| Bits & Bobs | ||
|
Relocated Expansion Tanks and Washer Bottle Interior Door Handles and Locks
|
This section will detail general changes to the Mini not directly related to performance enhancement. (Click on pictures to see larger version) The dashboard was looking a bit scratched up after quite a few years and also still very prototype looking. In the sun it also had quite bad glare off the top panels. Was originally going to make new panels from carbon fiber but this wouldn't be cheap and also quite time consuming so opted for now to use carbon wrap. Doesn't look too bad actually, much better than scratched up aluminum.
The original ones looked quite rough from seeing through the windscreen with wires everywhere so designed and 3D printed a new pod for the exhaust temp gauges.
The rear seam used to always catch on my leg in the garage so designed and 3D printed some rear bumpers which blend into the wide arches and also some trim pieces to smooth out the central part of the seam.
I wanted to get some more air into the front to enable possibly extra radiators in the front wings properly (there was already a small one but I don't think it gets a lot of forced air from the few drilled holes). In order to do this I needed to make some room and creating some new front bumpers with a decent air intake should assist and look better too. These will replace the area where the indicators currently are, new headlight units are to be used which have built in indicators.
New bumpers installed, may replace these with some slightly modified slimmer versions i've created in the future but for now these will suffice and should be good intakes for the extra radiators planned for adding over the winter as part of the engine and transmission rebuilds when the front is removed. Also may design and add a centre section with intakes at each end where the license plate attaches. New centre section designed and printed (still need to sand, fill, paint and mount), for road use the license plate attaches to the front of this as it does now but leaves air intakes at either end of where the license plate sits to get some extra air in while cruising then at a track take the plate off to let more air in.
The headlights are pretty poor generally on a mini so some upgrades would be good (not that the mini goes out very often in the dark lol), rather than the common change to the leds with the spotlight focus type lenses I think these look a little more in line with the classic appearance. They seem to have a good confined beam pattern (which was my initial worry) and much brighter than the existing units were.
Relocated Front\Rear Expansion Tank and Washer Bottle The front expansion tank and washer bottle were mounted in a very rough fashion on the right side, yes they worked functionally but they wasted a lot of much needed space and looked very untidy. Designed and 3D printed some new mounts to relocate these which looks much better and also benefits with freeing up lots of room so I can improve the air intake position in the future. The rear was an ok position but could do with being a little higher and also the bracket was just a piece of aluminum based into a shape to didn't look great.
Interior door handles and locks The alloy door handles didn't align with the original mounting screws so one screw was just in the cardboard of the door card, this ripped out constantly so made an adapter to allow it to be solid mounted again, much better now and also added a couple of alloy lock covers as there wasn't any before.
Filled the extended front end welding I really rushed the front end extension due to trying to get to a show then couldn't be bothered to finish it properly, finally after about 8 years i've finished off the bodywork and it does look much nicer :)
I hate having to lap in and shim the standard mini ball joints and being front at the rear means another set of 4 compared to a normal mini lol In Japan they like their mini's and must have hated them too as they came up with some one piece direct replacement units, no need to bed in, shim or grease these ever again. Quite expensive compared to the very cheap stock mini ones at over 10x the price for a set but i'm happy to pay that to avoid the hassle and mess. I was concerned that they may affect the suspension settings but using some basic measurements before and after all seems to be exactly the same.
Having the small mount inside the car on the bulkhead was a good place for some 360 degree footage, I now wanted some outside footage of the car on track etc so designed a mount to fit into the removable tow bar in order to mount a new 360 degree camera. Should make for some good clips when I get back to the track, it's like a drone following as the camera removes the mount stick part.
Managed to lose one of the existing Ultralite wheel centre caps, rather than buy some more though why not design and print some and make them a set which show the primary manufactures components used in the build.
|
|
