73 replies to this topic

[braad]

Rear coilovers turned up, surprisingly quick! Sent to the other side of the world so quickly

[Ben_O]

I'm liking the chalkboard idea!

[braad]

I'm liking the chalkboard idea!

Its so handy! Definitely recommend it. Its good to know that i have somewhere to write jobs and ideas but no shelf space has been compromised

[braad]

Not much, but i had a fiddle and cleaned one of the trailing arms up last night. I didnt pull it completely apart as i wont remember how to put it back together :s

[braad]

During the week i found some motivation and did some cutting and grinding to make the 4 pieces of angle fit into the beam, ala



On thursday and friday i went to richards workshop and we measured 5000 times and then cut, checked, ground, re-checked, did some more grinding, tacked, checked again, filed and welded. And checked. We ended up with something that resembles a beam.

Not a bad place to work



I brought the old subframe up for extra measurement goodness



Then the work started. First we determined the trailing arm shaft position in relation to the body and the main two bolts holding the subframe to the body. Then relayed that to the outer angle pieces. We didnt need the full length and area so i trimmed them all up to neaten it





Once we positioned the camber slots, we traced and also got a rough shape of the trailing arm. Then i trimmed



Then came time to weld the plates on. Once on, we drilled and filed the slots out. Nothing like a good old hand file









Once they were done it was time to do the inner angles. The shaft holes were drilled 8mm closer to the beam to allow for our toe adjustment



Once again we made a radius of the trailing arm diametre and neaten the angle up



And the finished inner angle. Holes drilled (carefully after a pilot hole was off centre), trimmed and linished





Then it was time for it to roughly go together. The four mounting holes in the inner angle pieces had to be transferred to the beam. Due to access issues i started by hand drilling (rather than the drill press i used for everything else), but it all worked out well. The beam is now completely drilled



.

While richard was welding i trimmed some 2x1 channel to use as the rear part of the new subframe. Richo welded my little pre-drilled angles on it later







So its almost done. The beam needs a few slight mods and its complete

[braad]

So, I have tried to update the first/original post of my thread, but struggling due to too many images. The whole post is way too big to plonk mid-thread. I'll keep trying

 

The plan is to run coilovers and remove the rear subframe and run a rear beam with trailing arms. I had a steel works place make up a thick beam using the dimensions I had taken when I was cleaning the crap off the underside of the body just before blasting. I also got them to make up some L-brackets to hold the trailing arms on. One weekend in Sept 2015 I ventured to Richards and we worked on the beam and the brackets. It currently sort of resembles something of use! I need to get someone to do some structural work to the beam (IIRC it's 5mm thick, too thick for me to cut with a grinder precisely), but hopefully by the end of these pics you'll see where we are headed with it. It will have a fair bit of camber and toe adjustment, and despite the necessary bar work (which now resembles a subframe), it's lighter than the original, and will suit the flat boot floor. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Took the old rear subframe for any reference measurements we'd need

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, I tried to get Richard to wear more safety stuff. No, he didn't listen to me

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This beam will run across the back end, tying into the existing rear subframe bolt holes in the floor

 

 

 

The beam with the rear plates welded in. The camber slots are welded on the end plates with the end plates then being drilled and filed to match the camber slot holes

 

 

 

The inner brackets which will be able to be adjusted for toe with shims

 

 

 

 

Richard fitting up the driver’s side trailing arm. The knob bit with receives the trumpet in a standard mini need to make way for proper rotation

 

 

 

 

These holes are for the inner brackets. I will drill through the heel board of the shell and have captive bolts in the interior so the beam can mount up to, and we can adjust toe with shims from the outside

 

 

The next step with the beam is to modify it to match the profile of the exhaust tunnel and handbrake cable. I have some nice little aeronautical rollers that will route the cable through the beam and up the tunnel. Then trim it all up to make it fit nicely (more so for aesthetics). To mount it to the shell I will need to get some dome or cap head bolts, assumingly high-tensile, for the outer bolts, and then some bigger bolts for the internal trailing arm brackets (IIRC we drilled for either 3/8" or 5/8" but will check when needed). 

