58 replies to this topic

[LosLandenos]

Hi guys and girls!

I desided right now to move my project tread from a Swedish mini-forum to this forum because of the nice atitude here. And it seems to be a lot of replies on topics. 

Me and my wife bought a mini 94 SPI a year ago with the naive thinking of that we bought a car in good condition......

We were proved wrong! There were a lot of rust and bad repairs. The former owner had obviosly cared more about builden a 3 inch exaustsytem tha serving the car. So i knew after checking the car that i was in for a big job.

 

I drove the car for two weeks before i cut that litle bastard up like a cake..

 

At this point i was so depressed over the fact that i bought a car that looked like crap and was rusty as hell.  I kinda promised my wife that this car shouldnt be "another car in thousand pieces al over the our house".

And its kinda true.. i have had my share of project cars..

 

 

 This is the car that i built the winter before and it took some time and money.  Its a caraudio car that i built with financial help from my sponsor. I bought the car and it was in realy poor condition with alot of of dents after a crash.

 

So i ordered a new complete front and new carpets as i found aloooooot of micedroppings under it and it smelld like a dead goat.

 

after a while i got the car repainted ( garagepaint) and it failde big time in mot. In sweden you are alowed to drive it for a month before you have to revisit. So me and my wife drove it for a month and was soooo happy.. Its a unusal car in Sweden and im realy proud of it and the way it turned out.

 

 

The roofrack is from a Volvo amazon restored and painted in matteblack.

 

Many of the faults on the MOT was the electricsystem and poor emissions.. Reeeeeealy bad..
So i figured i would drive it for a month and then go balistic on Minisport. The last day of the month i drove the car upp to a town north og Gothenburg to a carmeet where we sold product from autoglym and meguiars. We took the car dirty and without gloss and polished the living hell out of it in our tradestand. People just loved the car!!

 Then it was back to the garage. I had been driving the last week without power to the fuelpump (connected it to the taillight ;) )

and the alternator was dead. Then we started again. this was in the end of summer 2013.

I hope that my english isnt sucking to bad? I have problem writing corectly even in Swedish.. 
Feel free to reply an give critic on my post if you want to.. I will check for more pics from the winter 2013 and on whats hapening now..
Its a lot of chassi tuning now and the style 2014 is RACE!!!

Buy for now
 

Edited by LosLandenos, 11 February 2014 - 10:30 PM.

[LosLandenos]

Now im going out to the garage to weld the front dampermounts... wish me luck, its hopefully the last piece of welding for this season.

[minisilverbullet]

Welcome to TMF! I followed your link from Hundkoja.com! 

 

Cheers  Craig 

[LosLandenos]

Welcome to TMF! I followed your link from Hundkoja.com! 

 

Cheers  Craig 

I remember you! ;) i was actualy planning on contacting you. i have an extra Kn airfilter for the original box. brand new, i was wondering if yo wanted to buy it cheap?

[minisilverbullet]

 

Welcome to TMF! I followed your link from Hundkoja.com! 

 

Cheers  Craig 

I remember you! ;) i was actualy planning on contacting you. i have an extra Kn airfilter for the original box. brand new, i was wondering if yo wanted to buy it cheap?

 

I have removed the original box and replaced it with a kn con filter. thanks for the thought though! 

[LosLandenos]

Late in the summer of 2013 i began to sort out the anoing faults and MOT issues. 
I made a big order from minisport with a new relaybox wich didnt help. I could see that i got 12 volt for a brief second the nothing.

It turned out to be those dam fuses. so i decided to get medievel on their asses and cut eveything off.

I have a secret love for shrinktubes (is it the right name?)

Istarted to get the fuses away from the manifold by weld longer cables.

almost done.

Thats more like it.

Now they are in a real fusebox. Screw you Lucas!! ;)

 

Now ewerything started to work..

On to the emission problems.
Aformer owner had welded a 3 inch exaust that sounded like a horny sealion..
And on the way home from the last carmeet i kinda raced a big suv and jumped a litle bit and slammed the exaust in the ground.
Good! a good reason to change it i thought. I ordered a stage one kit and when i took my old sstem off i saw that there wasnt any whool left in the single damper, nor the pipe inside. It was empty!!

this is the one i bought but with an open pipercrossfilter instead.

After that i changed the plugs and changed the exaustgasket wich was leaking as h**l.
After a full service and cleaning i went to a friends garage and tested the emissions.. Flawless!!

Now on to the heatervalve.. It hade been brooken the whole summer so me and my wife had been driving with the heat on!
So i mounted a piece tocut of water to a washingmaschine temporarily.. it worked but looked a bit funny..

here it is!

