1982 Mini Scamp

Tiny update.


It's been hot, not sure if you've noticed? Anyway, turns out my Acrylic dash which I made a tight fit expands in the heat and does this



It's gone back to normal once cooled, but it means I need to shave a little front each end and maybe enlarge the mounting holes and use some sort of flexible washer?



When we first built her my mate made the gearstick one night when I wasn't there, it worked, but I had to lean forward for 1st and 3rd and it also hit my legs getting it into reverse.

I knocked up a longer stick with a few bends that now perfectly fits me. It's made her even more of a joy to drive and much comfortabler.

I topped it off with the handle from my Grandads old Kamasa ratchet. I plan to wrap the stalk in paracord.





She's always been down on power, I figured the engine was tired and since I'm going to be fitting a new one I wasn't that fussed.

I've worked out that the new one wont materialise for a long while yet, so I started taking a look at the issue.

I went through everything, set the carb, timing etc and she was still awful, idled fine and was ok until 2K but after that she was popping and missing and very flat.

I noticed when doing the timing the mark was jumping around, so I knew something was amiss there. I bought a £30 PowerSpark unit and now she's a different car. She pulls hard really showing off her 35-40bhp








So now I can keep driving her whilst I eventually sort the engine out. Oh, turns out there may be enough space for a KL-DE

That car is just cool on wheels!

270cfm it has written on it

If that's true or not I don't know. It certainly throws out some air

This morning I got a call from my Brother, his car had failed it's mot.

The garage wanted £700 to fix it, I had a look at the fail sheet and advised I could do it for £200


He rang me back an hour or so later, he's decided to buy a new car. The garage offered him £100 for his car.



I now own his car for £100




Now the car. It's a 2005 Yaris T-Sport, worth a decent bit of coin especially having such low miles. The problem is, someone hit it when I used to own it and the repair down the whole of one side has now made itself known, he also clipped a wall damaging a wheelarch.


So, I spent exactly 30 seconds deciding i'll be having the engine for the Scamp and breaking the rest of the car and returning the money raised to my brother.



So what do I have?

Toyota 1NZ-FE
109bhp
104lb-ft
VVTI
6400rpm Redline
Aluminium engine coming in around 110kgs




As mentioned, I used to own this Yaris and it was hella fun, the Yaris weighs 995kg and hit 62 in 9 seconds
The Scamp will be what, 500-550ish Kgs.

Oh HELLO! 

I am going to enjoy this even more now! 

Sooooooooooo, I was in the pub the other night, had a few, was talking cars with me mates.

One thing led to another and I sold the Yaris to one of them


It did seem a shame to break an up and coming future classic right...



As part of the deal I did get a Micra engine and loom




Turns out we have that there RRG in a month or so, so I went and got an mot. She'll without a doubt be there under A-Series power as I just don't have the time at the minute

Just making a list here of things to do before RRG


Repaint roll cage - it's rusted under the paint due to lack of previous prep

Fit Hi-Los to the front end, so I can finally set the ride height

Fit another seat?

Make a new bonnet that does away with a thousand holes and rivets and doesnt use whatever the hell these hinges are

Paint the inner wheel arches black

Paint more of the 'interior' in bed liner

Make an exhaust that actually exits the middle of the car rather than a jaunty angle

Refit the dash so it doesnt buckle in the sun, also use stainless bolts as the current ones have rusted

If there's time look at some sort of tambour door system for the load bed

I've spent a fair bit of money recently with very little to actually show for it.



I had the front hi-lo's fitted along with a set of new suspension cones at MiniLand as the old ones were very dead.

She drives much nicer now, although she sits higher as the new cones haven't collapsed like the old ones. I'm told they'll settle.




I've ordered a whole load of ally sheet in various thicknesses at great cost.

2mm for the bonnet along with some ally angle to strengthen it

2mm for the front light panels and the numberplate panels as these are currently in 0.8mm and are very flexible, plus I really don't like how they're fitted, so i'm going to weld up some flat bar along the box section and tap it out for some decent fixings.

Couple of sheets of 1.5mm to make up a bulkhead behind the seats and also to make a cover for the fuel tank / locker area. This area will ultimatly house the injection tank, surge tank and battery, so might as well make it up now.



Will I be able to get it all fitted and the whole thing painted before RRG? Probably not, but hey...

Liking the transformation from neglected kit car to loved fun car. A friend has a trekka which is based on a mk1 fiesta an was built like this looked at the start of the thread, very badly and clearly by an old boy who had more time and rivets than general skill. looking forward to seein more smoothed off panels