Showing posts with label Classic Mini. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Classic Mini. Show all posts
Wednesday 18 March 2020
Classic Mini LCD surround.
By popular demand, and with the kind permission and generosity of Pyers, here's the STL file for 3D printing the escutcheon to fit a 16x2 lcd into the top dash rail of a classic mini.
Sunday 15 March 2020
Classic Mini 1275GT gets an interior and earns it's stripes!
Still been working on the Mini when I can... it's taking too long!
Recently, it was time to fit the interior back in. I fitted it, then took it back out again. It's grubby, and horrible, nothing like the original one (it was swapped out sometime in the 90's for a British Open interior).
I looked around for a suitable replacement, and finally stumbled on a company via facebook called Autostitch, who gave me some ideas and a very favourable quote.
The kit arrived after a short wait, and I set about fitting it to the existing seats. I chose not to replace the foam in the seats, as it still appeared to be in good order.
First off I started on the rear seat base. It was easy enough to remove the old upholstery, as it's just held on with some staples...
The foam's in good condition...
The new upholstery is sized up...
.. and once I've got it round the right way (!), stapled in the middle either side, putting the vinyl under a bit of tension ..
.. and stapled round the edge, moving out from the middle, avoiding any uneven tension which may cause it to wrinkle up...
Now, I've never done anything like this before, and it's all gone very well :)
On to the back.
This is of different construction. It's a wire frame, with very scant foam padding! The upholstery is held in place with a lot of small clips. I took a good few photos of the position of the clips, just in case, but I need not have worried...
One note about the clips, the come in two different sizes, a wide (pictured here) which is intended to "grab" two thicknesses of upholstery, where they overlap, and a narrower type, intended to grab one thickness..
The new vinyl is again sized up, and fits really easily...
Not bad at all :)
On with the fronts...
Here's a tip, remove the head-rests before un-bolting the seats from the car!
These are the slightly later type of seats, with the latching bar, and the reclining mechanism (oh the luxury!)
First thing is to turn the seat upside down..
.. and remove the rear part where it's folded around the seat base to reveal 30+ years of crap... ugh!
You'll find several little clips, not dissimilar to the ones used to hold the back seat cover to the frame.
Remove the recliner handle (just one philips screw) and the little silver rivet from the other side.
Slide the rear cover from the seat.. Again, the foam is a little discoloured, but hasn't started to degrade.
Remove these two cardboard things from the rear cover, you'll need to put those back in to the replacement cover.
Undo the clips from abound the base of the seat..
Remove the latch level knob (it just unscrews)
Squeeze the sides of the latch bar grommet from the inside, and it should pop out...
And remove the upholstery and foam.
It appears my seat frame was made in the motherland, by Llanelli radiators!!
Now's the time to paint up any rusty bits on the seat frame.
Installing the covers is easy, just take your time, stretching the vinyl over the seat frame and foam, and knocking the clips back on with a small hammer.
Door cards are a direct fit, although tight in the top slot on the door, which is no bad thing!
You'll need to make some small holes in the vinyl (I used a hot soldering iron) to locate the screws for the door handle.
Finally looking good...
Meanwhile, Lee gave me a bell ...
"My fishing bite alarm has stopped working.. can you have a look?"
... yeah, why not?
The receiver had a nasty case of corrosion, so after a good clean up in the ultrasonic bath, and some microsurgery around the PLL, it was sorted :)
Now Lee is a renowned car body expert, as thanks for the fishing bite alarm repair, he very kindly offered to fit my side stripes for me, a job which I've attempted to do once, and cocked up (in my defence, more to do with the age of the stickers , which were genuine Leyland ones, and they had hardened over the years and stuck to the backing.) These are aftermarket heritage decals, be very careful where you get them from, as I had some from a reputable supplier, which I returned as the stripes top and bottom were too wide, and the font very wrong...
He didn't even mind about the rather cramped conditions, or the fact it was raining at the time..
