FOM The Clubman Estate

[Tupers]

Not done much on this over the past few days because I'm lazy but here's a couple updates.


I made a two little squares to go in the front of the battery box and Dad welded them in while I was doing some electrical work.

I wanted to see how much leg room there'd be in the back so I stuck the front seats back in. I think there should be plenty considering the seat base will only be 50MM in front of the heel board.

I've been eyeing up this set of wheel we've got I the shop for a while and stuck on under the estate this evening to see how they look.

I know it hasn't got a tyre on and the car's not on the ground or painted but I think they'll look cool once polished up.

 

[myredmini]

are you using a mig with argoshield light ? if so what settings are you using and gas flow ? i am restoring a 1986 mini chelsea.. are you on the mini forum ?

Dan

 

[Dr pepper]

Excellent thread.
I love clubmans too.
I like the dash will the old triumph type clocks.
I had a clubman, started as a round nose, but became a clubby when I converted it to a vtech, then later a rover T series.
Its NTE 652K, in the remote chance someone recognizes it, might be stuffed through a hedge by now.

 

[Tupers]

are you using a mig with argoshield light ? if so what settings are you using and gas flow ? i am restoring a 1986 mini chelsea.. are you on the mini forum ?

Dan

Hey Dan yeah I'm on the mini forum as well, I've seen to rebuild thread on there. I'm using an Oerlikon 2000M mig with argoshield light from BOC. I can't remember what the gas flow is set at tbh but I can find out for you on monday if you want?

 

[Tupers]

This morning I decided I wanted the rear seats sorted by the end of the week. After spending most of the morning figuring out how to do it Dad came over and convinced me that my idea sucked and modifying a set of metro rear seat frames to fit.

I pulled seat frames apart and took the lovely leather covers off.

And then I bolted them back together so I could test fit them in the car.

As you can see here the frames are a bit to wide and the original bases don't sit level.

Here you can see the flat bar hoop on the right and the arched piece of tube on the left. These would need to be modified to make the fame sit level.

To sort out the left I tacked a piece of box section onto the frame to stop if flexing and cut off the ached tube on the left.

I didn't have any straight tube hanging about so I chopped the U section off the tube (that happened to be the same as Mini window frame) and bent it straight after heating it up with the oxy.

Then after coping the ends I welded the freshly straightened tube in and voila a flat seat base.

So tomorrow I'll do the same on the other side and then figure out how I'm going to turn two frames into one.

 

[Tupers]

This morning I modified the O/S seats frame in the same way as I did with the N/S frame and moved onto getting the frame to sit against the arch.

The problem I had was that the frames are designed to sit infront of the arch and I needed it to sit in the centre of the arch.

I decided much modding was needed so I braced the frame again cut a chunk out.

Then I heated the pipe at the front of the frame up and bent it out inline with the rest of the front of the frame.

With this much done I re fitted the frame to the car and made the decision to out this piece of tube out and reverse it to hug the inner arch more.

And here it is nice and close the the arch.

So tomorrow I'll get some 20MM round tube to complete this side if the frame and then do the same on the other side. I might even get as far as chopping the frames and making a start on connecting them together.

 

[Will1983]

good work mate those seats are going to look good!

 

[Tupers]

good work mate those seats are going to look good!

Ta mate.

After picking up some 20MM steel tube this morning I made a cardboard bend template for the side of the seat base.

Once I had the template all figured out I miged a couple posts to a steel plate to bend the tube around.

I used the oxy to heat the tube up and a bar in the end to lever against the the opposing posts to bend the tube.

The I miged another post on and used the oxy again to heat it up before bending.

Before I cut the tube down I check the fit against the arch.

And after a bit of cutting and adjusting I got it all welded up.

I also did the same for the other seat base, next job narrow both bases and join them together.

 

[Tupers]

I got a lot more work done on the rear seat frames done today and started by narrowing down the base frames and welding them together.

Here's how they looked when I started, a bit to much overlap me thinks.

I welded a brace onto each frame and cut off the end.

Did a bit of trimming (115MM to be precise) and welded them back together. Who'd have thought it'd be that simple.

Having the base done and knowing it's final width meant that I could now narrow the back. I started buy removing the hinges and vertical supports.

Here you can see the overlap of the two seat bak on the narrowed base.

To get the width right and spacing of the groves right I cut the long seat back into three pieces.

Here are both sides modified and ready to weld together.

I braced the back pieces together, bolted them up to the base and test fitting them in the Estate to make sure I'd got my cutting right.

I don't think I'm alone in thinking this looks really cool.

Once I was happy I welded the frame together at the top.

I also added a section to the top of the seat back that I cut off of one of the unused sides.

Due to the width of the hinge bosses there was a gap in the seat backs frame so I made a frame section up and welded it in to make up the difference.

The final job for today was to get the centre of the seat back welded back in.

 

[Angusdog]

Interesting modifications. It looks like the finished product will look like a factory job yet much more up to date.

I just removed the rear seats from ours as it won't carry rear passengers due to not having seat belts. There's nothing there to provide the strength necessary. I'm also having to do a fair bit of bodywork:

 

[Tupers]

Interesting modifications. It looks like the finished product will look like a factory job yet much more up to date.

Thanks Angusdog, I was going for a factory look with the rear seat and figured using Rover was the best way to do it. That's some nice metal work on the back of yours, got any other pictures of it?


I felt the seat base was a little to flexible for my liking so today I coped the ends of a piece of tube and put a bend at one end of it to clear the battery box and welded it to the frame.

I made a plate to fill the hole in the bottom of the seat back.

I also cut a section out of one of the scrap pieces to fill the gap at the bottom.

