First Coats of Primer

Here is the car on its way to my friends to get a coating of Epoxy Primer. Funny thing to notice here is the tiny trailer I can fit this thing on...lol.

Here is the Master Joe Campbell laying on a fresh coating of Epoxy Primer... without a mask... in a garage... with poor ventilation... grass roots resto at its best! lol Joe ended up paying for that one later in the day. Folks, you always have to take necessary precautions when dealing with these chemicals. This primer causes nerve damage if left to prolonged exposure, dont take chances... do like your daddy told you and "wear your safety gear"!

Here is the car drying after Joe was finished. It was pretty nice to see the car with a nice even coat on it... like a light towards the end of a tunnel.

Now the car is back in my garage, and ready for the next stages to begin... more updates to come as I begin the cutting and patching!!!

Take care for now...

Blast-off!

Well, another week or so gone by... and I'm finally getting my car back from the media blaster. Due to the recent Hurricanes coming through, we've been getting a lot of rain causing me to keep the body locked up from the elements in order to not allow rust to begin again.

You can see here in this image the light vs. dark grey areas of the body. What your seeing in the dark areas is the effect of soda blasting. Baking Soda allows you to strip the metal of all paint/coatings while still maintaining good protection from rust. The light areas you see are from Sand. Sand is much more harsh to the metal as you can see... the abrasiveness of the sand removed much more, but the metal must immediately be coated once this is done.

Here is another image showing the underside of the front end. This is an extremely critical area due to this being a main mount point for the new VTech Subframe. The previous owner put in new floor pans, however, when doing so did not completely remove the bad metal. Instead, they double-paned the area by overlapping the new panel to the old. This could have all worked out, except that they didnt remove the front subframe when doing so, so in turn they encapsulated the bolts in place. I found all of this out of course when I was trying to locate the bolts in order to remove the frame weeks ago. Once I cut the bolts free I was fine... now will be the time to go back and fix this while all is visible to me.

The last two photos show more of the bottom of the car. This area of course has the most issues due to moisture, etc. What I'm deciding to do in this case is glass the whole bottom of the car vs. going in and re-welding all new panels in place. I've removed all signs of rust at this point, and by glassing the bottom I can ensure moisture will no longer be a problem, and the fiber-glass will actually end up being more stable than the sheet metal when all is said and done. Some of the other panels that look like swiss cheese I will replace accordingly.


Next thing to do is to have the body coated in Epoxy Primer. Regular Primer allows moisture to pass through the coating, Epoxy Primer will properly seal the surface giving me the time needed to complete all the body modifications and repair.

Trunk Space - Part 1

The silver car pictured here is your typical Classic Mini, which you'd probably find 90% of the time full of junk thrown back there being the only space to have storage in the vehicle. On the driver side, you'll see the 8 gallon tank, centered (in a well) is the spare, and working to the far right side, you'll see the battery is in a pocketed area as well.

The red car shown is more suited to my thoughts on wanting to balance the car a little more, while also keeping things straight forward in terms of function. What I would do along with the fuel cell would be to add a race battery in order to cut down on the space needed, as well as keeping in tune with not adding too much additional weight.

These cars also use a typical front and rear subframe to hold all of the suspension componentry. My rear subframe is in serious need of a replacement due to rust/deterioration. I started giving this a little more thought, and am starting to research alternative options to the rear suspension rather than just buying a new frame and utilizing old technology. I'm starting to reference F1 technology/engineering on how they compact the suspension into the smallest of spaces while maintaining firm ride control.

More updates and photos to explain what I'm talking about to come later...

Exterior Options

So up until now, I was under the impression of doing a 'raced-out' mini that I could drive on the street everyday, and tear up near anything I come across if I so pleased.

In thinking about color options for this thing, I'm beginning to lean away from bold racing colors, and thinking that a more subtle approach to the thing might be the way to go.

I'm beginning to reference Cadillac a little bit, and what they're doing in the direction of Pearl White. I've gone through the PPG books, looking for color combinations, and look to be settling on Fiat "Bianco Perla Mica" with possible a Peugeot "Gris Futura Metallic" silver compliment color for the top/stripes/etc.. These two colors in some angles are very close to one another, then when "flopped" the contrast makes the two pop pretty nicely. I think that by doing this, I'll be able to have some fun with graphics if I choose to, but not be overwhelmed with them after a month. This treatment could be looked at as something like 'ghost-flames' on a hot-rod...

