The Mini Shrine Library

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Latest Articles

New articles posted in the last 60 days:

DIY Wood Steering Wheel: Part 1 Introduction, Design & Prototype: Posted on: Monday January 30, 2012
How to build your own wooden steering wheel: Justification, Budget, Objectives, Donor Wheel, Design, and building a Prototype.
DIY Wood Steering Wheel: Part 2 Choosing Wood, Making Blanks: Posted on: Monday January 30, 2012
How to build your own wooden steering wheel: choosing lumber for making the wheel, material list and cost, design and making the blanks for the halves, cutting segments and making splines, gluing the hexagons
DIY Wood Steering Wheel: Part 3 Machining the Halves & Rounding: Posted on: Monday January 30, 2012
How to build your own wooden steering wheel: making a router table, marking the wood, cutting the shape of the wheel and center groove, assembling wheel halves and rounding
DIY Wood Steering Wheel: Part 4 Fitting the Wood to the Steel & Finger Grooves: Posted on: Monday January 30, 2012
How to build your own wooden steering wheel: fitting the wooden wheel to the steel frame, cutting space for the spokes, making finger grooves with a wood file
DIY Wood Steering Wheel: Part 5 Attaching to the Steel Frame & Finishing: Posted on: Monday January 30, 2012
How to build your own wooden steering wheel: fastening the wooden wheel to the frame with epoxy, clamping, finishing hand sanding, mother of pearl inlay, wood stain and varnish
Media Blasting and Air Compressors Explained: Posted on: Thursday January 26, 2012
How to choose the right blasting equipment for car restoration; sand, slag, alox, and glass beads; gun and nozzle selection and air compressor buying guide.
Twist Drill Talk: Posted on: Tuesday January 17, 2012
How to get the most from your drill bits in the garage, and how to sharpen, inspect and keep them in top working order.
Bolt Torque Specification: Posted on: Monday January 16, 2012
Universal torque specs in ft-lbs for SAE Grade steel hex bolts.
Building a No-Leak A-Series Engine: Posted on: Monday January 16, 2012
Sealing the BMC A-Series engine against oil leaks: Installation of the rear main cap, engine gaskets, timing cover seal and frost plugs.

Buying a Used Vehicle

Used Car Checklist: A great checklist when buying any kind of car, print this out and take it with you if you're considering buying.
Used Car Checklist (Printable) (pdf): A nicely formatted, printable PDF version of the SOL Used Car Buying Guide checklist.

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Frequently Asked Questions

LBC Fact and Fiction: 60 common LBC questions answered by Motorhead Garages.
What's a DPO?: Unless you buy all your cars new you probably know the answer even if you don't know it yet!

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General Care

Car Lifts Compared: Choosing a car lift for your home garage: buyer's guide to four post lifts, two post lifts, in-ground, and single post lift systems reviewed and compared.
Leather Care: How to keep your seats from fading or cracking, and looking their best.
Twist Drill Talk: How to get the most from your drill bits in the garage, and how to sharpen, inspect and keep them in top working order.

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Service and Repair

Suspension and Wheels

Mounting Tires: How to change tubes and tires yourself and get a nice cardio workout in the deal.

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Brakes and Clutch

Bleeding The Hydraulic Clutch System: A simple tip that might solve your clutch bleeding frustration.

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Cooling and Heating

Modern Coolants: How engine coolant has evolved over the years and what modern coolant is the best for our classic cars.

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Engine and Tuning

Building a No-Leak A-Series Engine: Sealing the BMC A-Series engine against oil leaks: Installation of the rear main cap, engine gaskets, timing cover seal and frost plugs.
Make a Spark Tester: Diagnosing a weak spark with a few bits and pieces from the junk bin.
Oil Filter Study: A good website showing what oil filters are made of, and good and bad components to look for.
Today's Oils and Our Classic Cars: Presentation from George Morrison, independent STLE Certified Lubrication Specialist, at a Central Ohio MG Owners Club Tech Session regarding the use of modern oils in classic cars.

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Carburetors and Fuel

Weber Factory Calibration Settings (pdf): Stock settings for various Weber carbs.

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Electrical and Instruments

Battery Storage, Fact or Fiction?: Will leaving your battery sitting on concrete cause it to discharge?
Car Batteries 101: Testing, maintenance, troubleshooting and charging advice for the common automotive 12V lead-acid car battery.
Dash Rocker Switch Repair: Rehabilitation of the "Clear Hooters" type dash rocker switches common to many British cars of the 1970s such as Triumph, MG and Jaguar.
Ground Point Preparation: Removing corrosion from your car's ground points often solves all kinds of electrical gremlins.
Pertronix Unlisted Installation Tips: Pertronix Electronic Ignition (Ignitor kit etc) installation tips for vintage points type distributor upgrades.
Understanding Alternators: Operation and theory of the alternator, explained in simple terms.
Understanding the Ignition System: Operation and theory of the ignition system, explained in simple terms.

