149 replies to this topic

[Tomm]

hey all,

I have had my mini and have been working on it and learning for a few months now so i think i am at the stage where i can start a project page.

I bought my 1982 City E for £300 and its pretty sound for £300, it had a mot and tax but being a little boy i got carried away and striped it down. After selling my 1962 jaguar there was room for the car in tha garage and work has now begun.

Heres a pic or two of how it "used" to look.





At the moment my ideas are the following. i want my car to be as low as possible, I have already got a set of 10x6 wellers and will be buying some Hi-los and lowered shocks. I am after a wide look so i wil be going with some miglia arches which are sitting in the garage waiting to be put on but i am not yet at that point, The front is going to be a composite carbon fibre 2 pc flip front which i hope to run from a internal release system just to be a bit diffrent. I am thinking of Focus ST orange with black wheels, arches and roof.

As for the interior i want it all to be totaly custom, i have some corbeau clubmans and 4 pt harnesses, the corbeaus will be covered in black viynland i hope to try and make a carpet and headliner in the same fashion. I am also hoping to have a carputer hooked up at some point but thats not for a long while yet.

I am hoping of tuning a 1275 and putting that in as insurance for youngsters is exspensive enough so i think a 1275 is as far as i am going to go at the moment engine wise, so any advice on what to do to get some more power then i will be very gratefull.

At the moment i am striping the car down and taking out the engine and i have a few very poor pictures of the car in my garage. In a weeks time i should be going to get my 1275 from mini dan and the project should be on the roll.

here are some pics of it as it stands, get ready for a shock. ( i was not looking through the camera as the camera is flat with the garage door thats why you can barley see anything apart from the roof and the floor haha sorry)





Around christmas time i will be making a rear seat layout as my FMP in my First natonal diploma and i am hoping to make it for 3 maybe 4 if i can find the room 15" subs which i am hoping to take to competitions and do pretty well with.

I will try to keep you all as updated as posible woth my work and i hope you enjoy watching my project.

Thanks for looking (and i hope the pics work)

Tomm

[Bungle]

looks a good project

but with all the mods you are going to do to it i would keep with a 998 engine for the insurance other wise its going to cost you big time :'(

[Tomm]

thats what i have been thinking bungle but id rather do this and then sell it on when im 16 because i would love the exsperiance. Even if i dont use it as a first car.

[Tomm]

Managed to drop the engine and subframe monday night all on my little own which i am very very pleased with!!!

Tonight i will take the engine off of the subframe and do a little more and i will grab some pics and post them up on here with my future plans which i am also very pleased with.

Decided to do no more work untill i get some more gloves as my hands have perminently turned black nad it doesnt look to nice at collage!!!!

Tomm

[TOMMO0302]

Good luck Tomm,

Sounds good and very ambitious so top marks!

Get some latex gloves, boxes of 100, cheap as chips!

[miniboo]

i got some off ebay about a fiver for 100 inc postage. Bargain

[minivanman]

Decided to do no more work untill i get some more gloves as my hands have perminently turned black nad it doesnt look to nice at collage!!!!

Tomm

Pfah. black hands are a national symbol of owning a classic car! wuss

Sounds like you're making impressive progress! Dont sell it before you can drive it - you'll only regret it massively.

Finally, these are the sort of gloves I'd recommend. They have a rubber hand and a cotton back - much better than latex ones. we use them at work, you can hold little stuff properly, but they dont rip like latex ones.

Edit
something like these on ebay.

Edited by minivanman, 18 October 2006 - 03:46 PM.

[TOMMO0302]

This is in danger of turning into a thread about gloves but...i would say it depends on what type of work your doing, if its all-purpose including messing with driveshafts/hubs etc (items with a lot of grease involved) i would take quantity over quality!

Anyway, as you say, the project will give you invaluable experience whatever you decide to do..but why spend £1500 on insurance at 17 when you could invest that in some mini parts in the future? I appreciate you want a nice fast mini believe me, but i would rather wait a year or two...

[minivanman]

This is in danger of turning into a thread about gloves

You started it!

[TOMMO0302]

Tomm started it, its his thread so i guess he wanted to read 5 posts about gloves?

Moving swiftly on!

[Tomm]

haha (anyone hear about that woman whos husband tried killing her with a latx glove? hillarious!)

but yeh i have the cotton backed ones for odd jobs and some bikk mofo gloves which are very thinck that i use for pulling subframes out on and lifting shell! and yes i am a complete and utter *baby cat*

just been up the garage and taken my engine off of the subframe withought gloves ill have you know another day with black hands at collage should be ok haha!

started to scrape the C**p and grime off of the subframe and to my suprise its in pretty good nic!! Hopefully the rear one is as good!

I will post some pics in a moment of my parts and my progress so far!

Pannel wise i need

New rear valance and a drivers floor panel, I think i might also need another scuttle but i dont know yet i have to see what mine is like.

Interior wise i am after the folowing

My latest idea is along these lines black vynil headlining,
black vynil carpets,
corbeau clubmans
4pt harnesses
x2 15" jbl GT4's in a custom box
rear load bed carpeted
racing wheel pedals ect
Also plan to fit a KA or saxo dash which i think would be rather unique
Big Ol'roll cage

exterior wise

Miglia arches
composite carbon fibre front end
chrome grille
10x6 wellers
usual really

suspension wise i am after the lowest setup i can posibly run!

Engine? i am not sure, so any advice then i would be very grateful, i already have a bigbore 3" huge thigymawotsit stage one kit which will be going on!

Thats pretty much all of my ideas Interior wise at the moment but i will keep you updated if things change.

Anyway, as you say, the project will give you invaluable experience whatever you decide to do..but why spend £1500 on insurance at 17 when you could invest that in some mini parts in the future? I appreciate you want a nice fast mini believe me, but i would rather wait a year or two...

I will be riding around on a CBR600f at 17 so i will have a while to get my insurance down, i was quoted £700 on a 600 at 17 which i was VERY pleased with! So i think i will have my CBR600f for a few years untill my mini is going and could maybe drop a 1380 but i dont know yet haha!!

any advice would be very much appreciated!

Tomm

Edited by tomm, 18 October 2006 - 07:43 PM.

[Retro_10s]

Vinyl carpet?

[Tomm]

a carpet covered with vynil? is it not posible?

[Pooky]

Possible but weird

[Tomm]

oh i thought it would be rather cool. must just be me, well if i do it and it turns out poo i car just throw it, but if i never try i will not know if i like it