My mini fell over and landed on this :D

[Picadilly]

Starting to come together at last now :) starting to get excited about my project again now all the head scratching has come to an end :)

http://www.minifinity.com/modules/v4bJournal/img/users/Planty/k-powah4.jpg

looks good, mpi as well.
i cant see from the photo, what are you using as for front suspension.
sean.

[evolotion]

I think that metro in teh background needs lowered :P

anyone ever thought about keeping the metro hydro unit and preasurising each one individually!? should just act like a mini doughnut then?? (whilst talking about suspension..)

[Picadilly]

yeah evo i have - thats what i plan to do at the front at any rate. if the metro rear subby will go on with out too much hassle then i might just be tempted to go totally hydragas as the donor 'tro in the back ground has already been lowered but 70mm - this was running at 400 psi handled very well :)

was worried about the mini handling like a mini and giving that typical mini driving experiance but now i just want it back on the road - at the moment hydra gas is my prefered suspension choice :)

[evolotion]

cool, that would give you options of bigger wheels at teh rear and keep teh metro track etc alround. never seen a metro rear setup before, so post pics purlease if you go that route!

[MattG]

welcome to the club Picadilly

Matt

[Picadilly]

Well ive got both rear subframes off and ive taken some pictures which are in my gallery. I m confident the metro subframe will fit. I've measured everything and i reckon it will work.

The only possible problem is the rear radius arm, which in bending out further than the mini item is also a couple of centimetres longer. I'm guessing this will cause wheel arch rubbing issues unless i can devise a way of mounting the subframe further into the body - its shorter than the mini one so this should be possible - any ideas?

Just for amusement, is shortening the radius arms an option?!

[MattG]

pics added for easy reading :)

http://www.16vminiclub.com/gallery/albums/userpics/raduis%20compaison.jpg

http://www.16vminiclub.com/gallery/albums/userpics/subframe%20comparison.jpg

[MattG]

i think with a little bit of rear arch fettiling you will get away with it.

Matt

[BigAndy]

Just incase your interested, i was speaking to a bloke who bought some bits off me when i scrapped my donor meteor git, and he said the metro cup boys bolt the rear of the rear subframe through the floor pan to stiffen it up. Should help spread the load away from the standard mini frount mounts. Are you gonna use the roll bar too? Some metro people apparently fit mini inner wheel arches so they can use rear dampers - u thinking of doing this?

[Picadilly]

hey guys, thanks for the heads up.

theres a lip on the rear of the metro subframe that im gonna take off, will gain me a few more cm space, im gonna try a few different mounting methods too, see what works and what doesnt then i guess it will be a combination of lowest profile tyres possible and mods to the rear of the arch :) it should go on fairly straight forward.

I have to admit i was wondering about rear dampers, the metro doesnt have them but as im not using the rear ARB then its something i was pondering to improve the rear handling a bit more.

I'll pop a few more pictures up when im done :)

[Picadilly]

The metro subframe wont fit as easy as i thought after all. To fit flush back against the heel board it would need to have more metal removed top fit around the body than is actually between the radius arm and the back of the frame itself. Either that or you would need to cut sections out of the heel board which obviosly isnt desirable.

I am now going to revert to my original plan of mini subframe and rubber cones, wearing metro radius arms at the back and individualised metro units at the front :)

anyone ever tried to widen the minis subby to the same track as the metro?, your probably not too interested but i built a trike (another sad interest of mine), and i used the mettys subby with the hydragas units, i charged the gas units seperately, using schrader valves, it worked quite well, the only thing being the thing had the character of the metty, when you came to an abrubt stop the thing nodded up and down rapidly 3 or 4 times, you'll probably get this with yours, its not hard to convert it to coil overs later anyway, i'm not to keen on using rubber in conversions, or even the spring things meant to replace them, my project uses a t16 engine, i'm gonna need scaffolding to hold that up.
sean.

[evolotion]

nodded up and down rapidly 3 or 4 times

butcher some dampers on.. shud stop that :)

[trickey]

Picadilly-
I'm planning on using metro trailing arms on the mini subframe too,
keep us posted on how you get on :D
There are a few issues which need to be resolved though, the mini arms are approx half an inch wider at the pivot, so some sort of spacer(s) will be needed, plus theres no quadrent for the handbrake cable to run in, it looks like drilling a hole for them is possible, or you could adapt the metro cable.
And of course theres no damper mount.

I should be started on this aspect of my project in the next week or so, time permitting, I'll post up anymore problems I encounter, and hopefully their solutions :?

Trickey.

i've sold the trike now but the new owner is a mate, i'm sure the advice on dampers will be welcome, i've had comments about the nodding being that bad that people laugh when he stops at lights and things.
sean.