16v K1380 mini, I just couldn't resist ripping it apart again.

[jayme]

Hi Guys

Between blowing up polo gearboxes and doing the age old thing of not modifying my daily yoke (but then actually modifying it) I have actually made a start on this which has quite understandably surprised a few people


So firstly i actually finished stripping everything out of the front end, only took 6 months to do that lol



Then I made some plates to weld in



Started welding up every hole on the wing





Still some more work to do before i start panel beating it flat. Im not a fan of filler so i will be using just enough to surface the panel and give it a super smooth and clean look.

Next step was to strip the frame ready for seam welding, My younger brother got it blasted for me yesterday so it now looks like this for the second time in 3 years



I have also started cleaning up every part I took of the car, started with the lower arms, decided to smooth these of all the casting marks, so out came the dremel and the sand paper



The mounting faces got painted silver, when you buy them new it is left with a machined finish which rusts as you can see in the pic above, so rather than paint them the same as the rest of the arm i spent a bit of time and painted them before masking them of.







Top arms also got stripped then took back to bare metal, etch primed, then painted, as did the engine mount, and a driveshaft. Spent alot of time on the 1st of the shafts. plenty of filler primer hid the pitting in the metal before a few coats of top coat and 10 coats of clear, a flat back and polish up. Think its the best paint finish ive ever got, and its on a bloody drive shaft . Think i need help or more friends.



Over the summer I will be doing alot of this kind of work, I was happy with the quality of the build the 1st time around but I'm keen to step it up a level and really push the boat out. All the laborious jobs im happy to do myself now ive got the room and the tools and the quality isn't restricted by billable hours.

So thats it for this week, will hopefully have another update in the next week or 2.

Thanks for looking

Jayme

 

[mayweather]

Great work, keep the pics coming!

 

[PeteMoore]

Epic dude. Gimme a shout if you need anything

 

[cauld1]

Belter paint job on the axle stand .
You know what I think of it anyways so not gonna repeat myself!

 

[jayme]

Belter paint job on the axle stand .
You know what I think of it anyways so not gonna repeat myself!

Not my best but its no a ghetto axle stand.

il help you with the bmw when ive this finished

 

[jayme]

Done a bit more work on this over the last week, work has been slow due to the shear difficulty of how the panels are to weld, the metal is extremely thin (easy to see how they crumple like a crisp packet)

Have spent countless hours also panel beating the drivers side wing as straight as I can, the panels just warp as soon as they are touched.

Passenger wing went well, minimal warping which was nice.



Some more work left on it bottom of it has some kinks which im still easing out, this panel beating crack isnt as easy as it looks.

Next was onto the bulkhead, first task was to banish the garish seam sealer which was well hidden by 1 million fuse boxes and sound deadening which previously inhabited the bulkhead and now my bin on its way to a landfill near you.

I also had the lovely task of stripping the wiring loom from inside the car, it ran along the back of the bulkhead along with more sound deadening and would have proved to be a major fire risk once the welding commenced.



Another thing ive learned from countless hours of research it its best to remove the paint with a da and 80 grit paper, this is time consuming as you have to keep moving the sander, working 1 area for 2 long heats the panel and again this could cause distortion.



Next pics should be of a fully welded bulkhead, then it will be time to completely strip it back to bare metal, seal any seems neatly and then throw some etch primer on it ready for any filler work. It may not look like much but the shear amount of work gone into this already is scary, I dread to think of how many are left to come and thats just the bay.

Thanks for looking

Jayme

 

[stevieturbo]

What are you doing for cooling...both for allowing air to and from a radiator with both inner wings fully sealed up ?

 

[jayme]

What are you doing for cooling...both for allowing air to and from a radiator with both inner wings fully sealed up ?

My car was a later model so had a front mount radiator fixed to the front of the sub frame, so il be sourcing a uprated one, the standard item seems to do the job on a few 1's built in england but il push the boat out and go that bit extra to be safe, there should be some room aswell for twin fans behind the rad so that will also help suck some cold air through.

 

[big_pete]

I will need a run in this when its finished as its the engine I always wanted for mine

 

[pedenjohn]

i would have thought the hole in the inner guard was necessary for the hot air to 'escape' from the engine bay, never mind what sort of fan your running. And yes I do realise it has a front mount rad, I just imagine this to be the opposite of what you'd want to do with a mini regards cooling

 

[jayme]

Any holes I've welded up hasn't been ducted for the heat to get out. The biggest 1 was for the air supply to the inside. Even from factory it's just a front mount rad and fan. And I'm not overly concerned as te amount of cars pushing more than my aim are running fine.

