1070cc Historic Racer Project
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Rebuild Well, after a good couple of weeks that have been taken up byeither painting or sanding, I am happy to say that the paint is on!
So now onto fitting some stuff back. The silver thing in the boot is the fuel tank, this was specially made by NORM-AL aluminium fabrications, I can't say how pleased I was with their work. The first job was to cut a hole for the gearlever. Much as I would love to keep the original pudding stirer gearlever, I think a Cooper type remote is the best bet. But to fit this I need to cut a hole in the floor.
Mark out the hole in the floor, ensuring trhat a good dollop of masking tape is covering the shiney new paint. To mark out the hole I am using a pattern that has been saved from a scrap cooper.
Hole marked.
Using 20mm & 50mm hole saws the correct radiuses are cut in the floor.
The holes are linked up using a jigsaw.
The finished hole. Same size and shape as the original. Now onto fitting the cage. As you know, I have already fitted steel plates to the floor under the cage feet, so the final fitting is quite straight forward.
The feet of the cage are bolted through the plates then through the floor and the bolts are finally locklighted into position.
Once the rear section is all in, it looks like quite a substantial bit of kit. Suddenly the shell weighs twice as much as it did.
The main cage door bars etc were supplied by ROLLCENTRE, the "T" bar to mount the seat belts is from Safety Devices. Amazingly enough the two bits match up OK.
After a couple of hours the entire cage is fitted, with the exception that is of fitting the door bars of course.
The rack is fitted in anticipation of the frames going back in next.
And as if by magic, the front subframe was back in! Before it was put back in the car the front suspension was built up. This comprised of all new pins bearings etc. Minispares Centre (01423 881 800) Competition front rubber cones, The superb Minispares "On Car" adjustable rose jointed tie bars, and the KAD adjustable front tie bars. I have opted for the very good quality, but very expensive KAD parts where less expensive alternatives have proved to be less reliable. I have decided to give GAZ adjustable shock absorbers a try. I have heard good reports but have no first hand experience, we will see how these perform. As well as fitting all the new suspension to the subframe all new hubs, CV's, drive flanges, disks & calipers have been used. This is the first time I have ever bought the whole Cooper S set up new, and to be honest I was very surprised how reasonable it was cost wise.
Then onto the rear frame. A new Heritage subframe was perchased as I assumed these would be fairly close to right. How wrong could I be. After no more than a coursery inspection it was obvious that the rear subframe was far from true. When I dry fitted the KAD alloy radius arms using the very substantial KAD adjustable brackets it was found that although one side was about acceptable the other was so tight the radius arm wouldn't move! To get this working a large amount of remedial work had to be carried out on the subframe, this involved the fitting of spacers and moving some of the bracket mounting points. Once this was doen, the rear frame was not too bad. Still this is NOT a great advert for Heritage parts. Anyway, that said on to the assembly.
As I said above, I opted for KAD alloy radius arms to save a bit of weight, and in fact these were not THAT much more expensive than a new standard one. Having seen the quality of a lot of recon units nowadays I was not prepared to bugger around trying to find a decent pair of recons. GAZ shocks, all braided flexibles and new back plate assemblies from heritage, these were I am happy to report a bloody sight better than the subframe! Not pictured here but now fitted are a set of Super Minifin brake drums on the rear. Although I still have the hand brake to connect up as well as the hydraulics, the car is now back on its wheels.
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