Thanks miniconcarne for the efforts Good deal on a front sway-bar!

Let me see on the parts list:

-left door
-rear beam
-rear alu bumper re-bar
-gas-tank
-rear control arms (more on that below)
-hatch
-hood
-RF headlight
-engine mount
-tranny mount
-suspension bushings
-caliper bushings
-etc...

 

Jeff/Adam from Alta, are these yours? (if you ever come over here)

I think there's a "manufacturing defect" with this set. Do you think we could make a warranty claim?



Just kidding. Considering the beating that they took, they did a hell (they're red...) of a job.

 

Bigshot, the soul is mainly intact. It should survive! We actually tried to fire it up to check the condition before stripping the car. There was a small issue with the fuel delivery. Something to do with a fuel pump in a thousand pieces.... (add that to the list).

 

Greg,

As reviewed before the "neat" feature(s) (for lack of a proper term):






But it didn't help the strut tower:

 

There won't be much happening on the build before mid-late January where the hard work will start. In the meantime, we are trying to find a few required parts and fix what we will be using.

There are stll a few good deals on e-bay when you are patient. We picked-up a brand new steering wheel for $120.



Also a set of tail lights + 3rd brake light for $16.

We fixed the interior quarter trim panel (bling!) as it was in two pieces in the crashed car:



I'm on my way to Florida for vacation in a few days. We'll stop by Daytona for the Koni test to assist Randy and the RSR team. More to come after as we've just located a rotisserie locally that might be helpful to strip and weld the "new" shell.

 

Alain: i hope to get the chance to meet you at daytona. i'll be there for the duration.

i guess i need to keep any eye on e-bay for race car stuff. track-oriented sites don't have as many good deals (unless you want to buy the whole car).

 

Looking forward to see you there!

I can also help you with that!

 

Hello Alain,
Fun to be starting a new project, I'm still making minor changes to my car for 2009.
Will race today at NPR, my local track in Louisiana...Should be a good event to get back in practice.
Noticed a while back that you displayed some photos of carbon parts which included some brake duct inlets for the front bumpers.
Any wy I could purchase a set of those? Tried looking for the post thathad the photos but could not find it.
Best of luck this season.
Regards,
Steve

 

PMed it to ya Steve

 

These ones for the aero bumper?



Hope you had a good race today!

Alain

 

Yes, that's the photo had seen before. I have been using the stock bumper not the Aero one, will yhese work? I'm sure with a little cutting they would fit.
Had great time racing yesterday, will post video tomorrow. Car ran great!
Thanks for the help.
Steve

 

Hi Steve!

I'd be pleased to get you a set of the C/F ones but Way from Way motorwerks sells a fiberglass set that will fit the regular bumper. Just let me know!

Alain

 

We reorganised the garage today.



We removed all the plugs, nuts, bolts and brackets from the shell.

 

Looks like fun. Good luck with it.

Matt

 

Thanks Alain,
I called Waylon and got a set for the regular bumpers.
Good luck on your winter project.
Regards,
Steve

 

We started removing the insulant tonight:

 

Pedigree ?

Nothin wrong with that MINI that a BULLET won't cure...

 

For the owner or the car?

 

A productive day today. We managed to remove most of the seam sealer.

 

Very educational. Thanks for taking the time to share with us all!

 

Glad to see you're back Tony. We don't mind sharing most of what we do in the hope that more MINI will find their way to the track. If anybody can learn a thing or two than we all gain.

Another productive day today. Large crew today means faster progress.
First the easy stuff: removal of the "cardboard sunroofs":







Removal of the roof bow:



And a shXX load of useless brackets and welded bolts and grounding points(and before anybody asks, yes we're sure we won't need them; tons of time saved when it's not the first one you build!):

























DME bracket removal (we will relocate it inside the car):



Cutting the front pieces of the frame rail. The top portion is only there to hold the latching mechanism that will no longer be used:





We removed the rear floor pan as the battery will be relocated to the rear as a Cooper S:



The leftover pieces (only some of them):



We ran into issues with our rotisserie and also with garage roof/sliding door rails clearance so we chose a more basic method:





More cleaning (under the car tomorrow)

 

This is just awesome. Looks like you've got someone to assist you also... That's right, this is a Cooper. I forgot. Really cool winter project.

 

Most of the floor is now clean.

 

Another productive day today. I have a great group of helpers.

Some stich-welding in critical areas of the body.
























We welded a bolt to the dash locating clip. This saves a lot of pain when you try to remove the dash at a later date:



The dash panel was lightened:



More useless metal removed:





We also found the the roof rack attachment points hidden in the roof reinforcement.

Drill the welds:



Break the welds once most of it is drilled-out:



...and push them out:



These suckers are heavy!



The passenger door was gutted:



We also stripped a lot of the damaged parts to keep the good bits, lightened the stock airbox, etc.

That should pretty well be it for our weekly update.

 

I learned something new... stitch-welding. Very cool. I assume that makes for more rigidity. And the idea with the dash bolt is clever. Your previous build experience is paying off...

I couldn't tell from the photos, what are these?