347 replies to this topic

[evil ewok]

I bought the car july '07 as my first car, a '89 mini 'rose'.i was told as it had a white interior/roof and red exterior with a sunroof, it had most likely been re shelled.
heres the history of my 18 months ownership:
when i bought it it seemed fairly sound..

but i soon discovered otherwise. the struts in the bonnet broke and so it was replaced with a spare supplied by my brother. also i found what started as a small hole in the scuttle. found a local mini specialist and he told me i needed a new front end and it would cost £2500 so i decided against it,but by december i was having running trouble and electrical problems and broke down at my brothers garage. so the decision was made to take it in and start repair work ourselves and this is what we found....















It was decided the most economical way forward was fibreglass.










new scuttle clamped in place. welding was done by my brothers mate from college.


thought this was quite ironic





fitted some group 5 arches whilst i was at it to cover the new 6x13 weelers


fitted some bucket seats, rc40, k&n, mini spares inlet, adjustable tie bars and duplex timing chain






We then sorted out the wiring issues and replaced the hs4 with a hif38 to get it back on the road. here it stayed for a few months until the steering rack developed alot of play so was replaced along with track rod ends and steering rack bushes. took it to kwik *melon* to get the tracking sorted, and starting it up to take it off the ramp the nice man flooded my engine and and we could get it to start again. after about 1/2 hour of fiddling and dryingthe spark plugs it fired up but then died 30 secs down the road. ended up taking 2 hours to do a 10 min journey, as it kept cutting out and spitting 2 flames from the exhaust
by this point i had my own garage so in it went for a strip down again as mot was coming up and it wouldnt pass.
found more rust which was sorted and panels replaced by a mechanic/body man from mini club.

[evil ewok]

he used oversills unfortuantely, which i found out later can cause more problems


bought a dash but decided i didnt like it when i found another one on ebay cheap....

a z cars fibreglass dash


after one of my little trips to mini spares



want to get more power from the little 998 bought a swiftune sw5-07 cam, but whilst trying to strip the engine found out the flywheel is stuck. i tried 3 flywhell pullers, a hydraulic one a friend mad, a BIG hammer, blow torch and an angle grinder but with no luck.
hit it sohard the ring gear came off and cracked the flywheel




also managed to break the clutch/crank case thing whilst beating the flywheel so will replace with a lower mileage engine.
bought a 12G940 head, ported, larger valves and double valve springs which hopefully give a bit more oomph.

[evil ewok]

more rust!


cut the lip off the bonnet for the mk1 look

and removed the rear bins and bottom of rear seat to save weight


surprise, surprise i managed to find more rust on the rear valance, as i wanted to remove the rear bumper and de-seam
to match the fg front, and decided to remove the rear valance at the same time for a slightly different look. my brothers mate returned to do the welding from here on out.


a big hole in the floor caused by a dodgy patch from before i owned the car, all fixed now.



whilst removing the sunroof (as it had been siliconed shut by a previous owner due to 'leaking') not only did i find more rust, but the car was infact a mini rose! and i found out only 500 were made..but its too late and the show must go on.

the latest decision on the engine build (when i have an engine to work with) is to turbo it so a turbo box was fitted.



rust!

the battery box is going inside the car along with fuel lines and battery cable, so the boot will be filled with an alloy fuel tank. the boot floor was cut out and replaced with a flat sheet so it sits better in the boot.




so this is where im upto now, still a lot of work to do though. next set plans are: build the engine, buy and wire in a digi dash of some sort, replace rear subby with another or possibly rear beam axle, internal boot hinges, boot solenoid and gas rams and fill the hole in the roof with something.


well this turned into a rather long post so i'll cut it off here.
there are lots more pics of the project here:
http://www.facebook....mp;id=726230248 pt1
http://www.facebook....mp;id=726230248 pt2
http://www.facebook....mp;id=726230248 pt3

good bye for now

[roofless]

that's the best and most suitable project name I've seen for ages.

[Marky Tizz]

Looks really nice mate, is that a f/g front with a panels built in? where'd you find that?

Tizz

[evil ewok]

Looks really nice mate, is that a f/g front with a panels built in? where'd you find that?

Tizz

cheers, a panels and front where seperate mate, just used lots of resin and fg matting to join them. i think TDK racing do a front with built in a panels though.

