8 replies to this topic

[Jwatts93]

Hello I've been looking to find a van / pickup shell and basically swapping everything from my mini Mayfair and putting it in the shell and then selling on the old saloon shell, is this a basic swap job or is the more Involved ? Can I just bolt everything back into the new shell or will something's need changing or modifying ? Hope you can help and give advice, thankyou

[Big_Adam]

If I recall correctly, mini vans had longer trumpets on the back.

You will also need a longer exhaust to account for the bit out the back (just weld a new pipe on the back box, its what I did). Unless you get a 2 front 4 rear pickup, then you're stuffed.

But yeah, pretty much everything will swap bar hight specific parts, rear windows, fuel tank, spare tire location, battery location / battery itself.

[Daviewonder]

Unless you get a 2 front 4 rear pickup, then you're stuffed.

What's that?

[Big_Adam]

Unless you get a 2 front 4 rear pickup, then you're stuffed.

What's that?

There are a few mini pickups, no idea if from factory or not. But they have 4 rear wheels, 2 then 2. Total wheels of 6 with a longer bed.



Seen a few floating about, tried to buy one once that was in a field, £5000+, so ... no.

Edited by Big_Adam, 05 September 2012 - 10:59 PM.

[tiger99]

The trumpet length difference is very small and can be handled just by adding a washer or using the later knuckle joints with the built-in spacer.

The exhaust needs 4.5 inches added ahead of the first silencer (but you may have your own ideas about the rear end, whether side, central or twin pipes), the handbrake cables need to be lengthened by the same amount (really, new cables are the only practicable way), same for the brake pipe, but you should be fitting new Cunifer pipes anyway in any rebuild, and the wiring loom will need altering, although you can choose to run it in several different ways. Fuel line and tank are different, along with rear light units etc. I would suggest adjustable dampers, set one or two clicks stiffer than whatever type you choose would be on a saloon as a starting point. Oh, and you need to move the battery and alter the main cable accordingly. Mechanically, the complete subframe just bolts in as usual.

Check with the Somerford Mini web site for the correct rear wheel cylinder diameter for the vam/pickup. It is rather important, unless you are using an adjustable PRV.

In my opinion, the scariest thing will be adapting the saloon headlining to fit the shorter roof of a pickup. I have never had much success with headlinings, or other trim panels.

[CLM]

Mayfair headlining wont fit a pup without a fair amount of customizing, it would almost be easier to start from scratch due to the way a pup headlining is, mk1 style metal frame with fabric glued on vs. a series of bows in the later saloon.

While most of these people touched on some points. There is one MAJOR point you will need to contend with. Doors Mayfair is the mk3+ style internal hinge, and the van/pup are mk1 style external hinge. They are not interchangeable.

If you get a late enough pup/van shell the rubber front subframe will go right in. The parking brake should be single line as well so you would only need the longer front section. Rear trumpets should be longer for the pup/van but don't need to be, it will work fine with saloon items. Tailgate or rear doors and hardware needs sourced specific to the pup/van as well as tail lights specific to them. As they mentioned the saloon exhaust can just be lengthened easy enough.

Chris

Edited by CLM, 06 September 2012 - 12:02 AM.

[tiger99]

Hopefully the correct doors will come with the shell, which is why I never mentioned them. It often happens that transferring doors from one shell to another does not work very well anyway, as no two ever seem to be the same size.

There are of course workarounds for that problem in some of the rebuild threads and other places.

[Spitz]

Front subframes will likely be different depending on years.
If both are `76>, you're good to go. ( 2 bolt per side as opposed to 1 per side, and the lower rear mounts )

[Jwatts93]

Okay all this advice and help is great thankyou for the replies