This is not a post with any technical details, but just a quick ramble about the project so far...
During the course of 2017 I've experienced a higher level of interest of the my engine conversion and rebuild project than I have at any point in the build so far. The interest has been new people subscribing to the blog as well as a fair few local people (mostly Mini owners) visiting my home workshop to either have quick a look over the car and chew the fat for a while, or stand for hours and talk in detail about the build.
In person, comments are often made about how tight the engine and ancillaries are in the engine bay, and comments often made of the quality of the work, but hardly ever about about the amount of time that's been put into it so far. If I had to estimate, I'd say I've put over a thousand hours into the project so far but it's hard to quantify as since I started approx 8 years ago I have been mostly slotting in a few hours here and there between work, family and other commitments. In that 8 years, there was also 3.5 years I spent on a substantial owner-builder & renovation project, plus over 6 months slowly building and setting up my new workshop, all in which time the Mini and parts spent collecting dust and rust.
The substantial number of hours is the by-product of a personal project with minimal outsourcing of work. A project where no company supplies off-the-shelf subframes for the Starlet 4E-FTE engine, no-one makes a kit for any part of the engine swap, and given the very small number of people who have completed the 4E-FTE swap into a both round-nose and Clubman Minis, there is no standard way to implement everything in the swap. Fitting a Toyota Starlet engine into a classic Mini (square peg in a round hole?) requires nearly everything to involve custom work and if you're not flush with cash to get it all outsourced, your own time is required. And blood. And sweat. But no tears yet :)
While you can take cues and ideas from other peoples projects and builds, you of course have to create solutions to the specific problems faced in your build. How you choose to implement those solutions will determine the quality of work you feel the project needs. I see this project as a reflection of who I am - someone who likes things completed to a higher quality, but I'm certainly not chasing perfection. If it takes repeating a task to get a noticeable quality improvement, then I will take the time to redo it.
So far, I've had to repeat a lot of tasks as a result of changing a design for a more suitable one, remaking something due to unforeseen issues e.g. clearance/fouling, making a better quality version of the first item or from just plain screwing up something when trying to rush through the work. The amount of time I've spent on rework is not trivial. Some brake lines have had to be remade 3 times, seat mount brackets 2 times, custom fasteners and fittings on the lathe up to 4 times, water pump tensioner once, intake pipework 2 times, rear sway bar brackets 3 times, brake booster bracket 2 times, dump pipe 2 times and there would be more I cannot think of right now. Any reference to this type of rework generally isn't portrayed in build blogs & and various forum build threads. It takes more time for these changes but it results in a better end product.
The adage "It's the journey that matters, not the destination" rings completely true here. If the destination was more important for me, I would have bought a Mini that already had work done to it, or bought another fast street car, or not sold my highly modified R33 Nissan Skyline to fund this project.
Thus far I've thoroughly enjoyed the tackling of problems, the process of technical problem solving, overcoming the many frustrations and setbacks and standing back at the end of each part of the build and being proud at what I've done - whether it be fabricating a small simple bracket or solving a complex problem - ultimately to see a long term goal come to fruition.
I often reflect back to years ago when I started the project, when I was unsure I even had many of the skills required to not only personally complete the work, but complete it to a reasonable standard for a non-professional. I've indirectly spent a huge number of hours on the Mini project learning via Google/YouTube/forums and then directly by just giving it a go and improving on new skills I thought I may never have.
I've valued the time that I've had to spend on the project (mostly thanks to my tolerant and supportive wife) and I've also valued the positive comments I get from people who take time out their day to come and visit a random home workshop to look over a fellow motoring enthuisiasts' personal project.
During the course of 2017 I've experienced a higher level of interest of the my engine conversion and rebuild project than I have at any point in the build so far. The interest has been new people subscribing to the blog as well as a fair few local people (mostly Mini owners) visiting my home workshop to either have quick a look over the car and chew the fat for a while, or stand for hours and talk in detail about the build.
In person, comments are often made about how tight the engine and ancillaries are in the engine bay, and comments often made of the quality of the work, but hardly ever about about the amount of time that's been put into it so far. If I had to estimate, I'd say I've put over a thousand hours into the project so far but it's hard to quantify as since I started approx 8 years ago I have been mostly slotting in a few hours here and there between work, family and other commitments. In that 8 years, there was also 3.5 years I spent on a substantial owner-builder & renovation project, plus over 6 months slowly building and setting up my new workshop, all in which time the Mini and parts spent collecting dust and rust.
The substantial number of hours is the by-product of a personal project with minimal outsourcing of work. A project where no company supplies off-the-shelf subframes for the Starlet 4E-FTE engine, no-one makes a kit for any part of the engine swap, and given the very small number of people who have completed the 4E-FTE swap into a both round-nose and Clubman Minis, there is no standard way to implement everything in the swap. Fitting a Toyota Starlet engine into a classic Mini (square peg in a round hole?) requires nearly everything to involve custom work and if you're not flush with cash to get it all outsourced, your own time is required. And blood. And sweat. But no tears yet :)
While you can take cues and ideas from other peoples projects and builds, you of course have to create solutions to the specific problems faced in your build. How you choose to implement those solutions will determine the quality of work you feel the project needs. I see this project as a reflection of who I am - someone who likes things completed to a higher quality, but I'm certainly not chasing perfection. If it takes repeating a task to get a noticeable quality improvement, then I will take the time to redo it.
So far, I've had to repeat a lot of tasks as a result of changing a design for a more suitable one, remaking something due to unforeseen issues e.g. clearance/fouling, making a better quality version of the first item or from just plain screwing up something when trying to rush through the work. The amount of time I've spent on rework is not trivial. Some brake lines have had to be remade 3 times, seat mount brackets 2 times, custom fasteners and fittings on the lathe up to 4 times, water pump tensioner once, intake pipework 2 times, rear sway bar brackets 3 times, brake booster bracket 2 times, dump pipe 2 times and there would be more I cannot think of right now. Any reference to this type of rework generally isn't portrayed in build blogs & and various forum build threads. It takes more time for these changes but it results in a better end product.
The adage "It's the journey that matters, not the destination" rings completely true here. If the destination was more important for me, I would have bought a Mini that already had work done to it, or bought another fast street car, or not sold my highly modified R33 Nissan Skyline to fund this project.
Thus far I've thoroughly enjoyed the tackling of problems, the process of technical problem solving, overcoming the many frustrations and setbacks and standing back at the end of each part of the build and being proud at what I've done - whether it be fabricating a small simple bracket or solving a complex problem - ultimately to see a long term goal come to fruition.
I often reflect back to years ago when I started the project, when I was unsure I even had many of the skills required to not only personally complete the work, but complete it to a reasonable standard for a non-professional. I've indirectly spent a huge number of hours on the Mini project learning via Google/YouTube/forums and then directly by just giving it a go and improving on new skills I thought I may never have.
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