Weekend track day Mini

First of all i would like to say hello to all. I have been cruising through for quite sometime now. Watching all of you build fantastic models, some have even contributed ideas for some of my own. Most recently I started building Tamiya's Austin Mini. This originally was going to be a simple build but as things progressed I have been wanting to make it more and more detailed, as well as, scratch building a few things here and there. (I sure none of you know what Im talking about :grinno: )
I have had this kit sitting on the shelf for years now waiting to be built so I dusted it off planning on building it as an "in-between stages" build while i was building another one. Well to make a long story short, the other one has been sitting and i have building this one full force.
Hope you guys will enjoy this build. I thought that I would contribute to you as so many have for me.

(Oh by the by, I jump around a lot during my builds so hopefully you wont get too sea sick)

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I will be kit bashing from all three of these kits, as well as some aftermarket and scratch building.

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I started by cleaning up the body, removing the mold seams, taking care of any flash, cleaning panel lines.

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I also removed the Morris script off of the boot lid since i will be converting this to an Austin and using the metal overlays.

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I scratch built some tow hooks out of some evergreen rod for the front and rear

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I want to use the bonnet straps from the racecar kit but the instructions call for it to be glued on top of the finished bonnet. In fear of possible ruining a paint job by doing this i carefully drilled holes into the straps and the bonnet to give me a more secure and precise mounting.
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Dry fit of finished product

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Did the same for both pop style fuel fillers

So work continues. Moved on to do some work on the interior. I began with the role bar. I originally planed to make a more elaborate cage but i decided later on that maybe less would be more.

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Both the Rally car and the racecar kits come with the same three point role bar. Well this was just not going to do.:disappoin

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I decided to fabricate a harness bar and some side bars to the main hoop out of more evergreen rod.

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Dry fit on pan.

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Some digging through the parts box turn up with some goodies that I plan on using.

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Dry mount of role bar with rear bar, fire extinguisher, and helmet.

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Also decided to play around with the tires some. Between the three kits my only options were either the rally mud tire or some tall and narrow street tires. Neither of with were the look i will be going for.

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:thinkerg:
So then I got to thinking, the rally tires are a bit shorter and wider than the street tire. What if I were to remove the nubs off of them and I should end up with a track like tire, which is more of the look i want.

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So here is the final result. I think that they turned out well. Plus as an added bonus they have the scuffed look too. These will also be the wheels that I will be using. They are from the Rally kit. I like these the best over the many other because, one it has that cool old school trans-am racing rim look, and it also has a bit of a dish to them as well. This will work out well since I will be lowering the suspension and pushing out the wheels a little.

Well thats were I stand at the moment. Hope that you enjoyed what you have seen so far. Your thoughts are welcomed. And stay tuned, there is more to come.

Really nice build, look forward to seeing more.

Cool man! I also have all four Tamiya mini's that i'm messing around with, Will check out your build! Looking great so far.

nice build, a mini? with a great detail to come!! i'll wait for the updates!

Wow cool progress, keep it going. I would've kept the tread on those cool tires, but hey thats just me. Your going for the racing look, so keep that tread off!!

Hello,
I thought that I should do a quick up date. I havent had much time to work on the Mini because I have been out of town for the past five weeks. But I am back now and ready to keep working.

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Here is a dry fit of the body. The body prep is more or less finished and ready for paint. Mounted the fender flares from the race car kit on to the body. The rally car also came with flares as well but the one from the race car were a little bit wider and I think looks because of it.

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Did some work to the floor pan. The pan originally came with the seat mounts for the stock and race seat molded into it. So I went and removed all the mounts for the stock seats. The kit also calls for only the driver to have a race seat, so I "barrowed" the mounts for the passenger seat from the floor pan of the race car. Now I was goind to use the race seat from the race car and the rally car kit since they only come with one seat each. However i found out the even though the seats look the same they are actually different in size, thus not working with the modifications to the roll bar that I made using the dimensions from the smaller seat. :banghead:
Fortunately though I did manage to get a hold of another seat from another kit so now I have two matching seats that fit as well.

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Did some finishing work on the roll bar, scratch built some weld plates for the two side bars, one of which you can see is already is mounted and the other still needs to be. I also scratch built an onboard camera out of evergreen and mounted it and the main hoop

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I nabbed the aftermarket steering wheel from the rally car kit and drilled some holes in the spokes.

