Saturday, March 23, 2013

Homemade Rotisserie

Here are a few photos of the rotisserie that I made to help me with my body work.  It was one of the first things I accomplished.  Luckily it was done prior to my first knee surgery.  After some research of different web sites/blogs of those who had made these, I came up with the design below.  It is sitting on casters to allow me to move the shell around as needed.  I need to replace the tubing that the shell rotates on, its way to thin.  It will work for now.  


Here is a shot of the front mount.  It is bolted to the main front subframe tower bolt mount.  I made it out of some left over 2"x2" tubing and angle iron I had laying around.    


Rear shot.


Here is the rear mount.  It is bolted to the rear shock mounts in the fender well.  I used the same setup as the front, just adjusted it to ensure the body would sit level.  Please disregard the items in the photo.  I wasn't working on the car at the time and need a place to store them.  I know, its a shame, but when you are not able to do any work and your garage gets cluttered, something has to give.  


Time for Shipment

Here she is striped and down being loaded into a create for shipment to America.  It only took four of us to her here in there.  


Here I am getting the rear subframe loaded.  We piled all the parts I wanted to take and a few extra garage items and then sealed the create. 


Welcome to America!!!!  My clubby reaching its destination in one piece....well kinda...Lol.  The movers didn't believe me that I had a car in that create waiting for me.  It was funny to see their faces after the rear panel was removed.

I just noticed as I was doing my post review the difference in the sky from England and the US.  It made me laugh a little.  I loved England and would go back there in a heart beat, but it is nice to see a blue sky more than a gray one.


After we removed it from the truck, we had to figure out how to get it into my garage.  Because the truck with all of the creates on it was blocking the driveway, the movers decided to use one of their furniture dollies to move my clubby.  They had to push it down to the neighbors driveway and then up the sidewalk to my driveway.


Here she sits after arrival on the first night.  I love how light the body is that it can be supported by 1"x1" pieces of wood on jack stands.  I do realize that its only a shell, but that is the majority of the car and when she is finished with what I want, she will fly.




She is just asking to be rebuilt....to come back as a sweet car with one hell of a drive train and a look that will draw even the most strongest of American's views.  I do realize that this car is British, but Mini's are so fun to drive and have a look that you don't see any more.......By the way, I hate the new BMW mini look, it sickens me.

A Few Tare Down Photos

Here are a few photos I found of the tare down prior to shipping.  I am sure there are some more I'm sure but these two are what I have for now. 



This is whats left of the front end after I got rid of most of the rust.  I purchased a fiberglass front end to replace the original metal front end.  I want to do a full flip front end.



Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Original condition (minus a few parts)

This is my mini after purchase and a few parts removed.  I can't find any photos of it whole.  If I do, I will put them up here.  I wanted to get these two up so everyone can see what state it was in when I started.  My original purchase was made in March 2010.  I have more photos coming of the tare down prior to shipment and arrival at my current house.





Monday, March 18, 2013

1st Post

Hello everyone,

This is my first post of the build on my 1978 Austin Mini Clubman Estate.  This is well overdue.  I wanted to start this build almost 2 years ago, but 2 knee surgeries and family life has put it on hold.  I will get some pictures, cost and time information up to this point.  I purchased my mini back in 2009 while I was stationed in England.  It has since been torn down and sent in a crate with the rest of my household goods to Oklahoma.  I will do my best to get a time line established not just for you to read, but I want to have one for my own stake.  I am already far behind the bet I made with my wife on the time it would take to do the build I want.  I will post more on that later.