Finally, i should put up my project....now started
Turbo Mini Forums

Well, been on here for a while now, such a useful website! Always get a decent answer, so cheers for that guys.

I dint think i ever introduced mysefl properly either. Im James, 20 and im a student in my last year at Uni, got two months left.

Anyway heres my project. it was my first car 3 years ago, a 998 city E but i ran it into the ground, stuck it in the shed and bought my BM. Been rebuilding it for the past 3 years and its starting to get there.

Here it is when it was on the road.





Here it is when i pulled it out of the Garage:




Work commences.



Lots of bits, all these panels are now on and if anyone notices the oversills they were changed and proper sills were put on instead.lol Poly bushed got changed for solid mounts later on. Also got H/D adj tie bars.






Bulkhead has no holes in it but the inner wing was screwed so a new one was put in.



This is the front subby that was in the car. keeping it as it in ac nick but the back one was worse for wear.


Scary!




Back from being welded...still gotta get a bulkhead box put in for the turbo.





Decided to start doing the underneath. Its in really good nick! Everything is surface rust and theres no holes. Original underseal has lasted and protected the floor pretty well. Just needs a few bits to be ridden of surface rust then re-undersealed!






Its always really nice to find stuff like this. This is what the majority of the floor is like!


Its still not finished as I am going to give it another coat before I waxoil it but it is soooo much better now. Anyways,

Before:


inbetween:


After:


I got my arches too. Wood and pickets. Should look good with 6x12" dished mini lights.



Then i bought this, a metro turbo engine. Apparantley in working order but was overfuelling so i plan to rebuild the carb and replace a few things and see if it runs then rebuild it at a later date



I ordered a solid mount kit from mini spares on thursday nite and it arrived sat morning. Really good service, will be using them again:



Also got my bulkhead box:


Heres another piccy of the engine. it turns over, turbo spins freely, and inside looks extremely well looked after. I also got the rad from the metro with an eleccy fan still attatched so il try use some of that. Got the ECU and fuel pressure reg too. Needs a bloody good clean though and a lick of paint!lol


Oh and the colour of the car is going to be a nice metallic black, possibly something similar to a Toyota colour.

The brake calipers are pretty much rebuilt and painted red. Also got EBC
greenstuff pads and sure stop discs from mini sport.Should look lurvely, hoping they work ok tho as iv heard a few bad things.lol






Cut out the bulkhead box the other day. just waiting for my mate to weld it in and i can get the engine bay cleaned up, primered and painted in black:

Dad grinding.lol.




Also in the process of painting the engine and rebuilding the hubs. Gonna have a go at fitting a wheel bearing tommoro. waiting for another kit to arrive and i still need to order 2 swivel kits for the hubs and negative camber kit.

Oh yeh, heres the Hi Los, mini sport front ones, new cones and knuckles:



Well got home this weekend to do some more and found tons of bits wating for me. i love shinyness.

1.5 negative camber arms
1.5 negative rear camber brackets
Escort Rs turbo intercooler
Modified plenum Chamber
Dump valve
Silicone hosing
Vaccum spacer
Huge selection of nuts, bolts, washers, bleed nipples etc etc
Clear front indicators units
Head lamp bowls
Grease gun
Braided brake and clutch hoses
Thermostat housing after the one i destroyed
Second wheel bearing kit
SU rebuild kitSwivel Pin kits for each side



Dump valve setup:




Escort Rs turbo intercooler:




Oh and iv started to rebuild the carb tonight hoping to get it finished by tommorow. Bulkhead box is getting welded in on saturday morning which means i can get the engine bay painted up and the shell protection finished. Got tons and tons of stuff to do!

The bulkhead box is all welded in now and the engine bay has had a coating of red oxide. Looks braw if you ask me. Chuffed with it.

Welded:




Painted up in red oxide:





Pretty much painted now, its far from perfect but it will do me for the bay:





Also started on the boot:




Did the wheel bearings. Wasn't that hard at all as long as you remember to use the original seal spacer.. Iv been dreading doing it too.lol Infact i quite enjoyed doing it. Just hope they work.lol









Next thing to do is the swivel pins and thats the hubs done.

I started doing the ball joints last night and got them finished today.

I am so glad that i have got this all done. Been dreading doing these jobs but they weren't as bad as i though. had to do some fair bit of fetteling to get em to work but they are all good now.





Front and rear subframes are kinda nearly built up now. Got my hi-los in, heavy duty tie bars and negative camber arms and brackets. Just need to assemble the brakes on the rear and put the driveshafts into the front along with the hubs and front brakes:



1.5degree negative camber:






Also fitted Poly quick release engine mounts and theywere a complete pain in the ass! Had real trouble getting them to line up. Wouldn't advise anyone to buy them. Grrrr.



