31 replies to this topic

[Thorpey69]

Hello,i have been here before but under another name about 5-6yrs ago,i bought my 1st mini a Rio 1275cc about 6yrs ago and was smitten,i attended a few shows with the other half and used it daily,then one night the car was rolled onto its side causing substantial damage,i should have just scrapped the car,but i had enjoyed so many good times in this car i couldn't bear to do that.
The Rio was put into a friends garage to be rejigged and whilst there have any rot cut out and all panels replaced with genuine Heritage panels,there it sat for a couple of years,in the meantime i bought a lightly damaged Cooper which i repaired and drove,it was lovelyt and i regret the day i sold it,still life goes on,roll on about another 4 yrs till recently when my Mini love was reignited and the Rio project is back underway at a pace,this car will live again,first thing is body prep to repaint it,i'm going to do it myself,i have an idea on a colour scheme and how the car will look when finished,a new battery box has been fitted

The roll cage trial fitted and etch primed now,exscuse the jumps in stages as it has been ongoing for about a month now

Wheels trial fitted,Carl Force 7.25" split rims,10" obviously


They are gorgeous and Carl is a good guy to deal with,i also have gold anodised Kad calipers with Pagid black grooved discs which look sexy,also Adjusta rides,neg camber arms,adj tie rods etc,the car is already Koni equipped.
This Sunday was cut the roof off day,i've not been happy since it was rejigged,i suspected slight deformation which nobody else could see,cuttin the roof off proved i was right as the inner panel was closer on one side than the other,a call to Tristan at Arc angels means a Carbon roof panel is being made,i also have a carbon boot lid from them,absolutely gorgeous stuff!

[Thorpey69]

As you can see i also had a Curley carbon bonnet from sometime ago which will be fitted,and todays work consisted of lacquering the Curley carbon arches which arrived last week,i did this as i wasn't that pleased with the finish compared to the Arc angels stuff,they do look better but it obviously hasn't removed the imperfections in the gel coat finish,still they are shiny now.


Next step is finish prepping interior for paint then onto the primering.
I will try and update when i can on this project,you can probably see a theme emerging with the carbon,my idea is too combine some retro with modern creating a tidy euro look car which can be driven on the street and track.

[Scallywag630]

Hi and welcome back to TMF. Keep us updated with pictures. Good work.

[Thorpey69]

Ok a bit more progress recently,i have trimmed and played with the arches for ages to be happy with the look and fit and now finally trial fitted

Obviously they will look better with a proper set of wheels tucked underneath lol

The past few days have been spent on body prep and masking

I wasn't happy with the door i had reskinned,so i used another i had kicking around which fitted much better but the colour match is a bit wafty lol
Well tonight was a major leap forward in progress for me,and a mental hurdle crossed,one lovely layer of 2k filler primer ripe for a rub down with some soapy 800 w&d,then the really exciting bit the top coat woo hoo.

Also had a chat with Tristan at Arc angels today about a few more carbon parts ideas,so hopefully so more new parts heading in from there shortly.Sorry it's not as detailed as some of the other threads but i'm pushed for time constantly recently,and i also like reading about everybody elses projects.

Edited by Thorpey69, 24 June 2010 - 09:30 PM.

[lewis]

looking forward to seeing this progress mate looks great

any clues on what colour your going for?

[Thorpey69]

looking forward to seeing this progress mate looks great

any clues on what colour your going for?

Well the colour has been bought,i'm not sure about it yet because the shade isn't what i was aiming for originally,but i will get it on hopefully this weekend and fingers crossed it will bring out the depth of the carbon which will feature on the rest of the car.The colour is Fiat Bianchi 749f.

[mk1leg]

Good project and are you going to beef up the wheel bearings and ball joints as the wheels are mighty wide????

[Thorpey69]

Good project and are you going to beef up the wheel bearings and ball joints as the wheels are mighty wide????

Thanks for the comments,as for beefing up wheel bearings and ball joints,i don't know whats available in that department??,i will probably run it and see how it goes initially,it's not going to get much use realistically due to me being lucky enough to have a couple of other cars to use on a daily and sunny day basis.
There will obviously be more pressure on those components especially when the neg camber kits and hi lo's get fitted after painting,open to ideas as always.

[Thorpey69]

Well today was the day for the top coat,apologies once again for the poor Iphone pictures,i gave it a dust coat initially followed by 3 coats building up the colour on each one,i started the final prep last night by taping up the workshop doors and hoovering as much as possible,i then panel wiped the whole body.This morning i started early as i didn't want to be cooking in my overalls,a quick wipe with a tack cloth and i then dampened the floor to minimise any dust clouds.
Cranked up the compressor,donned my protective straw hat and cracked on,a couple of hours later the point of no return was well passed and it's finished.
I have mangaged to stop myself from going back up there this evening to check the finish,as i don't want to upset myself today if there is a problem,however tromorrow morning before work i will pop in and check it over properly.
Hopefully the next installment will be the spraying of the rest of the roll cage and seam strips,then all the assembly can then slowly start.



Yea i know another white mini

[Stevee]

wow nice project

where did you get them 10" splits from?

[sonikk4]

Hello and welcome, thats a nice little project you've got there and am seriously liking the rims. Very nice.

[Thorpey69]

They are Force racing Split rims,from memory 7.25"x10",check out Carl force's website for a list of his luscious goodies.

[Thorpey69]

A few more updates as its been a while and just started again lol,carbon roof fitted loosely

[Thorpey69]

Carbon boot lid also fitted along with twin LED number plate lights


Carbon dash along with 3 dial clock set,i recovered the top and bottom dash rail in faux grey suede which looks quite nice..

[Thorpey69]

Roll cage being bolted in...

Fuel tank repainted and fitted

Sneak peek of the carbon bonnet..

Carbon door cards fitted this week also..

Roll cage now bolted in permanently