My Froggy Project - The Return
Turbo Mini Forums

Right, I decided that the last massive thread was a bit much, so I'm starting a new one.

I bought the car as a shell in 2007, and spent 2 years 'building' it (screwing on old parts, with the mechanical prowess of a carrot). In that time the paintwork got worse, it rusted, and a shitty mechanic bodged a few bits and did some damage to the car. After that, I did some more stuff to it.

This brings us up to early 2009, when I decided to MOT the car, it failed! It then sat around again for another six months.

Phil at GSMotorsport then took it in September, and did a load of work (brakes, subframe, steering rack, intercooler, carb rebuild, recirc dump-valve), but then ran into rust that he wasn't able to fix. He delivered the car to Nic and Hywel, who did the welding, and now the car is back with me, waiting on a few final bits.

This thread is just here to build my enthusiasm back up, and keep a log, hopefully spurring me on to actually getting it done. Ideally, I'll be getting it painted next year, so please ignore the rust/grot/scrapes/dents in any pictures that follow. I find it depressing enough!

I also wanted to say thanks to Phil, Nic and Hywel who have done some great work, and helping me finish bits of the car which I just don't have the talent to sort.
Another big thanks to Mr Fenton - His constant bitching keeps me motivated, and also the metaphorical slap when I mentioned that I might sell it.


So, work that I need to do:

* Paint wing
* Fit inner wing brace bar
* Fit clips onto boost pipe
* Fix light wiring
* Fit arches
* Fit 2nd seat
* Fit rollcage
* Tidy up some wiring (engine bay, boot)
* Replace steering wheel
* Fit brake pad retainer pins
* Fit new wheels (maybe post MOT)
* Fit chrome strips
* reverse the door handles

(post mot-1)
* Fix handbrake efficiency.
* Fix handbrake retaining clips for springy bits on rear drums. (bend)
* Aim headlights


Bits I have bought since this post:

* Steering wheel
* New arch brace bars
* Brake pad retainer pins


Things I'd like to do Post-MOT:

* Re-spray
* New dash
* Re-paint engine, tidy engine bay
* Gearbox + Drops
* Proper Rollcage

Edited by AlexB on 10th Sep, 2023.

And here are some photos of where we are at.

This is the car when I MOTed it:


Cleaning up the brake discs


New boot floor (not having one caused an MOT fail)


Exhaust mount & Subframe bar (again, this was an MOT fail)


New intercooler pipework, mounts, and end cap




Dump-valve inlet


And the finished rusty area

Edited by AlexB on 31st Oct, 2010.

YEAH!!

I like the new intercooler pipework, very neat

Very good. Will be good to see this at Avon/Pod next year.

I cant see the pics.

Good to see youre back on it though Al

Paul

I seriously doubt it!

Yes intercooler install is very neat.

Rick

I'll third that on the intercooler pipe work, very neat, nice looking car

Jack Jones

Bah, why can't I see the pics :(

I dunno, but I've just changed the URLs, so mebbe you can now?

I still can't see pics either, which is a shame because I'd like to see your boot floor finished.

Replaced them for TM-hosted pics. Any better?

Better now. It looks like the site that hosts your pics is down. Even your avatar is missing.

Intercooler looks excellent.

In the 13's at last!.. Just

yep, excellent work there too

Yes i moved to the darkside

Instagram @jdm_brett

the lists aren't too long Alex - should have all that down by the end of next week!!

Pipe work & intercooler look tidy in black,very smart!

Cheers Ross.

Hey hey.

Just a quick update. I got some paint, and have started to paint the A-Panel and wing. I'm not so much doing it to fix any dents or rust, but to make the car 1 colour.

It's my first time of painting, so I wasn't expecting much, but I'm happy about how it's gone so far. I've done about 3 coats of paint so far, and have a few more to do then glossing. I think the colour match is OK, but not perfect, but it's going to look better than having a big black panel. Only downside so far was that I scraped a bit of the paint with the bottom of the can earlier - but that will sand out and hopefully wont be noticeable after I'm done.

I also decided to paint the whole wing so there isn't a hard line between old and new paint, and to remove a few obvious rusty bits.

Here's a few pics of the progress so far (oh, and ignore the mess / whatever as I don't care)









-a

Looking good. Can I just ask why your exhaust mount was an MOT failure?

Cool Al

I seriously doubt it!

The exhaust mount wasnt, but the bar part was - the subframe had the rear removed (i.e. it was a C shape, the sides and the front) - it failed on being unsafe, so I had the bar welded in to replace the missing part, and an exhaust mount welded onto that.

Al, a tip to help you blend the paint in.

Where you mask off, do a rollover with some 2" masking tape. This will give you a softer edge of paint which will be easier to blend into the surrounding with some cutting compound before you lacquer it.

I'll do you a paint drawing, 2 min.

Thanks Tom - good advice, I'll try that tomorrow.

Looks good Alex, pipework looks mega ! :)

Ha ha ha, hello Phil - Thanks for dropping the bits off today, it was great to see you and the little lad.