Sill treatment and air filter replacement

Click on the images to enlarge

internal bonnet release kit

The sills tend to rust quite fast on Mini's so its usually a good idea to keep on top of the rust. Preventative maintenance is what I like to call it. In that it prevents me from having to buy new sills and having to find someone to weld them on.

As soon as you see some rust on your sills start treating the problem. It is a good idea to check once a month. Get yourself a decent wire brush attachment for your drill and strip the underseal off along with any flaky rust. Treat any surface rust with rust treatment (I use Jenolite) and allow to dry. If you have any small holes you can patch them with body filler. Bigger holes will require some new metal and a welder.

tools to fit bracket

When the rust treatment dried I painted the sills with black Hammerite. I gave it two coats just to make sure. Twenty four hours later I used a special undercoat paint which is a blend of Hammerite and Waxoyl. It leaves a paint-like finish but it is slightly rubbery to the touch. Its great for stones on the road because they bounce off rather than chipping away at the paint which exposes bare metal to the elements.

The second photo shown here is of the same sill as shown in the first photo on this page, but two months later. As you can see, the sill still looks ok.

The Mini has been running pretty rich recently and no amount of adjusting the idling made any difference. Obvious signs of your Mini running rich were in evidence, namely a sooty tail pipe and the engine running on for a few seconds after turning it off.

I had already inspected the air filter paper element and it looked ok if a little dirty. Still, replacements are only a few pounds from a local motor factors so I bought a new element and fitted it. The car still needs tuning in my opinion but boy, was there a difference! The engine no longer runs on when I turn the ignition off and my fuel gauge does not seem to be going down as fast.

tools to fit bracket

Next time I think I need to change my air filter, I won't um and ah about whether the filter is really 'that' dirty or not. I'll just change it. The cost of a new one is far less than the cost of the extra fuel I'm using.

The photo shows the old element that I replaced.

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