536 replies to this topic

[Purple Tom]

Hi,

Probably some of you will already have heard about my Clubby, it was my daily driver for a year and a half, starting off as a bog standard, original, pretty average looking 1098cc drum braked ideal-first-car car. It ended up as a 1275, Cooper S disc'ed, bucket seated, 18sec quarter running beastie of a motor. But it had its bad points, the paintwork was decidedly shoddy, the nasty bit being the lacquer on the bonnet and rear quarters deciding to peel off one day after it rained. It also had patches of red oxide (only small) where we'd scraped rust off the car, as it was only supposed to be a hack until the pick-up was done. The front end has also seen better days, with both wings having small dents, filler in one, and the front panel being rusty at the bottom, and both a panels starting to get tin worm. So before it got any worse I took it off the road about 2 weeks ago and bought a Polo as a winter car.

My intentions with the Clubby, are to get a new engine for it, replace all of the dodgy looking panels - these being front panel, both wings, both a panels, and the rear valence -, repair any bubbles of rust starting to form - slight bit on the o/s scuttle where it meets the wing, a bit around the front screen seal, and a tiny bit on the o/s rear window ledge -, and finally, to get it resprayed.

There might be some other things i'm going to do, but i'm going to need some advice and input from people to help me decide!

Here's a picture as it stands now:

Edited by Purple Tom, 09 September 2010 - 08:43 PM.

[clubman katie B.F]

don't paint it white!!!!!! Only joking tom!

[Purple Tom]

think i'm going to keep it bronze now - have a look in mini chat nick

[Purple Tom]

Ok, here's a bit of an update on the old Clubby. I've ordered a 1293 fast road unit from Morspeed in Coalville, its having a stage 3 head, phase 3 cam, lightened crank, lightened and balanced flywheel, orange clutch plate and diaphragm, 1.5 roller rockers, duplex timing gears, re-con box with strengthened diff pins and crownwheel, centre pick-up pipe. I'm also getting the car re-sprayed, in its original colour of Rheinhardt Bronze Metallic, but with a black roof. The guy spraying it is also doing the interior and engine bay, so it will all be the same colour. Other mods will include: 1.5deg negative camber bottom arms, heavy duty tie bars, negative camber rear brackets, safety devices front and rear roll cage (but no door bars), full width dash with three clock magnolia cluster, and 3 auxillary gauges (oil pressure, volts and vacuum), Maniflow superior exhaust manifold, and stainless (is that RC40 or RC50?) 1.75" single box exhaust system, with a Morspeed polished inlet manifold (matched to the head) and a K&N cone filter. This is to already add to the Cooper S 7.5" front discs with MiniSpares alloy 4 pot calipers, 2 core radiator, braided brake and clutch hoses all round, Minifin rear drums, KAD Quickshift, buckets, centre console, and various other internal and external shiny bits. In amongst all of this it has having new o/s and n/s wings, a panels and front panel, including the bonnet shut panel and headlight surround panels (Clubby's have a few more front end panels to Roundnoses!), and a new rear valence and closing panels, with a small hole needing patching on the heelboard, and o/s scuttle and o/s rear window shelf.

I've already stripped most of the interior, just the steering column and heater left in now, and tonight I took the engine out, ready to have the front end done. Here's some pics:









Thats the 1275 out for the last time now, probably about the 6th time the car's had its engine removed!!

[Jordie]

Lol....nice progress. Keep up the good work.

[Purple Tom]

Right

Its been a while since I updated this, and a bit has happened since then. I've finally got the use of the garage proper now, since we spent three days moving the lathe, miller and shaping machine out of it, and getting the mini in. This means I now have a warm, dry, clean area in which to work on the car.

I've basically stripped it down to a bare rolling shell, all thats left on is subframes, suspension, brake pipes and the battery cable.



I've spent today removing the rear valence (i'm just learning with the grinder so have taken it slow to avoid bodging things), and have exposed the bit of rot in the corners of the boot floor. We are buying a spot welder either tomorrow or friday so should be able to put the new valence on soon!! And repair the rot nicely with the mig welder.