It's finally earned it's stripes.
I've also sorted the radio cassette (see here for restoration), now with added bluetooth FM modulator, and accompanying USB and DC sockets...
... and mounted the Multi-function display where the ashtray once lived.
The bezel was 3D printed by my friend Pyers.
(The 3D print files are now available ...
https://andydoz.blogspot.com/2020/03/classic-mini-lcd-surround.html)
In other news....
The engine and gearbox is done and ready to go...
Including this rather nice lightened flywheel, and "orange" Borg & beck clutch, which has just returned from being balanced by the lovely people at MED.
Soon perhaps?
Recently, it was time to fit the interior back in. I fitted it, then took it back out again. It's grubby, and horrible, nothing like the original one (it was swapped out sometime in the 90's for a British Open interior).
I looked around for a suitable replacement, and finally stumbled on a company via facebook called Autostitch, who gave me some ideas and a very favourable quote.
The kit arrived after a short wait, and I set about fitting it to the existing seats. I chose not to replace the foam in the seats, as it still appeared to be in good order.
First off I started on the rear seat base. It was easy enough to remove the old upholstery, as it's just held on with some staples...
The foam's in good condition...
.. and once I've got it round the right way (!), stapled in the middle either side, putting the vinyl under a bit of tension ..
Now, I've never done anything like this before, and it's all gone very well :)
This is of different construction. It's a wire frame, with very scant foam padding! The upholstery is held in place with a lot of small clips. I took a good few photos of the position of the clips, just in case, but I need not have worried...
One note about the clips, the come in two different sizes, a wide (pictured here) which is intended to "grab" two thicknesses of upholstery, where they overlap, and a narrower type, intended to grab one thickness.. 
Here's a tip, remove the head-rests before un-bolting the seats from the car!
These are the slightly later type of seats, with the latching bar, and the reclining mechanism (oh the luxury!)
.. and remove the rear part where it's folded around the seat base to reveal 30+ years of crap... ugh!
You'll find several little clips, not dissimilar to the ones used to hold the back seat cover to the frame.
Remove the recliner handle (just one philips screw) and the little silver rivet from the other side.
Slide the rear cover from the seat.. Again, the foam is a little discoloured, but hasn't started to degrade.
Remove the latch level knob (it just unscrews)
Squeeze the sides of the latch bar grommet from the inside, and it should pop out...
It appears my seat frame was made in the motherland, by Llanelli radiators!!
Now's the time to paint up any rusty bits on the seat frame.Door cards are a direct fit, although tight in the top slot on the door, which is no bad thing!
You'll need to make some small holes in the vinyl (I used a hot soldering iron) to locate the screws for the door handle.Finally looking good...
Meanwhile, Lee gave me a bell ...
"My fishing bite alarm has stopped working.. can you have a look?"... yeah, why not?
The receiver had a nasty case of corrosion, so after a good clean up in the ultrasonic bath, and some microsurgery around the PLL, it was sorted :)
Now Lee is a renowned car body expert, as thanks for the fishing bite alarm repair, he very kindly offered to fit my side stripes for me, a job which I've attempted to do once, and cocked up (in my defence, more to do with the age of the stickers , which were genuine Leyland ones, and they had hardened over the years and stuck to the backing.) These are aftermarket heritage decals, be very careful where you get them from, as I had some from a reputable supplier, which I returned as the stripes top and bottom were too wide, and the font very wrong...
He didn't even mind about the rather cramped conditions, or the fact it was raining at the time..
It's finally earned it's stripes.
I've also sorted the radio cassette (see here for restoration), now with added bluetooth FM modulator, and accompanying USB and DC sockets...
The bezel was 3D printed by my friend Pyers.
(The 3D print files are now available ...
https://andydoz.blogspot.com/2020/03/classic-mini-lcd-surround.html)
In other news....
The engine and gearbox is done and ready to go...
Including this rather nice lightened flywheel, and "orange" Borg & beck clutch, which has just returned from being balanced by the lovely people at MED.