 

[pedenjohn]

I actually was referring to the passenger side, any minis I had, had slots in the inner guard by the radiator to alow the hot air to vent into the under arch. Although granted these newer cars could be different. I'm actually watching an episode of fast and loud here, where they have a car they are using at pikes peak, which overheated for this exact reason. They referred to it as 'air stacking', and basicly they had to drill holes in the bonnet to let the hot air out.

 

[jayme]

Oh sorry, yea the later cars didnt have the vented inner wing due to having the rad up front, il throw some pics up later of the wings before i started, all the holes where just mountings points or holes for wire routing.

you any links to it john? always interesting to watch. Im pretty confident it will be up to the task, hence why I refereed to to the the other cars running heavier tuned setups. was also thinking I may have to lift the rear corner of the bonnet for clearance although I read an article o mini aerodynamics and air flow and it turned out that it really created a suck bringing alot of dirt up from the road.

 

[stevieturbo]

The scuttle/rear sections of the bonnet area on cars are high pressure areas. Opening this up will not help air exit the underbonnet area

 

[jayme]

I must dig out the article and read it, KAD actually done the study in an air tunnel using 1 of them yokes that distributes smoke, when the lifted the bonnet and put the smoke under the car they found it exited through the back edge of the bonnet.

@stevieturbo was it you that done the drag day in may in the granada?

 

[stevieturbo]

Yep

 

[RoniN]

@jayme loving this so far, great work.

Also watching the Project Binky from Bad Obsession Motorsport on youtube and their latest video addresses this very issue of heat in the engine bay.



4 1/2 minutes into the video.

Link to the Gas Monkey Pikes Peak ep.



33 minutes 20 seconds into the video.

Don't know if this helps you or not but keep up the good work!!!

Cheers

 

[jayme]

Yep

What have you in it? Was impressive to say the least.

Cheers dude, have been watching it, I'd say his vents are partially due to the extra heat of a turbo, personally I am not to concerned, il be using tried and tested methods, plenty of info out there

 

[MarkyMck]

hats off to you Jamie for ripping your Mini apart! can't wait to see the finished product

 

[jayme]

Update Time

Ive have been working away at this, granted not as much as i need to but things have changed a bit now and this has to be finished for next June, so plans to buy a nice MK5 Gti have been put on the back foot and the new goal is to have this ready for @soupz wedding.

The realization hit a few weeks ago how much needed bought so I just started buying all the bits ive liked. Cutting corners on this wont be an option due to setting a completion date so this is what the crack is these days

Firstly ive welded up mostly every hole in the bay, and relocated the wiper motor to inside the the car in order t get a real clean looking bay





Started to seem weld the subframe, but as per normal run out of gas



To reduce chance of any bare metal rusting over winter i threw some paint on, this also gave me an idea on what areas i need to spend a little more time on.





A few of the parts ive bought in the last 2/3 weeks




Billet blanking plate, engine steady and subframe tower bolts





Also found these little billet washers, want to try use a few of these as detail, after all details make a build



SC stainless steel manifold





Also started to think ahead to air filters for the throttles, often with these people use filter socks due to space restraints. Personally im no a fan and think a nice itg filter would work aswell as look better, only issue though is they arent used for a reason and that is due to clearance issues, bonnets, radiator, tps and the linkage being the main problems. decided that id have a go at designing some mounts. Few hours later and a nice 3D CAD package and id this on my screen







Im fairly confident i may have solved the problem, but until ive the mounts laser cut and everything in place its hard to know.

Next up more parts

Cheers for looking
Jayme

 

[big_pete]

Fecking awesome!!

 

[pedenjohn]

Nice work. these cad drawings are some job, but it's hard to beat the real thing.... A cardboard template! Lol! Impressive all the same.

 

[jayme]

Nice work. these cad drawings are some job, but it's hard to beat the real thing.... A cardboard template! Lol! Impressive all the same.

Definitely John, they have their uses; great for visualization and planing. But like you say, until you have it infront of you, its hard to know how its going to work.

 

[stevieturbo]

If you can get a big filter like that, it'll definitely be better than trumpet socks. Trumpet socks are keek.

 

[jayme]

Think il be going for an itg jc40/40 seems to be perfect sized for the application. also saw a video a few years back of a sock getting sucked into a throttle