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Interior and Upholstery

DIY Wood Steering Wheel: Part 1 Introduction, Design & Prototype: How to build your own wooden steering wheel: Justification, Budget, Objectives, Donor Wheel, Design, and building a Prototype.
DIY Wood Steering Wheel: Part 2 Choosing Wood, Making Blanks: How to build your own wooden steering wheel: choosing lumber for making the wheel, material list and cost, design and making the blanks for the halves, cutting segments and making splines, gluing the hexagons
DIY Wood Steering Wheel: Part 3 Machining the Halves & Rounding: How to build your own wooden steering wheel: making a router table, marking the wood, cutting the shape of the wheel and center groove, assembling wheel halves and rounding
DIY Wood Steering Wheel: Part 4 Fitting the Wood to the Steel & Finger Grooves: How to build your own wooden steering wheel: fitting the wooden wheel to the steel frame, cutting space for the spokes, making finger grooves with a wood file
DIY Wood Steering Wheel: Part 5 Attaching to the Steel Frame & Finishing: How to build your own wooden steering wheel: fastening the wooden wheel to the frame with epoxy, clamping, finishing hand sanding, mother of pearl inlay, wood stain and varnish
Low Cost Cockpit Sound and Thermal Insulation (pdf): Here is how I did a low-cost thermal and sound insulation for my interior, and a comparison between it and a sound deadening material such as Dynamat Extreme.

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Body and Paint

BMC/BL Paint Codes and Colors: Scans of paint chip samples for BMC and British Leyland colours from 1964 to 1978, with names and paint codes for makes such as MG (MGB), Triumph (Spitfire, TR6), Austin (Mini), Austin-Healey (Midget), Morris Minor, Riley, Wolseley
Car Bodywork 101: Lesson #1 Prep Work: The first part of the series on automotive bodywork, Prep Work, covers basic preparation before painting such as rough sanding, applying and sanding filler, applying and sanding primer, and fixing high spots.
Car Bodywork 101: Lesson #2 Sanding Jamb Areas: Part 2 in this series on automotive bodywork, Sanding Door and Hood Jamb Areas, covers "jambing", basic sanding technique, supplies like sandpaper, Scotchbrite and blocks, sanding technique, cleaning and paint masking tips.
Car Bodywork 101: Lesson #3 Painting Jamb Areas: Part 3 in this series on automotive bodywork, Painting Door and Hood Jamb Areas, covers Tools for Automotive Painting, Fixing Paint Runs and Overspray, Block Sanding Final Primer, and color hold-out (even color).
Car Bodywork 101: Lesson #4 Final Prep: Part 4 in this series on automotive bodywork covers Final Body Preparation, Masking the Body, Masking Curves and Letters, Masking Cracks and Tight Areas, and Final Air and Solvent Cleaning.
Car Bodywork 101: Lesson #5 Painting: Time for Paint! Part 5 in this series covers Mixing Automotive Paint, Automotive Paint Systems, Painting in Your Garage, and Painting Tips.
Car Bodywork 101: Lesson #6 Undercoating: The final part of this automotive bodywork tutorial series covers undercoating your car and final words on bodywork and painting.
Color Sanding: How to get an excellent finish when repainting your car.

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Restoration

Build a Body Rotator: The ultimate low-buck body restoration aid (mirror)
Media Blasting and Air Compressors Explained: How to choose the right blasting equipment for car restoration; sand, slag, alox, and glass beads; gun and nozzle selection and air compressor buying guide.

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Reference

BMC A-Series Engine Codes: Mostly complete list of cars fitted with the BMC A-Series engine, 1952 to 1999
Bolt Torque Specification: Universal torque specs in ft-lbs for SAE Grade steel hex bolts.
British Car Production Figures: Total production data for all British makes and models.
CO% to Air Fuel Ratio (AFR) Table: Handy chart for CO based tuning.
Standard Threads Reference: Table comparing UNC, UNF, USP, BSW (Whitworth), BSP (Pipe) and Metric threads.
Wrench and Socket Reference: Reference table of US (Imperial), Metric and Whitworth wrench sizes.

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Streaming Video

BMC Crash Test Video 1960s: A series of videos showing BMC crash tests from the 60s. Shown are the Mini, 1100, 1800 and MGB models.
Secrets of the SU Carburetter: Video tutorial on inspection and rebuilding of the SU carburetor(s) fitted to MGBs prior to 1975, Triumph, Jaguar, Mini, Austin, Morris and many other British cars as well as classic Volvo and Saab.

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