Miglia project (lots of pics-not much action)
Turbo Mini Forums

Hi,

As im at my folks place for new year and theres not much going on I thought I would do a project thread.I dont think it will measure up to Paul & Sturgeos work of engineering genius so dont get your hopes up!

Bit of background is that I had a project on the go that I had stripped down to start the welding work on which I had planned to build as a miglia replica.I had already totted up the cost of the parts to do my shell and it wasnt cheap so when Iain broke his miglia I bought the shell as it seem like good value compared to doing my own.I also had the subframes and mb wheels to go with it.

I bought a few more of the major bits to go on soon after but come the start of this year things went totally pear shaped financially due to family stuff so had to get rid of a few bits and had the car up for sale for a while.Thankfully it didnt sell but the work done on it last year was next to nothing.However things are getting back to normal financially so im hoping in the coming year I can really get stuck into it.Thought I would pop a few pics up of whats gone on so far.

Most of you will know the car anyway but here it is as I bought it.

Edited by rosco454 on 29th Dec, 2010.

First job was to strip what was left of the loom out as it wasnt of much use and to take the brake lines out.

Pedal box turned out to be a nice tilton item,needs the clutch pedal shimmed slightly as it has a bit of play at the pivot but apart from that its spot on.




As the car is already built as such its just been a case of tidying up the stuff I wasnt happy with,so did a few messy bits to start off with.

Manky bit on the column support.



Tidied up





Cage had an overhead bar removed at some point in the past.



Tidied up





Other end of the removed overhead bar (was a right pig to get at)




Tidied up





Old harness eyes were removed at some point in the past.The rust in the flutes is just metal filings from grinding that had rusted and once cleaned up it was spotless.



Tidied





Handbrake mounts were a bit messy



Tidied

Edited by rosco454 on 29th Dec, 2010.

The car looks to have had a little shunt at some point which I suppose is par for the course with something like this.Some of the cage had been moved fractionally rewelded without tidying up the previous mounts and it was a bit messy.



Tidied up as best I could.




Took out the carbon parcel shelf which revealed a dimpled one beneath that fitted in with the rest of the car nicely so sold the carbon one to Oneeyedlizard.







Removed the footrest and redid the mount for it as the previous one was a bit rough,old bits of cage eft in place etc.

Old one



Tidied up



Brace made



Mount attached



Welded to cage



There was a tear in the footrest itself so welded that up on the ali mig at work.

Edited by rosco454 on 29th Dec, 2010.

I didnt buy the doors with the shell (dont know why but seemed like a good idea at the time).I had a set of rotten doors from the previous project.The other one was in a similar state to this one.




I did the first one by making my own repairs but didnt realise moss had started to do door bottom repairs so bought two of those,cut the home made repairs and started over.

Repair panel



Tacked in place,took a little bit of adjustment to get the fit right but panels wernt bad at all.Only have the repair pics for one door so just use your imagination for the other one



Welded up



Cleaned up and primered



There is still an area that needed doing on leading edge of the door where the hinges bolt to that I havnt got round to but all the lip is repaired.

Edited by rosco454 on 29th Dec, 2010.

Good work mate, glad to see someone getting stuck in during this bloody weather!

I refurbished the mb wheels but unfortunately had to sell them soon after when things took a nose dive money wise.Bit of a shame really as they are my favourite wheels and had always wanted a set.Had more bad luck with wheels as well,I had sorted out a good deal on a set of spectrums but that didnt happen in the end.I might just have to stop being tight and buy some of Carls wheels when the time comes that I need the shell of its palettes again.

MB's went from this



To this







I also bought a pair of carbon seats although I suspected the wouldnt both fit so once that was confirmed i sold one on.(camera makes the look differnt colour for some reason)



Cut out the old seat mounts as new seats were much wider and got the remaining seat roughly in place.Removing the last of the old mounts from the mounting frame on the floor was a nightmare as nothing could fit in properly,got there in the end but it took hours.



This allowed my to get some mounts made (cant take credit for this bit as the local fab shop cut them)





Unfortunately I still couldnt get the seat into the right position as the unusually high door bar means the wing of the seat catches with the seat more upright than it normally would be.That means my head is too close to the roof for comfort by the time I have a lid on.Sold the remaining seat a month or so ago and on the look out for a cobra evolution pro to replace it with as that seams to be the best bet for the dimensions I need.

Edited by rosco454 on 29th Dec, 2010.

I also bought a metro turbo lump to rebuilt from someone on the forum and bought a spare 1275 block,rods and head locally but unfortunately it went the same way as the mb's when things got tight and was put up for sale.







Bought one of those fancy 5 panel mirrors from one of the miglia drivers.



Mounted up.I welded a couple of brackets to the cage bar but not happy with how long the mounts are so plan is to make some shorter brakets so theres not loads of it sticking out past the mounting point once the mirror is in place.




I also bought some track adjusters and a gear linkage adjuster from Carl (who was spot on to deal with and quick turnaround) and some cheap studded rose joints so drilled the steering arms to suit.Think i will most likely end up making some steering arms and fittings to suit some non studded rod ends when the chance arrises but the cheapo's do the job for now.