I also bought a new alternator wich worked as a charm.

But the biggest help in the build was when my neigbour told me that i could use half of his garage (i dont have a garage at my house)

Then it was this long time where my shoulder started to get bad and all i did was to wait for money so i could order a proper chassisetup.

And when my dampers and stuff came i saw that evyrything was bad in the chassi, and i mean bad. all bushes was **** and i had to cut all arms to free the hubs.

 

so i ordered:
Adjustable heavyduty lower arms

upper arms

Adjustable tierods

Gaz dampers

polybushes to the whole car

all needlebearings 

and to make a long list short

EVERYTHING NEW!!!

I already had the hi lows and uprated brakes with surestop kit and metal brakelines
So it was a charm to work with.

And thats were we are today..

[LosLandenos]

And today with a real mancold (absolutly not the same cold that girls get) i went to the garage for some lighter work.

I started out to clean the garage while listening to some nice techouse (its ok when my neighbour is gone on vacation).

Why the f**k do i do this to myself... Its impossible to work like this, its a mystery that my Neighbour (Johnny) havent thrown me and my mini out. He loves minis that can be a reason or the fact that i babysits for his child every now and then..

Here is the mancave.. Where men lies about stuff and eat raw beef..... kinda..

And heres the bloody bonnet that never stayed in place and wrecked my paintjob.

I got this stainless steelplates from a friend for a chocolatebar.. Nice trade they are polished but dirty..

To the operation table and grind of all bracket and such.

 

That when this hapened!!! The bloody disc speareted from the center and whent of like a diabolic frisbee..

Scary! but i sounded cool.. whooshwhooshwhoosh!

Last time i hade problem with a grinderdisc it cracked in half and the vibrations made me loose it. It hit my hand and then down in my leg.

It whent in to the bone and injured bloodwessels, bone and ligaments.
But i got me a cool ghettolimb and enough insurancemoney to buy a stage3 kit if i want..

I marked carefully for ones..

And i think it looks good there?

then i marked the location for the plate.

Screwed the plate with 6 stainless bolts. Feels stron enough  and drilled through the hole in the bonnet.

Lokks good and stable.

One side done. i will have two in the front aswell but i dont know how i would make the brackets? any ideas?

Gotta love when it looks like this!! I have no idea other than 1,5 dg camber what i will have in caster and ridehight? any ideas on that to?

Thats why the name  black sheep.

Agressive camber.. a bit to much.

This is how it looked when i cleaned out the cooling canals int the engine with fresh water!! I will change everything in the cooling system.

Edited by LosLandenos, 15 February 2014 - 10:47 AM.

[LosLandenos]

i Found the last pics.. Then im all drained.

 

I tested a seat from my caraudio Lupo just for fun.. It was waaaaay to big. I have a deal from my sponsor on sparco that i will go for. problably sprint v even if i have a to large ass for it.I will only use it for trackdays.. But that is a later project.

it shows evidence of earlier leaks/boiling so that have to go.. I will change everything in the coolingsystem..

a new suctionfan and i painted the ugly brownish stains.

This is how it looked when i started to weld the damper mounts.. i have one left.. But i save it for a rainy day..

Edited by LosLandenos, 15 February 2014 - 10:43 AM.

[Mini-Mad-Craig]

Nice project

[LosLandenos]

Nice project

Thanks.. It getting somewhere now. or until today... My wife found a leak in our houseroof today so i know what i am going to do for a couple of days.. There is no god, and if ther is he hates me or mini coopers... or both..

Edited by LosLandenos, 15 February 2014 - 08:09 PM.

[LosLandenos]

Is it anyone that have experience of replacing the mechanic fan on the waterpump to a electric one? 
I have a brand new suction fan onthe outher side.

A new radiator "RADIATOR - 2 CORE SUPERCOOL - HIGH FLOW" 

 

And a new water pump (high capacity)

 

the manifold is heatwraped.

 

I have bought a "pushing" electric fan from a citroen berlingo that i was planning on running on a relay.

 

that should do it right??

[minisilverbullet]

i understand your car should have both the mechanical fan and an electric fan. The electric fan comes on at XXdegrees. 

[LosLandenos]

I was thinking of having two electrical fans. the one at the engineside going all the time and the other going on its thermostat.

[minisilverbullet]

Do you have cooling issue with the engine? 

 

My auxiliary cooling fan is rarely needed. 

[JamesGodfrey1992]

Awesome thread! loved reading whats been done so far and even better the picture quality is perfect