My various projects thread.

[94touring]

Bruce's modified tow bar.  No longer crooked and got to ditch the 8 inch long bolts for 4 inchers.  The previous tube spacers also had a lot of slop for the bolts to shift around in.  I use a series of spacers that overlap one another and fit snuggly over the bolt, creates a beefy mid section.  The spacers fit perfectly into the front end panel recess as well.  From there it was just a matter of making up some brackets to go with his tow bar.

[MiniDave]

Where did you find the spacers?

Looks strong now, should tow nicely.....is that the cross bar Justin cut out?

[Merlin]

Yep, I can see the "tescorp" still written on it.

[94touring]

Lowe's carries them. I could probably weld the outside sleeve together if I really wanted.

[BruceK]

It looks great! Much better than the old towbar arrangement.

[Merlin]

Lowe's carries them. I could probably weld the outside sleeve together if I really wanted.

What was the final length?

[94touring]

Decided to get fancy and weld on the washers to make one solid piece. Also easier to install. 

Edit:  and Justin the diameter is equally important.

[MPlayle]

When I had the tow bar support done for the Moke, we used 1/2" ID 'black pipe' cut to the appropriate length and welded to the backside of the support brace.

Welding the spacers to the support bar works for the Moke as it does not have the license plate brackets to interfere with installing.

[94touring]

Each side needed 3 washers for just the right length. It's nice welding them to the spacers because it gives a good foot to disperse force.

Door day.

[MiniDave]

Which car is this for?

[94touring]

Okc car for Patton.

Clearancing side seals today too.

[BruceK]

My Mini is now appearing on the Home page?    Woo-hoo!  Hit the big time!  4.gif

[94touring]

I've been bad about updating anything lol

[94touring]

The fairwell photo.

[BruceK]

Just arrived home after towing Emma down from Dan's shop this morning.     By the way, she looks wonderful in person.     77.gif   Fantastic job!    And the new tow hitch worked.... well.... without a hitch as they say.

[94touring]

Have you tried the disassembly yet?

[BruceK]

No.  I will remove it tomorrow.

[94touring]

Well good luck at the car show!  Maybe you'll win 1st place   77.gif

[BruceK]

Thanks!   I will share the event here. 

[BruceK]

No.  I will remove it tomorrow.

The new towbar was easily removed today (other than some parts sticking together because it was freshly painted!).  And the normal front subframe bolts slid into place no problem - big improvement on that car

The only issue is the outer edge of the front tires rub the new flares when starting a turn.  Dan saw that was going to happen and relieved part of the fiberglass to help mitigate that but it's still happening.   So either I put up with it and see if the tires or flares wear away,  or grind away more flare material, or raise the suspension.  I really don't want to do that - the main reason of changing to these WP style flares was to be able to lower the car.

[MiniDave]

Raising the car up might not help, rather it just moves the problem down to a lower place on the flare.....had the same problem with Buzz....same flares.

Seems like the wheels are a little far forward in the wheel opening, but the only way to move them back will change the caster.

If you could shave away a bit more of the inside edge and have it not rub, I'd go that route

[94touring]

I probably should have tossed a few sand bags in when I was doing my trimming!  I'd just cut more out.  I looked at mine at 0 dark 30 when parking on my way to work after thinking about our convo the other day, and mine are cut much further in and up than what I did on yours.

The other thing you may want to consider if you decide to lower it much further is taking a cut off wheel and trimming off the area where the wheel was previously rubbing the wing lip. The shiney area where it has rubbed is what you'd want to cut out.

[MPlayle]

What about the body shims between the front panel and subframe?

The caster is fixed to the subframe - that is where the control arms mount.  The factory often used shim plates between the front valance and the subframe to "stretch" the wheel opening for rubbing issues.

You may still have to do the trimming Dan indicates, but might be able to minimize the trimming with a couple of shims.

[BruceK]

Thanks Michael, but after all the front end panel work Dan did to my car, not to mention the painting of said panels, I don't think I want to try moving sheetmetal around.   I'd rather attack the flare and/or adjust the height.

[94touring]

He has the standard later model spacers affixed to the front end panel that sandwich against the subframe when you torque down the eye bolts.