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I started the work on the engine. I cleaned up all the parts of imperfections and assembled the three main parts. Went ahead and drilled out all the holes for the plumbing and electrical that I will be adding. This is also ready for paint now.

Well thats where the Mini sits now. Thanks for checking in. Any thoughts or comments are always welcome.

Nice progress.
but, a back seat?

Good job until now.. I want to see how this turns out!
go on!

Nice progress.
but, a back seat?

Yes I am keeping the back seat and the rest of the interior. My theme for this project is not a full blown track car. I am thinking of more of a nicely restored classic Mini that spends a lot of time driving around town, going to car shows, maybe some car club type functions. Then once or twice a month the owner would take it out to the track for some play time.


UPDATE:
Finished up the engine last night. I ended up spending quite a bit of time on prep work. A lot of it went to fitment of parts, filling in seams where two half parts came together, and a lot of mold lines. All in all think it came out alright. I only have one real disaster of the "Austin" name plate decal that goes on top of the valve cover was lost during the clear coating process. :banghead: Should anyone happen to have an extra decal that they wont be using could let me know. I would like to try and get one on if I can. It must me the Austin name plate and not the Morris.

The pictures below are to see what you think. I painted in all in factory colors. Yes the factory colors are an army green with a yellow fan. Why, I dont know, but I thought that it would look good in these colors so thats what I went with. Nothing too fancy, I scratch built a dip stick out of tubing and wire. Scratch built a valve cover breather filter out of evergreen rod and brass rod. The rest is paint detailing, did some bolt details, some alclad, as well as a lite wash to give it some depth. I went ahead and wired up the secondary ignition with .012" wire and some .032" wire insulation for the boots. All the other fuel, oil, clutch, water, speedo, and throttle lines will go on once the engine is in the car.
Hope you enjoy.

P.S. I apologize for the poor photos. I was having lighting issues so I ended up having to use the flash.
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And finally I thought that I would shoot this by you guys to see what your opinion was. I painted the rims in alclad chrome cause I was going to do a dark bronze or gunmetal center with a chrome lip. But after I painted the wheel I thought that it looked kind of cool all chrome. What do you guys think. The car is going to be a white with full trim and bumpers.
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Thanks for looking.

Chrome will look great with White (Old English White, I hope) will you paint the wheel arches black with chrome strip?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wembley_1966/2808567900/sizes/l/in/pool-58599627@N00/

Chrome will look great with White (Old English White, I hope) will you paint the wheel arches black with chrome strip?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wembley_1966/2808567900/sizes/l/in/pool-58599627@N00/



Old English White is the exact color I was planning on. :icon16:

The picture you gave is similar in theme to what I am building.

The wheel arches are going to be body color with the chrome strip, however I going to do black graphics on the roof and bonnet. Most likely I wont do any decals or numbers down the side, since its not a full racer, but I havent fully decided on that yet.

FINALLY AN UPDATE!!! :bananasmi:bananasmi:bananasmi

Hello all, after much work I can bring you guys up to speed. All the work has been done on the pan and body.
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I started out with painting the pan top and bottom. Followed by making templates for the carpeting out of masking tape. Later I will make carpets from these templates out of a special double sided tape and flocking


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I did a lot of modification to the suspension to lower the car as well as push out the tires out words. Here you can see the difference in these two springs. The top one is a stock height spring and the bottom is the modified spring.


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After many hours of measuring and cutting and masking and measuring and cutting and masking……:uhoh: you can see the plans for the graphics that I am going to be doing. :iceslolan


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And here she sits now. Engine and suspension in. Installed master brake cylinder and brake lines. The pan now about 98% complete. I still have to finish modifying the exhaust and install the rear engine mount.


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The finished carpeting.


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And the best part, the painted body (now awaiting clear coating). If you are wondering why the white looks so flat, that’s because I wet sanded before I sprayed the black.


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Well that’s where Im at right now. Hope you all enjoyed thus far.

Let me know what you think. :feedback:



:wave:

Thats great!! I have changed my suspension from the kit's Hydrolastic to 'Dry' cone (it's a mini thing) (I have a 1:1 in the garage!) can't wait to see it complete!

Maybe fit brake lines and fuel lines?

