1978 Mini Clubman Estate, 8" drop, RWD, 20vt

Haha, Cheers mate, I'm glad you like the look of it. I'm hoping it'll be at RRG11, but there's a fair chance it'll turn up on a trailer, as I think I'll struggle to get it IVA'd and road legal in time. I'll have to beg lots to see if I can get it on track without an MOT. haha.

I'm thinking steel sheet stitch welded onto the bottom at the moment, with ridges rolled into it in any large open spans to keep vibrations down. I'd like alloy sheet, but I can't think of a way of attaching it that will be permanent, watertight and not get ripped off scraping over speed bumps.

Edit: I don't mean the alloy sheet getting ripped off on speed bumps, I mean the fastenings, i.e. rivet or bolt heads.

That looks amazing - I wish I had the skills and space to do something like this.

mephiston, The plans to use miglias, but modified so the front edge comes right down to the bottom of the car.

Like in these CAD drawings (which have come on a bit since I last posted them in this thread):



Cobblers, That doesn't sound a bad plan to be honest, I'll have to have a think about it a bit more.

Today's Progress:

Got the rest of the floor structure in:


Mocked up the engine block in place to get an idea of the engine mounts positioning:


And finally I made the front engine mount:

Can't wait to see this out and about Robin!

The problem with sikaflexing ali sheet on is that you really need bare metal to metal contact surface or a properly powdercoated finish on the steel, as paint tends to be the 'weak link'. The issue with bare steel and ali against eachother (which no doubt you will end up with somewhere) is electrolytic corrosion.

How much of a problem it would be I don't know, but its worth checking on!

Yeah, I'm still favouring steel for the floor. If it was going to be a pure track car then I'd go with alloy, but for a road car I kinda like the idea of steel. Partly just because I'm not a huge fan of pop rivets.

PS. Adam, what's the floor in your locost?

Keep it up!! Can't wait to see the finished car.

Fantastic stuff mate

Unfortunately mine will definite need an IVA test. The list of what's still original consist of: The pillars, the roof gutter, most of the rear quarters, half the front subframe, the steering rack and about 1/3rd of the bulkhead. That's literally it. Going off the points system I have zero left from the original car. I will be building it to meat IVA regulations, but at the moment the emphasis is on just getting the car able to move its self. The reason being that I'm doing the engine management as a project for my degree, which means it needs to be able to go on the colleges rolling road to map it by around Christmas time.

Other than oversleeping a bit this morning (bloody students 'ey) I managed a full days work on it today. Just been working on the rear subframe some more, although I also found time to cut out the rear door step and valance, this has gotta go to make way for the diffuseness that will eventually sit there. The box section I've welded in for now will be made removable so the rear subframe can be slotted in through the rear doors to make removal and refitting of the engine and subframe as easy as possible.

This is how the subframe looks at the moment:


the top rails are what the top wishbones mounting points will be fitted to, while the lower wishbones are mounted to the lower rails.



You can also see the big gap where the used to be the rear door step in the background of this photo: