Most liked posts in thread: The Phoenix - The GP Roadster Project

Today's task - assess what I just bought, and start stripping more stuff off it.

Because of the damage to the front left wheel (more later on this), I can't just roll the car on and off the tow dolly... dragging is required. Every load/unload requires some engineering...


What could POSSIBLY go wrong here? Other than pulling down the garage, or having the shell (with no brakes) roll into the BMW?

Well, nothing went wrong. Everything worked as planned.


It's amazing, how high the car sits, with the stock suspension, on 18" GP wheels, with probably 1000 pounds removed. The side skirts are 10" off the ground here!


Here's the main issue with the rolling shell... it doesn't roll.


The primary failure mode when you hit something with the front suspension, or when something hits you there, is the lower control arm ("A-arm" or "wishbone") folds, allowing the wheel to move rearward, to the point it contacts the wheel well liner and the body underneath the liner. Then you basically have something you have to drag around, or put on dollies to move.

Here's a view most folks have never seen... what a MINI cabrio looks like, with everything including the top removed.



There's a lot of stuff here that I really don't need... might be able to trim some sheet metal out. And there are two beefy frame rails that are normally hidden by trim in the boot... that may be great attachment points for roll cage bracing.

Got the car on the lift. Here's Locutus Mk1, and Mk2, together.


Time to assess what's underneath.


Last owner said he had been unable to unbolt the header from the exhaust. What he didn't say (or realize, probably) was that he left a wrench on there. And, amazingly, it stayed on over 250 miles of bouncing on a tow dolly.

Took some doing, but I got the header and exhaust off. Wrung off one of the studs in the process. Dropped the heat shields to access the shifter and cables for removal.

Underside of the shell is really clean, a little rust on a few studs, but none on the shell itself. But the subframes... have some rust.



That's OK, it's not much for a 9 year old car from the snow belt. And I plan to use either my other clean subframes, or new ones. This car only has about 10% as much rust as the GP I bought...

Apparently this is a special MINI built for circle track racing. Right side wheelbase is 96" like normal... but left wheelbase is only about 91"....


That's what happens when you fold up a front lower control arm. But will be just fine with some new suspension bits.

Here's what's revealed with you pull off the crushed left front wheel, and the wheel well liner. The only damage I've found on the whole shell...


Tweaked the bottom of the A-panel a bit, and mushed the exposed end of the lower frame rail below the headlight washer tank, and a bracket for attaching the skirts.

I think I can straighten out the bracket and the A-panel. The rest won't matter... the washer tank is coming out, and the wheel well liner will hide the tiny amount of frame damage, that has no structural impact. Strut towers, frame rails, subframe all look fine.

I thought I'd swap on the LCA from the GP... but that one is rusted solid to its knuckle ball joint. And it's quite rusty overall. I'll either find another used one locally (a local salvage yard has a couple, I'll check them tomorrow), or will buy new ones. Need to get that swapped so the car will roll. That, plus a bit more work to strip the interior, and it will be ready to haul to the cage fab shop.

 

I'll have like a "coupon day" or something, with reduced admission and free balloons and pony rides and a bouncy house for anyone who wants to come.

 

With the shell gone to the cage shop, time to get the wreck back on the lift...


But I didn't feel like tearing stuff apart today. So I built something instead.


Been needing to get extra wheels up out of the way for a while. Priced pre-built wheel racks, and decided to build instead. Found a design I liked, with a DIY, here.

I built two and stacked them. Room for 8 wheels - my track wheels, and either my all-seasons or my summer wheels, when the others are mounted.


Today's parts arrival: the stuff that saved my life.

Schroth Hybrid II complete set, plus ASM shoulder belt for street use, and replacement brackets for my lap belt. Not taking any chances, reusing nothing.

Also, a big tool:


This should help a LOT with transmissions and subframes. It's a little taller at minimum height than I thought. The tilting table is quite tall. I may build a simpler fixed platform for it that will make the overall height about 6" shorter. Should give me enough clearance to drop things out of the car when needed.

 

Today's progress: Dropped and stripped subframes, stripped most of engine bay. Another hour or two, and engine bay and underside of car will be done.


Yep, this thing is handy.


Also, MOAR PARTS!!!!! From eMINIparts.com:


Front panel, underbody panel, bumper beam, wheel well liner, intake ducts, rear wheel bearings, mirror caps, right wishbone, rear trailing arm brackets, main battery cable, and some hardware. And Steven included some awesome swag!

