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This is the story all about how.. I bought a classic mini van, did it up. Messed it up am doing it all again. About 7 years ago I bought an old mini van shell, I'm still trying to find the pictures of it as it was when I got it but they haven't turned up yet. It was just a shell, from the windscreen back and as the previous owner was the Royal Air Force it was in a fetching MOD olive green. I put a new front end and fixed up what little rust it had then repainted it Speedwell Blue or "why is it still in primer" to most people.   I built a pretty good spec; cooper s discs, powdercoated rear subframe with new backplates and alloy drums, fully adjustable suspension and billet alloy dampers etc. I finished it off with a 1275 from an MG metro, that must have been messed with because it left the factory 30 years ago with 72bhp and after a tune up made 80something on the rollers.  Drove it for a while, using it as my works motor. I'm a builder, doing everything from groundwork, to roofing, to final fixing and plastering. Just don't ask me to paint anything. The van proved surprisingly practical:  After a year or so of having it on the road I went a bit mental and figured I needed more speed. And 11,000rpm. And a 6 speed sequential box.   Putting a 998cc fireblade and engine box into the works van seemed such a good idea at the time. To be fair, it was hilarious when I could find a flat piece of tarmac but the conversion left me with about 1" of ground clearance and around rural Yorkshire where I live, that just doesn't cut the mustard so the blade engine lasted about a week. Maybe 2. The 1275 went back in and I carried on using it for work. Enter 2nd mini:   If you look closely at the 2nd picture you'll see lots of hoses where there isn't normally on a mini engine. Turbo time! I bought the black car for a steal on ebay from a young lad who'd had the turbo engine built, done about 10 miles without an AFR gauge or a boost gauge and according to him "there was a big bang and the top of the carb came off. Now it won't start". 1 helicoil on the carb later and a bit of fiddling with the timing and it fired straight up. It's a pretty good spec engine, fancy camshaft, adjustable timing gear, arp bolts etc. but it had a few issues. The cylinder head was the same I had on my other 1275 so even with dished pistons the CR was a bit high. I know a bloke who's poo poo hot at turbo heads so I sent mine off to him and it came back with some lovely upgrades such as dual valve springs and other fancy bits. And some seriously reworked combustion chambers:  With an AFR and boost gauge fitted I played with the carb needle until it was running ok and ran about 8psi boost. I had a little play at around 12psi and my bum dyno reckoned about 130bhp which was fun. Especially with the ancient renault T2 coming on boost mid-corner more or less when it fancied it. Torque steer and unpredictable boost made it more a chore than fun and I soon got fed up and sold the car. Kept the engine though. A little mock up with a turbo from the Ford 1.0 3cyl ecoboost in my van got my brain whirring  Turbo engine stripped and painted the correct colour    I'm wanting to rebuild the engine (though it's done less than 500 miles) with really trick parts. Ultra lightweight flywheel, clutch and con rods, slightly worked crankshaft (you don't need big revs with a turbo so the crank doesn't need that much work) and a custom manifold for the turbo. I think the ecoboost turbo run about 20psi so that may get scrapped and I may go for a gt1752 from a saab. Or an IHI turbo from a 500 abarth. Dunno. Plenty of work before I get to that stage. The biggest problem I face is I don't really have a garage yet. Luckily my brother's just bought a big georgian manor house with loads of outbuildings and thankfully he's no idea how to fill them and that's where I can help him.  This is where I'm up to at the minute.  The plan is to get her totally stripped down, acid dipped and resprayed. I'm fitting fibreglass rear doors and bonnet, alloy skinned front doors and plastic windows all round bar the windscreen. Then I'll build the engine and get it shoved in. I'm looking to seriously upgrade the suspension too, maybe replacing the rear subframe with a beam and coilovers. This project will take a while so please forgive me for the slow updates, though I'm always happy to answer any questions anyone might have about these weird little cars.
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Aug 2, 2015 08:19
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 02:57 |
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Fireblade engine in a mini..... 
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Aug 2, 2015 09:43
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This is a good thread.
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Aug 2, 2015 11:00
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EVERYWHERE 
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Turbo A-series engines in classic Minis, this is going to be some good old-school fun here.
