Biscuits-- the 67 Elf

Here is an update on the engine build.
Got the block done to .20" overbore with a 266 Kent cam. 12G295 Cooper head has been cleaned and new valves with 3 angle seats finished. The crank is 10-10. Here are a few pics:



The piston are flat top ones and with the combination of the Cooper head I should get 9.5:1 to 9.7:1 CR so it should be a peppy motor. The trans is getting rebuilt alongside the motor. All looked good, but the 4th gear hub has a wobble when over the fourth gear so have to figure that out. The trans would pop out of fourth and when it did stay in gear , the shifter would rattle very loudly so having the fourth gear hub wobbling might account for that. I should get the motor and trans back at the beginning of March so I can drive the car to the first car show of our season on 17th of March.

An update on my project. Here is my engine fresh from the engine builder. The final specification is at Cooper spec. Has 1014cc capacity, 9:1 CR with MiniSpares EVO cam. Double roller timing chain, lightened flywheel, double valve springs with new valves and a 12G295 head and a Cooper S crank balancer. Looks too nice to put into the car. I will have a 123 dizzy and a HS4 carb along with a tropical fan and a super two core radiator.

You're doing a very nice job there

Update on Biscuits:
Got the motor back from the engine builder. Final specifications are a 276 cam with flat top pistons ruining 9.0:1 compression ratio and 1014cc capacity. 12G295 Cooper head with 3 angle valve job. Lightened flywheel with lightened double roller timing chain set up. HS4 carb with freeflow header and RC40 side exit exhaust. 123 dizzy with Pertronix coil.
The car runs fantastically and love the power out of it.

Here is Biscuits with here wheels on

Still not sure what to paint the car. I have a few paint schemes in mind. The top of the list is a red metallic body with a silver from the beltline to the roof like Ringo Starr's car. The second shceme would be a silver body with red metallic from the beltline to the roof. The other idea would be a metallic green color with a white or black roof. So tough to think of how to paint it. Would be nice to visualize it before I made the final decision.

Like these? They're rough, but I only spent about ten minutes on them.

Bloody hell! That looks sweet just for a ten minute job! Thanks. Now I can have a thought of what one I like. I do like the red with the silver, but the silver with the red looks good too. The green is tasty too. The green I had in mind was the Lime Gold Metallic of the new Ford Mustangs. Looks period, but with a modern twist.
I was able to find a set of brand new lenses for the car too! Got them through Graham of Heritage Garage. Will put them on after I paint the car.

Nice car. Good work.

Lime Gold with the top matching the wheels...

Red Riley wrote:Lime Gold with the top matching the wheels...

That would be an interesting paint scheme. After looking at all considered I am going with the red body and silver upper. The red will make the bright work pop and the roof line looks good with the silver. I know what red I want. It is the Toyota Barcelona Red Mica , but yet to find the proper silver color. I am leaning towards the Thundercloud Mica of the first generation Scion Xb. The interior metal would be silver with the door cards and seats in a dark red leather.

After more thought I am torn between the green or the red.

I think the green looks a bit too modern. I would go with the red but don't stop at the waistline. To my eyes, that always makes the car look too top heavy, plus it reminds me of Hong Kong taxis.



I would do the Barcelona red with the thundercloud silver. That color looks pretty close to Whitehall Biege, so would look more "correct" for the car anyway. And you might have to change the color of the wheels, I just can't see the silver and gold together. Ewww, sorry.


Hmm... starting to look kind of familiar. I might be a bit biased on the colors...

Of course you would be a little biased
I could go with the Barcelona red body and the silver top. Would look good. I saw your car in Mini Mag and it looked great with the color combination so I can have a twist on the colors. I do have a set of Japanese rose petal replicas that are black in the center and machined on the outer lip that would work with the red. I can put the gold wheels on my Mini. That car will be Tweed Gray so the gold would look ok with it.

Yeah, good call. Put the pimp wheels on the Mini.

Any chance you can do my Elf in fawn brown with old english white roof and wheel arches. I'd love to see what it looks like before I decide on the colour.

