Let the Restoration Begin!

Finding our Mini Mark and finally making the deal, it was time to get it home. It hadn't been run much in the past few years, but at least it did run. I took the chance of driving it the roughly six miles just to see what it felt like and what it needed. It kept stalling at every stop and the steering wheel pulled hard to the right when putting the brakes on. Half way home I passed a police car without plates on the car, and the exhaust was rusted and noisy. When I made it into the garage and turned it off I found out that there was a rather large engine oil leak as well. Doing a little more exploring over the weekend it became apparent that it would be better doing a rebuild rather than trying to fix one thing at a time and having it break down along the way.

My son and I took one last ride around the block and then back into the garage to start of taking it apart. My plan was to pull the body loose of the frame and work on each one individually. About two hours later my son and I had the body was up on my overhead chain hoist and we wheeled the frame out from under it. We lowered the body and put it on rollers finding a spot in the corner of the garage for it to "rest" for the winter.

The frame didn't look like much, it needed a lot of work. Worn ball joints, loose steering, leaking brake cylinders and rusted lines. The adjusters were frozen and broken, not to mention the engine, lots of work needed there. Another few hours more and the engine was up on a cart and ready for inspection. The following weekend I began disassembling the engine, laying parts out and making a list of what was needed as I went. Before the weekend was over it was down to a stripped block with parts laid out in the order they came off.

With the block being rather small it was somewhat easy to get it de-greased and flushed out. Patience, lots of solvent a few small wire brushes and the clean up began. Over the next four months inch by inch the motor was rebuilt. High temp engine paint, new gaskets, new parts where needed (oversize jugs and pistons) new oil pump with filter option, and lots of chrome. New carburetor, electronic distributor, chrome starter and intense cleaning of the intake manifold. Now it was beginning to look like an engine that could. New clutch and then a minor transaxle rebuild and the drive end was complete.

The move to the frame was not as simple, but that is another blog!