Soon perhaps?
Friday 12 July 2019
Sharp RG-3915 In-car radio cassette repairs and restoration.
I bought this on eBay..
"Why?" I hear you ask...
Because I've been spurred on by the warm summer evenings to finish off the green thing lurking in the garage... and it needs some suitable retro sounds. (Sorry if you're still waiting for the final Sony 9-306 YouTube video)
The RG-9305 is an auto-reverse radio cassette, released in 1983 (OK, it's a bit newer than my car, but hey..) It produced a trouser flapping 8 watts per channel (although some have appeared to have escaped.. read on!)
The seller assured me it was "working when removed" ... which I can only assume was sometime in 1985 ;) Thankfully I use the usual eBay translator for such. "Working when removed" means been sat in a damp shed for 30 years+ and the seller can't bears bothered to test it. (For more eBay description translations check this out)
... and sure enough I'm not disappointed... the cassette deck doesn't work, and the radio is weak and distorted. The radio comes on for a few moments, then the volume fades away rapidly.
Let's tackle the tape first.
Take off the knobs and the securing nuts and remove the faceplate(s) ...
Remove the two screws holding the front panel. It should just pull away.. The remove the four screws to remove the top panel (two on the top in the label, and two on the front). Remove the top panel by gently prising it up with a small screwdriver.
The cassette mechanism is held in place with two screws on the front panel. Disconnect the motor/control plug adjacent to the motor, and the head wiring plug next to the volume pot.
Pop the eject button off (bottom left), and, although it's tight, you should now be able to extract the mechanism complete...
Excellent. Turn it over....
.. and remove the two screws holding down the capstan flywheel retaining plate.
Remove the two offending belts, find suitable replacements in the belt box, and replace them...
Yeah, they're shot ... ;)
Here's an interesting manufacturing technique... real printed components...
It looks like R120, R62 et al are just printed blobs of some carbon type of material, not dissimilar to the "thick film" type of construction used in some TV's back in the day, but those were usually printed on ceramic, not ordinary PCB material. Even the tracks on this side of the board don't appear to be copper, but some form of conductive paint or ink. What if there's been some flexing and vibration going on and there's a microscopic track break? This fills me with dread ... let's see what happens.
On test and the output is low and distorted. There's about 3VDC appearing on the speaker outputs. Not good.
Reverse engineering the circuit shows the output amplifier is coupled to the speakers by two capacitors. They're leaking.
As there's a few others right close to the amplifier, I change the lot...
Ok... things are better, but there's still precious little output, and what there is, is still distorted and thin sounding. Tracing the circuit back from the amplifier, I get to a uPC1228 op amp. It's a dual amp, but in a single in line (SIL) package, and made from unobtainium.. The DC conditions around the amp are odd... There's a DC off-set on the input, which is building over the first second or so the unit is switched on. The audio is coupled in via two capacitors, and loaded by two of those printed resistors I mentioned earlier... and they prove to be open circuit.
An educated guess is made, and two 100K resistors are duly lashed up. One between pin 1 and gnd, and the other between 6 and gnd.
Audio is restored :)
The replacement resistors are properly mounted.
Now the case has a chunk missing out of it, across the top where the cassette goes..
I used the remaining corner to bend a piece of tinned copper wire to get the outline shape. This is then flipped over, and warmed up with a soldering iron and melted into the plastic case...
It's rubbed down a bit, and covered with capton tape.
Some car body filler is mixed up, and used to fill against the tape. Once the filler has hardened, the tape's removed and the filler trimmed with a craft knife to the rough shape required.
A little more filler is added...
... and finally sanded down to get the final shape.
A trip to a local paint supplier to get a matching colour ... a quick browse through the racks shows this Pastikote radiator paint looks a damn good match ...
The front panel is carefully masked off...
... and painted. I'm rather pleased with the colour match and end result...
