247 replies to this topic

[custodia]

Well after many years of scrounging, umming and arring i finally got my act in gear and bought a mini to modify and do up to a rally spec. As this project may suggest the mini itself was purchased by me a few months back now off of flee bay. Origionally it looked like this
 mini_small.jpg   10.86K   60 downloads
But when i picked up the car it looked like this
 my_mini1.jpg   73.68K   56 downloads
 my_mini_2.jpg   79.61K   41 downloads
 my_mini_3.jpg   79.52K   37 downloads
 my_mini_4.jpg   70.96K   28 downloads
 my_mini_5.jpg   80.63K   67 downloads
 my_mini_6.jpg   82.18K   66 downloads
The man even gave me all of his tools with the car.
 my_mini_7.jpg   97.57K   198 downloads
 my_mini_9.bmp   1.36MB   68 downloads
He claimed the car was rust and rott free but its amazing what filler and primer can cover up but i knew this anyway, after all it is a mini, lol

Right the plan is:-

1) Strip down completely
2) Abuse bodywork with wet and dry and grinder
3) Full rally spec including hopefully some big cibie oscars
4) front mounted radiator conversion
5) fully adjustable suspension
6) One off custom made firbreglass dash

Those are the fuzzy details at the mo, that and the fact that when i am home i work between 60 and 80 hours a week so time off is like gold dust.

[custodia]

Right, first days off resulted in the car being stripped of as much as possibl. Decided to concentrate on the rear and boot first to get the always rusty mini boot floor out of the way early.
 SD530412.JPG   1012.5K   45 downloads
out comes the grinder for the more stuborn bits.
 SD530415.JPG   1015.26K   32 downloads
Decided to rip the homemade parcel shelf ou as it turned out to be nothing more than a couple of baked bean cans and alot of fibreglass and found some lovely speaker holes o joy.
 SD530411.JPG   995.28K   58 downloads
More grinding and sanding.
Time for primer.
 SD530421.JPG   1000.08K   56 downloads
Decided to give the bootlid a good seeing to aswell.
 SD530423.JPG   1001.08K   29 downloads
Ive been thinking about getting rid of the straight numberplate and switchin to the euro style square plate with a lucas each side. Any ideas as what i could do would be much appreciated.

[miRon]

are you just doin a side at a time??lol
got some work there,stick with it sure it'l be nice

[camp freddy]

are the photos of the same car??
just asking as the reg no's are different.

good look with the project, i didn't realise that's what student loans are for
I always assumed they were to help with your education expenses !

[miRon]

he is learning........the hard way!

[custodia]

are you just doin a side at a time??lol
got some work there,stick with it sure it'l be nice

lol, Just working my way round at the mo getting all the rust and rott gone. The whole boot is finished now and made up a parcel shelf out of 3mm stainless ready for the italian job bar.cheers mate.

[custodia]

are the photos of the same car??
just asking as the reg no's are different.

good look with the project, i didn't realise that's what student loans are for
I always assumed they were to help with your education expenses !

The origional photo is off a different vehicle because i dont have any of the origional photos which is a same but im looking into that. Well to me the student loan is my mini fund as i earn enough when im at home to cover all my uni expenses. should probably save up for the future but this is far more fun, lol

[custodia]

Right back to the garage. Stripped out the dash this morning after removing the front headlights to find they were simply attached using twisted wires and electrical tape so alarm bells started ringing because the wiring doesnt look good. low and behold i found some of mummas finest italien spaghetti.
 SD530408.JPG   989.67K   74 downloads
 SD530407.JPG   979.53K   34 downloads
 SD530406.JPG   987.16K   43 downloads
After much more investigation the decision has been made that the butchered loom is coming out and im gunna get another one and start from scratch.
Also the look of the homemade webber box really isnt good so thats the next task is to rip that out and see what lurks underneath!!

[Turbo Tom]

Good luck mate, keep the pics coming!

[Bondbill2k2]

nice project on your hands mate,good luck keep up the goodwork

[custodia]

Right, got bored today so took a shopping trip to wolves minispares and came back with this lot:-
 SD530493.JPG   941.99K   45 downloads
 SD530495.JPG   1013.05K   50 downloads
Got back and realised that after getting back from what was a social nite with one or two beers consumed id purchased these off ebay.
 cibies.jpg   32.61K   50 downloads
Just gotta figure out where im gunna put them all now!!

[stanley and naomi]

good work so far - lovely project mate

[custodia]

Quick update for today as these arrived.
 SD530405.JPG   1007.59K   21 downloads
Also managed to persuade my neighbour to let me use his workshop and knock up some clamp collars for the door bars and italian job bar i am adding to the rollcage.
 SD530409.JPG   875.88K   50 downloads
Fit like a glove and do up with two allen key bolts. Just gotta phone my mate to see when he can perform the welding because when it comes to the rollcage i would rather have a qualified person do it than me.lol

I also took the steps as this is to be a rally car to cut off the numberplate mountings. Some rust and rott starting to creep in. Nextjob is angle grinder to the front valance then. o joy!!lol
 SD530422.JPG   981.62K   27 downloads

[DivineMisfit]

Nice work mate, keep it up.

[custodia]

Quick update, decided to strt work on the supposid webber box the other day. After 10 minutes it looked a bit like this
 SD530418.JPG   211.14K   85 downloads
The joys of wire mesh and fibreglass and alot of resin, lol
 SD530419.JPG   167.41K   97 downloads
Job done, just hoping my air filter arrives soon although gunna have to remove and refurb the carb first.