33 replies to this topic

[Red Riley]

 Kreacher-at-Gemstone.jpg   56.91K   16 downloads

 

I'll post this pic for attention, and put up some build photos later. I've had it finished for about a year and taking it to lots of shows and generally enjoying it. 

 

 

[cubby1701]

Please don't tease us. We would all like to see more

[M1n1c00per]

I'll show you mine if you show me yours.

Attached Files

•  884e62c7649d985b8eae20ea05bd96a43b440b6d.jpg   59.73K   2 downloads

[Red Riley]

This was a learning project for me that took about ten years start to stop. I had a very clear idea of what I wanted, and it took a load of planning and figuring it out as I went along. I'm really happy with how it turned out and thought maybe others would be interested in seeing how I did it. 

 

It went from this: 

 

To this: 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

From the time I first got my Elf, before it was transformed into what is now known as Kreacher, I had the idea that it would be really cool to have a matching trailer. Like the Mini ones, but Elf shaped. I started keeping my eyes peeled for a donor, but figured it would be about like finding the holey grail. But one day while looking through the posts on one of the Mini forums (I think it was North American Motoring, but I could be miss-remembering) I saw someone had shared a Craigslist post. Paraphrasing, it went something like this. "I found this car that says it's an Elf. Is this some kind of Mini? It's near Athens, Ga, and they want $600 for it. I don't really like it, but maybe I could modify it into a Mini, or something. What do you guys think, is it worth $600?" And the link for the Craigslist ad was included. 

I called, made a deal to pick it up the next day with cash in hand, and replied to the post: "Yeah, I think that's probably a pretty good deal." The original poster then replied that someone had already bought it. Dang.

 

Next day, I loaded up the trailer, stopped on the way and picked up Eric Gibeaut, and headed to Georgia to pick up the ratty green Elf, or what was left of it.

After getting the Tacoma and trailer down a steep driveway, through a gate and down into the pig pasture in the holler, we drug the car out of axle deep muck, pulled it onto the trailer, and since there wasn't room to turn around, backed the trailer out of the holler, back up the hill and the driveway and for good measure, all the way out to the road. Don't tell me that Tacoma wasn't a tough little truck.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Red Riley, 06 October 2020 - 06:45 PM.

[Red Riley]

Once Eric took the sawzall to the little green guy, and rescued what parts could go to help resurrect some other cars. I got down to evaluating what I had to work with.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Red Riley, 06 October 2020 - 06:42 PM.

[Red Riley]

I stripped everything off that I could and started figuring out where to start. I decided that the bonnet would attach to the rear bulkhead, so that's my first reference point. Not sure at this point how much of this old front clip I can use, but it's a start. It's definitely going to have to be moved back, so the door frames will be going. I thought I could use this little utility trailer for a frame, but it's way too high in the air. But it's a good starting point and the overall dimensions work for tongue length and wheel center. So after cutting off some more metal, I've got the basic layout that I'll be working with. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Red Riley]

I needed to get this huge dent straightened out, and absolutely no chance of getting a repair panel for this section on an Elf, so I put some pressure on it to see how far I could get it, and maybe save some of the boot floor. No way I was going to get the floor straight, so might as well cut it out along with what was left of the rotten valance. Now I could get somewhere with un-bending the boot lip. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Red Riley]

Next on the list was getting a frame figured out to get the trailer down closer to the ground. I had seen an article in Mini magazine by Keith Calver on making a beam axle out of a rear subframe, so I thought I'd go in that direction using the pretzel shaped hydrolastic subframe that came on the pigpen Elf. Started by cutting off the bent crosspiece, then cutting off the rest to get it down to just the front beam. Then cleaned it up and seam welded the places where it was two layers of metal. I added some gussets and also welded some short pieces of pipe through two holes along the length of the beam to add two extra mounting points. I stripped all of the brake parts off of the radius arms, then made a couple of backing plate spacers to take the place of the now missing drums. I had the arms rebuilt with a fresh set of shafts and bushings, and had the stub axles swapped out with a set for dry cone suspension Minis, since I was going to need the shock mounts which the hydrolastic arms don't have. Fresh paint and like new. I also modified the existing bump stops with a set of control arm bumpers to make them functional.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Red Riley]

