374 replies to this topic

[mad mk1]

Well that was a nice read as always mate

Looking good mate, I bet your so happy with it! I would be

[Joe250]

Well that was a nice read as always mate

Looking good mate, I bet your so happy with it! I would be

 

Thanks, Simon. I am happy with it but you know how it is - hard to relax when there are still things that need doing.

 

And thanks for not saying anything about my weight problem! Once she's finished and on the road I can get around to dropping some weight. What is your car down to these days?

[mad mk1]

That's it mate, there is always stuff you have over looked lol,

Well I did not want to say anything lol, it's all them pulgs on that loom they will all add up as for what's mine I sort of give up counting at the min but I am still swapping stuff for the lightest I can find, so I will only know really when I get it on the scales I hope to know before the imm.

Would not be best if you got yours setup with the windows in? And you are right it made such a difference to mine after I got it set up, I don't get any torque steer now, which most turbo cars seem to get.

Simon.

[ministar]

Looking great as usual. One of the best (if not THE best build threads on here)! Pleasure to read Joe.

[Joe250]

Would not be best if you got yours setup with the windows in? And you are right it made such a difference to mine after I got it set up, I don't get any torque steer now, which most turbo cars seem to get.

Simon.

Undoubtedly but my priority at the moment is to get the car setup just enough to get it registered and legal to drive on the road. Then I will go back to corner weight and re-align the car.

 

Looking great as usual. One of the best (if not THE best build threads on here)! Pleasure to read Joe.

 

That's very kind of you to say. I'm glad you are enjoying the build.

[Joe250]

In the last installment I was in the middle of a quick suspension alignment. Since this is the first time I've aligned a car I knew this one wasn't going to end accurately. I decided to use this time to get a feel for the process and the tools. Now I have a list of what worked and what I can do differently the next time to ensure greater accuracy.

The final part of the alignment was to set the toe and camber of the rear wheels. The TDK abbreviated rear subframe has a horizontally slotted hole inboard to allow for toe adjustment and a vertical slot toward the outside for camber adjustments. This is better than standard with allows for no adjustment at all (although people use shims when minor adjustments are needed) but precise changes are a bit tricky, combined with the fact that changing one parameter tends to alter the other.

 

 

Regardless of the designs merits, I quickly ran out of toe adjustment as the swing arm made contact with the rear subframe. You can see the semi-circular cut I'd previously made to make clearance here. That was back in 2009. Clearly I hadn't removed enough material so it's time to give it another go.

 

Before.

Attacking the problem with a Makita handheld belt sander.

 

 

And now we have more clearance then we'll ever need. Some might ask why I don't just hack off the whole box section underneath the swing arm, since I won't be using the traditional Mini rubber donut suspension. I guess I could but it won't gain me much and if I ever do decide to try cones I can still use these same swingarms (I think).


I've had the bonnet in storage for the past two+ years. It felt good to finally re-install it on the car. A quick adjustment of the latching pin and it was 100%. It just needs a thorough dusting off.


With the bonnet in place I could finally answer a question - would the ITG air filter fit with the bonnet closed. I pulled out the template I had made a few years back and used it to mark out the filter's aluminum baseplate. After lots of measurements I marked out the circles and started cutting.

 

 

I started to drill out the holes using a hole saw but it moved around too much for my liking. I decided to use a step drill instead, get close to the final ID that I needed, then carefully grind the remainder to the final shape. This worked reasonably well.

 

 

Here is the baseplate pressed down over the throttle body's rubber velocity stacks.

 

 

 

 

I clamped the filter in place and slowly lowered the bonnet.

It fits. Down the road I plan to build an airbox to surround the filter. There won't be much room to work with but I think I can make it work.

 

 

One more item to remove permanently from storage and fit to the Mini - the windshield. I laid out some protection for the bodywork then installed the rubber seal on the bodywork. One thing to note here is that Mini's windshield is basically staked in place and 'floats', whereas modern cars have their windshields bonded to the chassis, making them a structural member. I can see the advantages of the latter method but I think it would take one heck of a piece of glass bonded into my car to up the chassis rigidity.

 

 

The windshield is quite lightweight. It easily slipped into the seal but these first two steps are the easy ones.

 

 

The difficult part is slipping a triangular strip of plastic into a narrow slot in the rubber gasket. This forces the gasket to clamp onto the body flange as well as forcing it to clamp the glass in place.

