brads 1963 mk1 850.
Turbo Mini Forums

Nice to see your still going on this mate.

Phil.

WWW.TURBO-MINI.COM

Great project with a touching story.

Looking forward to seeing it come together.

In the 13's at last!.. Just

So i decided to rip the rear subframe out in preparation for the body being put on the trolley. Found some sneaky spacers in there



Rear subframe came out eventually. Would have been easier with another set of hands, but it was easy enough with a bit of fiddling. The rear of the subframe was screwed to the boot floor with a self tapper... odd...

They look like home made spacers but still with standard length studs ?

Later rear drums had the spacer cast in and used longer studs.

It also looks like the wheels were rubbing the trailing arms despite the spacers.

Anyway, good progress.

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???

The shell is up on the trolley as of today. so nice having it so mobile for the first time, it's fuggin awesome! The shell isnt tacked onto the trolley yet as it rained cats & dogs this afternoon in Sydney. A job for tomorrow i think

In another update, AGI (rollcage fabricators) just asked if we could delay the rollcage work for a week as they are behind schedule on a few of their current cars. Im happy to, but next week is easter so i have a feeling it will end up two weeks.

Sometimes we cant control these things and just have to roll with it. However, it did kick me into gear so im very happy with that :)

So im right, being easter the rollcage wont go in until the following week.

In positive news, it looks like i wont be running a rear subframe anymore. It makes no sense when im going to run coilovers. Probably a beam and still retain trailing arms. Makes sense. Saves weight

So my suspension guru mate came around saturday night and we have an idea for the rear subframe replacement. I need to speak to the engineer before i do anything, but its a simple C-channel and a few L-brackets with some bolts and tabs. We can run the standard trailing arms but allow for camber and toe adjustment.

Also, due to the rollcage timeline being moved its going to get media blasted next week. Its being picked up on saturday to go to Quikstrip in Bankstown. Funnily enough, i had it booked in there to be blasted 4 years ago but my dad was seriously ill so i cancelled the booking.

The rollcage still hasnt got a new date, but it will be in the next few weeks. The main issue here is just getting the body out to the street. This is without a doubt the shittest driveway for project cars. Its steep and twisty, and theres a short height limit due to the driveway steeply turning upwards with a level deck overhead. The max height would be around my head height and im only 6 foot.

decided to clean a wheel well last night to see how hard it was going to be. Not 100% sure if this rubbish will come off with the blasting, so no harm in trying it with a paint scraper






Also had forgotten about leaving one of the seam covers on. As i was getting it off the noises weren't confidence inspiring, but it seem to be not too bad. It will all be properly revealed once blasted. woo, progress!





It's great having a car from Australia IN australia... considering it hasnt been touched in years, the body *seems* in good condition (we will see once its blasted). I'm sure if it was in the UK this shell would be a lot holier

Looking good... always a worrier when comin back from blaster.. i worry more about the numptys warping large panels like roof n rear quarters

Yeah i would! I picked up a gt shell that had £600 worth of panels welded in then got blasted and the roof got warped! I got it for £110

On 1st Apr, 2015 D4VE said:
Yeah i would! I picked up a gt shell that had £600 worth of panels welded in then got blasted and the roof got warped! I got it for £110

Edited by braad on 2nd Apr, 2015.

Today the body goes to quikstrip in bankstown (in southern Sydney) to be blasted over easter. In preparation, i spent wednesday afternoon & night under the ass-end scraping the grime, tar and crap away. This was mainly done so i could inspect the steel and get measurements. Once i was thoroughly covered in shit i stripped the body of any remaining attachments like earthing straps, the doors, door hinges, seat belt mounts, handbrake, steering column support, pedals and frame, suspension mounts, etc

Is it worth removing the compliance plate for blasting and re-rivetting afterwards?

Found the boot floor to be pretty rusty, and the back bottom section of the drivers side rear wheelwell too. Otherwise it looked fairly clean. The blasting is going to help, i think both the valances will come out looking like swiss cheese, the bootfloor will just about disappear around the spare wheelwell.

I looked in the interior crossmember and saw bits of rust in there. How would you go about dealing with that? Do people cut the crossmember out, sort the rust, prime & paint, then weld the crossmember back in?