Now I needed a place to attach the new beam axle to. Unfortunately the ends of the heel board, along with most of the surrounding metal, were MIA. I ordered a pair of patch panels. They were the wrong ones. I think these were made for a van. Oh, well, I can make it work. I just started welding patches in until I had enough metal to weld the heel board ends in. This was pretty much my first welding ever, and I was using an old borrowed flux-core MIG welder, so I was learning as I went. Hey, you gotta start somewhere.  I knocked up a pair of temporary shocks and got it on its new set of old 12 inch Minilite wheels. I think I got the ride height pretty much where I want it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Red Riley]

I needed to fill in that huge hole in the boot floor, so I needed a nice big piece of flat steel. A trip to Habitat for Humanity netted me two nice old gov't gray filing cabinets. Nice.

After trimming back to clean(ish) edges, I decided that the best way to tackle it was with two pieces. After a bunch of questionable plug welds, and some better looking spot welds, I called that job done. Then, on to the rear valance. once again, no new panels to be had, so I ordered a van valance, hoping I could make it work. It's not at all the right shape, but with some cutting and pounding, and some more not so pretty welding, it almost looks right. Nobody ever looks under there anyway, so it's good enough. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Red Riley]

After many hours of precise measurements and a few best guesses, I got a pretty good idea of where the bonnet needed to sit, and mounted the hinges to the bulkhead. I had found a full set of usable front wings, and trimmed the front clip down to just the grill panel and valance. Then it was lots of trial and error to get the jigsaw puzzle more or less where it needed to be. I had to trim the lip of of the wings, since they needed to blend into the rear quarters. There was lots of sitting and thinking before I took a deep breath and starting cutting into the quarter panels. I needed to blend the mostly flat rear into the round front, while at the same time filling in the area where the front wheel well used to be. I finally settled on a diagonal and curved cut going from above the rear arch down to the front corner of the grill panel. Then lots more measuring and clamping and fitting before cutting into the wings to prepare for butt-welding.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Red Riley, 02 April 2021 - 01:13 PM.

[toromod]

Fantastic work!

 

[Red Riley]

I got fed up with the flux-core welder. Time to upgrade to a gas MIG welder.

 

 

I went through a few ideas to give this thing some suspension. The wooden shocks were a bit too bouncy. I tried motorcycle shocks, junkyard struts from some kind of BMW, and finally bit the bullet and ordered a set of GAZ coilovers for a classic Mini. They had two options for weight and I went with the lightest ones. They wouldn't fit inside the stock shock towers, so I needed to make more space. I cut out the stock towers, leaving enough on the sides to weld to. I didn't think the filing cabinet that I used for the boot floor was heavy enough, so I cut up the old rusty steel garden trailer that I conveniently had behind the garage. Never throw anything away.  

 

 

 

 

 

[Red Riley]

I needed to finish the frame under this thing, so I hit the scrap pile again for a piece of 2x2 square tubing and a another piece of lightened 2x2 that the county road sign guys conveniently left next to the road. Ii took a lot of trial fitting to finally get everything at the right height and level, but the end result was to let the draw bar up into the modified subframe beam and kick up the rear crossmember. I thought about adding some diagonal trusses, but with all of the welding that I've done to the shell, I think it's going to be plenty stiff. The beam is going to be bolted on at the ends and at the two additional center points that I added, and at a few places through the floor into the crossmember. I'm never going to put a lot of weight into this thing, so I think it will be fine. 

 

 

 

 

[Red Riley]

More welding up top. I turned filing cabinet parts into bracing under the wings. Then worked on fitting a Mini scuttle panel to close the gap behind the bonnet. There were some gaps at the sides, so patched those up, along with the redundant fuel filler hole.