Author: paul

Found Teddy’s brakes! They’re on the way to Detroit!

Stopped by the local MINI parts desk today…

And picked up some sheet metal…

Need a safe place to keep it damage-free for a few weeks, in the midst of the garage chaos. This’ll do, I hope…

More work, stripping the wreck. Almost done in the engine bay and underneath. Vacuumed lots of glass out of the interior and got started in there. My passenger seat is jammed in position for some reason (maybe some debris in the track? guessing…). That and a stuck wrench told me it was time to call it a day. Will get back to it tomorrow.

Spent much of the day looking for Teddy’s brakes. Still haven’t found them, but I will prevail. That’s what happens when your garage is packed with parts off three MINIs.

Meanwhile, cage dude is at work. We sent a bunch of pics back and forth, mocking up the proper height, width, etc. so he can start bending steel.

It will be about an inch shorter than this… which will still be about an inch taller than the old one, and about convertible roof height…

He’s already cut out a bunch of nasty vestigial sheet metal, including the “humps” that the OEM front shoulder belts attached to. He’ll remove the piece adjacent to the tube in this photo, so the main hoop can go all the way out to the yellow tape…

The main body harness on both sides of the footwell was going to be too close to where he would be welding the footwell plates for the front pillars. So he had to remove the ENTIRE rear portion of the harness, so he could get it up out of the way. I get to put all this back…. FUN…..

But now, no chance that he’ll melt any wires while welding things in. Ultimately better. This is a seriously stripped MINI.

Also ordered Pure Silver paint for the roll cage and GP trim, and Chili Red paint for the mirror caps today. I’ll paint all that stuff myself.

I bought a new hood over the phone from my local MINI dealer yesterday, need to go pick that up, maybe tomorrow.

I’m going to work hard this weekend to get the wreck stripped. And hopefully will get it rolled out and get the GP back on the lift, to finish it up. I’d like to get both of them out of here before the caged shell comes back., if possible.

Wife: UPS left you another big box while you were out.
Me: Huh? I don’t know of anything that should be coming today???

Well, Santa arrived, and was good to me. ERMAGERD

RMW race header back from Swain Tech with the White Lightning coating. It is RIGHTEOUS.
They did a spectacular job. Masked all the right stuff, removed the collector and masked the primaries where they should, and didn’t lose the bolt. Not cheap… but really really good. This coating is so much nicer than the run-of-the-mill ceramic I could have had done locally. Glad I bit the bullet. Took a month from the time I shipped it, until it came back. So don’t be in a hurry…

Quote:

Originally Posted by abuzavi  Where’s the obligatory “using it as a phallus” photo?

I don’t know what you’re talking about. But this photo was pretty popular on Facebook…

Swain Tech White Lightning coating is TASTY

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!

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.

Good day.

Swapped my DW fuel pump and new-ish fuel filter from the wreck to the new shell. Much easier without a cage in the way. Hopefully did it right and reconnected everything, so I won’t have to fiddle with it more.

Then loaded up the shell and drug it across town to my cage fab guy.

I REALLY LOVE IT, when you have a kinda crazy vision for a one-off thing, and you explain it to a craftsman, and they completely “get it” and agree that they can do it.

I pretty much knew that I wanted the rear of the cage to be very similar to my old roll bar, just wider and with a better brace mounting location. But the front… that had to be designed.

I want a relatively open top (no braces across the top), relatively unobstructed entry and exit from the car, retain all front factory trim, as little obstruction of view as possible, look as clean as possible. But also be very stiff and safe. I’m not going to race this car wheel-to-wheel, so I don’t need to comply with racing side impact rules. While I do need to pass time trial rules, just the roll bar was sufficient for that. But… if at some point I take this car airborne at 100+ MPH on track, or slide it down the side of a mountain… I want to have a fighting chance.

I’ve looked at hundreds of photos of caged MINIs. Out of all those, I found one example that really clicked with me.

HPA Motorsports “Gokart”

Front pillar hugs the A-pillar and goes through the dash, fitting between the door speakers and the fusebox / BCM. Knee bar under the steering column, goes behind where the stereo head unit would normally be. Single door bars bow out into the space between the door handle and the door painted trim. This design is really clean, and retains the factory trim (though some things will need some trimming, obviously). Will probably have an open halo top, but we’ll figure that out for sure after the main hoop is built and tacked in.

It will probably force me to remove or reposition the stereo headunit, as there’s not enough depth in there with the knee bar in place. But the structure won’t be stiff enough without a crossbar, and I think putting one on top of the dash is hideous. I really don’t need the headunit… I could just add a simple amp with an aux input and a volume control, and I’d be fine…. that may be where I’m headed.

My cage guy also was fine with cutting out the extra stuff in the rear.

