Roof chopped BMW mini cooper S

[rkde]

Well I still feel like I do have something to be ashamed about. However I had never done any GRP till I started this car, I had never done many things and I am so glad I have now. Do need to now finish this and have a bit of fun with it. The time has come to book time off work and do it (time is booked to only spend time on the car

 

[lshigham]

the only people that don't get any problems with projects are those that don't do any

The man who never made any mistakes never made anything!

 

[Cris B]

^^^ What he said

You did set yourself quite a difficult first panel

Car is looking good. Will be great to see this get finished off!

 

[rkde]

So here we go,

Old roof off again

Oh God we are back here again...

Aluminium roof about to go on

Aluminium roof now bonded on

Look at the planishing on the inside

Crash beam cut out

Big plate and bar twin pass cooler about to be welded in

Only place left for the oil cooler which will have air ducted from the front and out through the wheel arch

 

[Shox Dr]

I bet you can't wait

 

[Robotstar5]

I'm surprised you haven't fitted bonnet catches to hold the roof on, it's been on and off that many times

 

[Shox Dr]

I burst out loud laughing when I read that

 

[KimB]

It's looking great, I'm still so excited to see it completed.

 

[cardiffrob]

Are you going to polish the inside of the roof? Kinda like having a mirror on the ceiling of the bedroom.

 

[the snooper]

Are you going to polish the inside of the roof? Kinda like having a mirror on the ceiling of the bedroom.

saucy

 

[rkde]

Best quote I have seen in a while - This is the 4th roof if I include the original! I now know what to do and what not to do.

I'm surprised you haven't fitted bonnet catches to hold the roof on, it's been on and off that many times

I will sadly have to cover the roof in sound deadening as it will pant and drum which will drive me crazy so its going to get covered

Today;
I had to make some changes to the blower outlet, I can already see I am going to have an issue finding a home for an electric fan

Its now looking like a car though

May have to do something with the metal around the blower pulley ~ its a tad close

 

[bump]

Looks like you need to do the same cut and box mod that was standard on fitting a 20XE into a Nova.

 

[rkde]

Just a small update.

Thought I had an electrical fault so I pulled the whole car apart only to find it was a few dead cells in the battery giving some add results. Only took a day to sort it and stripping the interior back out meant I could do some other trimming jobs which would have been harder in the car.

Other news, radiator is in though it is a temporary unit for the time being, intercooler pipework is coming on well too, should have all the pipework finished for the end of Monday ready to stick fluids in and play

Decided that I hate alloy welding laying on the floor. I get there just I have to stop every inch to reposition myself ~ I do respect those who do this every day.

Lower intercooler pipe showing but it will be behind the grill

Intercooler pipe behind the radiator

Radiator brackets all made and in, I have started with a VW polo rad which is used in westfields but I plan to get another made at work which will be slightly bigger, this will do to get me running especially as its a twin pass core, just going to have to pass more coolant through and run the fans more often...

 

[rkde]

Today has been more about the pipework, I cut off the bottom pipe and changed it to go in the top to try and keep all the heat at the top of the cooler, I then made all the pipework for the riser to the plenum. I really like the way that after removing the front end the rad and cooler all come off together so easily. I do however need to find a better way of release the pipe from the blower as that is quite a trick. at the moment you need to slide the silicone over the pipe and that allows the front to come off. This isn't ideal so I need a quick release system though I probably can just do that each time I want to remove it...

Pipe work taped into place while I worked with the angles

Mostly welded up now, I can now spend the evening finishing and bracing all the pipes and front member. There is a lot of welding needed and I really do not like alloy welding any more I find the heat off aluminium cooks me and even with a TIG finger this work is too hot

 

[Shox Dr]

I was only looking at the clamps you want. Give me a mo to find them on ebay

 

[Shox Dr]

I cant find them. Aero v band clamp, with two 12 point bolts, there were several sizes available for little money

 

[rkde]

Thank you, I have also been looking at some clamps, I have found some which look OK but one pipe is stainless and the other is alloy - doh. I may have to draw something up and get it made. v band clips look like the way to go though

 

[rkde]

All the braces added and last plates welded in. The crash intercooler is now hanging about being painted

 

[rkde]

Also today I added a port to the plenum, pleased with how its all come out. now to sit down and order any missing parts

 

[Shox Dr]

That's a wild colour. What is it?