Great work you have done so far, I really like the color combo and the detailed engine. :thumbsup:

Hope you all enjoyed thus far.

Yes, i really did! :grinyes:

Me too :)

Coming along nicely, good masking job on the roof!

Thanks guys for the kind words.
Its been a fun build and I really enjoy your feedback


:wave:

I love the colour scheme. Nice job on the roof. Engine looks a treat.

Hello all,
Well this isnt much of an update, but I thought that I would give you a little teaser. Since my last update I sprayed the clear, let it sit for two weeks and tonight I "rubbed one out" :-P on the roof. So I thought that I would share.
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Gotta love Tamiya's compounds :grinyes:

So what do you guys think......


:wave:

Sweet! I may do my 1:1 roof like that!

Sweet! I may do my 1:1 roof like that!

This paint scheme has always been my favorite for the Mini. If I ever get a 1:1 to build, it will look like this.





:wave:

That engine looks Awesome! Nice build and great to see the interesting roof paint.

Hello all,

Its FINALLY BACK :evillol: :evillol: (insert sinister laugh here) :evillol: :evillol:


Just a quick little update for you all. Here are some pictures of the way it sits now!




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And here she is, all painted, clear coated, and all polished out!!! I laid the racing flag under it to help show off the reflective shine.




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The engine bay is almost complete. I scratch built a fresh air vent tube that goes from the grille to the cabin. All i have left is to run the fuel lines for the carburetors, oil cooler lines, and some other odds and ends line the brake reservoir line, clutch, and speedo cable.




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Dry fit of the painted interior. Finished up the flocking. One on the parts that I'm really pleased with, is the plaid seat inserts and the inner door panels that I added. I still need to make the five point harnesses and finish up the dash.



Well that's all for now! I'm coming up on the final assembly, so not too much longer till the completed product. Thanks to all of you that have been following the build and all of your comments.



:wave:

Absolutely sick! Can' wait to see it completed. i really like the plaid interior. and the tires look great! Like you just finished some hot laps :thumbsup:

Hey everyone,


This will be my final update for this build before the "big reveal". :bananasmi



There have been many set backs throughout to cause this build to take longer then once expected. But thankfully the end is near and I will finally get to see in person what I have pictured in my head. :evillol:






Other then the washer bottle that has yet to have been installed, the engine bay is finished.
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Some added details include, fuel lines with a scratch build "T" fitting, throttle cable, brake lines, hydraulic clutch line, and speedo cable. The oil cooler lines will be added during final assembly. The radiator was also installed with coolant hose clamps made out of .010" wire.




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Instrument panel was finished and installed along with pedal assembly, gear leaver, steering column, and steering wheel.




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Chassis has been completed. A light wash was added to highlight details and give depth. Exhaust was slightly refitted to be pulled up and forward so that it will tuck up nicer under the car. Tamiya's weathering kit helped finish off the exhaust with heat staining.




The body is near complete as well. I added a light wash to highlight all the panel lines. I wanted to keep it light since the car is white, I did not want the lines to look bold and out of place.
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I started adding all the exterior accessories like head lamp buckets, door handles, deck lid handle, fuel filler caps, number plate assembly, as well as the front and rear emblems. It is a little hard to make out in the pictures since they are so small, but I drilled out and added rivets to all the wheel well extensions too.



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All that is left now is the last few details. Things like the windows and lights, along with the bonnet straps, bumpers and the tow hooks are all thats left for the exterior. I have to finish up the harnesses for the front seats and install them to complete the interior. Once those are complete the final assembly will take place.



Thank you to all for your kind words so far and I look forward to hearing you thoughts!



:wave:

The body looks amazingly real!

I agree! The body looks awesome.

One of the best minis i have seen in a while. I love the details, and thanks for sharing.

One of the best minis i have seen in a while. ...
100 %-ly agree. I like the body work very much (specialy - chrome trim), as the interior and engine bay.
Very clean and detailed work. Respect!

Fantastic, easily one of the best builds I've ever seen of this kit. The body looks terrific, and I like the detail work you've done on the engine.

Hey everyone,

Look at what I finished!!!!

Here are a few quick shots. I will post a proper FINISHED posting within the next day or two.
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Thanks for checking in and I look forward to your comments!



:wave: