11 replies to this topic

[gixer271]

Hi,

I puchased this mini back in 2005 & I have been slowly working on it as spare time allowed. I bought the car off Ebay from Derby. I had only seen the pictures on the auction & took a risk & won the auction . When I arrived to pick up the car & drive it back to Doncaster I found a few extras on it that I don't even think the seller knew about. The seller had only had it for a year & had bought it from a guy in Whales that had done all the work. The seller told me that it 'Should' fly through the MOT when required a month later. I bought the car with the plan of stripping the full car to bare shell & rebuilding it, so I was expecting it requiring some work. With that we exchanged money & documents & I was on my way back home in my new project (Which got me home no probs)

First thing I did was to book it into my local gargage for a Pre-MOT.

It came back with 3 pages of fail items !!!!!!

Luckily for me I have worked as a a Vehicle Technician from the age of 17 & the reason for buying this car was to keep me busy playing around with cars as I am no longer in the car trade.

Whilst replacing some bottom arm bushes I noticed that there was no nut on the lower arm pin & I had driven this back from Derby !!! If the pin had fell out !!!!

There were alot of nice items on the car that the seller didnt know about which I found but didn't mention them to him.

Some of the main items included:

Metro Turbo 4 pot calipers 8.4" Vented discs
Rear Coil-Over conversion (Rear subframe removed)
Petrol tank conversion - Mini van tank taking up the boot

This is one of the pictures from the auction.

[gixer271]

First thing I did was to take out the engine. The last owner said the engine was re-built 6000 miles ago just before he bought it. I had to strip it down to see if that was true. I have a very good friend that has a Geabox company in Doncaster & he said I could strip the engine there on my days off





Engine was stripped right down to the bare block. I had a nice collection of Snap-on tools to hand



Pistons out. New rings, big ends, Mains, Cam bearings & thrust washers.



Gearbox stripped by my good friend Mr gearbox builder & new bearings & gaskets ordered.



We found a nice suprise inside. A X-pin diff (dont think the previous owner knew about this either). There was a problem though. A tooth had snapped off the crown wheel & had left metal shards all in the bottom of the gearbox. We found more of the metal inside a knackered oil pump too. 3.44 crown wheel & pinion found on Ebay & new oil pump fitted.



Next up was deciding on a cam. After many nights reading this forum I ordered a Swiftune SW5-07 kit with Alloy vernier duplex chain.



Gearbox done & fitted back on block. Just waiting for my new water pump & stage 3 head to arrive.



Received my new water pump & stage 3 head. Also got a new Turbo clutch & release bearing. I also did a few extra tweeks as you will see later in the pics.

With the new engine built I thought it was best to start on the car. It needed some body repairs (a dented door from a wind blast & no door strikers & a bit of rust on the scuttle panel) I called on another good friend of mine that works on car body repairs

A long afternoon & a few welding rods later. Also got the new engine in

[slegersmini]

ooh a very nice bit of kit there... this will be soo nice once its finished

Keep us posted!

[blacktulip]

looks mean lol by any chance has it been reshelled at some point? its unusual to see a top dash rail and a washer bottle mounted there on a '72 mini.

Edited by blacktulip, 05 September 2008 - 02:15 PM.

[gixer271]

I don't know about the shell?

Anyway.....

I decided to add a few goodies inside the cockpit. I didn't like the dash that came with it & I had spotted some nice fibreglass dashboards on this website.

Out with the old.



Old dash ready to sell.


With the old metal dash sold on Ebay for a surprising amount I bought a fibreglass item & started to buy new dials as I sold the old dash complete. I had in mind some nice Stack & Racetech gauges including a digital speedo.



Whilst I had the dash out I also modified the interior heater by cutting some metal on the dash rail to allow it to raise the heater further under the dash which gave me lots more foot space around the clutch pedal ( the heater water pipe was very close to the clutch pedal & I kept catching my foot on it).

I also won a new seat & would look at getting another to match later.

[gixer271]

After Speaking to a sales guy at Demon Tweeks with the intent to buy a matching seat to the one I already have, he talked me into a nice deal on a pair



Seat mounting points had to be welded to the floor so I could use the Recaro side mounts.


I also bought some 3" 6 point Saebelt harnesses but needed to add a harness bar to the roll cage to give extra support for the top holes in the seat. I had some bar left so I made up some door bars too.




I couldn't use a front cage as I didn't want to cut the dash ends, so the door bars were plated & mounted to the front inner wheel arches.

[blacktulip]

good progress i like the seat frames, never seen those before.

[mk3 Cooper S]

looks mean lol by any chance has it been reshelled at some point? its unusual to see a top dash rail and a washer bottle mounted there on a '72 mini.

I think it is a later shell as it is rod gearchange , single handbrake cable and large bolt front sub frame.

Quality of the work looks good. I like teh extended/modified scuttle corners to help the flip front sit nicely.

[gixer271]

Thanks guys. Comments very welcome More dash pics coming.

[gixer271]

Sprayed the dash Satin Black.


Fitted a Stack ST400 Rev counter, Racetech fuel,oil pressure & water temp guages, along with a wired up starter/ignition button.

Edited by gixer271, 10 September 2008 - 09:23 PM.

[mini_kel]

Lovely project,I like the dash! Need to get some done on my own projects!

[Racer_Pete]

I like the tacho
Can't wait to see what it looks like finished