305 replies to this topic

[miniboo]

very nice work. think i need to get my car higher up on my axle stands to do work on it....

[sweetser]

Looks nice mate love the dash, im thinking of doing something like that

[not for sale sorry]

omg i am stunned, i have just read through the whole project and i take my hat of to you mate, that is an amazing prodject you have i cant wait to see the finish!!!!!!!!

Edited by not for sale sorry, 16 December 2008 - 03:10 PM.

[sally the mini]

i love your project i wish i could do that with mine do you just buy the engine off honda

[Chris C]

The motor is from H-Motors, which is a company that specializes in importing japanese honda motors into the U.S. I guess in Japan as a car gets older, it has to have these inspections that become increasingly more frequent and expensive. Eventually the cost of the inspection costs more then the car is worth, so all these cars that are only around 10 years old end up getting scrapped. In America nobody really cares how old the car is, as long as you pay your yearly registration fee you can be on your merry way. So companies like H-Motors come in and buy all the motors from cars that have been scrapped in Japan and sell them in the U.S.

It was wild walking into this decent sized warehouse and there just being hundreds of b,d, and k series honda motors all over the place.

[sally the mini]

The motor is from H-Motors, which is a company that specializes in importing japanese honda motors into the U.S. I guess in Japan as a car gets older, it has to have these inspections that become increasingly more frequent and expensive. Eventually the cost of the inspection costs more then the car is worth, so all these cars that are only around 10 years old end up getting scrapped. In America nobody really cares how old the car is, as long as you pay your yearly registration fee you can be on your merry way. So companies like H-Motors come in and buy all the motors from cars that have been scrapped in Japan and sell them in the U.S.

It was wild walking into this decent sized warehouse and there just being hundreds of b,d, and k series honda motors all over the place.

i sooo want to live in america

[PhotoguyUSA]

Looking good Chris and Chris's dad! Looks like we may be done around the same time.

Love the pedal setup!

[cptkirk]

Just read thorugh the thread, well done so far it looks great, 130HP fwd will be real fun.

Best of luck with the rest of the build.

[LankyJames]

I am very jealous! And i hope you finish it soon, so you can make all your college friends mega envious! Show em what REAL handling is like!

Just please look after it! No bending it!

I might have missed it but what colour are you planning to have it painted?

[Chris C]

Finally finished with the custom hinges and mounts for the front end. Next step is to fit the hood, but that's a project for tomorrow.

I decided to go with 3 dzus fasteners on each side. I liked the way it looked and it's a slight bit stronger.





Note that the metal arches still need to be cut and the fiberglass sportspack arches that will be going on the car make those fasteners look much better. The bottom of the lowest fastener is about 1 1/2 inch above where the wheel arch hits the body.

Fairly pleased with the gaps as well:



As for the hinges, mounting them onto the Minitec subframe proved to be more of a challenge then I thought. My first go at the hinges had the body having massive clearance issues when you tried to flip the front end. So instead of cutting away more of the bodywork, I decided to to mount the hinges much lower. Good news is that it clears, but the bolts and the bottom of the hinge stick out below the front panel so they are just in plain sight. Anyways:



and a closeup of a hinge:



Yeah, the welds are ugly, but there were a ton of tacks that had been cut since i had repositioned it so many times. So I just cranked up the heat and plowed through them. The hinges are made out of 1/8" steel flat stock and the pipe used for the pivots has an 1/8" wall thickness.

One final picture of the motor/front end:




Eventually the car will be painted brandywine with either a gloss black or white top. That will probably be a little while from now though, as the main focus at this point is just to get the car on the road. Paint is so expensive...

[gregh55]

wow thats amazing, keep up the good work

[Chris C]

It's all about perspective...




and one more that I liked:



beast!

[LankyJames]

Just looking at that photo makes me worried about the bigger cars all around such a nice mini, you have to drive proper careful now buddy, defensive as hell, esp with big cars like that, one 'i didnt see you, you're too small' and thats your rear end taken out I'm sure the cars quick enough to evade that though

[Chris C]

I already drive pretty defensively, even in that white ford ranger in the background. After all of the work I've put into that car, I would probably cry if it was damaged or involved in an accident.

That truck is big, but it is not even close to the largest personal vehicles on our roads...

[LankyJames]

You're up late arent you?

I've only seen a few mini vs american vehicle comparison photos, makes me laugh how much bigger your cars are, as my cousin from NJ said 'you bring that over here and we'd laugh at the little piece of *poop* on the road', just funny that it'd beat most of them round a bend

And in your case, in the straights too

Here is my comparision with one of the biggest cars we get over here:


The thing that is scary is the roof comes up to the base of their bottom window line. Which means when you overtake them, all they see is a roof going by!

Edited by LankyJames, 01 February 2009 - 09:19 AM.