Interior 1st Gen Most liked posts in thread: #848 Interior Project

oh yes...and the battery box painted. The battery cables have been tidied up too. I still have to glue down a square of felt to go between the battery and the chassis.

 

Thanks for the suggestions, they're very good.

--->DixonL2: I bet 1k mile trips will be even nicer than with the stock seats, as the Sparco's are super supportive for me! With the stock leatherette seats I'd get all sweaty in the summertime. The only thing is I use earplugs on the Interstate because my exhaust is loud and I have very little sound damping. Actually, I'm keeping the rear hatch panel in place mainly because it's such an effective sound isolator!

 

I can't have any car I'm driving be too relaxing, otherwise I risk falling asleep at the wheel. :sleep: This means no Lexus-esque silence, no automatic transmissions [not even flappy paddles], and definitely no land-yacht ride flotation!

 

--->Vernon; definitely go score yourself a set of Swift springs; they bring the BC's from "meh" to a good quality setup.

Here's more updates!

In removing the rear wiper assembly, the harness had to be rebuilt to wire up the license plate light. For some reason my wiring had a longer ground cable!


The RKE finally in its final resting spot with the wiring tidied up.


Carpet reinstalled! I had to cut out room for the battery and rollbar. Here's a shot of the battery installed.


The roll-bar installed! YAY!


Close-up of the front hoop mounting plate. I'll paint the bolt heads electric blue to match shortly.


Close-up of the roll-bar rear mounting point. I installed the bolts "backward" because on the passenger side it was required to clear the charcoal canister assembly.


A shot of the underbody coating used to rust-proof the roll-bar backing plates. This picture shows the rear mounting point backing plates. The same treatment was done to the front mounting point backing plates on the bottom side of the floorpan.


The seats and harnesses are next, then I'm done!
Cheers,
Ryan

 

The whole project has resulted in a weight loss. I've been real careful to weigh all things that have come out and gone into the car. The only thing I've had to guess on is the paint.

*headliner -2.5lbs
*rear wiper motor & blade -2lbs
*roll-bar with hardware +55lbs
*stock seats and seatbelt buckle -89lbs
*head curtains, headliner hardware [clock, visors, etc], front seatbelts, all unused hardware -17lbs
*A, B, and C pillar trim and oh$*!t handles -2.5lbs
*Old battery [stock-ish size] -32lbs
*Braille battery with new welded box +17lbs
*Sparco Evo seats with rails and hardware +45lbs
*Schroth 6-point harnesses and hardware +10lbs
*removed wiring -5lbs
*spray paint +3lbs

Total delta = -20lbs! Most of the rollbar is negated with the new light seats. Most of the weight savings is from removing the headliner, pillar trim, head curtain airbags, and light battery swap.


One negative is my airbag light is on :cryin: I thought I accounted for all known signals and loads [all 6 airbags, side impact sensors, battery pyro, seatbelt buckles], however I may not have properly grounded the hall sensors for the seatbelt buckles, and I may have too much tolerance for the side impact sensors [79ohm measured, 82ohm load inserted]. I'll have to plug in a factory airbag tool to see which exact codes I have to narrow down the problem. For what it's worth, my seatbelt light is off, so I got my voltage divider right!

 

Very interesting! I hope that is true, because I really want to maintain the use of the front airbags until I buy myself a Safety Solutions Hybrid Pro.

I can certainly help as much as I can make time for! I'll shoot ya a PM.

Yes, the stock seats are boat anchors indeed! The real weight killer with my setup is adding the roll bar, however I find it's worth the weight in added anti-roof-crush safety. If I was driving my MINI strictly on-road [and that probably means no Dragon either], then a roll-bar really wouldn't be necessary.

 

Last major update...cuz it's done! ;D

This is what 5 pounds of wire looks like!


Using a microfiber in the vice, I bent the lap belt anchors per Schroth's instructions for ideal alignment


This is my solution for locating the shoulder belts laterally on the harness bar, with a 3-zip-tie per belt setup. Kinda ghetto, but seems effective.


Notice I painted the mirror mount metallic black to match the rest of the interior


Shot of the roof and a-pillar. You can also see the grille cloth applied to the headliner cardboard


Shot of the passenger outboard lap belt anchor point


Shot of the seats and belts


Shot of the roll-bar


The rear wiper delete with plug installed


I'm wiped out! I'm so glad it's finished. I'm going to pass out in bed now. :crazy: :yesnod: