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After 13 years of driving, while I was away for a year during the pandemic, we had our house painted. Seems simple, but one to the painters did a job on two corners of my Corvair, as well as the trunk and hood, apparently being careless with the ladder. So I had it stripped and painted again...

How much driving do you do at over 5000 rpm? The stock filter, and equivalents are really accurate for almost all driving. If you want to see whether you would get an improvement, install a restriction gauge on the intake after the filter and accelerate hard to the highest rpm you want. Then...

Please take note that K&N filters lea a lot more dirt into the engine. They can allow you a little more air in the engine when you are driving at 5000 rpm and above, but no difference in normal driving. Standard tests show about 85% efficiency, vs 96% to 99.99% on EOM or top quality filters...

If it does not have dull, oxidized paint on it, all it needs is something like I use, Meguiar's Ultimate Liquid Wax. It will clean very light oxidation and stuff, but easy to apply and wipe. Then use car shampoo and the multi-fingered microfiber glove to wash, with a synthetic chamois to dry...

In 1962 I injured my right foot, so I had to learn to use my left foot for both the accelerator and the brake. When It was cured, I went back to the right foot for the accelerator, but kept using the left foot for braking on all cars with automatic transmissions. Much faster stops in single lane...

I used to have a diesel 4Runner. Once my wife called me from the service station and asked: "which gasoline does it take, regular or diesel?" Another time she was at the gasoline pump when her brother pulled saw her, hit the brakes and horn, pulled in and stopped her from putting gasoline in it.

Yes, that is one of my three car restorations, that being he oldest, with 10 years on the road so far. Richard's cars

check this ut for a better understanding of the oils transmission oil problems

I have two cars without a synchronized first gear, so it requires a full stop or double-clutch (that I learned to drive with, some 60 years ago. But if it is more modern (for most cars, late 60's) you have probably worn out the first gear synchronizer by using GL-5 oil in the transmission. In...

Business keeps me away from the hobby, but I did get a little done before going to the states for a December vacation with the kids and grandkids. When I ran it in November it could not hold fuel pressure, so had to wait until I got a new fuel pump. Will be back to it next week to put it in and...

Something like this?

As for the question of other projects. For the moment none. I plan on driving the four I have: 1960 Corvair, 1988 BMW 325ic, 1962 Renault Dauphine (almost finished) and this Mini pickup. Not to say that if the right car showed up I might not change my mind. But there is a limit to how many...

Nice. I just increased the clearance in mine. It was 8 cm. Had to cut the headers to raise the exhaust. Now, after the skid plate, I have 12 cm.

Just to update a couple of small things, I decided to put an oil temp gauge on it, so the best place was in the oil pan (that also serves as a transmission). Then I covered it with an aluminum skid plate To quiet a bit of the engine noise, I added a piece of Dynamat Hoodliner to the hood...

Part 2 Then filled the sprayer anti-corrosive and then with undercoating, taking care of the undercarriage. Turning to the electrical, the wiper arm pivots were stuck, so had to be taken apart and cleaned, lubed, etc. For the wiring I ripped out everything and started over with an assortment...

Oh, yes. Time to update a bit. When I finally got back to Tarija I got going on the assembly. Good to have the car at home where I can work on it a few hours at a time, as time permits. First I set out to restore and assemble the steering column controls (bought used), steering wheel, and dash...

Somehow I managed to end up with this in two separate threads, so the finished part is here: http://www.torquecars.com/forums/threads/my-custom-mini-pickup.35881/#post-296396 The pickup is a dream to drive (as long as there is nothing in the road taller than 9 cm). I taught my 10 year old...

Before coming to the states for a few weeks I had a chance to get this moving again and we made a lot of progress, finishing the body work and painting the car. Then I took it home to wait under the protection of my garage until I get back. I ordered a bunch of trim parts, headlights, etc. which...

Finally got a few days to just drive and enjoy it.

Yep, Automatic. This link gives the basic story of how and what I did with it: http://www.widman.biz/Mini/English/logistics/mini_story.html And this one summarizes a little with a bunch of before and after shots. http://widman.biz/Mini/English/progress/before-after.html

Here are some final shots. A brief Before and After page is here: http://www.widman.biz/Mini/English/progress/before-after.html

right. I have no complaints about handling. But I put the right air pressure (10-12 psi less up front) in the tires. (that picture of the Mini is a little old - here it is today.......

You are welcome. This is the latest set I did. This for my Renault Dauphine Before Dents

I think you would need a lot to saturate and remove mud. The trick, as I saw on a video, was to wipe with a rolling motion upwards, but you still need to saturate the dirt to lubricate it against the paint. That is why I don't do it all the time.

I use Meguiar's Ultimate on my Corvair. When I want to clean it and it is mostly dust, I use their Ultimate Detailer spray. It goes a long way and has managed to keep my paint like new for more than 5 years. Just keep turning your microfiber towel.

I just realized I had mentioned this little truck in my Corvair post, but not really posted anything else about it. Here is how it was 4 years ago when I finally convinced the owner it was not getting any better as a lawn ornament. He said the original engine needed a timing chain and he...

The nice thing about stainless is that it is relatively thick, and does not depend on plating or anodizing. If you hammer it down to a few microns from flat, the rest can be sanded without being visible, and any scratch can be sanded out using the procedures I wrote up when I did the Corvair...

The body shop finally got back to work on the body, which was close, but after pulling the rear fenders found a lot of rust to correct. So I took a day and took the dents out of the windshield and rear window stainless, polishing it up a bit

I got the engine running fine after getting a control module from the UK, but the transmission refused to work, spitting out oil instead, so I had to pull the powerpack again and disassemble. finally found the problem in the forward clutch pack, where the pressure plate was broken. I...

Several delays and time restraints, but I've come close. Since this is a jigsaw puzzle of 1975 rear, 1991 front, and 1993 SPI engine, some things did not fit easily. But most has been overcome. First, the gas tank cleaned, patched, and adapted to the in-tank pump I also fabricated stainless...

I got away for a few days to start on assembly. Body guy had not yet finished some of the detail or polished the painted body, but I took my parts and tools to his shop and started with installations. With my pressure he finally painted the interior of the bed Since I'm putting power disc...

It's been a while since I had much to post. I spent 10 days in Tarija this month and a lot of it at the body shop nudging him along, as well as taking the padded dash to one of my upholsterers for re-covering. It had taken a lot longer than anticipated to get the engine in, as I discovered that...

After putting on the wheel extensions on the rear and disc brakes on the front, it was time to fabricate fender flares to keep the mud from flying. This week I've stolen a few hours away from work to get into details, as we approach the painting stage. Putting in the seats I...

Thanks. It's fun to drive too. Wait til you see the Mini.........

Rear window and windshield tested in their new openings. Just need to fabricate the new windshield now.

Some progress to report. I made stainless trim pieces for the rocker panels. Also managed to take an afternoon off and assemble the 1300 cc SPI engine. And the body shop finished aligning the drivers door by stretching the cabin to meet the door frame. Here it is...

In an hour or so I'm loading the front and rear sub-frames in the pickup to take to him tomorrow. Both are sandblasted, painted, and assembled for installation and final squaring.

Right side door now fits, opens, closes, etc.

Not much spare time today, but I glass bead blasted the injector body.