A surprise phone call on Friday, from the tyre fitters to say they fitted the wrong tyres last month. They offer the choice of, swap them or get a refund on the difference. Having done a little web research I decide to swap them over, so I strip the wheels off the Coupé and take them to be swapped.
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A rather wet start for a trip to the Grampian Transport Museum at Alford, for the Aberdeen Mini Owners Club summer show. A few cars had braved the weather, and as it brightened up in the afternoon, I took the Coupé out for a quick few laps of the track.
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With the sun now shining, the lack of sun visors on the Coupé was making itself known, so to help a little, I fitted a sun strip to the front screen. And as I'm a sad geek, it seemed a good place to put a link to the website on.
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Having had a few days holidays, during which we visited the heritage motor centre in Gaydon. I paid a visit to a couple of suppliers and picked up some stainless steel brake pistons, along with a seal kit, these need swapped as I have noticed the coupé pulls left under heavy braking. I also picked up a new steering wheel, along with a quick release hub.
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First of the tasks was to fit the "spigot" to the steering column. After removing the existing wheel and hub, I heated the spigot up, then tapped it down onto the column shaft. Once cooled I don't think it will move, but to be on the safe side, I may weld it internally also.
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With the new spigot in place, it was found that the steering boss, didn't cover the complete opening so a blanking plate was made and fitted. Also to make it more obvious that the wheel is quick release, I decided to paint the release ring yellow, as is required on race cars, this meant dismantling the boss, then assembling it once the paint was dry.
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While waiting for the paint to harden fully, I made a start on the wheel centre cap, the original was branded with the supplier, so I separated the parts, and removed the black masking paint, with a little aluminium polish. Once it was clear, I printed the GTM logo onto some acetate and fitted it all back together.
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Next trip for the coupé was to the Arbroath seafront spectacular, this event is held in the Victoria park, and isn't a car show, more a charity event. Approximately 14000 people attended to see the various events, including an oompah band, helicopter rescue, motorbike stunts and even some wing walkers.
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Took the chance of a dry morning and swapped the brake pistons for the stainless steel ones.
Again using the compressor I popped the old ones out, then levered the seals free.
The bottom "fluid" seal presses back in using your fingers. But the top "dust" seal and ring, requires you to semi-fit the new piston,then using it to centre the new seals, press both down together with a piece of wood the right size, listening for it to snap into position.
The old piston shows quite a lot of the plating failing and this in turn has ruined the dust seal, but not the fluid one.
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Over the time I have been using the Coupé, I have never been happy with the sucker style mirror, so on a trip to the scrap yard, I managed to find a roof mounted mirror on a Toyota Carina.
With a small wooden mount made and fixed to the roof, with Tiger seal. I screwed it in to place and will see if this improves the rearward vision.
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A couple of nice days, allows me to take a couple of run, and get a few pictures of the Coupé.
One of the reasons for this was so I could have a play with Photoshop and try a few things out.
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