If that zed wasn't so far from me and I had the time to relay it down south I would have had it. Enjoy it, it's a cracker.

I certainly will !

Cheers bud.

Hi Gary,

Yes bud I'll be doing the belts myself, I've done a fair few belt changes in the past so I'm comfortable with it. I don't have the belt tool kit no, home brew all the way !

I'll be following this thread as a guide aswell -
http://forums.xpowerforums.com/showthread.php?t=60892

Was very windy from Inverness to Perth, pitch black too, was interesting to say the least haha !

Hi Grimmy,

Yeh she's a real beauty for sure !

Intrigued to know what you mean by twin, same model, close to each other on the production line or something along those lines ?

Lucky lad I reckon !

Better to get the lot changed while I'm down there, saves taking it all apart again later down the line.

Definitely worth the trip yeh. Got a few things i'm planning for her but like you say she's had a lot of nice bits done over the years !

She'll definitely be enjoyed, no worries concerning that. I can see between yourself and Gary that she's been well looked after and spoilt through the years !

Appreciate the PM bud, I'll have a nose though the photos later,

Jay.

Cheers mate, yeh was a long time, doesn't quite hit you how far away it is until you've been on the coach for 6 hours and you realise your barely even half way...

Lmao, not to your taste then I gather !

Yeh she was a good distance away, but it really was worth the traveling to get her !

I think they were quite close in build numbers but they are the same model and colour and stayed pretty close to each other so myself and kev used to call them the twins.although yours had a sex change when maxfly bought it.��

Well, I couldn't get hold of the hydraulic tensioner that I needed today unfortunatly. Seems nowhere in Birmingham has one on the shelf ready to go. Couple that with the fact it's been hammering it down all day and I never even had a chance really !

I have reserved a good quality cambelt kit from my local motor factors but I'll probably cancel that and order all the bits I need from eBay ready for next weekend. (She's not being used just yet anyway, in case anyone was wondering, so there's no risk of doing any damage in the meantime).

So instead of doing that, I had a rummage through the spares that came with the car and found some original A-post trims amongst it.

To be fair I was going to pop down the scrappy at some point in the near future and see if I could get some off a 45 as the A-post trims in there now with the pods for the gauges aren't really my cup of tea.

I had some black mirco-suede material left over from my current Classic Mini restoration so I decided to put it to good use and recover the trims -

http://i854.photobucket.com/albums/a...psd9peuybm.jpg

http://i854.photobucket.com/albums/a...psrldi5n3r.jpg

http://i854.photobucket.com/albums/a...psz8wxogjy.jpg

I ordered another set off wind deflectors and they arrived today, would have just bought the rears but I couldn't find any separately on eBay -

http://i854.photobucket.com/albums/a...pskugauyin.jpg

Anyway, I'll probably give her and my other ZED a good wash and detail tomorrow so will probably update again next weekend once the belt and what not is sorted.

For anyone interested in viewing my current mini restoration here's a link to the thread - http://www.theminiforum.co.uk/forums...first-rebuild/

It's a good 40-odd pages long so it's a bit of a jaunt to get through I'll warn you haha !

I'll leave a couple of pictures of where I'm at with the Mini here -

http://i854.photobucket.com/albums/a...psbmjyyecm.jpg

http://i854.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps5midx3u8.jpg

http://i854.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps56zykrub.jpg

http://i854.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps9016c366.jpg

http://i854.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps606e5230.jpg

http://i854.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps298695ba.jpg

http://i854.photobucket.com/albums/a...pslcdu7ql7.jpg

Jay.

Love the Mini, I've had and built a few over the years, from 850, 1000, 1100, 1275 and 1340. You've never lived unless you've had a real Mini ;)

That trims looks smart Jay, I think this is going to end up being an excellent build thread and enjoiy the belts, you certainly have the ability :)
I shall be perusing that mini thread, love the proper minis and that looks cracking!!!

Shame the tensioner has went as thinking about that would have been done at the last belt change yet others seem to manage to keep going on the originals. Could it possibly be the lack of use recently then her final spin which caused it?? Be interesting to see the bits once they are off to show what they are like

Ahh, that would explain it then. I've had a forage through the forum and seen a few threads on your car, very tidy by the way !

So she was once a he then ! I don't know what it is but I can't help myself from referring to my cars as 'she' !

A man with good taste I see ! ;)

There's nothing quite like driving a Mini in my opinion, a real unique experience !

Cheers Gary :)

Can't beat a proper Mini !

I've had a look through a few threads on different websites and it looks like a mixed bag really, some are still going fine with the originals and some have said they've had them fail a few miles after being replaced.

Hard to say what may have caused it really bud, may be down to the lack of use recently but who knows.

I'd imagine a seal has given way inside the tensioner but it did look quite corroded from what I could see of it, maybe the corrosion has got to it and seized it up but I won't know for sure until I have it off. I'll take a few pictures when I've done so and post them up on here !

Jay.

As an engineer I'm fully aware that anything mechanical should be a "she"

This is primarly due to all the head aches they give you like women do!

Welcome by the way! and what a cracking car!

Lol at Grimmy, she had a low level spoiler from a Rover 45, as the extreme one I didn't like and to be honest made her different from the rest of the "Sheep"

Sounds about right lmao,

Cheers bud.

The low level spoiler came with the car when I bought her, I may swap them over at some point in the future if I fancy a change !