So yesterday and last night i spent some time finishing up cleaning things up in preparation for the blasting happening today. I also started taking measurements of the rear floor section for the beam and suspension changes.
It was going so well until it started pouring rain


after what felt like hours staring at the mini's floor from underneath it, i think i might have an idea for a jig to fabricate so we can replace the turrets with 100mm tubing.







Then today at 11am, Jim from Quikstrip turned up and we pushed the body up the driveway and onto his trailer. It's the first time in a decade the car has seen the street, and only the third since it arrived here almost 15 years ago. I can tell you i'm smiling pretty widely at the moment
Jim's happy to have the car and take it straight to AGI on monday so it can get it's rollcage done, just saves dealing with my ridiculous driveway more than needed. Progress is continuing!

The pictures i quickly took today after the mini was dropped off to the magicians at AGI engineering for the rollcage work. I'm quite happy with the shell condition! From other shells i have seen, this one is solid but just a bit rough in some areas

Hey guys, I need to find a measurement for the centre of the seat so they can align the harness eyes up (on the harness bar). However i don't have a seat and need to buy them (no idea where to go for that). It was said before that the steering wheel doesn't centre with the standard seating position. This is where i need some help, am i going to want/be able to mount the seat so it lines up with the steering wheel, or is it not worth it?

I need some external door hinges so AGI can mount the doors. I have scrounged up 3 randoms but dont know if they are top or bottom or left or right hinges. The guys want to tuck this cage as close as they can to maximise space and need to throw the doors on (my doors dont have pockets either, they were trimmed a while ago.

last final few photos to chuck up as it stands...

Looks pretty good!! Is it the paint or is the roof dented?

So i randomly dropped past the engineers workshop yesterday afternoon and had a quick chat. It was nice to put a face to a name!

It turns out that i CAN run fixed back bucket seats and they DONT have to be ADR (Australian Design Rules) approved seats. When i asked about the ADR seats his first question was what year model the car was (1963), and he instantly said it can be engineered with non-ADR seats. His only conditions were that they use steel bases, arent flimsy plastic and are from a recognised brand and not a knock-off. So Velo, Cobra, Recaro, racetech are all accepted. I'm pretty stoked with that!

In regards to the 6-point cage (as is well known here in Australia) it cannot be engineered, but the half cage can be engineered as long as there is nothing protruding forward, OR if there is (which there will be little mounting studs for the forward arms of the cage) then they have to be very well covered/protected.

I have used the help of a mate to get some very reasonable prices for Velo seats. So i'm a little excited about my seat shopping today

so went seat shopping yesterday and today. Tried the Cobra Monaco sport and its too small for me. However, at Revolution Racegear (Auburn, Sydney) they have a seat base made for the monaco to specifically suit the mini. Anyway, my collarbones were well past the rear harness holes, so it's a no-go.

Went to Motorsport Connections at seven hills, Sydney. We tried the Velo Milano and it wasnt so good, then tried the GP-90 and it was better but too tight. They then whipped out a GP-90 X/Large and it fitted just right. Perfect seat for my body.

Unfortunately the Velo GP-90 X/Large is way too wide at the wings (shoulder height) to fit side by side in a mini. This morning i went back and tried a GPT-2 which was similar but narrower up high and it aldo wont fit as a pair either...

Im hopefully going to try a Velo Milano X/Large this afternoon at another mini owners place, but im not hopeful. From the seats i have tried, i need a 400mm hip width to be comfortably snug and the 380mm seats have been too tight (im fairly solid at 187cm, mid-90kgs, 500mm across shoulders). Each seat thats wide enough at the hips is then way too wide up top for the Mini to go as a pair.

The measurement i have of the shell is 1080mm from b-pillar to b-pillar at about 800mm off the floorpan.

What have people run as a fixed-back harness-able seat in a mini??



So the two seats. On the left the Velo Milano Standard, and on the right the Velo GPT-2.

Lesson #1 dont be a solid bloke and decide to buy fixed back seats to put in a mini

With regard to a fixed back harnessable seat, you've probably covered most, however one thst i think works well in the mini are some of the seat options from a lotus elise