375 replies to this topic

[mike.]

Well today i spent about an hour literally just trying to work out why the arches wouldn't fit flush with the body. Turns out they basically just won't fit - They're nothing like the shape of the body. If i hold one of the rear arches against the bodywork some parts will sit flush and others will have a big 10mm+ gap; and at the front, the little flick that you get on the front of mig arches thats meant to curve round the front panel slightly basically just carrys on straight.

I cut the slot in the arch to get a better idea of the fit - The top of the arch does sit flush with the wing, but the rear of the arch behind the seam has a 5mm+ gap and the curved part of the front has to be phisically forced into shape to get anywhere near the front panel and required alot of material removing from the front edge to get it to even get remotely close to the curvature of the bodywork.

So on sunday i'm just going to be sitting on a stool with my sander sanding and reshaping the arches and constantly trying them against the car to get the right shape. I'm just hoping that once the brackets are riveted on the bolts holding them to the wing will help pull parts of the arch into shape.

So yeah not too happy with those to be honest.

There is some good news though, i cut the rusty moustach extensions off the grill surround:




Then got that screwed in place:



I then marked up and drilled holes through the new grill to mount that with the grill buttons - It looks great, much nicer than the later style grill. Definatly worth all the effort of removing the bonnet lip and things:



I also cleaned up the indicator wiring so i can wire in the new units i've bought once i get some more bullet connectors. I tryed to adjust the bonnet but couldn't get it any better. I then realised that because the bonnet i bought has both mk1 an later type hinge mounts the earlier type hinge mounts were hitting the scuttle as the bonnet was closed! So i've got to cut back the offending areas to allow the bonnet the close nicely.

[Bean]

Black Minis with MK1 grilles....


Looks great!!

[mike.]

Thanks bean - I've always had a thing for mk1 grills

[mike.]

Well today i sorted out the bonnet - Because it was a non genuine bonnet it had mk1 and later hinge mounting point. I realised that the mk1 hinge mountings hit the scuttle before the bonet could close properly - So i had to very carfully remove the bonnet and cut some clearance slots for the scuttle. So now its sitting all nice and level. The gap around the wings isn't perfect but can't really adjust that so it'll do.

The other 6 hours of my time was spend sanding these miglia arches i'm fitting. The fit of these arches is terrible they're nothing like the shape of the car in the slightest. I've had to sand nearly 10mm off in some places just to get them to sit nearly flush with the car body, and some of the gaps i can't get rid of without sanding about 5mm off the whole arch!

The front arches aren't too bad now, i'm happy with the fit but the rear we had real problems with. We couldn't work out what was happening with them. Then we realised there not the same at all. One rear arch is about 5mm longer than the other! So we've had to do some dodgy uneven sanding to get them to fit. I'm really starting to regret buying them now and wish i'd gone for group 7's or something similar with easy mounting holes because tommorow i'm going to have strip a few bits out of the car to mount the rear ones.

For example where the front bolts of the rear arches go through is behind the door cards, so i'll have to move my amp from the rear bin them remove the door cards. I'll also have to move the fuel tank to get behind the quater panel to bolt the nearside rear arch on - Going to be a right ballache!

Another i've found today is that my cars rear suspension is jacked up! Because my old group 2 arches were mounted as low as possible and because they sloped down from where they were mounted it made them sit less than an inh from the tyre. But these miglia arches sit much higher up and so theres about a 2 1/2" gap between the arch and tyre - It looks like a mini monster truck!! So may have to adjust my hi los....

[Down&Out]

cant beat a mk1 grille!

[mike.]

Oh my god - These arches are going to be the death of me!

I thought i'd got the hard part over with after like 6 hours of sanding but no - The brackets are now causing problems.

I drilled the holes in one of the arches ready for the brackets to be riveted on. I got one on but noticed that the rivet was sitting amost flush with the bracket - i.e. the rivets were not long enough. I went to put the second bracket on and because the brackets are made from super cheapo stainless steel the rivet stretched the metal of the bracket and as soon as the rivet popped the bracket fell off! Leaving me with a rivet through the arch with no bracket!!

