776 replies to this topic

[george91]

Lol yeah but yours is a q plate, don't know if thats a good thing or a bad thing though? i know alex was having troubles with his alloy floor, but i recon as long as you use plenty of rivets and paint over it, most won't think anything of it.

[mini93]

I like the Q place... everyone seems to have a boo-hoo about them but its quite handy in alot of cases it seems. visual emissions too. Even when i wasnt using a friendly MOTer because of the Q plate i was able to blag things like the hazzards and washers anyhow.
And yeah, i know he had trouble, but im not convinced, there would be plenty of places who would still pass it im sure.
will be fibreglass in mine, not loads of rivets either, too heavy otherwise haha

[george91]

I don't think its a bad thing just wasnt sure if it mean't it had a better or worse mot check. and mines a fibreglass floor too.

[mini93]

ah well, i didnt even consider it when i bought it if im honest... but because they dont get many Q platers whats to test them on isnt clear cut, probably from the date its plated (which would be '94 in my case) but at least the last place i took it too were easily talked into passing it (minus the fact it needed 4 tyres)
Anyway, i need to MOT it soon anyway, ill probably MOT it before i start all the work on the shell in earenest so i dont have to worry if times running out towards the deadline i decide.
just need to decide the deadline and order in which to do stuff

[mini93]

got it in the garage now!

nows the race to get it ready for riv run

just a few "before" pictures now







as you can see...up in the air at the moment, seems very narrow aswell...so lets see how it pans out



and heres the resting place, being central theres not a whole heap of space all round the car tho. Should be able to work in there tho.
back end will be getting Mk2 lights too.

already started though! the exhaust is off...ohh progress is fast!
tomorrow, pending what time i get back from work i want the subframe off, tank out and start prepping for tubbing and boot floor removal

[mini93]

6 weeks...feckingLOL!!!

yeah, decided to do a re-think...wont be on the road till at least the end of may now now point rushing it, or doing odd's and sods, putting it on the road to only have to take it off the road again to finish it off.

Not a huge change in the plans, just going to get on and make the arms right away. its not going to be a quick process because its gona take alot of measuring. If i can pinch a friends copy of CATIA ill cad up the arms, will be easier to make up if i can be exact.

but for tonight! i got the subframe out, fuel tank out, tail lights out, boot off, bumper off then got distracted talking to some guys from the mini club, simply wanted to pull the arches off and mark up for the tubbage!

[george91]

Doing well, i was doing my reasearch on tubbing the other day. Jimsters write up is great if you haven't seen it already.
http://www.turbomini...p...&tid=121011

[mini93]

yeah i had seen it thanks, but not seen the thread for a while, doesnt harm to have a ganders before i go about chopping out.
Not had anything done today, and doubt anything will happen till at least friday as works manic, off to wales with the newly built rally car for testing tomorrow.
pretty much agreed to buy a 2nd hand fg boot floor...even if i dont buy it he said i can use it to mark out the floor for chopping...need some slitting disks!

[mini93]

Right. Iv had a bit of time on the mini yesterday morning for 15 mins before work.
Simply removed the rear windows and arches for todays work.

This morning I marked on the rear 1/4s where to cut for the tubbing. Turned out like this...

if you havent already noticed the previous owner has a huge fettish for filler and absolutly pasted it on...

think i might have to replace at least this side! theres slight distortion on the panel but not so much to warrent that much filler.

lucky the O/s isnt as bad but ill take more of it off to check if the pannels wavy or not...i hope not though



got a bit happy with the nice pack of cutting disks i got, 10 pack of 1mm disks sub £3...so i did this




and got a 2nd hand boot floor...

needs painting

tomorrow ill tidy up the edges of the boot floor and tidy to rest of the boot...decide what else ill be doing in there

[Shifty]

Go easy with the grinder dude!!

I bet you'll end up replacing both rear 1/4s, better leave some metal there or you could end up with alignment problems!!

[mini93]

Dont need to cut anymore metal out i shalnt think, just surroundings of the boot floor to neaten things up.

Not overly fussed about having to replace the N/s there is a few ripples in it to be fair which is a bit nasty. and under the side window was a blob of rust which, grinded back still didnt look very clean so if that pannels replaced i wont have to worry about making that look neat... would be nice to avoid replacing the o/s though

[danny1]

you hoping to have it back and running by rivi?

as id love to have a little look at this car

[mini93]

'fraid not...going to take my time with it, treat it to a few more little bits and bobs...ya know how it is.

going to throw a few more fibreglass bits at it aswell i think...depends, next deadline im thinking will be avon park in july...but as always be nice to have ot on the road before that!

[mini93]

Went to min-its today to get a couple of rear 1/4s bit gash....they didnt have any in stock

so when i got home i chatted with some of the guys from the club again...meaning i just end up with more ideas...but more about that later haha

today, didnt get alot done, just tidying up the boot floor for now.
Iv also chopped off the rear valance...if it goes back on, it will be fibreglass now anyway


when it goes back together im going to be welding another bar to thecage to use as a harness bar,

Im also considering cutting out the rear firewall and remaking it from allooominininininum.... its a bit of a step of decision to make tho, cant as easy weld it back than i could to remove it.
so, considering an ally bulkhead, ally fuel tank, ally boot floor, ally diffuser

and after that, i sat down for over an hour taking lots n lots of measurments, sketched out the rear end and now have hopefully enough to start CADing the tubular rear arms.
Just gotta tidy up my sketch sheet and transfer that into preliminary sketches before transfering it to the computer... then its a case of paying up and having the stub pins/shock mounts made up... eeps

[mini93]

with the day off work today i did what i could to keep busy so i went over to min-its to get some pannels



but was realllly daunting doing the 1st cut... but then i realised i couldnt possibly make it worse than it was



drilled out the spot welds on the top edge only punching through in 1 spot

just need to find the rest of the spot welds, alot of them are covered by sh*t and filler/paint. got the feeling ill be resorting to flap wheels instead of the spot weld drill soon!