- Welcome to Restoration-Mini.
Recent posts
#1
The Lounge / Re: Tig Welders
Last post by scooperman - October 24, 2026, 08:03:41 PMfind out if there is a high school robotics F.I.R.S.T. team near you. They would welcome you to be a mentor, and might have welding equipment and other mentors who would help you with you projects.
#2
The Lounge / Re: Soliciting thoughts & opin...
Last post by scooperman - October 24, 2026, 07:52:20 PMI recommend keeping a search active on Ebay for a K100 or K1100 head, cheap from bike junkyards here. Maybe get one for less than $200. Then buy the conversion kit from Specialist Components or other twinkam providers, should double hp.
#3
The Lounge / Re: Museum level cars in the w...
Last post by scooperman - October 24, 2026, 07:36:29 PMIn the early 2000s I married a lady whose parents were many-year participants, my new in-laws invited us to join them and we drove one of their vintage cars on this event in 2004. What a blast. The event is shepherded by the bike troopers of the Colorado Highway Patrol, we called them The Motors, I think those guys might have been having as much fun as the vintage car geeks. These cars, in many cases, are stuck in museums, never get out and stretch their legs any more.
I had done some racing in Minis in the 70s, figured I could pedal an old sports car and not embarrass myself. I remember thinking we were doing good, were in the lead group, not flat out but yeah fast through the mountain bends. High altitude, cold at that time of the year. Suddenly a couple of Trooper bikes soundlessly zoomed past like we weren't even there, then OMG a pre-war Alfa, driver and riding mechanic wearing leather helmets with ear flaps flopping like Rocky the flying squirrel in the wind, grinning like idiots, came roaring past us on the inside with an exhaust sound like an overreving tugboat, laughed and gave us a cheery wave as they blasted off into the distance, bikes leading the way. Tried to keep up, yeah, not. Somebody invites you to this event, do it.
I had done some racing in Minis in the 70s, figured I could pedal an old sports car and not embarrass myself. I remember thinking we were doing good, were in the lead group, not flat out but yeah fast through the mountain bends. High altitude, cold at that time of the year. Suddenly a couple of Trooper bikes soundlessly zoomed past like we weren't even there, then OMG a pre-war Alfa, driver and riding mechanic wearing leather helmets with ear flaps flopping like Rocky the flying squirrel in the wind, grinning like idiots, came roaring past us on the inside with an exhaust sound like an overreving tugboat, laughed and gave us a cheery wave as they blasted off into the distance, bikes leading the way. Tried to keep up, yeah, not. Somebody invites you to this event, do it.
#4
Restorations / Re: JDM Mini Canvas II
Last post by 94touring - October 23, 2026, 04:28:29 PMMy last blown head gasket didn't overheat. Showed up on a leak down test. But my last cracked head was very evident.
#5
Restorations / Re: JDM Mini Canvas II
Last post by MiniDave - October 23, 2026, 03:38:33 PMI was thinking head gasket blown....for it to overheat in 2 miles seems like it needs to be more drastic than just lean mixture and/or vacuum leaks. I was thinking either clogged radiator or head gasket.
#6
Restorations / Re: JDM Mini Canvas II
Last post by 94touring - October 23, 2026, 09:27:20 AMAside from a cracked head, odds are it's from a combination of coolant that's muddy and a stock radiator that doesn't do well around here. Though in 2 miles it could have been the head in my experience. I could usually drive at speed for a little bit before it went ballistic on coolant temps with a stock radiator in peak summer heat. Even with my thick aluminum radiator I need the inner wing aux fan on for low speed stop n go or the temp starts creeping up. I know you got a new head so that eliminates the head being the problem.
#7
Restorations / Re: JDM Mini Canvas II
Last post by MiniDave - October 23, 2026, 08:17:35 AMJust to be sure, maybe do a compression test too?
#8
Restorations / Re: JDM Mini Canvas II
Last post by Merlin - October 22, 2026, 07:15:48 PMI suspect the overheating was a combination of lean condition from vacuum leaks and a lack of sealing on the radiator. I have a four core, new thermostat and new hoses when the time comes
#9
Restorations / Re: JDM Mini Canvas II
Last post by MiniDave - October 22, 2026, 08:08:21 AMWow, seriously impressive engineering and fab work.....thanks for posting this whole journey.
Did you figure out why it was overheating?
Did you figure out why it was overheating?
#10
Restorations / Re: JDM Mini Canvas II
Last post by Merlin - October 21, 2026, 08:11:25 PMAhh the AC is the hot topic. Pun intended. The plan is (no so) simple. We are going to build a completely custom setup.
The issues to address are as follows.
The system was an r12 setup and needs to be updated to R134a
Condenser takes up too much room in the engine bay
Evaporator and fan assembly make the passenger footwell impossible to be utilized
Parts are difficult or impossible to source.
The first issue to resolve is the R12 to R134A
This will require the changing of all the orings and the expander valve. I have also found that because of the higher phase-change temperatures, the R12 condensers are not effective. Compressor requires no change.
