I thought it was about time i started to put up some progress pics, hopefully i can get motivated to keep going and finish her off. So here goes...

The Idea :

Well, I had a mini a couple of years ago and have been wanting to get back into them, I had heard about bike conversions and was keen until i heard that they would never be allowed on the road. So i figured i would look around and loved the Honda idea, then i realised there was no easy way around extending the front. I liked the idea of the G13B but stock it was a little pissy so i decided it must be turbo. I wanted around 150 - 200 Hp, which should be enough for any mini. Found one and thats when all this started...

The Mini :

I bought a shell on ebay from SA - all the bodywork basically completed, and with a couple of other bits i could probably use. It is a 62 Deluxe with a rover front.



Took her home and was pumped to start on her right away. Went down and bought my Ferrari Rosso paint with a hint of aluminium flake and started straight away painting it up. I got a really good finish but am having trouble taking a good photo of it. The sparkle really seems to saturate the photo. Despite the finish i got and how happy i am with how it looks, in hindsight i should have waited until the engine was in. I also realised afterwards that the holes at the front of the mini under the bumper had been filled in and captive nuts were put in. But that was only about a month ago. Oh well, if i have to paint her after the engine is in it wont be too hard.



This is the clear with the aluminum flake through it



Bought some little bits from the UK and some seats that a mate is going to trim.






The Engine and Frame:

I bought at 94 Gti from Newcastle about a year and a bit ago - hard hit at the back and slight at the front. The G13B was decompressed with a t25 in the front, and a bit of engine work done Bought it for $2500 but by the time i picked it up with petrol it was about $3k. Took her home and started picking at it a bit, trying to work out what i needed. Ended up selling bits off the car for $700, What was left of the shell for $300, Exhaust manifold for $500, so i figure $1500 for a turbo motor set up is pretty good.

Had a bit of trouble deciding what i wanted to do with the frame and how i wanted to build it. I started out using some SHS and welding it all up. Now this was the start of my welding life so they weren't the best. I decided to scrap the SHS idea, I saw an Alexander Honda one from the states i think that was made from tubing that looked great, but would be hard to do so i thought i would do something a bit different and fold something up that would look pretty cool. So i got underway designing my frame on Inventor and thought it looked really good so I sent it off the the laser cutters. Came back - folded it up - looked great! Went for a bit of a trial fit ony to find the engine was going to hit in a couple of places so i cut it a bit and went on my way.

Inventor Frame






Current Frame -




Engine in Frame -


Most recently i have cut up the inner wings of my shell and fitted the subframe, I have small gap of about 15-20mm which i have been told could be because there is a rubber spacer on the front of rover cars. I think i have found what it is so i will just make something up to fit in.

I've still gotta put some bracing between the two arms at the front, and depending on how strong that makes it i will probably put some webbing inside the arms through it to really strengthen it right up.








Oh well, If you are reading this i hope i haven't wasted too much of your time so thats me done for the moment - hopefully i can continue to post up progress pics and make some progress.

That's awesome Dan - when I saw that engine when I was at your place, I was wondering how it was gonna fit.

Looking forward to the end product heh

See ya

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Rod
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v607/Rodney/

Welcome Dan!

And very innovative!

Good luck with the rest of the build.

Cheers,
Tricky

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"Not Speeding Officer..........Qualifying"

Nice work with the subframe, a couple of hits and a touch short sound great for a first go. Great to see it coming together.

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Michael N

Nice one. Did you draw the engine and box in Inventor?

I have been drawing up a MkI GTi motor and box in inventor but it is a slow process of measuring and modelling. I haven't got a flat table to use as a measuring datum and the gearbox has faces and lumps at all sorts of angles and planes.

Also, did you draw up the stock sub frame in Inventor? I'd like to do this because I could use the model to assess the strength and stiffness of the original frame. That would be helpful when assessing the mounting method of the new bits and to convince the assessor that it had been done right.

Please keep the updates flowing. I love to see this type of design, then build approach.

M.

No, i decided it was going to be really time consuming to draw the entire engine up so i basically drew the parts that were going to be close to the arms and measured from the original subframe and where the engine was sitting at the time. I didn't draw up a stock frame but i think i have a 3D autocad drawing of a whole mini and its got a subframe that you could isolate. Not sure if i can convert straight into inventor or not, its all yours if you want me to send it, from memory its about 5Mb though.

Oh yes, please send it to my hotmail address
mwolton(at)hotmail.com

Tops!

M

Dan,

Could you forward that CAD file to me as well please. Much appreciated.

[email protected]

Thanks,
Tricky

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"Not Speeding Officer..........Qualifying"

Me three?!

I will find somewhere to host the CAD file for future downloads.

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Too many cars, and too little time.

Well Done Dan, looks great.

Dan

me four... [email protected]

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and then there were five

[email protected]

I'd make that 6... but Tricky can forward it on to me

very nifty on the folded subframe as well, what did the folding job cost you?

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did I tell you that I won a trophy?

Just sent through those files. I actually had two drawings so i sent them through, one is 5Mb and the other is 13Mb, so its up to you which you want. The larger file definitely has a lot more in it and probably the one you want. Cos of the size i sent through a couple of emails to break it up a bit, hope you get them.


I did all the folding myself, and used scrap 3mm sheet that was lying around in the workshop. So it basically cost me nothing to do, But because i'm relatively new to welding i have warped the shape of one of the arms a bit (which is why my subframe is out of whack! so i think i'll keep the arms but replace the front part that has all the engine mounts on it. I had to build in a brace going across the front of the engine so hopefully i can make it so it doesn't look too tacky. I was thinking about making the front part removable, this will make it easier to get it. this is because the mount at the front of the mini is inside the lower lip that is under the bumper... if you understand where i'm coming from. I think there was a rubber mount in there originally - so i'm getting rid of that and hard mounting it like all other minis.

Forwarded with Love!!

_________________
"Not Speeding Officer..........Qualifying"