The faceplate gets a coat too to get rid of a few scuff marks, and the unit mounted in an under-dash box ready for fitting
"Why?" I hear you ask...
Because I've been spurred on by the warm summer evenings to finish off the green thing lurking in the garage... and it needs some suitable retro sounds. (Sorry if you're still waiting for the final Sony 9-306 YouTube video)
The RG-9305 is an auto-reverse radio cassette, released in 1983 (OK, it's a bit newer than my car, but hey..) It produced a trouser flapping 8 watts per channel (although some have appeared to have escaped.. read on!)
The seller assured me it was "working when removed" ... which I can only assume was sometime in 1985 ;) Thankfully I use the usual eBay translator for such. "Working when removed" means been sat in a damp shed for 30 years+ and the seller can't be
... and sure enough I'm not disappointed... the cassette deck doesn't work, and the radio is weak and distorted. The radio comes on for a few moments, then the volume fades away rapidly.
Let's tackle the tape first.Take off the knobs and the securing nuts and remove the faceplate(s) ...
Remove the two screws holding the front panel. It should just pull away.. The remove the four screws to remove the top panel (two on the top in the label, and two on the front). Remove the top panel by gently prising it up with a small screwdriver.
The cassette mechanism is held in place with two screws on the front panel. Disconnect the motor/control plug adjacent to the motor, and the head wiring plug next to the volume pot.
Pop the eject button off (bottom left), and, although it's tight, you should now be able to extract the mechanism complete...Excellent. Turn it over....
.. and remove the two screws holding down the capstan flywheel retaining plate.Remove the two offending belts, find suitable replacements in the belt box, and replace them...
Yeah, they're shot ... ;)
Here's an interesting manufacturing technique... real printed components...
It looks like R120, R62 et al are just printed blobs of some carbon type of material, not dissimilar to the "thick film" type of construction used in some TV's back in the day, but those were usually printed on ceramic, not ordinary PCB material. Even the tracks on this side of the board don't appear to be copper, but some form of conductive paint or ink. What if there's been some flexing and vibration going on and there's a microscopic track break? This fills me with dread ... let's see what happens.
On test and the output is low and distorted. There's about 3VDC appearing on the speaker outputs. Not good.
Reverse engineering the circuit shows the output amplifier is coupled to the speakers by two capacitors. They're leaking.
As there's a few others right close to the amplifier, I change the lot...Ok... things are better, but there's still precious little output, and what there is, is still distorted and thin sounding. Tracing the circuit back from the amplifier, I get to a uPC1228 op amp. It's a dual amp, but in a single in line (SIL) package, and made from unobtainium.. The DC conditions around the amp are odd... There's a DC off-set on the input, which is building over the first second or so the unit is switched on. The audio is coupled in via two capacitors, and loaded by two of those printed resistors I mentioned earlier... and they prove to be open circuit.
An educated guess is made, and two 100K resistors are duly lashed up. One between pin 1 and gnd, and the other between 6 and gnd.Audio is restored :)
The replacement resistors are properly mounted.
Now the case has a chunk missing out of it, across the top where the cassette goes..
I used the remaining corner to bend a piece of tinned copper wire to get the outline shape. This is then flipped over, and warmed up with a soldering iron and melted into the plastic case...It's rubbed down a bit, and covered with capton tape.
Some car body filler is mixed up, and used to fill against the tape. Once the filler has hardened, the tape's removed and the filler trimmed with a craft knife to the rough shape required.
A little more filler is added...
... and finally sanded down to get the final shape.
A trip to a local paint supplier to get a matching colour ... a quick browse through the racks shows this Pastikote radiator paint looks a damn good match ...
The front panel is carefully masked off...
... and painted. I'm rather pleased with the colour match and end result...
The faceplate gets a coat too to get rid of a few scuff marks, and the unit mounted in an under-dash box ready for fitting
and I've got one of these bluetooth FM transmitter devices so I can play music from my phone! (£7.22 on eBay!)
Another saved from landfill :)
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