We are lucky in that the mini went through this change and offers an R134A condenser. This is thinner than its counterpart. in the later mpi setups, this was mounted to the right inner wing. The controller for the electrical fans comes with two outputs (more on that later) so we can run a dedicated fan for the condenser. The mounts for the newer condenser are NLA, so I created my own to include the fan. This creates two new issues. The first is that the windshield wiper bottle has to move and that the hinge rod catch will need to be moved. Future Merlin issues
The evaporator was a debate for a few days. I was doing some forum research and someone posted one of these AC units from Siroco and it appears to fit in the same spot as the heater. The thought of the heater and the AC being separate kept gnawing at me so I pulled the trigger and bought one. After it arrived, further thinking and drinking happened.
https://www.t7design.co.uk/air-con/air-conditioning-units.html
I noticed that the matrix of the unit could fit inside of the heater. What if the AC unit could be a direct swap? A little Solidworks and printing and the first proptype box came out for fitment.
After some tweaking and serious digging, we are currently here.
My next plan is to create another door in the top of the box that would feed upwards into the dash. I had orignially planned on keeping the car RHD and I was going to reuse the ac vents that slide up the dash and to the center, but after having a think about the car and what I intended to do with it, converting to LHD makes more sense but creates two issues that I need to resolve... the first is that i cannot reuse the ac vent tube and the second is that there is not a LHD version of the JDM dash.
The current plan is this: The fresh air vents that are already in the car are useless to me with AC. I plan to use these vents as the AC vents by either one of two ideas.
1: Cut a hole where the wheel well meets the dash and the firewall and run scat tubing through a printed flange. Create and elbow and re-intercept the fresh air vent from inside the wheel well.
2: Create a printed vent that runs along the firewall and the wheel well and have it replace the existing flanges to allow the vents to connect with little modification.
A third option is to recreate the center section of the dash and make a mirrored version. This is also a reasonable possibility except that I would also need to carry this over to the glovebox. Since both are separate from the three gauge dash, this wouldn't be too terrible.
Controls for the AC are to be driven from the Vintage Air servos. I picked up their water control valve and their Gen II servos. These will be included into the AC box. I have done some testing and it appears that these are dumb motors with a 3.5k pot attached as feedback. A simple H-bridge can be used to drive these. An arduino with some potentiometers as input could be used to do blending and door control. The H-bridge chips are on their way to do some further testing in a few months.
The issues to address are as follows.
The system was an r12 setup and needs to be updated to R134a
Condenser takes up too much room in the engine bay
Evaporator and fan assembly make the passenger footwell impossible to be utilized
Parts are difficult or impossible to source.
The first issue to resolve is the R12 to R134A
This will require the changing of all the orings and the expander valve. I have also found that because of the higher phase-change temperatures, the R12 condensers are not effective. Compressor requires no change.
We are lucky in that the mini went through this change and offers an R134A condenser. This is thinner than its counterpart. in the later mpi setups, this was mounted to the right inner wing. The controller for the electrical fans comes with two outputs (more on that later) so we can run a dedicated fan for the condenser. The mounts for the newer condenser are NLA, so I created my own to include the fan. This creates two new issues. The first is that the windshield wiper bottle has to move and that the hinge rod catch will need to be moved. Future Merlin issues
The evaporator was a debate for a few days. I was doing some forum research and someone posted one of these AC units from Siroco and it appears to fit in the same spot as the heater. The thought of the heater and the AC being separate kept gnawing at me so I pulled the trigger and bought one. After it arrived, further thinking and drinking happened.
https://www.t7design.co.uk/air-con/air-conditioning-units.html
I noticed that the matrix of the unit could fit inside of the heater. What if the AC unit could be a direct swap? A little Solidworks and printing and the first proptype box came out for fitment.
After some tweaking and serious digging, we are currently here.
My next plan is to create another door in the top of the box that would feed upwards into the dash. I had orignially planned on keeping the car RHD and I was going to reuse the ac vents that slide up the dash and to the center, but after having a think about the car and what I intended to do with it, converting to LHD makes more sense but creates two issues that I need to resolve... the first is that i cannot reuse the ac vent tube and the second is that there is not a LHD version of the JDM dash.
The current plan is this: The fresh air vents that are already in the car are useless to me with AC. I plan to use these vents as the AC vents by either one of two ideas.
1: Cut a hole where the wheel well meets the dash and the firewall and run scat tubing through a printed flange. Create and elbow and re-intercept the fresh air vent from inside the wheel well.
2: Create a printed vent that runs along the firewall and the wheel well and have it replace the existing flanges to allow the vents to connect with little modification.
A third option is to recreate the center section of the dash and make a mirrored version. This is also a reasonable possibility except that I would also need to carry this over to the glovebox. Since both are separate from the three gauge dash, this wouldn't be too terrible.
Controls for the AC are to be driven from the Vintage Air servos. I picked up their water control valve and their Gen II servos. These will be included into the AC box. I have done some testing and it appears that these are dumb motors with a 3.5k pot attached as feedback. A simple H-bridge can be used to drive these. An arduino with some potentiometers as input could be used to do blending and door control. The H-bridge chips are on their way to do some further testing in a few months.