the brown MINI

[MX5 Driver]

Sweet! I like the new look..

[brownMINI]

So, as a recap:

The A/C is gone - taking with it the little condenser / radiator thing in front of the radiator.

The airbox is gone. Right now, there's a big foam filter stuck on the end of the tube that used to go to the airbox. Sounds pretty neat.

New stuff:

The suspension is back together, new hub, new half shaft, replaced control arm, one new ball joint, one replaced ball joint.

The two "frame rails" that go up to the front bumper are tweaked. The right side one was close to an inch higher than the left side one, and both look to be moved over a bit. So, the aluminum bumper support didn't want to go back on well.

The hood latches were also way out of line. Since those connect to the frame rails with a rather large metal bracket, we cut the brackets and latches off and will go with hood pins. This also made more room to work with when we tried to move the frame rails.

A serpentine belt was installed, the radiator put back on and filled with water. Started up and drove it across town to a guy Greg know who has some limited frame straightening stuff in his garage (hooks in the floor, chains, etc). Once there, we were able to put a long piece of thick wall square tubing inside the frame rail and tried to "re-bend" the rail closer to where it should be using body weight. That didn't get too far. So, we chained the square tubing to the floor and used a hydraulic jack to raise that corner of the car, which did get the rails closer to even. I think we ended with one about 1/4" higher than the other.

I didn't get a chance to really see how the alignment was since we were driving on crappy roads. Something's a bit off as the steering wheel is about 1" off center. It didn't seem to pull that much, at least I didn't notice it pulling. It felt more like there was just too much toe (out? in? who knows), and it was "grabbing" more on one side than the other, which made the steering off center (to the left). When I'd make a right turn, there was some vague steering near the center, and the wheel would have to be right of center to make the car turn right.

I guess it could be any number of bad alignment problems, though.

No check engine light. The transmission seemed fine. The ABS light was on the first time I started the car. The second time, after driving it 100 feet or so, the ABS light went off and now seems to be behaving properly. The stability control system is unhappy. There must be some sensor somewhere that got damaged. I think that uses wheel speed sensors, a steering angle sensor, and an accellerometer somewhere for yaw / etc.

Greg says he will probably have space in his garage to store it for the winter, so I think that will be the plan. The other option was for me to keep it in my apartment parking lot and try to move it around so they could plow in the winter. Without snow tires on it, that might have been tricky.

There are still lots of questions... Take it to an alignment shop and see if it can be brought close to alignment? Take it to a body shop and have them put it on a frame machine to see how tweaked things are (and possibly straighten things)?

I still need to source some seats, need to put a front bumper skin on it and the turn signals / running lights / horn.

Is it time for a new clutch and flywheel?

Can I find a fourth wheel for the set I had on the car? If not, new wheels are needed.

How much "stuff" should I take off the car? The back half is getting gutted... Not sure about the front. Ideas have popped up about removing lots of stuff...

I think one of the things that should be done soon is at least to see if it can be aligned, if not put on a frame machine. There's not much sense in doing too much more if it won't track straight and turn predictable on a track.

Many, many thanks to Greg and Paul for all their work on the car.

[brownMINI]

The brown MINI is currently sharing a garage with this:

[img]http://ghmyc_1m.tripod.com/mini200.jpg[/img]

I'm happy to see that having the additional work from fixing my car hasn't slowed down the work on Greg's car that much.

[Mr. Bridgestone]

Jason. Are you trying to give BrownMini a complex?? Parking it next to that is going to make it feel bad about itself. That is one pretty sweet Mini..

[Dave_G]

That is one pretty sweet Mini..

Yeah, but why is he using it to haul lumber?

[Shawn]

Hey Jason, what class are you thinking you will end up with the Mini? I've still got this goal of beating that damn thing, especially after running within .2 and .4 seconds of it in the last 2 auto-x's this season

[brownMINI]

I haven't checked the numbers, but I'd guess it will still be class 2. Or, more accurately, actually be a class 2 car.

I was 1 point shy of being in class 2 last season. I don't think there will be 16 points worth of mods done to it to make it class 3, but who knows.

[brownMINI]

A new (to me) lightweight flywheel and stage 3 clutch are on their way to me. These aren't needed for the car, but someone offered them up cheap... to cheap to pass up... even though I should keep my focus on spending money on parts that are needed to make the car trackable again.

Paul says "hi" to all the Vermont folks.

[Dave_G]

The brown MINI is currently sharing a garage with this:

[img]http://ghmyc_1m.tripod.com/mini200.jpg[/img]

<Monty Python>
Look at the bones!
</Monty Python>

So, the MINI has been relegated to the bunny hutch now?

[brownMINI]

I guess Greg is having some fun with the MINI folks...