76 Mini Clubman Estate

[notabmw1]

Had a semi productive weekend. Got the air management installed, lines ran, new carpet installed. Now I am working on fabricating the front air mounts. This is the mock up, I need to order some steel and hopefully bang it out this week.





Still want to go 1 more inch down in the front, maybe 2 if possible...

















Cleaned up the blue Mini, getting it ready to put up for sale soon.





Would be cool to slam this one as well, go for the patina look.

[notabmw1]

Well it's been a productive week, picked up 3 more Mini's. Got my interior almost done accept for some small details. Fabbed a new switch plate, installed air management, new carpet, modded a center console, made new exhaust... Now I am re-fabricating the front mounts for the new air shocks. Tired of running up to Delaware! 3 times in one week after work. But I got 1 more car to pick up and the deal is done. Anyway, on to the pics...


61 giving me a headache.


Had the 74 Cabrio follow me home. I think it could be turned into a cool slammed speedster...


Then went and grabbed this 1275 gt with removable hard top... Should have kept it... This is up in Rehobeth coming back.
*

Delivered it down to VA to it's new home.


REAR UP!


REAR DOWN.


Don't mind the wheel wells, they have carpet on them now. And the heater is going to be replaced with a modern unit that is hidden.

[meech]

I never new there where so many Minis in Delaware haha. lived here for 20 years and have only seen 2. A british racing green one that looked restored and a original Yellow/orange one sitting in someones a yard

[Chasen88]

Man, these are nice.

[notabmw1]

I never new there where so many Minis in Delaware haha. lived here for 20 years and have only seen 2. A british racing green one that looked restored and a original Yellow/orange one sitting in someones a yard

I met this older guy about 2.5 years ago and have been working on getting his collection since then. Finally called me up about 3 weeks ago and the process started. He was right in Lewes, DE. So 15 hours worth of trips later I got 3 cars back at the place, just waiting to get the last one. I co-run the Mini group down here in MD, DC, VA and we have just a little over 100 members with Classic Mini's. I've only ever seen 1 on the road while not attending a event, sadly most just sit in the garage like a lot of other classic cars. Anyway, hope I get enough time and energy to crank out the mounts tonight for the front and see how low it can go.

[Queef|Chief]

Fuckin awesome man!

[werewolf4805]

this thing is so cool. One of my favorite builds I've ever seen

[notabmw1]

Well last night I continued mocking up the front top mounts, looks like I will have to redesign the lower mount to be further out and slightly lower, and raise the top mount by an inch or so... that and do a little more trimming on the top mount to get a little more clearance for everything. But it looks like it will work. Extremely tight though!


My new top mount, coilover top mount, and stock shock mount for Classic Mini.


I cut out the subframe tower, going to flip the part I cut out and reweld in so it is concave, or I might just flat plate it, not sure yet.


Shock all the way extended. I also had to face shock towards inside because air fitting would hit fender... another unexpected small detail, as well as the 9 point shock adjuster will obviously be facing inwards as well.


Here it is fully collapsed. It is binding a bit, this measures 11.5" from eye to eye, it is suppose to collapse to 10.5" or so, so I will trim out the top bracket a little bit, and move that bottom bracket out so it is a little more straight up and down position, as well as move the top mount up 1 more inch or so for tire clearance. I think with a little more tweaking it should work ok.

[RayBoogs]

Impressive work mate.

I always wanted to see what someone could do with airride and a mini.

[notabmw1]

Impressive work mate.

I always wanted to see what someone could do with airride and a mini.

Me too, I have a bagged Morris Minor, Astro, and now attempting this. My only beef with doing it on the Mini besides being ridiculously tight, it doesn't have the same illusion on archless cars. On my van it ate up the wheels, here it tucks tire a little bit. Now granted if you could have wheels that were 10x3.5 and keep it without arches and run 145 width tires... maybe it would have the same feel. I really think narrowing the width of the frames would be the way to go, or just build a full frame for the car and narrow it.... maybe one day. This will do for this season. Still got fuel injection and turbo I want to sneak under the hood.

[notabmw1]

Thursday Teaser



Was back at it again, now have designed version 2 of the top mount and lower mount so there is more clearance for the shock and with a better angle. I had to move the top mount up 2 inches, and move the bottom bracket mount out and down a little bit. I have now gained 2.5 inches more drop.... starting to get happy. I actually had to cut the fenders 1.5" up from stock. I think it's headed in the right direction, can't wait to get it back on the ground and really see what it looks like. Pics:


New lower mount


New top mount, narrower mounts, they have since been trimmed more not to have those little recesses.


Still may have a little more travel left in her yet!

[notabmw1]

I ended up getting the front done at 1am the day before I had to pick up the wife and kiddo from there Germany trip (She scored me some Trabant Parts to finish off her car). So I am now on version 3 of top bracket, v2 of bottom bracket. Everything works as it should, just got a few small details to iron on. But the pictures do it no justice. I measure 3/4" from sump guard and exhaust! To get that last bit would mean heavy re-working that I am not gonna tackle this year. Could possibly do it with shorter shocks in the front, but the shorter shocks have almost no stroke, so I think I will keep these. I also want to invest in eventually FBSS setup with a small tank. Right now using the Airlift 72000 kit which is fine for the time being, just takes about 60 seconds to get to ride height, vs my old setup on the van doing it in about 1/2 a second.


This is about 20psi front, 30 psi rear.




Measures in at 3/4" to sump guard.


All the way up, ready to go off roading! That is probably about 80psi front and back.

[notabmw1]

Some recent pics taken from this weekend real quick:

[speakerboy]

This thing is the coolest, and those flares!

[Rally]

Congrats on getting it down. It looks fantastic!

PS if any of those minis need a new home, I have space for more in our warehouse