Firstly apologies for the delay in responding
IanA many thanks for the links and info, I suppose the first target should be getting the car on the road. Then I will move on to the next stage - Performance!
I only got a few hours on the car this weekend due to having to do some husband duties and some furniture re-arrangement followed by having to do some work on the better halfs Mini. I had to replace the rocker cover gasket and spark plug tube gaskets as I had noticed the old one weeping. I have to say BMW had crammed it all in I had to remove quite a bit to get at some of the nuts, however no big deal until I noticed the dreaded power steering issues that the mini is still oh so famous for in BMW hands although admittedly not quite so much as the batch of minis they did have now graced her car.
Any way this is a Kitcar forum so back on topic...
having been thwarted by the weather I am still on the same project as before - getting the car ready for final bonding. If you remember I was all gung ho to get the car bonded before I first anniversary that happened to tie in with my departure for my holidays. Well I could have bonded the rear on if I wanted as soon as I got back but since then I have reflected and want to do a go job as opposed to make it look good but a pain in the a**e to do anything to after be it maintenance or style tweeks etc.
With the above in mind and thus knowing that the rear has to come off again to do boot lid properly (I am still pursuing the internal hinge option but trying to make it as practical as possible for access. I decided it was time to tackle the number plate lamps - not a difficult task but one I had put off for more interesting bigger jobs. The units I had purchased only came with a live wire so first job was to remove rubber cover and solder an earth wire to the body and thread it through the cover on the other end I attached the relevant half of the quick release clips. I then went outside and attached the clips to the appropriate wires on the wiring loom. All works?? NO damn battery was flat yet 5 weeks ago I put a fully juiced up battery on, not even enough current to make the immobiliser LED flash. So as the only butchery that has taken place thus far to the wiring has been to the lighting system that is was the obvious place to start. Just a few minutes later I found the cause, with all the lighting on quick release clips I was confident that they would not be the issue - I was right. in my haste to put the car back together and under wraps for the holiday I hadn't reconnected the side repeaters and the positive wire was touching the metalwork. I am guessing this was the issue as a chick check around the car and no other loose wires.
After this I jumped the car and it started on the first turn - still amazes me how easily it starts even though it has been driven for over a year now. With juice now flowing I checked the lights all worked and they did - Result!
Next up was to fit them. The units are wider than the area I wanted to mount them on by just a few millimetres. Rather than just sanding the local area to get it to sit flat and the desire to make it look right I went on the hunt for something that the right curve profile I wanted and got sanding along the whole edge so it all matched. I removed the chrome shroud and used some double sided tape to offer it up first and see what looked best. After that drew the mid line to work off and the rest as they say is history.
The top two are mock ups of the options and the bottom one is all complete.
*** please note this number plate in the pictures is under sized and a retro full sized square plate will be used once complete with a new reg no.
Linear Mode
