttime activities, scavenger hunt, live Bluegrass band, swap meet, and we had the most amazing classic Mini event in North America!

Below are a few pictures of Paddy during the event -