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.
The new shell looks good! I bet it's very light without the top and the associated structural pieces.
VERY light. I can't wait to get this thing completely built and weighed. It's gonna be light-ish. Curb weight of convertible was 165lbs more than hardtop... BUT The cabrio body shell (bare) weighs 233kg... the hardtop bare shell weighs 244kg!!! And the cabrio tailgate is lighter than the hardtop hatch, with glass. With all the top, extra cabrio bracing, factory roll bar, etc. removed, my final build will be lighter than a similarly equipped, caged hardtop. The cage is only about 60-70 pounds of steel... so even compared to an un-caged car... it's gonna be pretty light.
Then you should just send the 1.8 here, and I'll give you the Donor motor... Light cars dont need big power anyhow, look at Lotus...
Oil analysis is back... and looks GOOD This is 180 miles on Rotella T, plus running the motor up to temp on the lift after the crash. The tiny bit of lead is well within normal range. All the wear metals look great for a brand new motor. And the strong compression and leak down numbers from my earlier tests show that the motor already has good ring seal. With the run time on the rack after the crash, if the bearings were damaged, we'd see more lead here. Happy Dance Time [ame=""]Snoopy's Happy Dance! - YouTube[/ame]
I'm starting a list, "signs you may be certifiably insane"... * develops, but "recovers" from, strange obsession with Union Jacks * attempts to rebuild own automatic transmission * commits to convert automatic transmission MINI to manual, buys a totaled GP as a donor, on faith, sight unseen * vows to build a car that never existed, but "should have" (MINI GP Roadster) * buys a Clutchmasters clutch, knowing that they fail frequently * puts a Chevy S-10 part on a MINI * after flipping a convertible end over end and surviving, buys another convertible * commits to complete body swap on a car, without a second thought * owns three non-functional MINIs at the same time (if they were cats, would qualify for Crazy Cat Lady) * vows to design and build a unique convertible top for a non-existent car * buys RMW TVS kit (which isn't yet running on ANY car) for a car that is in pieces * spends hours sifting through Google image search results for "convertible top latch" * contemplates using parts from old Impala, VW Thing, or VW Rabbit on MINI Cooper * ... more to come
No question about it Paul, I think you crossed the line of no return. For public health reasons, Nathan may have to close this thread to prevent it from inspiring others.
I'll bet this guy would have no problem making a set of custom latches for you... If he can do these gas caps he can do your latches... Gas Caps
Damn... those are bitchin. I've toyed with the idea of converting to the hardtop-style gas cap / filler assembly on the rebuild... since I don't need the space for the convertible top. But I haven't looked at how hard it would be to execute. Might look at that today.
Yeah, I'm gonna cut a lot of this extraneous sheet metal out of the shell. The parts that held the factory roll hoop frame, seat belts, etc. And the flimsy vertical wall that separated the passenger compartment from the top storage area. This will provide unobstructed access to the big frame rails that the roll hoop bolted to. That's where my new roll cage braces will weld in, allowing for a shallower angle for the braces and making the new cage much stronger, and making the car even stiffer. I'll re-craft the interior side wall trim as needed to blend, eventually. I'll use this opportunity to get rid of the seat belt bumps on the side walls, that do nothing since I no longer use the factory belts. That should also let me widen the main roll cage hoop, since I'm not worried about leaving space for the OEM side interior trim. I'm really liking the creative freedom this new build is giving me. The ability to do it RIGHT...