1843 replies to this topic

[joezone2001]

I love the engine idea. I think if its a car that's not going to beused every day, does refinement actually matter that much? Dont get me wrong. Im not knocking anyones engine conversion. I love the idea of a micra conversion or a k conversion. Those engines are excellent. But isnt sticking to the a series retaining more of the minis character and charm?

Anyway. Judging by the quality and standard Petrol has gone to with the body work im sure he'll do a great job with the engine.

Not wanting to start an argument but I'd stick with an a series.

Keep up the good work mate, those inner wings look ace
Joe

 
Same opinion, each to their own and it's your car etc etc but isn't the essence of owning a Mini based upon the main interaction between the driver and the road, the engine? If you want a faster car buy a Porsche?
If you want a Mini then modify it the way it was meant to be modified.
 
Great project.

Good point. I like your thinking.. buying a porsche would probably be cheaper although nowhere near as cool. Haha.

[Petrol]

Thanks very much for the input, it’s appreciated and certainly got me thinking! All of the comments are spot on –

I totally agree that there’s nothing wrong with the MPI engine, in actual fact it probably delivers all I want short of the revs. Loads of torque and the long diff enables comfortable cruising. What I really want to do though is get rid of the mass of wiring, control boxes, ecu and alarm.

The Micra / Swift / more modern engine weighs a lot less than an A series, produces more HP / CC and with a 5 speed box is obviously a better power plant.

Stu, I think you’re spot on with the perception of my 998 back in the 80’s. Things have moved forwards enormously.

I have decided to put the engine side of things on hold for now. My Dad has a Micra with about 20K on the clock. A friend has a Suzuki Swift so I will give that a go as well but what I really need to do is drive a Mini with an A series in it to get the feel of things. It could be quite a challenge finding one to drive though.

I have started flatting the bodywork down at the back of the car to keep the project moving along, I don’t want it to grind to a halt.

Again, thanks for your help

Pete
 

 

[Petrol]

 

 

 

 

 

Can't get the shut lines down the bonnet any tighter

 

 

[freshairmini]

Looks good, shame about the shut lines on the bonnet. Can't remember his name but a guy on here used filler rod to fill out the gaps that couldn't be fettled anymore. I think he did it on the bonnet as well.

[Petrol]

Looks good, shame about the shut lines on the bonnet. Can't remember his name but a guy on here used filler rod to fill out the gaps that couldn't be fettled anymore. I think he did it on the bonnet as well.

 

sonikk4 used welding rods down the doors and welded plates down the bonnet to close the shut lines. There are however, downsides to this.

 

I'm going to fit buttons on the bonnet so it comes off for easy maintenance so the gaps might be a blessing in disguise.

These are the shut lines when I bought the car, not exactly tight and even

 

 

Mucho progress has been made, I have cut the bracket for the relays off the bulkhead and the front end is more or less ready to go on

 

Pete

 

 

 

[freshairmini]

 

Looks good, shame about the shut lines on the bonnet. Can't remember his name but a guy on here used filler rod to fill out the gaps that couldn't be fettled anymore. I think he did it on the bonnet as well.

 

sonikk4 used welding rods down the doors and welded plates down the bonnet to close the shut lines. There are however, downsides to this.

 

Interested to know, what are the downsides?

[Petrol]

When I fitted the door skins, I painted zinc on both the frames and skins before folding them over wet. The result is a complete coverage of zinc within the seam. Welding down the edge of the door would burn the zinc paint off resulting in no protection at all. It would be impossible to try to force any sort of rust proofing in after the folds have been made.

As far as welding a strip down the bonnet goes, the problem is filling it to make an invisible repair. Unless the strip has a significant amount of weld in it making it totally rigid to the bonnet skin, there’s always the risk of the filler cracking. Body filler, unlike seam sealer, is not very flexible and over time will crack with any movement. I’m sure most of us have seen Minis with the scuttle to wing seam filled and cracked.

The golden rule is – seam sealer fills seams, filler fills dents.
 

Pete

[HarrysMini]

Been ages since I last read this thread, it's come on leaps and bounds!

 

Some quality work going on here, and I'm interested to hear what you are going to do engine wise. 

[Petrol]

I keep chomping away at the bit

Engine wise, and after driving a few cars to assess their engine I have decided to go for an A series 998 for a number of reasons. One of which is I want to keep the true essence of a Mini. I could have built a mental kit car but as I mentioned earlier, I'm bored with fast cars. I think less of the refined and more of a full on do-er might be a better way to go. Bad to start, lumpy idle, standoff at the lights and bugger all low down torque is probably where it's going 2 throttle settings is good - on and off!

 

Front end welded on, I managed to tighten the shut lines down the bonnet a bit

 

 

 

It's pointless doing a full alignment of the bonnet as I need to fit these bonnet buttons / pins

 

 

Front panel was a bit of a mess, I tidied it up a bit

 

 

 

Grille will be fasted on with rivnuts rather than self tappers. The problem with self tappers is they scrape the paint off

 

 

 

Out of interest, this is the engine that's fitted to the 400hp Astra I drove

 

 

Pete

 

 

 

 

 

[Ben_O]

Those gaps are looking pretty good Pete!

 

So where are you with the shell now? just the roof to fit?

 

I like your engine idea. I'm not against mental engines in a Mini but i'm not sure i would have one. I love the way a normal mini drives - the whine of the gearbox and the sound the silly standard pea shooter exhaust makes.

I also prefer standard Mini suspension. Nothing puts a smile on your face more than the constant bobbing up and down as you drive along, perhaps a bit tiring on a long journey but that's what modern cars are for!

 

Cheers

 

Ben

[phil hill]

I used M4 rivnuts for the grill on my old car, with decent cap screws they outlasted the grill and front panel, no loose flappy grill and no nasty self-tappers !!

 

I'm thinking of fitting the headlamp buckets with M5/M6 size rivnuts and cap screws on the new front end, but the grill's going to be on buttons this time !!

 

Phil.

[domdee]

those bonnet buttons / pins look smart. how do they work?

[Petrol]

I’m filling the seams on the front end with zinc at the mo Ben, then there’s just the roof to fit. As far as the suspension goes, whilst it’s all polybushed and adjustable, I won’t be going mad with the shocker stiffness. A 165/70 tyre on a 5 X 10 rim will also add a bit of flexibility. The roads are in no fit state for a track type suspension set up these days.

Rivnuts are a good idea on the headlight buckets Phil, think I will use them there as well.

More info on the Quick-Latch mini buttons here domdee
 

http://www.quik-latc...quik-latch.html

 

Pete

[Jamespugh]

How LNG has it taken to get to this stage

[Brams96]

Those latches are a bloody good idea, shame they don't make a slightly smaller version.