The Orangebox Rally Car Rebuild!!

[SMOKE GREY]

Nearly six years and over 45 events since I put the ex Roy Mapple Mini back on the road it's now time for another rebuild/restoration. With four championships won with the car it is only fair to say it is now better known as 'My' Orangebox, not what I imagined when I set out!!.To this end this rebuild is going to see the car with a much smarter appearance and with more up to date safety features, still in marigold etc, but with the aim to have a go at the HRCR Old Stager Mini Cup stage rally championship. How long this is going to take money and time wise god knows Anyway I few pics before and after the strip.

[trevorhp]

Nice to meet you on Friday
Best of luck with the rebuild Steve
We hope it goes well
Trevor and Alex

[SMOKE GREY]

The exhaust has had a hard couple of years


The MINI SPORT historic road rally engine has done 24 events without anything other oil changes, driven hard

[SMOKE GREY]

[SMOKE GREY]

And now fully stripped, time to get frightened to death with quotes to do the shell..

[SMOKE GREY]

Nice to meet you on Friday
Best of luck with the rebuild Steve
We hope it goes well
Trevor and Alex

Likewise chaps! Enjoyed our chat, look forward to meeting again sometime.

[mk1]

The OB looks amazingly good considering how hard it has had to work over the last couple of years.

I am sure it will be fantastic once its back on it's wheels & ready to compete again.

[SMOKE GREY]

The OB looks amazingly good considering how hard it has had to work over the last couple of years.

I am sure it will be fantastic once its back on it's wheels & ready to compete again.

It looks much worse in the flesh Mark A bit like when you see a pic of a car for sale that looks tidy, then you get there an see it..

[coopertim]

Looks great to me Steve! I remember seeing Keith Birds rally car a few years back with serious stress lines in the wings where too many yumps had taken their toll on the front end!

Good luck with the rebuild, its going to look and perform great!

Tim

[SMOKE GREY]

Nothing much to update at the moment, was supposed to be taking the shell for blasting tomorrow but work etc has got in the way so probably going to be another couple of weeks before it gets done then I can cart it over to Mini Sport for us all to stand around laughing at whats left of it

[mk1]

for us all to stand around laughing at whats left of it

An essential phase in all restorations

[rich@minispares.com]

for us all to stand around laughing at whats left of it

An essential phase in all restorations

its not a restoration if your mates don't rip the piss at what you start with!

[mk1]

Rich,

You definitely have a restoration on your hands!

[rich@minispares.com]

I don't know what your talking about

lalalalalalalalalalalalalallalala

I cant hear you

[SMOKE GREY]

Well latest update so far, took OB last Friday for blasting, a local firm up the road from me, they have done several cars for Mini Sport including a 6R4. Result was nothing I didn't know about so that was a pleasant surprise



Back to Mini Sport for a coat to stop it from rusting (anymore ) and hopefully next week we will planning the next step with the shell, as it stands, complete new floor, inner and outer wings, door steps etc.



In the meantime I have started work on rebuilding the running gear


More updates to follow

[mk1]

Glad the blasting didn't reveal any other nasties.

[SMOKE GREY]

Thought I would put a couple of updates on, the bodyshell is now in the bodyshop, got the guy who did my 997 works replica (919BBU) and Slowboys grey 850 doing the shell, few jobs done on it, roof dents etc but mainly waiting on panels to arrive from MM.

Meanwhile been working on suspension and brake parts, done quite a bit since this pic



And far more exciting, my new carbs arrived this week..



More updates to follow.

[mk1]

Funnily enough, I was only wondering how you were doing last night.

Thanks for the update.

M

[SMOKE GREY]

Funnily enough, I was only wondering how you were doing last night.

Thanks for the update.

M

Cheers Mark, hopefully things will start moving along a bit quicker soon, shell hopefully done before winter sets in and I can start putting it together over winter, got some nice tweeks and interesting mods lined up

[billycooper]

Them carbs are awesome !, i want some , all looking good, keep us up to date , funnily enough I had Roy in at the dealership over the weekend looking at the pics of KEC