93 replies to this topic

[rally1380]

I think it looks like a really interesting project, and best of luck to you.

To those people who are moaning about plastic fronts....look at the front metal work.....its shot and all needs to come off anyway so it'll never be original. As long as no drastic chopping goes on i could be returned to steel front without too much hastle in the future (keep hold of the inner arches and don't bin them!)

As for wheels, 13's look cool, but not my cup of tea as i think they handle terrible.

I like fat 10's but go with what you want, it's your car and who cares...you are saving a mk1 so good luck (we are all jealous anyway and its only sour grapes!)

Edited by rally1380, 26 January 2013 - 06:54 PM.

[danny1]

i agree i look forward to seeing your progress

[Camshaft1982]

Thanks guys. I have got the front end sheet metal off but still have to load up pics.

big order going into mini spares tomorrow as well so there should be quite a lot of work when that gets here as well.

[racingenglishcars]

Really cool project. I approve, (as if you need my permission)
What you doing for brakes?
My 64 doesn't look too much different from that one, but slightly less rust. I'm going 998, remote gear and drums.

[Camshaft1982]

I'm going with the 998, and rod change as well.

As for brakes I'm planing on making brackets for wilwood calipers and disks all around. Not sure if I'm going to do 2 pot or 4 pot up front and 2 pot or single pot in the rear. I don't want to run drums at all because of the amount of heat the brakes will see on the track.

[Camshaft1982]

Some more pics of a little progress.



Front hood and fenders off.



And the rest of the front end off.



And finally a shot of the fiberglass front that came with the car.

Progress is a little slow this week as we have had some terible weather here between cold snaps, snow, and even some rain. I'm hoping next week I can get it off the ground, get the subframes out and get it off to the media blaster.

I've also got my order in to mini spares for a shipping quote and hopefully I can get that on the way over here soon.

[afrance94]

good luck should be a interesting project

[Camshaft1982]

I got the mini in the air this past weekend and got the front and rear subframe out of it.






The firewall looks like it's in good shape but will know better when it's stripped.

I still have about a days worth of work to get everything stripped down then it will be ready for the media blaster. Unfortunately our weather here in Canada has taken a turn for the worse, as it usually does in Febuary. just today we got about 18 inches of snow and it is still falling from the sky. So it might be a little wile before I am able to dig the car out and continue to work on it.

On a plus note, My Mini Spaires order hase been billed and shipped so looking forward to new shiney bits. I will post pics when they arive.

[Artful Dodger]

Looks fairly solid8) are you going to sandblast the shell? Think of the extra weight if you painted over the existing paint;)

[mk1leg]

nice set of town-n-countrys........

[Camshaft1982]

Ya I have to blast it. There is too much questionable rust around the seams not too.

[Camshaft1982]

It has been a wile since my last update and quite a bit has happened.

I've decided that I'm going to wait to blast the shell untill I have done most of the repairs to the shell because if I blast it first, there won't be a whole lot holding the shell together.

So with that in mind I started to cut some of the rot out of the shell while I was waiting for my parts from Mini Spares.

I started with some bracing





Then got the rear bulkhead out of the way



It will be going back in as it's not in too bad of shape

Then cut out the trunk floor, rear bins, and heal panel. The tunel is in good shape so it is going to stay and become part of the reference point for the heal board

[Miniac86]

Looks like you've got your work cut out for you, best if luck with the rebuild.

[Camshaft1982]

Now for the next bump in the road, waiting for parts. Mini Spares was great at getting the parts out and UPS got them shipped across the pond in excelent time, unfortunately the shipping company over here screwed up the delivery so bad it took me three weeks to find my package without their help.

So in the mean time, I decided to strip the rubber subframe that I got with the car. Everything was going well until I needed a spring compressor which I didn't have, so i made my own.



But while I was in the middle of pulling that appartsomething arrived





A big box of car parts. There are too many parts to list but you will see them as they go on the car.

[Camshaft1982]

The first part to go back on was the heal panel, so for that I had to get the new rear subframe out



and get everything together





Then from there the new trunk floor





Up next are the floors then the exterior panels that need replacing.

One question I have, has anyone bolted in a newer rubber mounted dry subframe into a MkI that originally came with a wet suspension? I'm not too woried about the spring perch or the front mount but I would like to know how to mount the rear of the subframe to the toe board. Or would it just be easier to use the dry subframe and modify the spring pearches to accept the dry spring?