Mini ST Hotrod

[MPlayle]

The first Mini Tec picture also shows the whole face (and bracket) of each rear wheel arch removed - not just the shock tower section.

[MiniDave]

Yes, and if you look at my pics, (edit: oops, looks like I didn't post those pics.....sorry) that's exactly what I did, however the rear uprights can't go any further back - and rotating the front up pushes the rear uprights back, which they can't do.....I also removed the entire vertical face of the wheel arches......there's no issue with room on the sides.

I'm just going to remove those rear brackets and build them differently so they'll just bolt in, that way it will go in easily.

Minitec did not return my call, they simple emailed me the same set of pics they did before. They have never been known for their customer service and they are living up to their reputation brilliantly.

Once I do manage to get the subframe bolted in, next I'll have to figure out how to start replacing bad metal - ie: what to cut first - there's so much rot especially on the right side sills and such it's hard to decide what to do first.

[MiniDave]

Ok, so it's in the hole!!!

I did have to carve those rear brackets out of the way, then it went in easily and everything lines up as it should. I still have to do some small trimming here and there and clean up all the sharp edges.

Next I'll start thinking about where to start the rust repairs, I'm thinking the best place would be the rear passenger side where so much metal is missing.....

Looking at the rear panel, I bought an entire new rear panel but the only place its really bad is on the bottom edge, so taking a page out of Dan's playbook maybe I'll just replace that lower couple of inches. Of course the boot floor and lower valance also go together at the same place, and I have new pieces to go there as well. I'm thinking maybe weld those two together and put them in place, then replace that lower edge. Dunno, I'll need to think about it for a bit. There's nothing there below that edge, it all rusted away.....

[94touring]

Did you buy the entire rear panel with boot opening? 

[MiniDave]

I also need to fit my seats and so I can decide which ones I'm going to use. I used the seats that came with the car in my green car on our trip to South Dakota and found them really comfortable......I also have a set of modern seats out of a WRX that I ran for a bit in the green car....I don't know if they will clear the door bars of the cage, so that will be one of the things I need to determine.

[MiniDave]

Did you buy the entire rear panel with boot opening? 

Yeah. I also have the individual parts.....I'll take a pic at some point

[94touring]

What about the seats I gave you that were in the truck?  You have the one there to tets

[MiniDave]

Oh, I forgot about those! Yeah, so three different possibilities....

[94touring]

Did you buy the entire rear panel with boot opening? 

Yeah. I also have the individual parts.....I'll take a pic at some point

I'd just cut across the lower part of the C pillar like I just did for Brant.  Doing just the bottoms makes for a lot of welding and grinding in the boot opening channels that's no fun. At least your window frame size will match.

[MiniDave]

Yes, the one I got just goes up a couple inches on the C pillar.....

[MiniDave]

Today I needed to deal with some rust - almost every post from here on out can start with that sentence! 

The new subframe bolts in one place right where the old one did, and the right side was rust held together with paint and seam sealer. So I built a new piece from scratch - I had to make sure it was in exactly the right place so the subframe would be square, I'm guessing that the original pieces were - at least it all measured out good.

So I built the new piece, welded it in, cleaned up all the brackets that didn't need to be there, took off all the pointy rusty bits that were catching my back every time I went in and out of the hole and by the end of the day I put the subby back in and it bolted right up nicely. That done I went ahead and drilled the holes for the rear support in the package tray and also the holes in the floor that the lip of the subby goes over.

There are several places in the back there that will need to be patched, then I can start replacing all the rot in the floors, door step and sills, that should stiffen things up nicely. The inner wheel arch on the right side is more hole than metal, and the left isn't much better. What I do to fix all this will partly be determined by whether I wind up using the big Fortech flares or go with Sportpaks.

But before I do even that  I may go ahead and reinstall the rear suspension so I can see where the wheels are going to wind up, and how far out of the body they'll stick.

[MiniDave]

So, big day today.....I bolted the suspension back in and fitted the rear shocks and wheels.

The suspension was a bitch kitty as it's held by heim joins that are fairly buried under the lip of the subframe, and of course they ride on shoulder bolts. That's not so bad but there are also a couple of spacer washers, and fitting the shoulder thru the bracket, thru the washer and into the joint, thru the other washer then thru the bracket - and get a nut and washer on the threads was......well, difficult and awkward.

After I managed to get the left one done I realized that If I swung the arms all the way down I had enough access that I could at least see what I was trying to do. So it's all bolted up and I took a few pics to see how the wheels would look in the openings. They're nicely centered, but it's going to sit pretty low it looks like. One pic at mid range of the suspension travel and one at full extension.

It was exciting to see it looking more like a car again!

[MiniDave]

Don't think I would trust this even with a Mini body on it! 

burned rotisserie

[cstudep]

Yikes, looks like it must have been a pretty hot fire too with as warped as some of the metal looks. Not sure how they think it's worth $400. I would not drive too terribly far to pick it up even if it was free!

[MiniDave]

Exactly! I don't think there's even $100 of scrap there!

[MiniDave]

My inner wheel wells are supposed to be here tomorrow, but we had a blizzard blow thru so it won't surprise me if they're a day late - still, DHL has been pretty good about hitting their delivery dates or even being a day early. We didn't get a lot of snow, only about 2 inches, but with the cold wind it feels more like ice than snow. Lots of downed power lines, big tree branches etc.  We lost power briefly several times during the night, and this morning the wind is still blowing hard.