[emalee]

hey

wicked build, you've done so much work already, taking on sooo much rust!!!

have you still got the original rose seats?, i'm restoring a sky back to original spec, so could do with some spare trim!! LOL

oh and loving the wellers!!!

[evil ewok]

hey

wicked build, you've done so much work already, taking on sooo much rust!!!

have you still got the original rose seats?, i'm restoring a sky back to original spec, so could do with some spare trim!! LOL

oh and loving the wellers!!!

just as i think i've cured the rust problem more appears, i should expect it being a mini and all lol i love the wellers too, with the extra width wrapped in yokos the grip is awesome!

as for interior parts i have front and rear seats, rear door cards, all headlining with c pillar and lower rear windscreen pieces plus lower dash rail cover piece. drivers seat has a hole in front left hand corner of the base from the gear lever rubbing in reverse, and its all generally dirty from sitting in the garage.front door cards fell apart and had big holes in them from previous owners fitting door speakers badly lol. been meaning to put it on here for a while to clear some space.

[emalee]

hey

wicked build, you've done so much work already, taking on sooo much rust!!!

have you still got the original rose seats?, i'm restoring a sky back to original spec, so could do with some spare trim!! LOL

oh and loving the wellers!!!

just as i think i've cured the rust problem more appears, i should expect it being a mini and all lol i love the wellers too, with the extra width wrapped in yokos the grip is awesome!

as for interior parts i have front and rear seats, rear door cards, all headlining with c pillar and lower rear windscreen pieces plus lower dash rail cover piece. drivers seat has a hole in front left hand corner of the base from the gear lever rubbing in reverse, and its all generally dirty from sitting in the garage.front door cards fell apart and had big holes in them from previous owners fitting door speakers badly lol. been meaning to put it on here for a while to clear some space.

i'm so jealous of the wellers, they really are wide!!!!!

could you post some pics of the interior or pm them to me

cheers Emma

[evil ewok]

In the roof by the corner of wehre the sunroof was there is surprisingly more rust and hole.



I have a larger sunroof in the garage from a mk1 clio (i think). was wandering whether to try and fit it and hope i remove all the rust/pitting when fitting or to use one of these...

http://www.absmotors...kin-p-5366.html

whats do you think is the better option?

emalee: I will get photos either tomorrow or sunday when the car is out and i can dig out the bits

[evil ewok]

Doesn't look like i'm going to be getting the replacement engine so need to try and get the flywheel off of mine. Took it up to the house today using a creeper lol Going to use the angle grinder on it again tomorrow to try and cut the flywheel off in pieces

are clutch housings expensive? I broke pieces off of mine when beating the flywheel with a big hammer before

[evil ewok]

the clutch is off the engine!!!! finally managed to get it off, after a few hours of attacking it with an angle grinder. had to almost chop it in half to get it to release from the crank!





its a good job i'm replacing the crank as it got a little damaged lol

the u washer thingy was still in position even though i'd had to turn the crank whilst the flywheel bolt was out.

the clutch housing has been damaged even more so will def.. be needing to replace that too

[evil ewok]

Now the clutch is finally off I've started to strip the engine a bit more. Split the block from the 'box today, didn't get much done as i don't feel to good at the mo. will remove the crank and conrods etc either tomorrow or saturday.









whilst its apart are there any parts that should always be replaced? (apart from gaskets)

also how do you fit the block to a 4 arm engine stand? do i need a special adaptor?

one last question, how do i work out the compression ratio? want to work out if i need dished pistons at all for when i fit this...

[evil ewok]

block is all stripped, degreased and painted satin black now, just need to sort out booking it in to get extra 2 stud holes drilled and tapped for the 12g940 head, centre main strap machined, buy new crank after i had to hack mine up and work out cr with the new head.

cant wait until bingley though as get to do some more parts shopping

[evil ewok]

Need some advice. i'm seriously considering an engine transplant as the 998 turbo is starting to get rather expensive. i still need new flywheel, clutch and housing after cutting the last one off, intercooler,pipes, dished pistons, x pin diff plus crank and bearing. plus when its built i'd always be worried in the back of my mind i'd blow the standard 'box

i could pick up a 1.4 or 1.4 k series 16v twin cam fairly cheap, and my mate said he would modify the subby for me.
the car will become my everyday drive so i need something reliable, especially as one of the uni's i'm looking at is in sunderland.

what are peoples opinions on this conversion? pros and cons, work involved etc.

Cheers in advance for any info.

Luke