Airbox, Mk2

The fancy(?) airbox I built works well now, but is a tiny bit big- it sometimes touches the wiring loom, and you can hear it vibrating through the firewall. It’s almost like I built it to suit a car without an inch of Dynamat on the firewall. Weird.

It’s also a bit rectangular. I’m sure I can make something better. But first we design it with CAD:

I have discovered the joy of using a former. Spending half hour making something you were only going to throw away seems like a waste of time, but it makes shaping the sheet metal amazingly easy, and very accurate.

No, I’m not showing what the welds looked like before linishing them back. Pulse welding might keep the sheet metal from warping, but it’s not pretty.

Test fit box, add an air inlet, and then paint:

So pretty. I even treated it to a new air hose, since the old one was a bit crap. Rubber end seals made out of a bit of old gumboot for Kiwi authenticity.

The new air filter is from a Nissan Tiida or Cube, a 1.6litre engine that makes 112hp, so it should flow enough air.

Scuttle!

The corners of the windscreen scuttle were typically rusty, so we ordered a couple of non-genuine repair panels. The quality of the repair panels was… disappointing. Here’s a picture that’s worth 1000 words (most of them curses).

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I ended up using the bare minimum of the repair panel, but even that needed modification.

Early Minis had a panel that protected the hinge mounts from road spray. It seems like a sensible idea, so I made my own version.

Now strip!

The strip down begins, and doesn’t take long: it’s a Mini.

First, the interior. Half the carpet was already missing, but I think the floor is salvageable.

Rear subframe is out, and looking surprisingly solid, if a little dirty.

Next comes the engine bay.

 The brake booster bracket is distinctly home made- I’ll have to fix that. (Funny what seems important when you first start a project).

The previous owner had added an expansion tank (a good idea) and mounted it in the driver’s side wheel arch, where you couldn’t get to it without unbolting it. Bizarre. So I’m fitting it in an equally bizarre but slightly more accessible place.

Our haul of spare parts included a right hand fuel tank, so we fitted it at this stage, just for the hell of it.

Keen eyed viewers will notice that the retaining strap is on the wrong side. I didn’t notice at the time, but I’m sure it’ll come back to haunt me.

Disk brakes were a nice surprise, but they’re going to need a bit of work.