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Mearcat 4E-FTE Clubman Build (Latest update 3-03-24 Pg 28)
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Author:  madmorrie [ Wed May 06, 2020 10:30 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Mearcat 4E-FTE Clubman Build (Latest update 14-04-20 Pg

Nice work there Mearcat. Great attention to detail as always, this is going to look great when finished.

Cheers
Madmorrie

Author:  clubman S [ Wed May 20, 2020 2:07 am ]
Post subject:  Re:

Mearcat wrote:
I completed the support bracket for the equalising driveshaft / layshaft today. The bracket pieces were laser cut from 10mm steel and their minimum charge, I got 3 sets cut - both of the spare sets have been pre-sold to Joe (blue_deluxe) and a local guy here in Perth - both doing the 4EFTE conversion!

The design was based on the one made by Slinkey (thanks! :D ). The two main pieces bolt onto the shaft itself; and rear of the engine block (where the alternator used to be).
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The top part of the larger piece was bent to clear the centre bolt hole in the smaller piece. My arc welder was cranked right up for the 10mm steel and it was all welded up with a couple of gussets for bracing.
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Next step - replace my front valance panel (current one is bashed up and bent to sh!t) and complete the subframe design.




Hi Mearcat, sorry to bother you, which car did you get the equalising layshaft?

thanks and cheers from Chile

Axel

Author:  Mearcat [ Wed May 20, 2020 11:12 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Re:

clubman S wrote:
Hi Mearcat, sorry to bother you, which car did you get the equalising layshaft?
thanks and cheers from Chile
Axel

The equaliser shaft/layshafts are from a AE101 or AE111 Corolla/Levin with 4AGE engine. Of course, I have no idea how accessible those cars/parts are in Chile but good luck.

Author:  clubman S [ Thu May 21, 2020 4:31 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Re:

Mearcat wrote:
clubman S wrote:
Hi Mearcat, sorry to bother you, which car did you get the equalising layshaft?
thanks and cheers from Chile
Axel

The equaliser shaft/layshafts are from a AE101 or AE111 Corolla/Levin with 4AGE engine. Of course, I have no idea how accessible those cars/parts are in Chile but good luck.

thanks!!!


brgds
AJ

Author:  Mearcat [ Mon Jun 29, 2020 12:39 pm ]
Post subject: 

Once again, here are a few updates form the last few months...

My focus is now on the interior of the Mini and I wanted to make a centre console to hide the gear shifter. Before that, I had to move the handbrake rearward as it was too close to the gear shifter assembly.
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I cut off the factory bent-steel mount and made a beefier one (with captive nuts) that won't eventually crack like a lot of mounts I've seen.
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This was stitch welded back on 50mm further back
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At 150mm wide, I purposely made the centre console as narrow as possible to maximise legroom. It was a basic design made from MDF and covered in a few layers of fibreglass to make the surface more resistant to knocks/dents.
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For mounting the gear shifter boot, I made a frame that screws to the inside of the centre console. The boot will eventually screw into this frame
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In the console, I have a voltmeter, power window switches and a small plastic storage tray (from a Toyota Tacoma)
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The original plan was to have a cigarette lighter and USB outlets in the console but I didn't end up with enough room so I mounted them either side of the stereo.
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...and speaking of power windows, I bought a SPAL power window kit years ago and it was now time to install the motors. With one end of the motor mechanism attached to the window winder, the other end would fit nicely in the door skin opening and not interfere with the window glass or mechanism as the motor would sit directly below the 1/4 window in the door.
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I had to make a custom spacer to stop the handle adapter cog thing from moving back/forth on the winder shaft
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Like most power window kits, they come with those triangular / cheese wedge brackets but I wanted something neater than self tapping screws into the door so some more custom brackets were made
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Mounted like this (screwed into rivnuts in the door) , apart from the winder handle that sticks out about 40mm, the rest of the power window mechanism only sits at most 5-6mm proud of the door skin and and no cutting of the door required.
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Author:  Mearcat [ Wed Jul 15, 2020 1:38 pm ]
Post subject: 