I'm thinking about first visualizing this in Photoshop first to plan what the cars going to look like, when I do so, I'll be sure to post something along...

Special Delivery!

Well, last week I received the call from MiniTec that my order was complete. So I went over and picked up the unit, brought it home, and set is aside for when final assembly finally gets here.

Currently the car is without any part attached to the main bodyshell. I'm due to bring the shell in to be media blasted next weekend to remove any rust/paint/undercoating/etc... once this process is done, I'll use a Catalyzed Primer to seal the body which I do surface work to get ready for paint.

The Honda motor comes with the JDM (Japanese Domestic Market) valve cover (Red cover only available in Japan). I'm having some internal debate at the moment of having a small side project in order to make a custom cover just for this motor.

From this...

To something like this...

Engine Removal

With the Front Subframe now completely detached from the Body, I can now begin prepping the body for paint.

Here is a shot of the Front Subframe and Motor/Trans which was detached from the car.

Mini VTEC @ Nürburgring

Here is a video that actually represents what my car will be like upon completion.
This car is an actual Innocenti Mini (can tell from the dashboard gauge layout). This car is fitted with a 1.6 Liter Honda B16 Motor as well.
This footage takes place on the infamous Nürburgring in Germany. Although my car will never see this track in person, I will be tearing up the American roads in similar fashion.
Enjoy...

1st Anniversary

Well, its now a year that has passed... and much to my surprise, I find myself spinning my tires on what's getting done on this car. I've managed however late last week to overcome a serious hurdle, which will allow me to move this thing in the right direction.

Today I'm placing an order for an MTB2 Kit from MiniTec. This kit essentially has all that I need from a drivetrain standpoint in order to get the car in motion. Here are the contents of this kit;

Honda B16/B18 VTEC Engine/Transmission Complete

MTB2 Frame Kit

B2 Aluminum Radiator Kit

Poly Engine Mount Kit

Superbrake Kit

Swivels Hubs

Drive Flanges

B2 Axle Upgrade

S Coil-Over Shock Kit

B16 Chipped ECU

B Wiring Harness

Bump Stops for front end flip front

Shifter

This kit takes approx 3 weeks to arrive, so I should have something near the end of July '08. Here's to hoping that the conversion of the body and paint doesnt take a lifetime, I could be driving this car by end of summer!

Innocenti Mini Restoration - R & D

I know I've taken some time since my last posting. As things always turn out, life takes a hold and some things take priority from the things we like to do best.


As of late, I've relocated the car to my new home. At least now I'll be able to have the car close instead of traveling to it everytime I need to work on it... As I get settled in, I'll photograph the garage setup in order to show what's new with all of this.

On a separate note... I've recently stumbled across http://www.superfastminis.com/ . Minitec, located in Royston, GA (20 minutes from me) outfits classic minis with Honda motors.

Shown here, you can see that they've taken the entire front end of the car, and turned it into the hood...this would allow full access to the motor which trust me makes things a whole lot easier!

You might be asking "Why?"

A standard A-Series runs you at about 60bhp, on a good day. A Honda motor tends to start in the vicinity of 140bhp and goes way up from there (up to 240-280ish) with modifications/additions that are far more 'off the shelf' in terms of availability vs what is avail today with the British A-Series motor. Coupling this with the reliabilty of a Honda Motor, this has the makings of being a pocket-rocket-daily-driver with a power to weight that blows the doors off of most anything you can run into on the streets.

Yes, this would compromise entirely the concept of restoring the vintage vehicle to its prime condition... so, I'm going to need to check the financial ups and downs in order to see if there is value in bringing the '72 back from the grave, or going towards this modern solution.














Images Copyright of superfastminis.com, Minitec LLC.

Disassembly - Week 2

What a difference a week makes... total hours on the car at this point is roughly 15 hours.
Taking things apart is always easy of course....its putting things back together later that will prove how well things go.

You'll notice I bagged and tagged all the small parts, fasteners, things of that sort...

Hopefully later this should come in handle when re-working old parts and pieces to restore them all to better quality and having all of the hardware right there to put it back on.

Disassembly - Week 1

Well, here's the target... an 1972 Innocenti Mini, with a 998cc motor... preparing for a full strip-down restoration...

Here is the 998cc A-series motor.

Thoughts at this point for the resto will be to hopefully bore this baby out...from my research, I'm finding they can be bored to roughly 1430cc leading to a "full-race" application.