It's interesting that we must have had enough warm days that all the concrete has not frozen over, in fact most of it is clear of ice or snow, all of that seems to be in the yards. I was concerned that the combination of ice and strong winds would down a lot more trees, and while there are some large branches down, it's not too bad.....not like storms we've had before where it sounded like shotguns going off as the trees broke.

So, back to the car......I've decided to work from the back to the front in replacing metal.....to that end I think I've figured out what to do on the wheel openings - it will require a lot of fabrication but should give me the look I'm after. Once I've got those in, I can build all the rest of the metal to them, including the rear support brackets for the subframe. According to MiniTec you're supposed to use where the original subframe bolted on at the back, but I could not get this thing to fit if those were in place, and since they were rusted down to nothing and had no strength I knew I'd be cutting them off anyway. So, I'll need to build those, but before I can I'll need to build all the sheet metal to attach them to, as there's nothing but air back there now!

I'll have to build those brackets so they can be bolted on, to let me be able to get the subframe in and out. As it sits now it goes right in with no hassle. I plan to cut the wheel openings up to within about 1/2" of the holes that the sport pak arches attach to, that should give me enough clearance for the tires. Once those are in place I can start building back all the missing sheet metal. If you look at the last pic, there's no Q panel, sill or anything attaching the inner wheel well to the rest of the car, I'll have to build all of that......there's a lot of rust right where the inner wheel well welds to the q panel, so I'll remove that in the process and I'm hopeful that I'll find good metal to weld to.

[MiniDave]

Starting the modification to the wheel wells.....I made a "Binky Bending Tool" and I'll turn the lip up tomorrow.....I hate sanding paint and body putty! I'm seriously considering rolling it out the garage door and using paint stripper on it! The original paint under where the arches were is all cracked, I'm surprised the repaint is still hanging on as tightly as it is!

[94touring]

Are you leaving any kind of arch on the inside of the rear quarter panels? 

[MiniDave]

Yes, since the right side was mostly rust and holes, I got new ones. I'm also moving it upward on the Q panel when I weld it back in. Although I'm not sure how much good they'll do since probably half of the tire is outside the fender (but under the Sport Pak arch)

Second pic is what's left of the right side inner wheel well.....bracket is for the rear mounted windshield washer bottle. I may take that off and remount it back in the front trunk area now.

I don't know if I'll be using all of the floor panels, but there should be enough to fix the sills and the front edge where it's attached at the bulkhead floor at least.

My next and ongoing challenge is to start getting some of this rot repaired.

My seatbelts came in too, and since I've removed the companion bins where they used to attach I bolted in a door bar to see where I can install them. I can either weld a bracket onto the door bar or build a bracket off the body, not sure which way I'll go just yet. Some of it may be determined by which set of seats I wind up using - right now I have three sets to choose from!

[94touring]

I guess I'm curious how well those will fit now that the radius is different.  I wouldn't even bother rolling a lip outward. I'd just weld the inner arch repair panels to the quarter panel opening.  You wouldn't gain any additional strength by bending a lip in the quarter panels with the inner arch welded into place if that was a concern.  You really just need a flat buffer in case a tire came into contact with a knife edge of a arch opening with it being lipless.

[MiniDave]

That's why I was planning to turn the lip out, that would give me a 1/2" flat area if the tire contacted it instead of a sharp or even rounded off edge....it would also be easier to weld together, either plug weld or maybe even try my buddy Jim Allen's spot welder.

[94touring]

There's a lip on those repair arches that would overlay where the quarter panel lip was.  If you want it even wider then yeah bend out the quarter panel or weld in a strip of sheet however wide you want it. In my mind I think you might have an issue with the inner repair arches actually fitting now though.

[MiniDave]

We'll see......right now it seems like they'll meet up just fine......

[MiniDave]

Today was copy Binky day!

I made a tool just like they used on Project Binky to bend up the lip under the arches, and it worked! I didn't do quite as good a job of cutting out the q-panel as they did, you learn as you go, right? The other side should go better.

So once the hole was cut, I used the tool to start bending the lip up, a little at a time, till I got it the full 90*. I had to do a little trimming of some other brackets and in fact I still need to ease one of them about another 1/4" but the inner wheel well fit and lined up nicely with the new lip. Once I'm happy with the fitment of everything I'll weld 'er in place.

Then I'll do the same to the other side and bolt the wheels back on and see how the clearance looks. It should be quite a bit better as I removed about 1 1/2" of metal. Once both sides are welded in place I think the next thing is to replace the rear panel.

With that in place the boot floor lip (only about 2" of that will go back in) and lower valance can go in. That should stiffen things up all across the rear of the car. Then I'll weld in all the filler panels and build the rear braces for the subframe.

From there I'll work forward.....on the door step, floors and sills.

With those done I'll see about bolting in the rest of the cage. Once it's all welded and solid I'll put the motor in and start looking at all the other "to-do's'"

[MiniDave]

Today I wanted to assess my work before I did the same to the left side, so I took the springs off the shocks so I could move the trailing arms the full length of the shock travel. I put the tire back on and ran the suspension up as far as the shock would let it go. The first pic shows the clearance. The holes are for the attachment points of the Sport Pak arches, so it looks like they will clear ok.

The I went to the left, unmodified side. Second and third pics show the wheel won't go all the way up without hitting the lip, so I was justified in my thinking on cutting the lips up....

Lastly, today I gave the poor green Mini a bath - it hasn't been out of the garage for over three months so it was well past due for a good cleaning.