FOM The Clubman Estate

[octo0072000]

The good old LCB, I fitted one of those with a big bore pipe/silencer along with an 1½" SU and 739? cam to my first Mini, unfortunately it bought the exhaust a bit close to the main battery lead as I found out a few weeks later when all the electrics went off on overrun

that's happened to a few head steady bar was never good enough minisport used to do a lower steady bar to combat that
cam would be 731 rally fast road or a 649 race cam not good on road
those was the days

 

[Tupers]

Glad to see progress is still being made - Long time between episodes of this show; I don't know why I pay my licence fee really...

* This is a locally made LCB (with a 2" outlet) which has no slip joints. It uses flanges which are more reliable and easy to seal.

That's a really smart LCB design. I'm going to run a Cooper Freeflow on this but I have to shorten it by and inch for clearance so I may fit a bolt on flange to it as well.

Before I can go any further with mounting the headlights I need to get the radiator in place so I picked up some original metro radiator grommets.


After a bit of tinkering laid out the net for the top mounts on some 1MM steel.


Folded, welded and rubbed down with scotch bright.




The top mounts will sit bellow the slam panel and be plug welded on.




I also started the pattern for the lower mounts. The piece with the grommet will fit onto the radiator and bolt to another section welded to the front panel.

 

[Tupers]

I dug out some 1.2MM steel this evening and cut out the pattern for the lower mounts.


These were a lot easier to fold than the top mounts.



All together.

 

[octo0072000]

looking good
it's all the small fiddly bits that take the time seems like you are doing a lot and getting nowhere keep at it you are going to have a nice little min there when it,s done

 

[johniban]

just read this from start to finish! some good skills here and looks great too

 

[Tupers]

just read this from start to finish! some good skills here and looks great too

Wow, thanks for taking the time. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up the progress.

I had a bit of a play after work and made up the boxes that will be welded to the front panel and bolt onto the lower rad mounts. The thick plates will have captive nuts on them and will be welded inside the boxes.


This is more or less how they'll fit. To take the rad out I'll remove four bolts on either side and drop it down.

 

[Angusdog]

This is more or less how they'll fit. To take the rad out I'll remove four bolts on either side and drop it down.

Clever. I've learnt in the past that making something can be straightforward but you do need to take into account how to fix/access it. At this rate it'll be easier to work on than a standard mini (particularly the bottom hose...)

 

[Exuptoy]

COming along nicely dude. Instead of captive nuts, have you thought about clinch nuts or riv-nuts. Drill a hole and put them in with a rivet type gun and just screw in your fixing!

 

[Robotstar5]

Instead of captive nuts, have you thought about clinch nuts or riv-nuts. Drill a hole and put them in with a rivet type gun and just screw in your fixing!

The only downside is if the exposed thread rusts it can spin the Rivnut when trying to undo it, a welded nut won't move (unless your welding's cr4p )

 

[Tupers]

COming along nicely dude. Instead of captive nuts, have you thought about clinch nuts or riv-nuts. Drill a hole and put them in with a rivet type gun and just screw in your fixing!

To be honest I don't really like using riv-nuts for heavy stuff or something that's going to vibrate.



I thought I'd have a go at gas welding the captive boxes. Need some more practise but I really enjoying the process so far.


Got everything clamped in place. The bolts should be fairly easy to get to even with the engine in.



It sits quite nicely in the car.


I also started chopping the headlight backings up, I did cry a little when I remembered what I paid for them.






Most of the original headlight backing on the body has gone as well, this wasn't quite as painful.




Quad headlights are the bomb.


I've managed to get the quite far back, this should make for a nice deep grill.

 

[Tupers]

I decided not to use the MG ZR column as it's too bulky but I still wanted to use the nicer switchgear so I took the mounting collar off and put it on a Mini column.




The angle of the stalks on the MG switchgear mirror the spokes of the Clubman steering wheel I'm now using so that's nice as well.



Now that the radiator is firmly mounted I could do the final trimming on the headlight backings. I need to remove the top pipe on the rad a weld it back on at 90* to where it is now but all in all I'm pretty happy with how it all fits together.




I thought I'd borrow the headlight surrounds from the Capri we've been working on. I'm going to make my own ones that will be part of the grill shell but this just gives a rough idea of how each side will look.

 

[BrokenBiker]

those lights look good in there

 

[octo0072000]

are you sure those headlamps are the right way round looks like the inners should be to the outside if so needs sorting now you need to look on the lens for a arrow or marking saying showing what is dip left or right

 

[Tupers]

I'm not too worried about the lights at the moment as I'll be swapping them out for more modern ones but thanks for the heads up.


My new alternator arrived this morning. The lugs on it should make mounting it pretty simple and it's a little smaller than a standard Mini one which is good.


My mock up engine's in customers car for work on a 998 turbo so I wedged my SC and alternator onto another car to see how they'll fit. I've got a pretty clear image in my head of how I want it all mounted so hopefully I'll have some nice bits made by this time tomorrow.

 

[Angusdog]

Mount it higher and go for a shaker bonnet, you know you want to... Mad Max would be proud of you (as long as you have a clutch on the gear lever).

 

[Tupers]

Mount it higher and go for a shaker bonnet, you know you want to... Mad Max would be proud of you (as long as you have a clutch on the gear lever).

Don't tempt me the Mercedes cars that use Eaton superchargers have a clutch on them that would work.


I pulled my mock up motor out this evening and started popping bits on it.

I mounted the MPI Mini belt tensioner and found was about 8MM off centre. Fortunately I had some 8MM plate left over from turbo flanges so I knocked up a nice spacer that will be welded to the tensioner.




The bottom alternator mount is underway as well. It's mounted off the two original oil filter housing bolts and will have a leg going to the alternator mount on the timing case.


I also did the ears for the bottom of the alternator. These will be welded to the plate on the block once I've got the pulleys lined up.

 

[Tupers]

So I had the awkward situation this evening of realising that the mounts I'd started making wouldn't work so I took another shot about it today.

The new bracket will all be welded together as one piece and sit a lot closer to the engine block.




Here it's still sat about 30MM further out than it should and it's already further in than the original.


The height should work quite nicely.


And the SC will be able to sit in just about the right position.



I got the patterns all laid out and cut from some 4MM sheet, should be plenty strong enough.




Also the post man came today and delivered a very nice Swiftune alloy/steel vernier duplex timing gear set.

 

[Tupers]

I finished off the alternator brackets after work.




All nice and close to the block.

 

[Flapdisk]

Very nice mate well done, what do you cut that thick steel with? have you got a plasma?

 

[cardiffrob]

BIG set of Tinsnips?