151 replies to this topic

[28hodge]

IMG_7377 by kurt hodgson, on Flickr

1971 clubman that's been a competition car for a lot of years doing hillclimbs. I have a 1992 mainstream Cooper that I am repairing as it is very rotten but due to losing its workshop as I am building an garage extension the mainstream is stored in a building with no power to it and surrounded by other cars and stuff so welding and grinding aren't options. Additionally even when finished it's not eligible for hrcr events and these hold most appeal to me.

So after watching the devils own at the weekend which is all round the lanes near me I got carried away on eBay, I was going to try and get an 1985 c reg 205 or escort but really I wanted a mini. So when I saw this on eBay I tried to restrain myself but failed. It's a solid shell that's just a little dog ear'd from hill climb use, so to me ideal for historic rallying.

Couple jobs need doing instantly, there were no seats as they had been solid as they were in date race seats. It needs an MOT and the rear nearside brake is seized on. Additionally it's still set up for hillclimbs so it is low. So I need to adjust the ride height.

Seats I thought I had sorted as I bought these for my mainstream -

IMG_7385 by kurt hodgson, on Flickr

The 1275 has seat rails welded in so mounting isn't an issue, running harnesses is though as the seats have no harness holes in them, anyone advise the best way of attaching harnesses to these so they are safe as don't want the shoulder belts to slide down and anti submarine belts would be preferable.

Also the stickers applied to the sides are going to take the paint off if I remove them so I am guessing I'll have to try warm them up with a hairdryer and then get them off.

Plan is to try and get it ready and entered into the Northumberland borders rally on the 18thnov, tho thinks it might be a bit too keen.

I'll do my best to keep adding pics

[minisi35]

Good to see another competition car

I would suggest putting the car in for an mot first to see what needs doing as you just never know

Those seats are not the best option with harnesses sadly

[Avtovaz]

Oh right so that is where brynmors mini went to !

 

I advertised it on here for him ;)

 

Hope you enjoy it mate, ive never seen it but i know he loved it.

[28hodge]

Yeah it's out of MOT so I'll get seats harnesses/belts sorted and then sort the brake out, then book it in and see what crops up, I had a real quick poke around it tonight and have found a little rust hole in the inner sill in the offside rear bin, I think that'll need a patch but is outside the prescribed area I think, but I'm sure there will be more odds and sods to sort.

Seats being one, I'll have to have an eBay and see if I can find some more appropriate seats.

[28hodge]

Oh right so that is where brynmors mini went to !
 
I advertised it on here for him ;)
 
Hope you enjoy it mate, ive never seen it but i know he loved it.

Yeah he's a good guy and I could tell he wasn't really that keen to actually sell it, but he seemed pleased that I was going to use it and do historic stuff in it so I guess that softened the blow a little.

[Avtovaz]

brynmor has organised a fair few road rallys, that is how i know him as i have competed on some of them in my bmw. Im not exactly sure of the reasons why he has sold it, but i hope you enjoy it mate... nice car.

[keefr22]

Nice GT, my favourite Mini! Not a bad colour either! Look forward to progress reports!

 

Keith

[28hodge]

Drivers bin, which will need a patch on the inner sill, the outer sills are really good so i'm not wanting to take them off so ill attempt to patch from inside the rear bin, welding in there should be ok, not great bit ok.

Prepping it properly will be more of a headache in the confined space. I'll cut the rot out and then i have a bore-scope attachment for my phone so will drop that in and see how bad the rot has gotten in there.

 

The rest of the inner sill looks really good and there appears to be a lot of rust prevention product over the car and in the bins but it looks like this has just gotten away on itself.

 

IMG_7401 by kurt hodgson

 

Passenger sill

 

IMG_7396 by kurt hodgson, on Flickr

 

Not as bad but will still need a patch, bit annoying as i should have looked a bit closer when i was checking it out before buying it, but realistically even if i had to pay someone to do it, to patch it is maybe a days work for a welder so 200-250 so i can live with that.

[28hodge]

Managed to source some fresh seats, came upon some Cobra Clubman’s on eBay, slight snag, they were 230 miles away at the other end of the country to me, in Plymouth. Not to be deterred, as they were £80 for the pair and very clean, I put a plea out on a couple other forums I use and on FB on a page that has a lot of southern members, for the organisers of the bike racing I compete in. 

 

And came up trumps. So a guy who I have never met, picked them up for me last week, got them wrapped up yesterday and they have been picked up by the courier today. With that sorted I have been looking at other thing I need to get, and ended up going eBay mad.

 

The car came with Hi-Lo’s, sounds great, they were however in the boot and not on the car!!

 

So I have changed the rears over and jacked it up, where as you could get a flat palm between the wheel and arch previously, you can now get a fist in there. It may be a bit too high! so I’ll adjust it again at a later date (the Cones were a bit nasty so I think I’ll have it apart again to change them out). Worryingly when I took the wheel off it turned out the knuckle had come out of the cup on the radius arm and had gotten wedged between subframe and radius arm, so that took a bit of manipulating to get out. It’s also managed to damage the subframe a little so will have to repair that.