I finally decided paint my car Tweed gray with OEW roof or a Tarten red roof. I found that metallic can be troublesome if not painted on correctly and touching them up is a pain. I saw a fellow Mini owner's Tweed Gray woody traveler and fell in love with that color.
An update for the Riley, I changed the rear license plate lights from the bumper to the boot lid. The two little lights were ineffectual at illuminating the plate and worked better at shining light into the boot. I added a Mini style light to just above the plate and will add some "Riley" and "Elf" scripts once they arrive. They will go above the license plate much like the Austin Cooper set up on MKI Coopers.
Here is the before shot

And the after shot:

Once I am ready to get the bright bits re-chromed I will have the shop fill in the holes from the old lights and have them fill in the holes from the over riders too.

I also added some tasty new four pot alloy brakes and grooved discs. A large improvement over the twin leading shoe drums.
Here are the drums before, sufficient for a 1000cc car

Then the four pot alloy MiniSpares calipers with "S" CV joints and grooved discs


The other change to the car is the repair of my E.T. finger for the turn signal stock, but don't have pictures of that yet.

Here is a shot of my Riley out on Bouquet Canyon here in Southern California to bed in the brakes

Made an addition to my car. I had a Moto-Lita in 13inch diameter that was nice, but found a restored Les Leston in 15 inch. I found a horn button and installed my emblem in it.

Love those white clocks!

Same here on those clocks. They look great. Is that a rev counter poking just above the wheel? If so what make is it?

sexy dash and now sexy brakes

Zef wrote:Same here on those clocks. They look great. Is that a rev counter poking just above the wheel? If so what make is it?

Yes, that is a tacho. It is a new Smith's unit. Was able to install it utilizing a tacho pod on the steering column. Mostly the top of the tacho is visible while driving and is basically the only important area to look at when driving in a spirited manner.

Big_Al_Smith wrote:sexy dash and now sexy brakes

The brakes are sexy, but obscured by the wheels Ok, you can just see them if you look closely at the wheels. I am glad I got them since the drums wouldn't have taken the heat of some of the runs my club goes on. This last weekend we drove a nice twisty patch of road on what we called the "Leftover Turkey Run" which was the same run our club drove in November called the 'Turkey Run". On one of the roads we had a very steep and tight turning down hill segment and I could smell the brakes of the cars in front. Glad all the cars on the run had discs.

Here is what my car looks like so far. This is a picture I took at a local vintage track day event.

Was going to buy a picture of the car on track, but the company wanted $25 for a digital copy and I didn't like how my rented helmet looked. Yes shallow thinking, but if you saw the helmet you would agree with my decision.

Ok, did some work on my car. Was able to get more done on the bodywork and now she is one color again after many years of being a patchwork of colors. Now that I have a nice primer coat on I can see places that need attention. I was also able to get the OK from the department of motor vehicles to put my black and gold plates on the car! They look great and really give the car the vintage look she needs. Here in California, the black and gold plates were issued to cars from 1963 till 1971, much like black and silver plates in the UK. I bought the plates off ebay and originally submitted the request to have the plate number issued to my car back in September and after resubmitting the same paperwork twice I finally received the authorization on the 7th of February. It took them five months, but at least I am now able to have the proper vintage plates for the car.
And please don't ask me what color I plan on painting it, still hadn't committed to a final choice. I have narrowed down to a grey much like what the primer is with a black roof and flairs or to the opposite spectrum I think a Porsche Blood orange or Gulf orange for the body with black roof and flairs would look fantastic.

Looking good! I'm digging the vintage plate. I was fortunate enough to have a collection of plates on the garage wall when South Carolina changed the law to allow year of manufacture plates. So mine has been sporting a 1968 SC plate which happens to be black and white, so the look is right.

Riley Elf VTEC by cclontz, on Flickr

Red Riley wrote:Looking good! I'm digging the vintage plate. I was fortunate enough to have a collection of plates on the garage wall when South Carolina changed the law to allow year of manufacture plates. So mine has been sporting a 1968 SC plate which happens to be black and white, so the look is right.

Riley Elf VTEC by cclontz, on Flickr

The plates look good!