 

Once the beam is done, then it will be a case of connecting some lengths of tube between the beam and the length of rectangular tube shown earlier. Sounds easy as hey!

Edited by braad, 12 December 2016 - 05:40 AM.

[braad]

Onto the next few items, first I sold the mambas a while back without them ever touching the car (two of them weren't removed from their packaging from England - I'm in Australia). In their place, I went (imo) all-out. I contacted the lovely chap Carl from Force Racing about some wheels. Originally planning on buying their 3-piece mamba-style 10x7, I was swayed when Carl mentioned he was making a new mesh style design. So, I ummed and ahhed a bit and decided to throw caution to the wind, buy the wheels without seeing a proper one and go for it. I ordered some 10x7 with black centres and polished inner/outers with equal dimensions (both 3.5"). I enjoyed the fact they were the first set to head out of Europe and only the 3rd set at all, however they haven't been used yet, so the surprise is sort of ruined. 

To compliment the wheels, I was looking at getting some Yokohama AO32R's, but another nice bloke from Sydney minis hooked me up with some lovely Dunlop Formula R's. Getting them mounted will be an interesting exercise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My mate thought it'd be funny to see them up next to his 33" muddies. He was correct, they look ridiculous

 

 

 

With the plan having evolved a while back to go a little nuts, I contacted Protech UK and had a good chat with Kevin (I think) and discussed my plans. He was a lovely bloke who was quite knowledgeable, with the discussion done, they ended up making me a slightly custom set which had a longer body for the rear to enable a bit more droop for road handling. Like the wheels, these were ordered and delivered then put into storage until they are needed. 

 

Front coilover and mounting kit

 

Rear coilovers, straight (not offset)

 

 

 

This year I have made a few little goals with the mini, one is the boot floor, another the turrets, another the seat mounts. So far I have drawn up the boot and turrets and left it at that, but I have managed to get some mounts made up. These are only the beginnings, as the inner ones interfere with the exhaust tunnel, so will need some chopping and welding. Hopefully I can make some modest progress and get the seats fixed in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It has been a quiet 12 months since most of the work, but I am hoping that I can slowly nut these little issues out and get the mofo into the next phase in the not-too-distant future. Fingers crossed

 

 

 

Brad

[braad]

ok! All is updated. So the first page has multiple posts hosting the updated story from the beginning to current. Then, as is obvious, I have re-posted the final stuff here as it's 5 pages later.

 

I'll hopefully keep this thread updated over time and maintain the images a bit better than last time...

 

Thanks

[sixtyeight]

looks like a great build! 

[mattmiglia]

Looks a great build. Sorry about your Dad, I'm sure he's enjoying seeing it come together

[braad]

looks like a great build!

 

 

Looks a great build. Sorry about your Dad, I'm sure he's enjoying seeing it come together

Thanks for the kind words guys, they're greatly appreciated!
We'll see where I can manage to take it in 2017

[mattmiglia]

How's the car going braad?

[braad]

How's the car going braad?

So, I’m quick to reply…

Car hasn’t changed. Life got in the way, then covid. The next few months will determine what happens. So hopefully I’ll have updates of some description soon (relative to the rest of my custodianship)

[braad]

Ok, not much of an update. Since last time I posted I did offer the body to a few friends, so took some pictures, which I’ve posted below just as a reference for its condition after all these years.
While I’ve tried to keep it stored as dry as possible, I don’t think I imagined it’d only have slight spots of surface rust all these years after being blasted.

Not sure about in the UK, but in Australia I can buy another mini for the price of half decent body work & paint… so that’s what I’ve done! You can see that by clicking on this ——> Morris K van

What does that mean for the 850? Well, I sat down and discussed it with my wife and long story short it will stay and quite likely become a track car in future. The reality is I have a lot of parts to have a track car already (brakes, engine & gearbox, cage, seats, seat mounts, suspension, wheels) and I don’t need to go the whole expensive on-road engineering path.
In the mean time, it will be very slow progress.











































The two together

Edited by braad, 16 March 2023 - 05:28 AM.