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

[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

[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]

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

[rliezhepet]

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

[MkI]

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

hard to believe hey

[MkI]

next was the cage painted assembled to check it went together properly before being mounted in the mini

[MkI]

So with the help of my brother and couple of mates we got the car back home last thursday. Roll cage is complete! I really couldn't help myself but i had to dummy the seats up











you can see how much space there is with the seats...

[MkI]

Old mate Richard came over on the weekend and brought a little gift. a Weber 45DCOE

this is how the passengers seat sits when the drivers is in a more-or-less perfect spot to come forward on rails/slides. It will have to come across slightly, but i think we can make it work


drivers front on, the rails will angle up so the wing will rise as it comes forward to miss the b-pillar


Looking at the passenger seat as close to the b-pillar as possible



Said Weber 45DCOE, roughly setup for a 1408

[MkI]

and you're all up to date now... thats how the mini sits/stands.

Next up is fabricating the rear beam and sorting the suspension out. We're running with the good old camber pin idea, similar to below, on the trailing arms so we can have camber adjustment, and we'll be modifying the internal mounts so we have toe adjustment. It's simple so should be fool proof (i.e. i can use it)

[jazig.k]

Interested to see how the OCD goes when you find the steering wheel sitting 20mm off centre from the driver... My old AU falcon was like that from factory. Worst car problem ever and I couldn't believe it was factory like that...

[MkI]

Interested to see how the OCD goes when you find the steering wheel sitting 20mm off centre from the driver... My old AU falcon was like that from factory. Worst car problem ever and I couldn't believe it was factory like that...

Well i know about it, how we handle it will be interesting. The centre between the original seat mounts is 60mm off the steering column. The steering column is also on an angle from the floor.
i might duck out and see the centre of this seat compared to the centre of the old mount holes. Would be interesting.

I do understand there will be compromises in the car. the most obvious currently is that i have shoved the passenger seat over so the drivers is in the best possible position. Its not symmetrical, but it will be a drivers car

[MkI]

Seems from measurements the new seat has actually lined up better with where the steering wheel *should* be.

[MkI]

So sent this drawing off to be fabricated today. Should be done sometime next week. Its the base of the new rear suspension, the trailing arms mount to it, doing away with the subframe... well, as long as the engineer approves of it





And apoke to Carl @ Force Racing about some 3-piece 10x7 wheels. He has a new mesh design hopefully finished at the machinist today. Excitement

[MkI]

In good news Carls happy to split the set of wheels into two pairs. Which will save me a few hundred

I will be getting the CAMS paperwork for the rollcage today, along with (hopefully) the delivery from Velo that was the seat mounts and slide.

I had a beam fabricated but there were two issues, firstly i made the design 4mm too short - derp! - , and secondly the mounting holes on one end weren't drilled to plan... so i'll get them to do it again and ensure they at least make it to plan. It might be harsh but i gave them a good clear drawing with every dimension and they made one end perfectly and the other is just a mess.
So hopefully version 2 works

[MkI]

Oh and just sorted the beam out this arvo. Popped past the fabricators at lunch and chatted. I'll drop the beam off tomorrow and they'll weld the holes, clean them up and re-drill. The rest of the beam seemed to fit so well its a shame to chuck it. Especially as the engineer could **** the idea and if i had a second made then 2 would be trash.

I also missed my delivery of seat mounts and slide, so have to work something out there. Shame they only deliver in my area at roughly 1:30pm