33 replies to this topic

[tiger99]

Cooperman, I like your solution to the problem, but what a lot of work!

I can't see any other structurally sound method being any quicker. Sad, but anyone who needs to re-seam has a major job on their hands. Best avoided except for particularly valuable cars, where the identity if the shell is an important part of the value. I admire your patience.

Hopefully the rise in value of Minis in decent condition will deter people from deseaming and it will become a thing of the past, along with fitting longer spring shackles to Dagenham Dustbins to make pretend dragsters, dangling furry dice from the mirror, having a nodding dog on the rear parcel shelf, and other daft practices from the past that were never any good.

[Cooperman]

Actually it wasn't too bad a job. The shell, which was the original 1967 Mk.1 998 Cooper shell, was completely stripped and we did a lot of seam welding to strengthen it for competition. The seams had to be replaced  in order to comply with historic motor-sport regulations. I reckon, from memory, it took about 3 hours per strip, making 12 hours in total, but that included grinding/linishing back, filling & seam sealing. Well worth the effort.

 

After we finished it we felt that the 998 was not quick enough for getting class wins, so we fitted a fairly full-on 970 'S' engine which had something like 88 bhp at 7000 rpm, but really nothing below about 4000 rpm, so it had to be very low geared and it was doing about 90 mph at 7000 rpm in top. I never liked it.

[tiger99]

You must be a faster worker than me! That is perhaps not surprising, because when I am doing things that I don't like I tend to take a break at frequent intervals.

[Cooperman]

There were two of us working on it, me and my son who was then a student automotive engineer (now a F1 Design Engineer), so we made god progress and shared the welding work between us.

He was/is a better welder than I am and we are currently building a Mk.2 Escort RS2000 historic rally car. I take the block for boring and machining tomorrow.