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Aug 2, 2015 14:53
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You are nuts and this is very much loving awesome. 
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Aug 2, 2015 17:57
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These are the wheels I bought for her a while back: They're a production mini wheel from the late 70s that have been converted to split rims by a man at Force Racing (they make sexy titanium bits for minis too, must resist..) I'm planning on painting the centres Old English White to add a touch of class back to them. The day I bought them I got stuck in terrible traffic so didn't get to the blokes house until about 23:00. Being stuck in the mini van for 3 hours in queueing traffic with a terrible heater and even worse sound system is not my idea of fun but never mind. The chap had gone to work by the time I got there but thankfully his dad was up. Had a kickass cobra kit car too.  On the way back about midnight I was passing a wagon, doing about 70mph. I'm not easily scared and passing that thing with the top of it's wheels above my roof wasn't bothering me until I had a blowout on the rear. Wiggling sideways I managed to pull behind the wagon and changed my wheel to one of the above, always good to have 5 spares. Swearing a bit I set off again and about three minutes down the road my lights dim and the battery light comes on. poo poo. The gods of poo poo motorway driving were looking down on me that night; about 400 yards down the motorway was a pull in, not for the public it served as a kind of base for the services; police, fire brigade etc. Jumped out, sure enough the fan belt's shredded. Because I don't trust the thing as far as I can throw it (surprisingly far, I can lift the rear end around on my own, makes for some awesome parking manoeuvres) I always keep a spare fan belt in the back. I usually carry a great big tool box as well but I'd left it at home on another project. The eagle eyed of you will notice that the grill on commercial minis is pressed steel, not cut out but part of the front panel, rather than the usual chrome noncery. Why they did this I have no idea, I can only assume it's for penny pinching because it makes working on the mini a total pain in the arse, you can't get to anything without a removable grill. Because I'm awesome I cut mine out and reattached it with some allen-headed bolts just for occasions like this. Except I didn't have any allen keys. I did have a few spanners but no allen keys. drat. I tried the police station, the fire station and the ambulance spot but despite there being dozens of cars it seemed everyone was out. At least I could steal some water from an outside tap at the coppers. I'd just got to the stage where I was going to do a full Basil Fawlty on the drat thing when a police car pulled up. The 2 police were very helpful, they were there to wait while a bloke threatened to throw himself off a motorway bridge onto the m1 below. They both had a look around and after about 15 minutes they came back with a biking multitool from a colleagues bag. No allen keys but I managed to get 2 bolts out using a flat screwdriver bit from their kit. I bent the grill to one side and replaced the belt. I bid the coppers goodnight and finally got home about 3 in the morning. There ends the ridiculous story of wheels I will never, ever sell. I have too much blood sweat and tears invested in them. I've a huge list of parts I need, I may pop it up on here so you can all judge me by my pathetic low wages as I tick them off, 1 per year. At least until the drug dealing and pimping businesses take off. Jefinabox fucked around with this message at 19:18 on Aug 2, 2015 |
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Aug 2, 2015 19:02
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I know you don't have a lot of room for cargo but I usually buy a tiny toolkit for every new car I get. The older the car, the more tools. Allen keys are definitely something I don't carry, though, and the Miata has tons of them. Thanks for the reminder.