Also pianted my manifold in proper heat paint. Looks much better than the rusty old thing it was:



Its good when things start to come together. Hubs and brakes are on:







Look what arrived today! Drool. Dont wanna put em on. they might get dirty! sexiest shocks ever in my opinion! Hope they work ok.lol





Got rid of all my soundproofing today, not bad nick eh. No nasties hidin under there.



Oh yeah, rear subby is on. I had the back end on wheels earlier.lol. Getting there. Few piccies.

Although the Hi-los are on the lowest setting and its not that low. I guess/hope they will settle and i will have to make it higher?

Edited by hammoj28turbo on 18th Apr, 2008.

the engine is in! Iv been doing this project for over 2 years and this has made my day. Chuffed. I nearly have a mini again instead of a pile of bits!

Got a few bits and pieces recently. Mini is at paint shop and will prob be there for a while as they are being lazy. Grr. Really holding up the project!

6x12" wheels:


2 Core performance Rad
10 row oil cooler
Bonnet pins
Rack
washers etc

Mini has been at the paint shop for 4 weeks and they ain't done anythng to it! Grrr. Last time i saw it:



Cant wait to have it all painted and back ready to be put together.

Some more stuf i have bought. Sump gaurd. Thanks to brocky.





Got all the bits for the engine arriving this week too.

Well, the mini is still at the paintshop but they have started on it and its all been rubbed down, dents removed etc etc.

My plenum setup with the intercooler take off's fitted and the dump valve. just need to get some piping rigged up for the cooler.

look what i bought,lol:

Got these from the scrapper for a tenner. In very good nick too. bit of a bargain...

Got sent pics of the wheels and aches today.. he don't think they are legal but i reckon they are just on the verge of bein legal. They look class anyway.

Heres some new pics.

Bit too low....lol.













And my new seats:

More piccies:

Some piccies of bits iv got for it...

Alloy piping for my intercooler, just need silicone piping now.



New Tex mirrors:


New wiper stalks, wipers etc...



Wipac freeform headlamps

Some more Progress from this weekend.

Fitted the wheels today...







And this is awesome, lifts really quick too.




Also got these the other day, they are the same as my boost gauge.



Need to cut the dash out too and get on with making it.

This weekend I:

Fitted new steering rack
Finished Rebuilding carb
Assembled Rear Brakes
Started to prep the inside of the floor pan as im gonna paint it
Also trial fitted the carb with the plenum and fitted some bits to the engine.

Rebuilt carb, polished the dash pot a bit too



Trial fitted:



Tbh, im really not happy with the engine bay, its caked with dust and has overspray on it and primer etc. Same with the subframe. I may just rip it out and tidy it up. We will see.

And thats my progress so far.

looking really good, should come to something nice

yeah youve done a neat job on that,took an hour to load them pics...lol

Ron

looks very nice mate! wont be too long now!

Cheers guys, sorry for all the photos, there are rather a lot.lol

Im hoping its not too long, hopefully it will be ready for this summer. Going to depend how long the engine lasts until i need to rebuild it.lol

Edited by hammoj28turbo on 27th Mar, 2008.

Very nice wish mine was as far on.

I'm stupid Ive A fiesta with most of the bits to make my megajolt thingy. Thick or what!!!! OHHHHH and ive got a metro for free !!!!! Metros have become rare over here!!!!!!!!!
http://s216.photobucket.com/albums/cc273/weewheels_2007/

looks great mate

"Turbo's make torque, and torque makes fun"

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

yes sure looks the part, you have put many hour in to that as well as this post!

Best 1/4 mile 13.2 seconds @116 mph
First 5 port miniturbo to make over 200 bhp on a carb?
First 5 port miniturbo to make over 200 bhp on Injection?

http://www.mattwoodsphotography.com

looks great!

Pics are huge lol

AlexF

What a great project thread. Keep up the good work

Good work! Another black turbo mini. Soon there will be as many black as there are yellow lol!

In the 13's at last!.. Just

Thanks guys, its taken me ages but its all definately worth it and i love doing it. I dont know what im going to do once iv finished it, will have to get another project.lol.

Hehe, yeh black minis are great. The paint is really cool too as its Panther black so has a nice metallic through it.

The plans are to get it on the road with the standard turbo engine. Then look at getting a s/c box with cross pin and 4 pot brakes and then once i have them i can look at building a proper engine with some decent power.

I also really want MB's wheels and miglias.:)