Then its off with the front end (hopefully sometime next week) and on with the new one, apart from the inner wings which are still good, and some slight repairs to the scuttle.

THEN, the bit i'm most nervous about, we are going to prep and spray the shell ourselves, which is going to be immensely scary! We are doing everywhere, inside, outside, engine bay, inside the boot, and down to the bottom of the sills. Then the shell will have waxoyl sprayed into every possible crevice, and I can get on with rebuilding it!

Frankly, I hate welding and grinding and prepping and spraying, because I can't do it all myself, I have to rely on my Dad for help, which is frustrating when he's busy, and then more frustrating when he shouts at me for being slow when I can't do it without his help! Grrr.

Anyway, I love the mechanical side of it, and the cleaning and painting of things like new suspension arms, calipers, subframes etc, and ESPECIALLY when it all goes back together with nice new bushes and greased bolts, lovely! Well that bit is at least two months away yet, so lots of hard graft to do before I can lock myself away on my own after work and put it back together.

Oh yeah, and the 1293 is arriving about mid June ready to drop in and have run in and rr'd in time for the showdown in july. Come on!! :tongue:

[Pickup76]

hows the clubby now mate?? We need an update!

[Purple Tom]

sorry, got a bit delayed!

For various reasons all work ceased (I blame a certain 1275 Cooper coming into my life!), but now things are back on the go again!

We've cut out the rear seat and companion bins, ready to mount the roll cage. I know i'm going to lose storage there, but its going to make putting the cage in a lot easier!

We've also repaired the holes in the rear corners of the boot floor, and soon i'm going to start scraping away on the underside of the boot floor, and get in primered and painted in lovely chassis black, to keep it protected under there.

The engine has been upgraded a bit too, now having full sccr gearset, and 1:1 sc drops, with a 4 pin diff (if there's any around).

I'll get some piccies up soon!

[Purple Tom]

ok, more to report.

Spent all day on sunday with the DA sander, and have got the whole of one side of the car ready for paint. There's a few small dents which are going to need filling and smoothing to get a good finish. I was slightly concerned that I would find rust under the paintwork, but this Clubman is amazing, its not rusty at all!

I got back from work yesterday to find Dad had repaired the n/s front wing, the n/s heelboard, and had fitted a triangulation piece to the n/s B pillar where it joins the floorpan.

Then I spent all evening with a scraper and some thinners, getting high! And also removing all of the ziebart from the engine bay, getting it ready for paint.

I won't bother with pics as its not very exciting, but hopefully the cage, harness mounts, seat retainers and solid subframe re-inforcers will be going in pretty soon, I'll get some pics of that!

[Jammy]

I know what you mean about rust! On my 76 Clubby, which has been left on my drive for over 2 years exposed to the elements, its hardly rusted at all, just corroded a bit more where it was already going!

Keep up the good work!

[Purple Tom]

Dad sent me these pics about an hour ago, he's just finished attaching the rear valence!

Here it is on the floor:



And on the car, thanks Dad!

[Purple Tom]

thats all the welding done now! We sprayed the roof last night, and all the closures too (boot, doors, windows), and did the engine bay on monday.

All I have left to do now bodywork wise is smooth out the little bits of filler we've used to repair a couple of car park dings, then spray in the final colour. I'm seeing the light at the end of the first tunnel now :grin:

[Purple Tom]

Wahey! Finally got a primered car!



Here's the rear seat and cubby bins cut out for the roll cage (notice strengthening triangulation pieces on the b pillars)



And been as though I don't need the rear subframe off to paint the car, I've put it all on, including the new brake pipes. That'll save a job! here is the subframe completely mounted with radius arms, braided hoses, shocks, hi-lo's, adj camber brackets etc.

Oh, and the handbrake works now! A bit of the car that actually does something! A bit of a milestone in itself that, I got quite excited playing with it!

[mini_sam]

very impressed, looks c0o0o0ol!!! are you going to be spraying the car yourself, or just prepping it for the top coat?

[Purple Tom]

We're spraying it ourselves. The top coat is ordered and should be here on monday. Its scary, but should go ok!