251 replies to this topic

[BigEnd]

Thing is, it might be all talk atm, but dan being a real good mate of mine - I know he'll do it eventually, but hes the same as all of us, fundage is holding the build back.

I hear that Dog, we're all in the same boat. Like I said, I'm looking forward to seeing the finished article. I mean that

[v8mini]

these thing do take time and planning, took me about 4 years to get my V8 mini on the road, and still needs loads doing a year on from being road worthy.

[chairchild]

lol, I meant bodywork-aesthetics wise!

Mechanically, sorting out the steering may end up being the most difficult suprisingly - or least the most complicated

[chairchild]

plus, I'm the sort of person who would rather spend 5 years thinking about it, than having to constantly redo what I'm doing, whilst I'm doing it - it also means I can spend a fair while picking out bits from various places, for bugger-all, rather than trying to buy it all in a very short space of time

[Howzter]

So your thinking of the roofchop are ya! Took me a full week to sort mine out, went down the road of manipulating all the pillars instead of oversizing the roof. Think both ways of doing it have there problems, but as for the finished artical, moving the pillars definatly looks better. If your gonna go for it, level the roof out aswell, when i marked my datem lines round the car the front of the roof sat 1 1/2" higher than the back.........hence i took 3" out the front and 1 1/2" out the back, looks good. I really wish i went another 1" with it, but i must have bottled out when i was doing it, its like looking through a letterbox as it is!

ps. Be careful not to grind too much meat away as you work round the roof sil, its like trying to weld 0.05 shim!!!!!!!!

[chairchild]

Well, for now, I'm going to see what it's like without a roofchop, then, in the future, if I change my mind, I can always change it if I want to

[chairchild]

Well, got myself some prices for the steel today:

40mm x80mm box-section, 3mm thick, and 7.5m long (the only length they'll supply) - £32 + VAT!




Not bad, considering I was looking at about possibly £100 for enough to do the chassis, if I get 2 bits, I'll have PLENTY left over, to make the entire chassis, reinforce the buggery out of it, make all the mounts, and still have some left over!

[chairchild]

grrr..........

My Pug failed the bloody MOT, and has robbed ALL of my spare cash this month...and then some (worked out at having to borrow about £100 from my parents this month, just to survive!) And in April, I've got my tatt booked, may is riv-run, so looks like it's gonna be another few months before ANY work will start on the chassis

[camp freddy]

Well, made a fair bit of progress with the debt this month, which means I'm not going to be paying charges, which EQUAL what I'm actually paying them! (bank of mum is the best banking service ever ) It does now mean, that I owe my mum about £5k..... but at least there's no interest on that!


So, to pass the time, I've done a photochop of the most recent design, which now includes a roofchop...If I can persaude Tom to give it a go



Most difficult bit, will be shaping the A-panel extensions, as they also need to curve INWARDS, as well as following the body curve May end up trying to make them from fibreglass, but that's a last-resort really, as I know I wont be able to do that very well

To make life easier as well, the bonnet wont line-up with the scuttle, instead it will sit OVER the scuttle, also partially hiding the wipers. Just gives it a neater finish, and means we wont have to struggle to re-shape the scuttle panel to suit the bonnet's shape

buy a door panel and chop it up

[chairchild]

my god...... you've just saved me SO much time+hassle!!

Makes it a hell of a lot easier as well, as I've decided to just angle it from the A-panels, rahter than try to make the whole thing curve....was a tad over-ambitious I will admit!

Edited by chairchild, 04 March 2008 - 12:14 PM.

[camp freddy]

If you chop the roof, cut out the old roof skin about 3'' from the edge, cut the outside off the
roof into six sections, ie leaving two front corners, two door pillar sections ,two rear pillar sections.
then measure down the pillars and cut the pillars off, measure the amount you want to lower the roof by
and cut this off the remaining pillar on the car. re tack the pillars back in place (you will notice the roof
area has increased in size) and square up, plate the gaps between the pillars. now for the roof.. you can either
cut off an original skin off a scrap mini and weld in place or you could bond on a fibreglass or carbon
roof skin. Easy-peasy....

[chairchild]

hehe, trust me, I'm USELESS at doing tidy bodywork. Thick metal, I can do easily, but making thin bodywork look nice, I simply cant do.

Hence why I'm paying a mate to do the main shell for me lol



Lost the bid on a Mitsibushi Pajero axle on ebay, it was only £25 that won it, but that was beyond my budget But other progress I've made, is that I've worked out how to get a live axle, working off mini-derived suspension! The only 3 reasons for wanting mini suspension are these:

1) I have all the parts already
2) Adding adjustable parts is VERY cheap (comparatively)
3) I want to keep as many mini-based items as possible

[Ferrina1275]

Love this rat rod idea and thinking of a Smart car version. Anyone good a photoshopping a mock-up?

[chairchild]

Hmmm, it'd be possible (everything from the windscreen forwards can be unbolted) but the rear-end simply wouldn't suit it, and would look...to be honest....fugly, lol

[chunkytfg]

back to your gearbox issues. Dont some cars have the gearbox incorporated into the rear diff?

Of the top of my head somrething like the boxster uses this system? possibly? lol