Edited by rosco454 on 29th Dec, 2010.

Most worrying part was when I removed the false floor from the drivers side floor to find this.



It wasnt as bad as it first appeared and looked like this and once the wire wheel had been over it.



There were two small pitted patches like this one and the rest was solid.




Got them cut out





First one welded



Both welded





Roughly cleaned up - needs finishing in the pic but the dremmel died,its done now but didnt get round to taking any more pics.

Edited by rosco454 on 29th Dec, 2010.

I didnt like the way the brake reservoirs were mounted as the braket was messy but one of them was mounted in a cylinder shown below.



Thought I would make up something similar but with the cylinder a bit bigger to catch spills and mounted through the base which would be capped off.



This looked shite once the reservoir was mounted so made some cylinders at the same size as the original one (couldnt find the right size tube so just bodged it up/adjusted some to fit.

Cut



Welded



Dressed and fitted





Made 3 of these and had ideas on how to mount them which seemed ok in my head but looked pants in reality so went back to the drawing board and came up with this.




Shaped it up to fit the bulkhead and it tucks neatly out the way and sits directly above where the hose go through to the pedal box.It will be mounted up using a bracket that attaches to the screw in grommets I have for the hoses to pass through.Will also have a little rubber strip trim on the bottom once its sprayed to stop it rattling on the bulkhead.

Edited by rosco454 on 29th Dec, 2010.

The false floor I removed from the drivers side wasnt to my taste as im not a big fan of chequer plate so made a new one and another to go on the passenger side from 12g ally sheet.

Drivers side



Passenger side.



Used the dimple press I had made to do the reservoir holder so that the fit in with the rest of the car.

Drivers side



Passenger side



Fitted






Eventually they will be painted the same colour as the interior when it gets sprayed and I have some grippy stuff to put where the masking tape is at the moment.

Edited by rosco454 on 29th Dec, 2010.

Last bit of work to get up to date was to sort out the drivers side a pillar gusset.It doesnt match the passenger side one at all,the dimples are pressed badly and not in the right place.Probably being a fanny but if I had just left it then it would have bugged me everytime I looked at it.

Passenger side



Drivers side (photo flatters it a little)



Hacked it out (this was a right awkward twat of a job)



That left me with this once the old welds were cleaned up (another awkward job)




New gusset plate made up and shaped to fit





Resting roughly in place ready to be welded,will weld the inside edge then dress the outer edge round the rollcage.






Thats about it to be honest so far but hoping to get going a bit quicker in the new year,have the gear sitting to do a few jobs straight off I just need to find time.Hopefully can get some more parts hoarded up without having to sell any this time and also going to buy an new welder for doing things like seat mounts,cage bars etc as mine is fine for panel work but struggles with anything thicker.

Cheers Ross.

Edited by rosco454 on 29th Dec, 2010.

Good to see your getting on with it mate and didn't sell the shell. Front floor plates look the nuts!

Rich

2012 Avon class c 2nd place 13.8 @98mph

Thanks T2,didnt notice your reply earlier among all the pictures I was posting.Im lucky enough to have a garage to work in although its still pretty cold in there unless your doing a bit of welding or something.

Cheers Rich im really pleased with how the floor plates came out,making the dimple press was time well spent I think.

Cheers Ross.

looks like your making good progress, keep it up

Audi s4 b5 - 470bhp & 486ft lbs

On 30th Apr, 2012 Brett said:
yeah stick the bit in and give it a wobble

All looks good. I find progress comes in fits and starts.

Wow, great job and a good kick start to the project.

The attention to detail (I think you called yourself 'being a fanny') is a real credit to you. Join the club matey

Richard.

Minivanless, but reluctantly happy living with the decision. There'll be another one day.
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=minimadmotorman#p/u

Thanks for the comments guys,much appreciated.

Cheer Ross.

That is great, but now do yourself a favour, and go Miglia-racing with it. That has got nothing to do on the road!

Edited by rosco454 on 29th Dec, 2010.

im glad you hav done a build thread. im building a miglia inspired shell. not quite as intense but alot of ideas from one. im gona keep my eye on this :)

Looking very good, if you carry on like this it will be a fantastic car.

Totally agree, got to have pride in your work.

On 29th Dec, 2010 turbominivanman said:
Wow, great job and a good kick start to the project.

The attention to detail (I think you called yourself 'being a fanny') is a real credit to you. Join the club matey

Richard.

jolly good, looks really nice
– can you please post up a pic of the dimple press you made?

//marcus

internationally known as "big" swede

Nice job on those pillar gussets, i must get one of those dimple tools.

Yeah the 5-10k per season for a miglia sounds a bit on the cheap side. One guy a couple of years ago spent £49k in one season.

Edited by Timinichelsea on 30th Dec, 2010.

Great to see your back working on it again. nice work too, that reservoir holder thing looks spot on, and the dimple pressing is cool, especially on the floor panels.