brads 1963 mk1 850 - roll cage complete, got a weber & ideas

[rliezhepet]

The bloke is australian and spent over a decade at the highest levels of motorsport

[MkI]

Just as a tease, here is the completed rollcage on the jig before painting

[MkI]

So next on the list was the roll cage work. Once I had the seats i dropped them around to AGI and we mocked up my driving position. Once they had some measurements they marked the positioning for the main hoop and the building could begin.
Because i'm a bit long in leg, i realised the seat back was behind the B-pillar, so adam grabbed the second Velo and put it in the cabin. Seems that the seats fit side-by-side behind the b-pillar by a bee's dick, but that's all that is needed!

As you can see in the pictures below they were welding bases onto the car with captive nuts, then bolting the cage will bolt directly to those bases. This was done due to the age of the metal the cage is bolting to.

The idea is to have the whole cage removable by one, and the front half as it will be taken out for road duties. The rear stays mount to near the top of the rear firewall to maintain the required 30 degrees from the main hoop, they will then bolt to the top of the main hoop. Speaking of, the main hoop is on a slight rearward angle to allow me some more backward room with the seat angle, pretty nifty. these blokes have done a cage or two before...

[MkI]

Subbd! Looks like a good start! Sorry to hear about your dad

Such a great story so far, and sorry for your loss. Can't wait to see more. Since it's only the shoudler bolsters that interfere with each other, can you mount the passenger seat a little bit behind or in front of the driver, just to get around the width issue?

Thanks guys

Yeah I asked around and even emailed Velo whether they had any records of people fitting the seats to a mini and they all staggered them.

To hell with that! they'll fit side-by-side...sort of

[anth]

Such a great story so far, and sorry for your loss. Can't wait to see more. Since it's only the shoudler bolsters that interfere with each other, can you mount the passenger seat a little bit behind or in front of the driver, just to get around the width issue?

[DER E30]

Subbd! Looks like a good start! Sorry to hear about your dad

[MkI]

I forgot to mention i sold the 10x6 mambas that i had bought at the start of 2013. They hadnt even got out of their packaging (obviously one did, but 3 didnt). They now reside in Tasmania on a nice clubman.

...my car has no wheels...

So this is how the seating/staggering issue stood. I placed them between two verticals at 1140mm apart. Thats the measurement i have off a mates mini thats between the B-pillars just above the door lock inset, which should be the area the wings fit into.

Theres about an inch of overlap. From sitting in the seats it doesnt seem to interfere with anything but my OCD

[MkI]

Wearing the seat in...

[MkI]

So after a few weeks of frustration i had a real 'fuck it' moment and bought two Velo GPT-2's. Because why not hey.

They are Australian seats with a great reputation, they were quite comfortable, FIA approved, and their wing width was 580mm...

we figured the seats could be narrowed slightly to fit, but even though their approvals (FIA) wouldnt apply anymore im a bit worried about compromising the seat shell strength.

Here i picked them up from the other side of sydney once they came in from Adelaide, South australia.
Velo sometimes use different yellows between batches so i got two from the same batch to ensure their shades of yellow matched. Thats my slight OCD in play again...

[MkI]

Next Adam @ AGI needed my driving position so they could make the cage to suit.

Now a quick story about Adam at AGI. The bloke is australian and spent over a decade at the highest levels of motorsport, and worked for Williams F1 team as an engineer. So he eventuslly came back home to Sydney, and one of his mates who is involved in movies and stunt car stuff asked Adam if he would like some work making cages and cars for a movie. Long story short he and his little awesome team made over 100 cages for the new Mad Max movie. Through that he was able to start his business fabricating racing cars, but the roll-cage work has taken over. AGI cages are very common in local drift and circuit cars here, and as he is always looking to broaden their kits he was interested in doing one for a classic mini. Thats where my car comes in. A mutual friend sent me his way and the ball got rolling.

So we needed a seating position for the mini. I'm certain i have a little OCD, as i refuse to do the usual trick and have one racing seat and a notmal for the passenger. The issue with a mini is its lack of interior width. We measured 1140mm between the B-pillars just above the door lock bulge.

Im just over 6 foot and about 95kg. I now know while im not fat, i am thick set. Just for reference, i used to play football (soccer) and run about 30km a week and was at 85kgs. So im thick set (some would just say im thick - any aussies would get that).

I spoke to the engineer and because my car was built in 1963, it pre-dates our Australian Design Rules (ADR's), which means that it still needs to comply to rules, but nothing too strict. So with that info, the engineer is happy for me to have good quality fixed-back bucket seats from a reputable brand as long as we mount them properly. In short, some race seats arent ADR approved, but as my mini pre-dates the first ADRs it can be legally registered with those seats.

After scouring through forums for minis, Lotus', Mazda MX5/Miata & anything else with a narrow cabin i was at a loss. I found dimension sheets for every seat i could find by Recaro, Sparco, Cobra, Corbeau, Bride, Racetech and Velo (probably others too, but i cant remember). Nothing would fit my hips AND fit two wide in a mini, as the wing/shoulder width of the seat had to be 570mm max and most were around 600mm.

On the left is a Velo Milano (which i know does fit in a mini 2-wide, but doesnt fit me...and doesnt have the look i want), on the right is the Velo GPT-2

[MkI]

Fuck work...

The pictures after the mini was dropped off to the magicians at AGI engineering for the rollcage work. I'm quite happy with the shell condition. From other shells i have seen, this one is solid but just a bit rough in some areas

[MkI]

Dude keep at it! I'm sure it'll be done in no time!

thanks mate, we still have more progress. im just starting the juicy stage

[MkI]

Next update after work

[MkI]

POW!

It's late 2014. I get a new girlfriend, she's awesome. I started thinking seriously about the mini.
We went to Paris and Baveria Germany over december and half of Jan 2015. Once back i started hatching plans and get things organised.

The desire to run coilovers has been strong but it was always figured too much effort and money, but i'm going to go all out and do it. I'm very lucky being in the position im in currently so i wont waste it by wondering what could be.
To run rear coilovers we will cut the old turrets out and weld in new 100mm tubing to accept the 80mm OD protech coilovers. With the coilovers we will be running a rear beam to mimmick the front of the rear subframe, doing away with the weight of the old rubber cone suspension.

A side effect of the turrets is that the original fuel tanks wont fit so a new fuel cell will be made/bought and put into a new rear floor. Eventually.

To register the car for our roads it needs to be engineered by authorised guys, so i found a good local bloke and have spoken to him. The car was booked into AGI engineering in Peakhurst, Sydney for the end of March but due to their schedule it was delayed. At the same time i spoke to a sandblaster about blasting the mini once and for all to reveal all of its secrets.

To aid the works i made a trolley up and tacked the body to it. I also got under and scraped whatever rubbish i could off the underside of the body.


































I took some snaps of when Jim from Quikstrip turned up for the body. It was the first time in a decade and only the third time in 15 years the car had seen the street

[cosmo135]

Dude keep at it! I'm sure it'll be done in no time!