So i thought - dam - mustn't of pushed the bracket on enough when i riveted it. So i spend 20mins carefully grinding the back off the rivet before forcing it back through the hole in the arch which caused the top gelcoat and paint to crack around the hole! So i try again, use a different bracket and make sure the bracket is pushed onto the arch properly using molegrips. So i pop the rivet, have a look and think great its worked!! I then released the grips and the bracket fell off!

ARGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! The bracket kit is such *rubbish* quality! ahh!! I'm so annoyed. I paid £30 for this bracket kit and what do i get? Thin, weak, soft wrongly angled brackets, rivets that aren't long enough and just the right amount of rivets too. So now i've wasted 2 rivets and have none to replace them with. So now i'm going to have to use the allen cap bolts and nuts to bolt the bracets to the arch and buy some more screws to screw the bracket to the body - Which i shouldn't have to do! Its absolutely outrageously bad quality - Which i would probably expect and put up with if i'd of paid a fiver for the kit but when i've be completly ripped off paying £30 for a kit which must cost them under a pound to make is just wrong!

I'm ringing minispeed up in the morning to see what they have to say because i feel like i've been conned!

[Tom Booth]

In all fairness, the allen bolts will look allot nicer/cooler then the rivets thou man

Car looks good by the way!

[mike.]

Thanks, Yer i've tryed them and they don't look bad - Just obviously furious about this rip off kit. For the price it is it should be perfect.

oh well - I just want the car back on the road now...

[mike.]

tut....

Mounted the brackets with the bolts and bent the brackets to the right angle - This now leaves no room for a fixing to the body:






I rang minispeed and they said they've had no complaints before blah blah and they'll send me some longer rivets for the brackets...

I might try these but the only other thing i can think of is put a screw through the bracket, then bolt the bracket to the arch. This way the nut won't stop the screw being put through the bracket. But then i don't see how i'm going to get a screwdriver in there to screw it into the body - My only chance of that is using a small angled screwdriver i think...

[Tom Booth]

The only thing i can think of is to masking tape your arch onto the body, until you get the desired line, then mark around the bracket, in the hole if you can to be 100% sure take the brackets off, then fasten these to the body first.

If you want to make life even easier for you, drop some rivnuts into the brackets so you only have to bolt the arches onto the bracket opposed to nut an bolt

[mike.]

Thanks tom. In the end i got fed up of waiting for minispeed to send me longer rivets so went to screwfix and bought some.

I was gutted when i got there and started flicking through the catalog because i found i could buy stainless rivets, bolts, lock nuts and L brackets in bulk really cheap - i.e. 1000 alloy long grip rivets for about a fiver and 50 bolts for £1.50 etc - So basically if i had of known i could have made my own kit for under a tenner and had enough spares to mae another 2 kits!

Anyway i bought some long 12mm rivets and riveted all the brackets to the arch. These longer rivets pull down loads and make for a secure fixing for the bracets so i'm resonably happy with them. So i'm going to try and mount the front arches today and see how it goes....

By the way - Where can i buy rivnuts? and do you use a normal poprivet gun to put them in?

Edited by minimadmike, 01 August 2008 - 08:03 AM.

[Tom Booth]

I brought my rivnut kit from a sealey dealer. The guns different, in the way it pulls on the threads instead of using the pole to yank the rivet closed. Good bitta kit

[mike.]

Well i got all the brackets mounted, glued the trim to the arch then set about removing the fuel tank and things to bolt the arch through the quarterpanel:



Tada!!



Looking good right?!

Little teaser of the front arches:



Test fitting my new wheels - They rub and the wing needs quite abit of material removing:




So ye once i've got that done i've got one more front arch to re-mount because i mounted it too low

Then i need to put the numberplate light back on, seal and insert the chrome strip in the back window, refit bumpers, refit spotlights and shorten the front indicator wiring. Then i think i'm pretty much done.

I've not really done anymore on my wheels, i just want the car back on the road now so they can wait!

[LankyJames]

I've not really done anymore on my wheels, i just want the car back on the road now so they can wait!

We can tell by the last photo!

What colour are the wheels going to be mate?

I like where this is going the paint job looks spot on, though i did think you were keeping the colour and stripe, it was original! But i do have to admit, i love gloss black!

Good luck with cutting the wings, ive just done it on my flippy and almost shat myself thinking id cut too much off!

Keep us updated mate and good luck

[sweetser]

ooo dear god that looks sexy