Restoration diary / 20-03-2005
20-03-2005 >> Various body things, the to-do list is getting shorter. Also did some thinking on an injection manifold.
 | p1020291.jpg (800 x 600) 20-03-2005 - Made a tow hook. The old one(s) cannot be used anymore because of the flip front. Normally the tow hook is mounted in the hole to the right and above the new tow hook (hard to see, it's all black). In racing the cars often have big, flat, round aluminum holes for towing. I wanted to make something similar, but this time from thick, heavy metal. |
 | p1020292.jpg (800 x 600) 20-03-2005 - The tow hook must be placed pretty low to make sure the towing cable won't hit the flip front. I'm fairly happy with the way it turned out. The hook feels strong and is nice and round, the mounting looks and feels good. |
 | p1020293.jpg (800 x 600) 20-03-2005 - Square brace on the inside, just below the window. The side panel was very wobbly, with the original paneling cut out long ago to make room for the side window. |
 | p1020294.jpg (800 x 600) 20-03-2005 - Last piece that has to be replaced around the right side window. Cut and formed a piece of sheet metal, here it's tag welded in place. |
 | p1020297.jpg (800 x 600) 20-03-2005 - Finished the new handbrake route. Mostly, I had to find out what to do to the hole in the back (where the cable leaves the interior), lower the rear sub frame and modify the hole. It works great and the cable doesn't rub anywhere (with the rear wheels in normal position). On the other hand, fitting the cable is a small nightmare... |
 | p1020299.jpg (600 x 800) 20-03-2005 - This is the to-do list for the body work. It's getting shorter and shorter. The major thing remaining is the front, to fit the bonnet in the flip front. Next biggest thing is the right rear door. |
 | p1020300.jpg (800 x 600) 20-03-2005 - For a while I've been thinking about building a kit car. I've had many a dream about setting up my own engine with fuel injection, to create the perfect running engine. Suddenly it hit me: Why not fuel inject the Mini? There are many reasons not to do it, but I'm going ahead anyway. Here are the first two drawings of what's going to be the intake manifold. On the top are the throttles (should I use two or three?), on the bottom is the engine intake. This fuel injection is a project on its own, so I think I'll give it a page of its own soon. |