34 replies to this topic

[Sean 12]

is that the Ultimate Mini Builder - How to build a Zcars mini ???

[sotiris]

yes...

[SukiDawg]

Lol... Not everyone agrees.

[Corty]

good man for taking on this challenge
i will one day hopefully do the same thing (enginnering student 3rd year)
just havent got the time with work and space to do it at the moment

surely you can use your cad experiance and some general dimensions to give you a very good idea of how its going to fit
and if you have access to stereolithography you should be sorted for making manifolds and brackets etc.

i found a nice website about drives here .........
http://www.westgarag...haindrives.html

this might help you on your way . and remeber buddy
when u do accomplish this and you have made your own plans CAD,and technical drawings
get them patented and sell them ! im sure people will be willing to give big money for these !!
a little hard work can go along way.

good luck and keep us posted!
Cheers
Corty

[basher]

im looking at many different options at what to do to the mini and rear engine r1 jobby appeals to me greatly at the moment so im starting to look into at the mo.

i would plan on doing all work myself, my idea was to use the rear axel and diff off a sierra. and build a space frame to house this and the engine.

what do people think to this?

by using the sierra axel the project should be alot simple than fabricating everything yourself and it will help erradicate wheel alignments all out. and also the sierra axel is wishboned. the biggest problem to solve would be linking the engine and axel and a reverse.

[welshy]

Hi,

I am sorry but i have to disagree with the general opinion from people on this thread. Sean suggested £8-9 grand which is ridiculous for a basic home build.

Don't get me wrong Z Cars quality is second to none but it comes at a price and there is less feel good factor in a Z Cars kit than one you have made from scratch yourself. If I had a spare £15k lying about then I would certainly purchase one of their kits but I am average Joe so I am in the process of fitting a 1997 MR2 engine in a home made space frame in the rear of my mini. The total cost for the conversion should be about £3k. It won't be up to the same standard as Z cars but it will certainly look like more than 3 grands worth. So far I have probably spent about £700 (look for Canny build diary on 16vminiclub forum)

I am a design engineer by trade for a large Engineering company in Leeds and having access to 2D (AutoCAD and some rubbish software called Medusa) and 3D (Rubbish Inventor and outstanding Uni-Graphics aka NX) software is a waste of time. To benefit from it you would need a model of a mini and the engine to start with. By the time these have been modelled you could have produced the space frame yourself. It is simply a case of trial and error in your garage.

Sotoris mentioned 500-600 euros for steel. Mine has cost probably £200 but certainly no more than £300 (main supplier is a company called Dunkleys in Dewsbury). The full paint job to paint a car would be approximately £300 for the materials, your time is free.

Rear suspension is not 400 euros as per sortiris prediction. Spax do custom made coil over shocks with rose joint fittings for £100 each. Standard coil overs for the front from mini spares are £180 from memory plus £60 for the fitting kit.

I have full access to a manchine shop and it has been used once so far to machine down a pair of front mini hubs which i have now scrapped as i am going to use the bolt on sierra/granada scorpio ones. Simply purchase some tubing with minimum wall thickness of 2mm and a pipe bender. If you can't weld no worries. By a decent mig kit and tack everything. Once everything is complete advertise for a local welder, check their qualifications, and pay them about £100 a day. To weld everything on your space frame should take 2 days maximum.

Fuel tanks can be expensive although if aesthetics aren't high on your agenda look into plastic boat fuel tanks. Alternatively look at www.locostbuilders.co.uk. This is a forum full of people building cars from basic raw materials. Some of them manufacture reasonably priced ally fuel tanks. It is a great source of general information for designing and building a car. Quite a few of these cars have bike engines in and I am sure you can find a few build diaries with home made diffs. I believe sierra drive shafts are quite common.

Don't take the easy expensive option. Have a go yourself. If you get stuck there are plenty of great people on here and on www.16vminiclub.com with the experience to help…I know as the 16v guys ripped my engine mount design to shreds and I had to start again.


Cheers
Ben

PS Your build will take longer than the time you are at Uni so get a move on and make the most of the facilities.

[basher]

i totally agree with you above, i just wanted to put that set up to get some feelers as to weather it would work but got impatient and have done a little bit of research. from pictures of other peoples cars it looks a rather simple conversion and certain can be done fairly cheaper. alot less than 8-9k. using a seirra beam axle as a unit will make it very simple and giving you only crabing to worry about, you can get one for 200/300 completely, just clean in up yourself ect. i found a company that takes cosworth lsd's and mods them to take a sprocket for around 500. to make the space frame isn't that much work really, a 6point cage with a tube welded across the 2 back legs giving a point to mount the shocks to. 2 curved tubes running from the horizontal tube welded in to the floor giving 2 mounting points for the engine. few other fixtures welded on for things and maybe some strengthening in places and thats it. nothing to crazy really. especially when you think all you need to do is stick some wheels on the seirra axle position it where it will go with the engine poistioned in place. run a chain between the 2 to get alignment right, take measurements to make sure back end isn't crabbed and then tack everything in place. reverse is easily sort with a starter motor. also i agree with the drawing thing, drawing everything up is pointless as you'd have to have a model of a mini and no mini is the same.

[welshy]

Cheers for Backing me up Basher. I reckon you can get a Sierra rear diff, shafts and calipers for less that 200-300. I have been to the scrappers today and removed the rear hubs, discs calipers and drive shafts from a Granada scorpio (same as sierra, although drive shaft diameter is slightly bigger i think) for £60. The diff i would guess will be about £30-£40 so i think £100 is more like it.
I can't see mounting the engine to the dif wouldn't be too hard. I have seen people mount the engine in the front and then run a prop shaft down the car.

[R1mini]

A sierra is a lot wider than a mini using the complete unit unmodified would be odd to say the least, but I agree you could build something yourself if you had a decent mini and say 4 grand ish maybe.

Cheers
David

[sotiris]

i agree at some point...........
but this is not that easy, as you describe...............

to start this project you must work with zest...........

Edited by sotiris, 19 September 2009 - 05:32 PM.

[basher]

may be i described it alittle easier than it obviously will be. and im a welder and fabricator so am fairly comfident with these kind of things.

and maybe a little modding needed on the axle.

Edited by basher, 19 September 2009 - 07:50 PM.

[welshy]

The drive shafts would obviously need modifying to reduce the length but that is not an expensive operation. Some people have taken it on themselves but this is one job i would like ro lead to the pro's. There is a local company in Leeds who i reckon will mate my MR2/Scorpio driveshafts for £100 or less.

I would sell the bike engine and put it towards an MR2 (about £400). That way you have a lot of the stuff you need and you have an engine whichis in a position it was inteded for. Plus you get the gear linkage

[Rosslin Racing]

dont forget the UK has a good supply of scrap yards, this being a problem in some parts of Europe. the reason is the export of old cars and parts to Africa.
this pushes the price up on secondhand parts.

[welshy]

I have heard it can be a pain buying parts in other parts of Europe but surely it won't knock the price up by over 100%?

[sotiris]

here in Greece all the parts, new and second hand, have double price and over......

Edited by sotiris, 23 September 2009 - 11:53 AM.