 

Front Hi-Lo’s – I’ve taken a punt here. I don’t have a cone compressor, I am assuming/hoping that the cones have been changed at some point and are now metric!! And as I can only buy new cones in metric, ive bought a metric compressor. I took a look down the access hole last night (Twin bolt front sub so no need to remove a tower bolt) and they look pretty nasty and corroded so the chances of me getting a cone compressor to thread in is pretty minimal. I think I will end up taking a chisel to the trumpet to get it out, not overly looking forward to that!! That’s a job to have a look at over this next week once the new cones and compressor to land from MiniSpares.

 

I bought some 4 point harnesses off eBay as all the mountings for them are in the car along with the seat rails for the seats. I need/want the car to be able to be driven by my 5’4” Gf as we are both going to take turns in Navigating and Driving, so to that end I need the seat to be moveable rather than solid mounted. Again something else to work out. I am thinking of making a steel plate that I can bolt down onto the solid mounts. Then bolting subframe runners onto this for the seat to bolt into them. But without having all the bits in front of me I’m not sure if that’ll work yet?!!?

 

I have no power where the car is stored, but it’s a 50yrd drive to my house and garage, so I’ll get the car across to that to do the welding and repairs to the rear bins/inner sills. Ive got some holiday I need to use before xmas so will get that all sorted in a day somewhere in the next couple of weeks.

 

When I bought the car I was wanting to try and get an entry in the MCR Border rally on 18th Nov but with the bit of welding the car needs, the lack of seats and the general unknowns of the car I’ve decided it isn’t sensible and will only lead to a lot of stress and rushing, potentially taking away some of the enjoyment. So I have scratched that idea.

 

So the new plan is to enter the Tour of Cheshire in early march, it’s also near my birthday and it’s before the bike racing season starts so I have time to get sorted for it. So I sent an Email to KDMC enquiring about the rally training day as both me and my GF have never done anything like this before so need a lot of general pointers/educating! Training day is planned for the 10th Feb and they are going to email me to book onto it around mid Nov.

 

Things we still need to sort then are all the historic rally/navigational stuff. Any pointer here? Heres the list I have but I have no idea if this is all necessary or simply nice to haves?

 

Stuff I know we need - 

Roamer

OS Maps

Head torch (Already got one)

Map light (One in the car)

24hr clock (Can we just use a cheap casio digital watch?)

Clipboard/s for time cards etc

Avg speed tables

 

What of the following is 100% necessary?

Brantz international pro 2 (or another – suggestions welcome)

Potti (Not sure we need that for most of the HRCR stuff as its mainly day time?)

2 Digital stop watches (I’m not sure exactly what for? Guessing rally training will tell me)

[Avtovaz]

the guy to ask that to is the guy you bought the car from, he has organised/won road rallies and is pretty clued up.

 

I dont know what the route you get on the tour of cheshire is, if its diograms maps or what, the potti is for magnifying the map, still used in the day time if you are on the maps.

 

the two stop watches is something to do with your average speed times, the trip is really useful for working out your average speeds etc, thats why you will have all of those tables etc. 

 

I cant help you any more that this really, i do night rallies, so we are on the maps all night, and no average speed stuff etc.

 

You will need a good clock in the car too with seconds on it, and you need to be able to set a watch or something to it so you can get the correct rally time in the car. Most cars use the circuit innovations clock as we have in the bmw.

 

 

hth

 

 

last years event

 

 

 

not the same rally but here is what you may be doing

 

 

Id love baz to nav for me one day...

Edited by Avtovaz, 27 October 2017 - 03:25 PM.

[minisi35]

Things I have in the car:

rally clock (Romertime)

Tripmeter (terratrip2 with a sensor ran from the back wheel )

2 double sided clip boards 

Wide elastic bands ( for holding the bottom of A4 sheets to the clip board)

Pencil case full of 2b pencils ,rulers,rubbers, pencil sharpeners etc

ok/sos board

Oil spill kit

First aid kit

2 lanyards with roamers on

2 map lights on the roll cage

Potti

map pockets on the door

pencil holder on the front cage

fire extinguisher on the seat box section

Think that's it lol

[Cooperman]

You need a Brantz International 2 twin trip with freeze and reverse functions.

Two digital stopwatches.

A Don Barrow Map Magnifier (they are the best available).

A set of Don Barrow or John Brown average sped tables.

Plus 2B pencils, erasers, a 1:50000 romer plus a spare.

A map board.

For night events you need both a map light and a plotting light (mounted above the door) and a power socket for the magnifier.

If you wear spectacles, always carry a spare pair.

[MIJ]

Two digital stopwatches.

I read kitchen timers from Tesco and such like are suitable for this?

Sounds like your in a similar boat to me. Just finished building a mini for these events too and hoping to do the training day next year and do the first event the tour of cheshire also!

[minisi35]

Anything that will accurately tell the time and has a stopwatch will do

A trip meter is essential though

[MIJ]

In have one of these fitted in my car, http://www.thebasicr...cts/RoamerTime+ it also has a stopwatch function