1965 Mk1 road/rally Bitsa, (now supercharged 8 port)

[Richspec]

Its being done at dj autospray just outside penrith, i just dont have the time to do it myself so thought i'd find someone i could trust and i've known of des for years, just never had any work done by him myself.
He did do some work at Minimaster for a while, and young Dan thats in the photos doing most of the work was trained up at minimaster under chippy, minimasters bodywork guru.

[Richspec]

some more progress, all the door steps and sills have been replaced, the front wings have been trimmed to give clearance to the wheels (hopefully enough!) and will get a return edge welded on, the front arches have been fitted, some fillers started to go into the boot to smooth up the lumps and bumps.
Some repairs to the drivers rear inner sill haven't been done so they'll be cutting out the solid but messy work that's in there and letting in a new section of inner. Then i'll be up there on Wednesday evening to fit the rollcage so the footplates can be welded in, or even just give it the thumbs up if they've had the chance to put it in beforehand.
The bonnets all cleaned up with the old front lip removed and the bootlids undergoing a back to metal job, it'll be a lot lighter by the time they've finished
I still need to decide what to do with seat brackets, I did intend to fabricate something and fit it later but that seems a bit crap, messing up the new paint so soon, I do like the mountings on 997's Bird motorsport shell...

[Richspec]

More photos previously mentioned inner sill gets sorted




the doors had the narrowed pockets refitted


The cage has had its first fit.


The narrow pockets should provide plenty room for the door bars to go in

[Richspec]

so, seat brackets. I bought some bits off ebay, namely the square end plates with a hole and the rail mountings with a sliding captive nut and acquired some tube courtesy of my brother, however the tube was just a tad larger than the 25mm size commonly used which meant the holes in the four inner sill plates and the the cutouts in the other brackets needing enlarging a touch.
once done they fit nicely on the tube



the inner plates needed adjusting to the curve of the centre tunnel, or near enough


via a vice, a round bit of steel and a big hammer.

I then stripped out the interior of my other mk1 so I could work out how they needed to go together, making sure I had some adjustment on the seats once the bracketry was all welded in place, heres 3 of the tubes all tacked up.


removing the carpet on the other mini did reveal this on the inner sill


and missing bits here:


then later today I dropped of the seat brackets at the bodyshop, not much progress on the mini, sme filler work, cage out and rear cage footings sorted as the cage didn't sit on the arches at all well.






Seat brackets loosely in car, I used the side mounts and a piece of stainless box to act as a jig to position the tubes back from the crossmember and keep them all level to each other, as it stands i'll have three holes of adjustment back from where the mounts are here and about 20mm of sideways adjustment.

[rich@minispares.com]

removing the carpet on the other mini did reveal this on the inner sill

you have to question the mentality of someone who would pop rivet a patch with the captive nut for the seatbelt back onto the sill!!!

[Richspec]

its better than that - its self tappers..

its now securely welded on

[slowboy]

nice work fella, like to see thought going into a job, excellent !

[Richspec]

nice work fella, like to see thought going into a job, excellent !

Thanks

went to see it today and checked the situation with all the extra holes in the boot that were found under the filler and layers of paint, most have been welded up, just the four in a line above the number plate to tidy up and were good.

Its going into the booth next week for filler, prep and primer, then the week after it'll be painted ready for my next weeks leave when I can bring it home.

[Richspec]

[Richspec]

getting excited now.... and another order coming from minispares tomorrow

getting some final prep and seam sealer whacked on

[wantafaster1]

God its bright, going to look well.

[GraemeC]

Looking smart, the underside of mine looked like that once!

[Richspec]

There's a nice Applejack clubman been done at the same time.

Facebook link:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =1&theater

[rich@minispares.com]

lordy that's bright!

[Richspec]

newer pics





Flickr

[Richspec]

going to go and fit subframes tomorrow to get it rolling and back home

[InimiaD]

Fairly obvious how "Bumble Bee" got it's name.

Looking oh so good. Now the fun bit begins.

[SteveG]

Are you a Watford supporter?

Looks great!

[Richspec]

so last Saturday we spent some time making it into a rolling shell at the bodyshop so we could bring it home, probably this weekend.

first up was a quick test fit of the badge in the uncovered holes in the boot


got the subframes in (eventually) and built up the suspension.


likewise at the back


test fit of the wheels, the calipers just catch the stick on wheel weights.

[Richspec]

So collection day was the other week, just about to leave the bodyshop in this photo.


got it back to my unit and in place, which is a very shorted description of the faff it is rearranging cars and trailers..
to fit 3 minis in I have to turn it 90 deg on the go jacks.


I've been mainly working on one of the other minis but I've made some more progress on fitting bits, all parts are from minispares.








Used an old carpet set to work out how the new one will need cutting to get around the seat supports.



I've also been sorting out engine bits and bobs from the various hiding places and 'I'll put that somewhere safe' boxes of bits we are re-discovering. My brothers supposed to be sorting that out.. we decided the pistons on the ex race engine will be ok after giving them a clean and check over, we just went for new rings and new bearings throughout all bought during the latest sale at minispares.