This is a really short update but it's (another?) unique bit of work that I had to share as it turned out well. One of the issues with any engine conversion is dealing with potential differences in fuel tank level and the fuel level gauge. With the Mini fuel level sender providing a resistance range of 30 Ohms (full) and 290 Ohms (empty) it was nowhere near the same as the Toyota instrument that used a range of 4-114 Ohms. There are kits available like the Gauge Wizard from https://www.spiyda.com/ but a friend of mine told me about a solution he had successfully used in his Mini engine conversion years ago - replacing the rheostat in the fuel level sender with a custom circuit board and I considered this idea for my project.

Making the custom fuel sender circuit board was a relatively easy process - pull apart the factory sender rheostat, make some measurements
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Using a free PCB maker program called Circuitmaker, I copied the layout of the factory rheostat. The small custom board (37mm x 33mm) was designed to have twenty four 4.7 Ohm SMD resistors wired in series to get a ~5-113Ohm resistance range. It was a great way to solve the problem of mismatching ranges between the Mini and Toyota Starlet. I had a bare PCB milled and the board and realised that I'd screwed up the sweep angles so had to do it over again! Once the design was corrected and new boards milled, it was then screwed back onto the sender assembly
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Soldering the tiny 0805 size SMD resistors (2.0mm x 1.3mm each) to the circuit board was fiddly but once done, the board was screwed onto the sender assembly.
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Testing showed that the range was pretty dang close to the Toyota instrument. I actually made two sender PCBs so I've got a spare.
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Author:  timmy201 [ Wed Jul 15, 2020 2:47 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Mearcat 4E-FTE Clubman Build (Latest update 15-07-20 Pg

Nice doo-hickey thing there! Always like seeing how you solve problems like these

Author:  9YaTaH [ Wed Jul 15, 2020 7:38 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Mearcat 4E-FTE Clubman Build (Latest update 15-07-20 Pg

Nice work! 8)

Author:  Mearcat [ Sun Aug 23, 2020 9:47 pm ]
Post subject: 

It's time for some more inspiring interior work :)

For the door cards, I wanted to improve on the basic clip-in door cards and have some decent sized speakers (6.5") and an armrest and since I have removed the old rusty door bins I had more room to play with. One thing I didn't realise was that the door profile is not completely flat... so I cut a piece of 3mm melamine to the shape of the door card and nailed it to some plywood and glued some small wedges to the plywood to create this profile
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and marked the position of everything on the door
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I glued a MDF frame together for everything and covered it in spandex. The reason for the large area around the speaker enclosure is to hide the window winder shaft and power window mechanism.
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I used spandex as it tends to stretch better than fleece
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A layer of fibrelgass cloth was laid on the outside and inside (once the MDF frame was removed) and then a layer of resin and phenolic microballoons combo was put over everything and sanded back
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For the armrest, I made a plug and mold for it so that a plywood piece would be used as the armrest insert.
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With everything fibreglassed together and a coat of primer to get rid of the optical illusions caused by the spandex pattern, I got a better idea of the end result and the next step is to figure out how to mount the door card and to add some interior handles.
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If you thought a Project Binky bracket takes a long time to make, try doing all this fiddly cutting work, then fibreglassing in the middle of winter and having to wait for it to cure overnight every time you do any tiny piece of fibreglassing.

Author:  Mearcat [ Sun Sep 20, 2020 11:40 pm ]
Post subject: 

The custom doors are now finished...

