1971 Mini Clubman Rally car

1971 Mini Clubman Rally car

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Discussion

Trtj

Original Poster:

433 posts

130 months

Friday 21st February 2014
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Hi all

So all 6ft5 of me has purchased a rally car project in need of some TLC. Started to strip the interior first to see what the corners of the floorpan are like...There seems to be some thick plastic coating on top of the floorpan and over the tunnel...what is this? Its hard black plastic about 2-3mm thick. I have googled what it could be but no luck in finding out. I wondered if its some sort of aftermarket reinforcement shell?

rufusruffcutt

1,539 posts

204 months

Friday 21st February 2014
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It sounds like the factory fitted sound deadening, a sort of bitumen type material.

Cooperman

4,428 posts

249 months

Friday 21st February 2014
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See my reply on The Mini Forum.

Westy Pre-Lit

5,087 posts

202 months

Saturday 22nd February 2014
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Have fun headache

Trtj

Original Poster:

433 posts

130 months

Monday 24th February 2014
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Well the bitumen bit the dust on the weekend. Found it was easier to get up by rampant chiselling when cold and brittle than heating it.

RetroMetal

1 posts

189 months

Tuesday 8th April 2014
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Nasty stuff and it weighs a tonne! Best of luck with your build!


Cooperman

4,428 posts

249 months

Tuesday 8th April 2014
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When I stripped all that nasty black stuff out of a 1990 Endurance Rally 1275 I built, it weighed almost 20 kg in total. That's like around 4.5 gallons of petrol!

den97mpi

10 posts

193 months

Tuesday 8th April 2014
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Cooperman said:
When I stripped all that nasty black stuff out of a 1990 Endurance Rally 1275 I built, it weighed almost 20 kg in total. That's like around 4.5 gallons of petrol!
...I think waht Cooperman means is "when den97mpi stripped all that nasty black stuff out of a 1990..." haha...
Was well worth the effort. To believe there is more of that in a Mini than in a Rover 200 that we did, is incredible.. I suppose its because there is so little sound-proofing to begin with, they over compensated...keep us posted on your progess smile

Trtj

Original Poster:

433 posts

130 months

Wednesday 16th April 2014
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Bit of an update... to the trained and untrained I the interior is now looking like a bomb has hit it. After removing all of the sound deadening, I then went about removing lots of other bits to assess what rust damage has taken hold of the floor. Turns out its not too bad - just surface. The door drainage holes are blocked and the window rubber seals do not even come close to mating with the glass. Consequently water runs into the door and not out of the drain holes but into the cabin and pools on the floor. This problem is solved somewhat by now having the car in completely dry storage.

I then remounted the seats to MSA blue book spec, harnesses too. The previous owner had simply done a very bad job of it, and they were unsafe in my eyes. Being very tall I needed the seat as low as I could get it, so some spreader plates were made up and the side mounted seats were then bolted to the floor with some cross bars for stiffness. I will probably weld in some seat mounting tubes from inner sill to tunnel to make a better job of this and to stop the floor panting but for now this will do. I have left the navigators seat up a bit higher, but this will come down also when I get the cross tubes welded in. The seats are some very light magnum GRP jobbies which my sister has kindly offered to re-upholster. If i can stick with these old knackers then I will as I prefer them to modern sparco/cobra steel framed equivalents as they do not have the flex that GRP has. Once I have sorted the final seat mounting positions and tidied the floor, the whole lot will be re-sealed and painted, so excuse the pics! I also have plans to weld in some re-inforcment plates between the inner sill and floor, and the rear floor section where it meets the upright section under the rear seats. I am 92 kg and this constant fatiguing on the floor pan will no doubt start to show at these joins in the case of having the seat bolted directly to the floor.

The other job was an overhaul of the clutch linkage and slave cyl. The old one pissed all its fluid out within a week of me having the car. I put in a new lever arm and fashioned a new tight fitting clevis pin from an M8 shoulder bolt to alleviate some of the play. The clevis pins on offer from ebay etc are no doubt made of BS EN Cheese steel.

After doing some tidying of the engine bay wiring and a few other little jobs, I am now becoming more acquainted with the car and it is really a rolling project. I love driving it too much to have it completely off the road full time. I hope to do some road rallies later this year in my local area with a view to potentially hill climbing the car next year.

Last night though... I had a slight off. I was blasting around some very fun Cotswold roads in the last hours of daylight. Stopped at a pub for a burger and on the way home in the dark, I under steered straight on at a 90 left. Absolutely dire as I had safely hooned it all evening in complete confidence, and now tootling home from dinner I hit a bank with the front corner. I had an inspection lamp with me and surveyed what I thought was going to be hefty damage at the next junction. To my amazement everything seems straight and true, tie-rods, wishbone, track rods all fine just a cake full of mud in the front wheel rim. Unfortunately by the time i got home it was 1am and I had to put the car in the lockup straight away, but I suspect I have stripped the female splines off the lower steering column as the steering wheel is almost 90 degrees out from center. Gutted, but fingers crossed an easy fix. Bloody fun evening mind you, makes me giggle.