My Vtec Cooper

[Oz]

I made up a return to go under the grill in front of the rad and a filler piece for the gap in the corner under the grill IMG_20200916_0920438.jpg

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I had to rush off before I could take some "after" photos. I had some welder issues so it didn't go too well and had to remake the filler piece after the above photos were taken.

[Oz]

Today was a bit more successful, it even started to resemble a Mini !

I got rad bulge finished (in rough terms, it still needs filling and fine sanding to get a smoother profile) so I then fitted the grill and shaped the bulge to fit around it. It still needs a little more wor', but almost there. The back of the grill also had some work done for some extra few mm's.

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Also made up the top rad bracket so the rad position is finalised.

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[Oz]

It needed a tweak to the modified headlamp bowl to give decent clearance

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Then just a case of making sure everything fits.

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[geachy87]

Nice, you must be glad to have finally got the radiator fitting 👌🏼

[Oz]

Nice, you must be glad to have finally got the radiator fitting 👌🏼

Yeah, it's the final piece of the puzzle for getting the front end sorted. Once everything is in its final place I can start building the removeable front from the panels.

I've got to get the RH new wing modified and finish off the front panel next

[Oz]

The front panel is now pretty much finished. I welded in an angle piece to replace the stiffener that was removed as it interfered with the exhaust manifold. Also reprofiled the panel around the manifold then welded in a filler piece to finish that area off.

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I also started filling and shaping the RH arch and the result is everything in my garage is now covered in a layer of filler dust... lesson learnt!! Still have a bit more filling to do in a couple of places but it's nearly there. Then comes the fun of trying to move the side repeater recess and make it look halfway decent! oh and then do it all over again for the LH arch :/

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[Haz]

Cracking efforts fella! Just delete the recess and mount the indicator higher? Or would that be too easy?

[Oz]

Cracking efforts fella! Just delete the recess and mount the indicator higher? Or would that be too easy?

lol, that's too easy ! I want to keep the side repeater recess in the arch. I seem to like making life difficult for myself lol

[Oz]

Final day of garage time today

I got the RH wing gutter reprofiled. unfortunately I managed to get it wrong first time so it will need some repair work.

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As I was doing this I realised that I might get some clearance issues with the rad cap and bonnet

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I started fitting the bonnet but ran out of time

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[Oz]

After relieving a couple of sections of the cross brace to clear the rad and the return lip to clear the modified wing gutters the bonnet actually seems to fit !! I tested fitted the grill, bumper and lights just make sure everything fitted. I will have to modify the RH spotlight bracket as it doesn't fit with the modified front panel by the rad.

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[Oz]

Then started seeing how my modified arch seems to fit

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[Oz]

I forgot to say that I managed to drop the rad by about 5-10mm (I didn't actually measure it) which helped the under bonnet clearances.

[Dopeshow]

Nice work Oz, nice to see you making progress.

[Oz]

Nice work Oz, nice to see you making progress.

Thanks mate. Yeah, it's great that I'm now in a position where everything seems to fit under the front end. It's a big milestone for me.

Now just working on dry building/test fitting stuff back on the car to see what still fits and what needs work. Drilling holes now etc before paint so once it's back from being sprayed hopefully it should just be a case of bolting it all back together and hoping I can remember what went where and which wires connect where etc lol

[Oz]

and with bonnet up

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