 

A bit of hurry up and wait, for the past couple of weeks.

Cage is DONE. It's not done in the pic... but was close. I'll get more pics when I pick up the car, probably early next week.


Spent the last couple of days completing stripping of the wreck and the GP.

Blimey/Locutus Mk1... all stripped and ready to scrap. Sad.




Moved the wreck out into the rain and covered him up, to make way for the GP.



I'm not stripping nearly as much stuff off the GP. A lot of the suspension, subframes, etc. are super rusty and not worth the trouble. I pulled the PS pump and steering rack, to have as spares. Then pulled windows, handles and hardware out of both doors. Everything else was already done.

Well, almost everything...

Not many people have these, at least not in this form...


Supposedly the scrap hauler is coming tomorrow to take away both of these shells. Wife will be MUCH happier...

 

Sad day.



[ame=""]Morpheus' Grief - YouTube[/ame]

Farewell, good and faithful friend Blimey Cabrio / Locutus Mk1. And F'd-up GP0769.
May your steel find another noble purpose.

 

I kinda dig it...

Dropped off at the painter today. Should have a Thunder Blue test panel done for me to approve on Monday. Then GAME ON

 

IT'S HAPPENING.....



Visited the paint shop today to answer a few detailed questions about things. Body, doors, hood, cowl, A-panels will probably be in the booth tomorrow.

Trim is DONE. And looks fantastic. Loaded up the bumpers and skirts and stuff and hauled them home.


I LOVE this color...


Perched atop a mountain of parts... waiting on the rebuild... Things are going to get serious pretty quick, maybe by this weekend...

 

Yeah, Wellzy keeps reminding me that, if he were here, the car would be together already.

Slower day today. Spent 6 hours on non-glamorous stuff. No pretty pics to show for it. Got distracted by the dash, so didn't get all the stuff done that I had planned.

• Reinstalled weather strip
• Test fit roof header panel, marked where it needs to be trimmed to clear cage.
• Reinstalled body harness 90%. A bit to do under the car tomorrow.
• Test-fit main battery cable inside the car.
• Reinstalled PDC module and BCM.
• Removed upper steering column / steering angle sensor
• Swapped immobilizer module
• Trimmed dash frame to fit around cage
• Experimented with swapping toggle panel and head unit.

Decided to route the main battery cable as usual under the car, then bring it in the driver's footwell for the cut-off switch. There's not enough room to route it inside with the other cables on the cabrio... the extra sill reinforcement eats all the space.

The header panel / sunroof from Blimey's roof should work fine as the front seal for the bikini top. I'll need to trim it down some, but no problem.

The dash frame required A LOT of trimming and test fitting to get it to coexist with the roll cage. Used a Dremel with cutoff wheel, made it easy to trim a bit at a time right in the car. Finally got it to fit right. Still will need to trim the parcel shelves, will look at that tomorrow probably.

One downside of the roll cage design is that the knee bar eats a couple of inches of depth behind where the stereo headunit lives. And it was pretty tight behind there to start with. So it needs to move somewhere. Even though some folks have SWORN that I'd be able to swap the toggle panel and the headunit positions, there's not enough depth behind the toggle panel either. Nor does the dash frame extend down far enough. Perhaps it would work with a less-deep aftermarket unit? I even pulled the front heater ducting off the HVAC unit, still not enough room. So I need to put that back together, and figure out another place for the headunit. It MIGHT be able to mount in the passenger parcel shelf... we'll see. I'll probably keep the toggle panel in the upper location, it's kinda cool there. I'll make a blanking plate for its original position.

Probably most of a day's work left to fit the dash cover and the parcel shelves around the cage. There will be a good bit of fitting required for the sill covers, too.

 

Nothing exciting to look at today. About 5 hours, installing latches / handles windows in the doors, installing speakers, installing battery and battery fuse box, and fixing several spots where I buggered the paint on the cage.

Tomorrow, plan to work more on the dash, shelves and kill switch. Will tape up the cage to avoid more paint damage.

 

Spent a few hours today getting the front interior mostly finished. Installed shifter, e-brake covers, DSC yaw sensor, anti-submarine straps, and sat the seats in place.


Yes, I sat inside and made racecar sounds.


Played around with head unit positioning for a little while. Still some work to do on that.