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Aug 2, 2015 21:12
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You'd be surprised how much room I do have, the bed is about 4'x4'6". I usually carry this: along with a proper trolley jack. That tends to get me out of most trouble. I figured I'd show what was keeping me from doing the mini van, my other 2 projects: 1962 Commer van     Overlooking my house, the furthest I've been in her so far haha  This is pretty cool, started life as a delivery van in Wales in 1962 it was converted to a camper in 1967. Her start in life means she has sliding front doors which is pretty rare. With no opening windows in the front, you lock the doors open for ventilation, makes for a pretty cool way to drive. It has the original 1500 engine which is pretty tired and doesn't run very well at all so I've taken it out.   Holbay were a tuning company that made some pretty hot engines in the 1970s. Sunbeam released a hot version of their rapier called the H120, for Holbay and 120bhp. I've got the engine from one of these, I'm rebuilding it and putting it in. They ran twin weber 45s factory but I have neither the room or the appetite for paying all the petrol costs so I've got a chap making me a set of stainless manifolds and I'll put an 1 3/4" SU carb on, the same as is on my mini. My 2nd project which I suppose isn't really a project any more is this thing:  A 2003 Renault Clio 172 Cup It's a tragedy you don't these over in Americaland, these things are amazing fun. The clio is a pretty horrible little french shopping car with the build quality of a 1970s british leyland car. Renault have a devision called RenaultSport who are based on the other side of France and occasionally they do brilliant, brilliant things that only slightly unhinged frenchmen can do. They took this little shopping car and dropped a 2l NA engine in, pushing 172bhp on a good day into it. They are also chassis design genius', it has to be the most fun handing car I've ever driven, including some stuff that is a lot faster. It just begs to be driven hard everywhere it goes. The cup model was a limited run of stripped down, track oriented cars. They took a load of sound deadening out, the air con, xenon lights etc and even put thinner glass in it. The suspension also got tweaked, running more castor and negative camber and I think a wider track. No ABS either. I bought mine because the PO was moving house and needed it gone. He was so desperate to get it shifted because he'd run the engine dry and it had terminal rod knock. I bought it for £550 and put a fresh engine in that cost me £350  It has an adjustable rear anti-roll bar, stiffer springs, camber bolts and solid engine mounts, this all makes for a car that oversteers on demand and is incredibly neutral and responsive. I put some OZ racing superleggeras on in 15" with some R rated track tires and it just grips, though it's more about the handling than pure grip. My girlfriend currently uses this as her daily driver but with another kid on the way I'll have to relent and get her something with 4 doors. If Ford did a 4 door Fiesta ST over here I'd be on one like white on rice. As it is I've been looking at Renaultsport megane 225s... These are the things that get in the way of my mini. Commer gets spent on first, until I've got her totally usable and the clio can make do until the van's finished.
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Aug 6, 2015 06:42
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Everything in this thread is awesome 
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Aug 6, 2015 23:52
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IOwnCalculus posted:Everything in this thread is awesome 
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Aug 7, 2015 00:00
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I would say build a five-door Clio to 172/182 spec, but I'd imagine you'd like something with slightly higher survivability if you're putting your family in it. You know about the Clio bonnet catch thing, yeah? Even if you've fixed/lubed it, check again, it's an abysmal design.
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Aug 7, 2015 22:31
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Jesus, the bonnet catch thing.. I wasn't joking when I compared Renault to British Leyland. All sorted though, thankfully. Truth be told I'm not too bothered about having another clio, I'd like something a little more grown up and practical, so I've been thinking.. e39 M5 It's the only way. I can't quite afford an e90 m3 saloon due to buying a house and it would be irresponsible to spend so much at such a time. But at less than half the price the m5 would be money well spent I think. It'll mostly be used by my girlfriend but now she's off work to have another kid and isn't looking to go back for three years she won't be doing many miles so mpg isn't really a problem. And it would help with my favourite game of 'beat the satnav predicted time'. There. Talked myself into it now, watch this space.
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Aug 8, 2015 06:13
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Didn't get an m5. Girlfriend decided she wanted a smaller car, with a hatchback for the dogs so I got a 130i. Could have got a 135i and gone for huge power but if rather keep it na. It's OK, 260bhp but not the sharpest tool. I'm at home due to the arrival of my 2nd child this week, so I had a go at a stuck fastener on the commer engine..  It's all coming up Millhouse!
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Oct 26, 2015 22:55
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 Bit of a task getting it back in, but now all I need is a set of manifolds making and I'll fire her up.
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Nov 14, 2015 12:53
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 02:57 |
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Jefinabox posted:Jesus, the bonnet catch thing.. I wasn't joking when I compared Renault to British Leyland. All sorted though, thankfully. Truth be told I'm not too bothered about having another clio, I'd like something a little more grown up and practical, so I've been thinking.. Re clios, my wife's 182 cup ate two halfshafts in as many years. As in sheared. Also the usual French canbus fun like the wipers randomly stopping working in a monsoon on the M40. Luckily that was the only electrical problem. To be fair to Renault, more poo poo has broken on her Smax.
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Nov 14, 2015 16:02
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