I also took the welds down on the seats back and sprayed the joint to make it stand out a bit more for the pic.

Tomorrow I'm going to replace the bump that just to the left of centre with a matching rib section and see if I can figure out the forward hinging system.

 

[Tupers]

The bump in the seat back really had to go so I chopped it out and welded a new section I'd made.

In an effort to use original parts I decided to use the inner hinges from the metro seats.

This presented a problem as both of the hinges pointed the same way but they needed to be mirror images.

After cutting the weld holding the hinge base together I clamped it in the vice and bent it backwards by 180*.

I also bent the larger mounting face by 180* and re-welded it leaving the a pair of symmetrical hinges.

With the hinges sorted I mounted them to the seat base and car but instantly ran to an issue with the seat frame fouling on the centre console.

To counter this I braced the frame yet again and cut the centre out allowing the base to go fully vertical. Fortunately this plays into my plans for the seat design quite nicely.

I thought I'd better bolt up the seat back in as well to make sure it wouldn't foul on the front seats. As you can see there's loads of room and the front seats are as far back as they'll go.

And I'll still have a GIANT boot with the back seats folded up.

 

[tomsutton529]

Is that wire brush in the first pic any good, saw them in B&Q this evening but wire brushes isnt my area of expertise..

 

[Tupers]

Is that wire brush in the first pic any good, saw them in B&Q this evening but wire brushes isnt my area of expertise..

Yeah it's pretty good the bristles are holding up really well and the grips nice and comfortable as well.


I did a bit of CAD and made a template up for the recess in the seat frame.

Once I was happy with the template I cut 5 pieces of steel to from the recess and welded them together.

Here it is fully welded after being cleaned up on the wire wheel.

I welded the new piece to the seat frame and would you believe it it all clears.

I thought I'd also bolt on the seat back as a final check.

I actually think it looks better now with the centre pulled in.

Tomorrow I'm gunna have a look and see if I can find a pair of Metro clasps to hold the seat back up and figure out how to mount them to the body.

 

[Tupers]

I wasn't able to start fitting a set of Metro seat back clasps as they weren't where I though they where but I did finish off mounting the seat base.

For the mock up I'd been using beefy self tappers to hold the hinges on. Obviously they wouldn't do for the long run so I started making some captive plates with 3 holes for some big bolts.

I welded the nuts onto the steel before cutting the two plates away to make the whole proses a bit easier.

Once the welds had cool I cut the two plates off and rounded off the corners.

Of course I also had to drill three holes on each side of the heel board and then bolted the plates to check the fit.

Once I was happy with both sides I painted the back of the plates and heel board before welding them on.

I re fitted the original Metro seat diaphragms but I think I'm going to make my own as these aren't really work anymore.

I also had a bit of a play with another set of wheels. These are 10x6 Weller reverse rims but sadly they're kinda sold so I've got to try and find my own set.

They're just so deep.

 

[Angusdog]

Thanks Angusdog, <snip>That's some nice metal work on the back of yours, got any other pictures of it?

Sorry, not much else to report. A few small rust patches (cut out and butt weld in new steel), but painting now. And I hate painting. The smallest flaw in the filler shows up but I have a DVD set on autobody refinishing so I'll review that and try again. I bought some guide coat powder a month ago, so I only have myself to blame.

i like the way you're mounting the seats. The stock ones are really feeble, aren't they? I presume you're going to retrim the front and rear seats to match - should be a really nice car once it's on the road again.

 

[Tupers]

Sorry, not much else to report. A few small rust patches (cut out and butt weld in new steel), but painting now. And I hate painting. The smallest flaw in the filler shows up but I have a DVD set on autobody refinishing so I'll review that and try again.

Yeah I know what you mean, I hate that side of body work as well but fortunately I've got plenty of people I can get to do it for me.

i like the way you're mounting the seats. The stock ones are really feeble, aren't they? I presume you're going to retrim the front and rear seats to match - should be a really nice car once it's on the road again.

I'm not the biggest fan of the way the stock rear seats go in or the amount of leg room in the back hence the change. I'm going to get the front a rear seats retrimmed in black leather although I'm not sure if I'm keep the stock front seats yet. I'm thinking of changing them for something a bit more sculpted.


I've always thought the engine steady bracket looked untidy on Minis so this afternoon I took mine off.

Obviously I still need an engine steady so I did a rough cut in some 4MM steel and left a long tail on it.

Then I took another piece of 4MM steel and cut a slot in the centre of it allowing me to insert the steady bracket through it.

Here's another shot, the two piece will be welded together with the vertical section inside the bulk head.

And the horizontal piece will come through this slot.

I also decided I didn't want to have a plate over these holes on the bulkhead so I cut the whole lot out.

Made a plate to fill the hole.

Checked the fit.

Welded it in.

Ground down with a flap disc and primed.

 

[Will1983]

looking good mate, its these sorts of details that really make the difference to the finished car.

 

[Tupers]

/\ Cheers Will /\

As part of my continued effort to clean up the bulkhead I decided that I wanted to move the wiper motor from the engine bay to behind the dash.

Obviously there's no point putting the motor inside and leaving a bumpy bulkhead so I chopped the area out and test fitted the motor.

It was sitting lower than I really wanted it so I cut down the first section of rack shroud to bring the motor up a little.

Here it is now sitting above the bottom dash rail. Now I just need to make a mount for it and make a blanking plate for the big hole. :lol:

 

[Angusdog]

Now that's an interesting mod. Do you think the motor will be too annoying in the cabin? On the other hand, it'll be the cleanest mini engine bay I've ever seen.