My current thought is to paint the entire cage Pure Silver with clear coat. So it matches the GP interior and exterior trim, as a GP roof would….

This is the most I’ve ever personally stripped any car…

I bet it’s pretty light, like this.

Added my seat in, so fab guy can position the harness bar and seat back brace properly. Also, so I can sit in it and make race car sounds.

I was going to cut out extra sheet metal, left over from the folding top and factory roll hoops. Then I decided to let my fab guy do it, while he’s in there cutting stuff anyway. Marked it for him.

Going in a few minutes to pick up my friend, the Uhaul tow dolly.

Today’s parts haul: 2nd pair of H-sport control arms, bracket for headlight leveler, and replacement lines for BBK, all from the good folks at Detroit Tuned!

Also received a couple of Jegs fender pads, to attempt to protect my new paint once Locutus Mk2 gets back from the paint shop and I start the rebuild.

Friday’s parts haul from my friends at eMINIparts.com!!!!

Left wishbone, pair of tie rods, new hood scoop, assorted hardware, and SWAG!!!

Stephen and his management have gone above and beyond, to help me with the Locutus rebuild project. Supporters of all-things-MINI, eMINIparts.com‘s sponsorship helps make Motoring Alliance possible. Stephen has worked on creative ways to help me save money on parts and shipping, and has earned my business as the “official” OEM parts partner for my rebuild. They deserve your business, too. Give them a shot!

I also received this very handy set of “extra hands” for use under the lift… OTC Underhoist Stand…

I couldn’t find a good quality, budget priced stand sized appropriately for mid-rise lifts. So I’ll cut this one down by about a foot.

That proved to be easier said than done. The bottom of the main tube was both drilled for a through pin (expected) and turned down a bit to fit in the base tube (not expected). Since I don’t have a metal lathe handy to reduce the outside diameter of the pipe, I’m not going to chop off the bottom.

The top had an 3″ sleeve pressed in, to reduce the ID to fit the inner shaft, and with a ledge to hold the bearing race. I managed to drive this sleeve out (using a jack handle, which was the perfect size), chopped off 12″, and re-installed the sleeve.

Done!

Already used it today, to help hold the new wishbone I was installing.

I have the front left suspension back together (nominally), so it’s kinda rollable. The left tie rod is quite bent, so the shell has massive toe-out. But it’s better than it was. This will all be fixed later.

I’m just working to get the car ready to deliver to my cage fabricator tomorrow. Finishing the stripping of the interior, have another hour or so of work to do on that. Then will cut out some extra sheet metal in the rear.

Making progress.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Metalman  Just for kicks, to get a rise out of your neighbors, put all the MINI’s up on cinder blocks out on your front lawn…. And if you have a tree out front, hang that engine block from a stout branch…

Actually, the GP is on cinder blocks right now in the driveway. My wife LOVES it.

No, wait… that’s not exactly the word she used. What was it? Oh, yes. HATE. She HATES it, whatever that means.

Luckily, I’m getting a free pass on pretty much everything right now with the missus. Something about almost, but not quite, becoming inanimate. I’m finding it to be a very effective strategy for getting my way. But it is somewhat risky, and therefore don’t take this as a recommendation. Attempt at your own risk.

Today, I finally got this thing off…

I got it moved just enough that the Blaster could work its way in overnight. It started moving noticeably on I the second hit this morning, after a hundred or more yesterday with almost no movement. Only a few more taps and it was free.

Then I had to pry it out of the bushing, which was another PITA. But, done.

New one arrives tomorrow, so I can fit that temporarily to get it rolling. Called my cage guy today and have a date to drop it off on Monday, or he may come and get it. So I’ll finish stripping everything to make it cage-ready tomorrow and this weekend.

Once back from the cage shop, I’ll drop the subframes, convert rust, add paint, and reinstall with good bushings ball joints and tie rods and stuff.

Today’s parts haul:

Replacement left side wide angle mirror, shafts for sheared-off Rennline tow hooks, bushings to rebuild my H-sport control arms, and top cover from RoadsterSolutions.com.

Organized a bunch of stuff I’ve taken off, and cleaned up the garage a bit so I can hopefully not lose stuff. The junk pile is growing…

This may be the most broken MINI wheel I’ve ever seen…

Pulled the front calipers off the shell so it will roll easier and quieter. Spent a couple of hours trying to separate the outer ball joint from the folded left wishbone on the shell, to be able to install a new wishbone so the shell will roll. The lower nut is seized, and I can’t get it to drop out of the knuckle. It’s the most stuck ball joint I’ve ever seen. Been wailing on it with BFH and chisels trying to break it loose, after soaking in PB Blaster for days. Did manage to open a bit of a gap on the wings of the flange. Added more PB Blaster and will try again tomorrow. Haven’t applied fire or cutting implements yet, but that may be next.