 

 

Here you can see where I've started inserting the "chrome" locking strip at the top of the windshield and I'm working it into the righthand A-pillar.

 

 

As usual the right tool makes all the difference. This one is made exactly for this job. When shoved down into the rubber channel it opens the channel up just wide enough and just long enough the allow the strip to feed in.

 

 

Just a couple of hours into starting the whole process I have the windshield installed and locked into place.

 

 

Too bad I did it incorrectly. The windshield's lower righthand corner is too far recessed inwards. I spotted this early on and had assumed that completing the install would correct it for me. I was wrong. I pulled the locking strip back out and removed the glass from the car. I took a few measurements of the bodywork and the glass, thinking that I may have installed the glass too far off of center. I re-installed the windshield and made sure to center it between the A-pillars. It seemed to do the trick.

 

 

The second time did the trick. After a thorough glass cleaning inside and out I can scratch another item off the 'To-Do' list.
 

Edited by Joe250, 03 July 2014 - 06:15 AM.

[Dylanscar]

Hey Joe,

 

Simply stunning. Sure you cant wait to get everything finished off. As before love the attention to detail and also love the lengths that you go to to get it right.

 

Jon

[Jared Mk3]

Light at the end of the tunnel now - looks really good, now to add the grille.

[Joe250]

The current goal is to get the Mini ready and able to drive across town to the DMV to get registered. The car won't be finished but at least it will be safe to drive around in. The rest of the work will have to wait. In recent weeks I've completed the electrical system, installed the windshield and gotten the brakes working. Here's a few items I've knocked out recently...

Notice something missing here? Yes - a side mirror.

I started by sitting in the car and holding the mirror in the approximate install location. I marked that area with tape.


Magically, the hole appeared and the mirror became fastened to the car.


Early on I had chosen bullet-style mirrors but these RayDot replicas have grown on me.


The visibility from the side mirror matches that of the interior mirror - very little.


I took a few hours to address something that bothered me. The way the bonnet proprod attaches to the bonnet involves this strange claw-like piece of sheetmetal. I misplaced the one I originally test-fit to the car so I took this opportunity to replace it with my own design. I already had a stainless steel proprod from Smiffy Bits. I cut the top off of it and threaded it.


I installed a small rodend and machined down a flanged spacer/bushing reducer (I don't know exactly what they're called) to fit into the large hole in the bonnet.


It works.


Here's another small project I put off for a long time. Since I am the one who designed and installed the wiring it seemed a good idea to add an electical kill switch (and a fire extinguisher). I needed it within easy reach while driving so I mounted it between the front seats. It just barely fits. The problem was in how to mount it. There are two bolt holes through the unit but I had the thing located above the curved exhaust hump running down the length of the car. If I simply ran two bolts up through the floor of the car they would point off at different angles. If I ran the bolts down through the kill switch and through the floor I would need some angled shims under the car. I didn't feel like making them, nor having to crawl under the car to install and remove the kill switch.


Instead I decided to mount the switch off of a small steel box that the rollcage fabricater had installed between the seats. He made this to serve as anchor points for the front seatbelts. I took some measurements from the car and from the kill switch, then made a quick design in SolidWorks.


I printed the design on paper and test fit it in the car. Everything looked good so I then traced the shape onto a sheet of steel.


One hour of cutting and sanding later and the plate is made.


And here it is installed. You can see the blue box at the back. The two bolts that pass thru the kill switch to hold it in place. They also make contact with the floor to provide some additional support when the button is hit.



And since you suggested it Jared, the grille is on. I guess the front end that originally came with my car was more mangled than I realized. When I last tried fitting the grille nothing lined up. Things went much better this time. Another item scratched off of the list. Now off to get her registered.

[Jared Mk3]

Now she looks almost complete. Really do like the look you've gone for, classic and clean! Great job, can't want to see it done.

[Joe250]

I'm going to post in the classified section as well but does anyone have a set of Mk1 piano-hinge quarter window frames for sale? With or without the glass is fine. Much appreciated.

[BronkoMini]

Looks really nice, I especially like the stripe on the bonnet and wings

[Dylanscar]

Hey Joe,

 

How are things going? Would love to read any updates

 

Jon

[Lotusman33]

Great post and fantastic work, will be a good inspiration for my project.

Dave :)

[ottobahn]

For the steering column, what was the size and spline for the universal joint coming off of the steering rack?