My Vtec Cooper

[Oz]

Have a look yesterday whilst swearing loudly and kicking the drum brakes I was working on (why are the cylinder link pipes so f-ing hard to screw into the cylinders - took 10 mins to swap cylinders over and about an hour and a half to fit each pipe !! I got the blisters to prove it .... and relax !!!)

Its possible to swap over the bleed nipple and brake pipe BUT the existing bleed nipple is too short, it bottoms out before reaching the bottom of the thread Anyone know if bleed nipples can be bought in different lengths (not too sure what the thread in the caliper is tho )

I took a few very rough measurements as well to get an idea of the track I'd get with the disc set up as I was assuming I'd need a spacer and some longer studs but the measurements seem to suggest that no spacer will be needed - seems the SAE spacer is bigger than the Watsons spacer so corrects the track (although I'm sure it was designed to us the S/GT rear drum so I'm not convinced I've got that right I guess the only way I'll know is when I bolt it to car !!! )

[Oz]

Some progress on the Rear Disc conversion





Regarding the bleed nipple issue I have been able to source a longer bleed nipple so I can swap the positions of the hose and nipple over so nipple is in top hole now

I have to have a custom handbrake cable made up, gonna try speedy cables as their site says they do one-offs to customers specs

Been messing around with brake hoses but decided to make up my own rather than try and adapt one from another car (as suggested by the converter kit instructions)

Have decided to build a new rear subframe up too so this will add to the work to do. Am also adding Polyflex bushes and a Minispares rear fixed road anti roll bar. I have no idea if all this will fit together but there only one way to find out, eh ?!?!?

I have an entry in a local sprint and hillclimb weekend on August bank holiday so have to have this finished and back on car within the month I'm a slow worker so I can see I'll be working on car the night before !!

Have also fitted MGF ball joints to front so will be interested how these affect things. I want to fit an MGTF steering rack too but I'm stuggling to see that this is possible without removing engine from frame and possibly frame from car to do it as gear box is almost touching the drivers side U-bolt nuts so I dont thing I can get a spanner on it and will have to lower rear of frame at very least to get spindle free of car and I dont know how successful that will be with engine/box still in situ hmmmmmmmm

[DarrenW]

IIRC Duck managed to swap his rack without taking the engine out, the bad news was that he did have to cut the hole in the floor bigger to clear the spline IIRC.

Maybe worth PMing Duck to ask him

[Oz]

CHeers Darren, will do

[Oz]

Set about trial fitting the Rear Anti Roll bar today - went quite well I think







Just need to get the custom handbrake cable knocked up and make the rear brake hoses then it can all be stripped down for cleaning, derusting and painting then built and fitted to car

Hope it all works after all this

[Oz]

BTW I dont envy anyone who tries to fit one of these whilst the rear subframe is still attached to car unless they have a decent 2 poster to work on !!!

[garyshoose]

I have an entry in a local sprint and hillclimb weekend on August bank holiday so have to have this finished and back on car within the month I'm a slow worker so I can see I'll be working on car the night before !!

Bouley Bay ? Was at the last one earlier this month, Absolutely fantastic hillclimb !!! Shut a local road for the day and let the cars, bikes, go-karts loose. The way it should be done Couple of nice wee minis and the chips at the top of the hill.... well, what can i say.

Have you asked Geoff Watson who does his HB cables. I know he supplied a couple to me for my VW conversion but dont know where he got them.

Lookin good, G.

[Oz]

Not Bouley Bay this time - Its a great technical hill (I hold the upto1400 Production Car class record up it but not in a Mini) damn scary cos there is no run off, just earth banks, granite outcrops and drops into quarries !! Its a car wrecker if you get it wrong !

[Oz]

Well there has actually been some progress .... the car is back on the road after 18 months

I've fitted a refurbished rear subframe with polyflex bushes and recon trailing arms. The rear disc brake conversion came to nothing - the SAE spacers are huge and the wheels poked out of the sportpack arches - they'd have wrecked the arches every bump unless I ran stupid ride height at the rear.

So back to the Watsons spacers and I have the Minispares fixed ARB fitted. I've also revised the rear bumpstop arrangement - managed to fit some standard front top arm bumpstops inside the rear spring. Also fitted Watson helper springs to front to see if that helps and means I dont have to run the dampers on full hard to counter the roll - please someone make a decent front ARB for the Watsons frame !!

I spent the day doing several little jobs then giving it a clean so by time car was ready it was dark so its first proper drive is being adjourned until tomorrow morning ... I pray nothing falls off or breaks !!!

The MGF lower ball joints have given great negative camber on the NS front but less on the OS

I have also made some new bonnet stripes (God bless fablon !!). After posting this pic in the "Show us yer Mini" thread



I realised that I actually like it better with them. Problem is as bonnet is 90mm longer standard Rover stripes are too short hence the need for fablon !!

Also found this pic from same shoot



Its currently parked next to my Clubby estate on 10s and the vtec is quite a bit lower despite being on 14s !! I never realised how low it sat !

Problem is I'm starting to dislike the extended front - I'm starting to think the next mod will either be a clubby front or an standard front with an Allspeed frame food for thought - geez will this car ever be "finished"

[JoBu]

I've got a MGF/TF front ARB waiting here to go on mine if its needs it... Only trouble is i dont know if it would be too thin or thick. But im 95% sure it would be a straight fit, MGF/TF lower wishbones, drop links and clamps. Drill the subframe, couple of captive nuts on each subframe leg for the clamps.

Thing is would fitting a arb give more traction issues? Because the wheels are then connected...

[Oz]

First road test today and with the rear arb and the helper springs it really does corner flat without the need to run the dampers so stiff so I'm pretty happy at the moment so front arb may not be necessary. You might want to try some JoBu.

Had to space out the revised bumpstop arrangement as I was still getting some rubbing at first but I can now throw it at corners and hit all but the biggest bumps and no rubbing so that seems to have worked.

Has some trouble with my tracking gauges so still gotta get front alignment sorted properly.

Still, managed to put a few road miles on it. Still got some clonks and creaks when using the clutch so am thinking some stiffer engine mounts might cure that hopefully.

[Shalma]

Nice car update

[CooperWorks]

Really nice sleeper!

[Oz]

Cheers guys

[Oz]

Got a new digicam from Christmas so thought I'd dig the Mini out for a few up to date pics