The plywood armrest is held in place with insert nuts (normally used in furniture) in the arm rest piece - bolted from the underside / through the door card.
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To mount the door card onto the door, I used M4 rivnuts evenly spaced around the perimeter of the door. For the bottom area of the door I bent up multiple L-shaped brackets and with rivnuts already fitted, bolted them to a steel bar to keep everything aligned whilst they were welded on.
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The height of the raised section of door card was made specifically to accommodate the factory Mini door opener handle w/ mounting bracket (without the plastic trim) so all I had to do was cut a correctly sized hole in the card.
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and a thin piece of rubber will be fitted behind the handle trim to stop any squeaking after it's final fitment.
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The last task was to add a grab handle insert but I needed to upholster the arm rest to know it's final height. I carved out a matching hole in the armrest plywood, covered it with some foam and charcoal coloured suede, using quality spray adhesive (3M Super 77) and staples to hold it in place. Having not done upholstery before, this unsurprisingly took me a couple of attempts with the foam & material wrapping to get it looking good.
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The mounting bracket for the grab handle insert was copied from one of my other (late-model) cars
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So after all that, I had to repeat everything on the second door! Fibreglassing during the cold of winter slows things down so after about 2 1/2 months or work, the doors are done. Some fixes to pinholes and sanding still has to be done but not yet.
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This is a milestone, as it actually completes all the major custom interior work.

Author:  Mearcat [ Sun Nov 15, 2020 9:57 pm ]
Post subject: 

A lot of small items have been taking my time before I move onto the in-cabin wiring. So I'll run through the list :

Power antenna fitted in the passenger wheel arch
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Custom mount for high-mount LED brake light. This was from a bulky Narva unit which I pulled out the LED strip and installed in my own mount
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Welded up all the non-necessary holes in the boot lid
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Installed new licence plate light and reverse camera
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Since I relocated the ignition barrel to the lower dash area, I made a blanking plate for the hole left in the steering column surround (which will be painted)
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I always felt the Mini needs a proper dedicated reverse light instead of just the dual-filament globes in the indicators so I sourced a low profile, 80mm diameter LED lamp and made a custom steel mount for it in the boot lid
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A boot light switch was added as I will be adding an extension wire off the interior dome/light power circuit to the boot so I can have an courtesy light illuminate when I open the boot
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While on the subject of lights, I ordered 2 new interior lights so the Mini will have a light on BOTH B-pillars in an attempt to provide 2 candles worth of light instead of one :P
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Rivnuts for side mirrors (from Rover Mini) were added to the doors and old hole welded up
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Lastly, because I no longer have room for the fresh air duct for the cabin heater/fan, I made a cap to go over the hole up in the drivers side wheel arch. A simple steel cap with some neoprene foam on the inside it will seal the opening (held in place with small screw)
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Author:  Harley [ Thu Nov 26, 2020 3:33 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Mearcat 4E-FTE Clubman Build (Latest update 15-11-20 Pg

The reverse lights are a different take on things but I have to ask - why not use rover tail lamps? They have reverse lights in them.

Author:  jpodge [ Thu Nov 26, 2020 3:43 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Mearcat 4E-FTE Clubman Build (Latest update 15-11-20 Pg

Very awesome! Fantastic attention to detail. reading this post fills the void between Binky episodes!!!

Author:  Mearcat [ Thu Nov 26, 2020 7:56 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Mearcat 4E-FTE Clubman Build (Latest update 15-11-20 Pg

Harley wrote:
The reverse lights are a different take on things but I have to ask - why not use rover tail lamps? They have reverse lights in them.

I did actually try and pair of Rover lights (with both old and new gaskets) but I found that there were unacceptable gaps between the body & gaskets (the lights weren't a snug fit on the body around the entire assembly) so I went for the custom housing for the reverse light.

Author:  Mearcat [ Mon Dec 14, 2020 6:14 pm ]
Post subject: 

I've battled with bodywork issues since I got a third party to do some (badly done) repairs years ago and it's back to bite once again. The RHS rear light had a bad (8-9mm) gap
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I made some relief cuts and some panel-beating fixed that up. The lower gap went from 1mm from the cutting disc to over 4mm once the bodywork was done
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I moved to the front lights and had gap problems too :roll:
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Since I'm going seamless and bumperless, the front lights will sit proud of the front apron instead of being tucked under the bumper so I decided to recess the lights. This involved making a buck that's a few mm bigger than the light lens body and making a bucket for the lights
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A couple of 5mm drain holes were drilled at the bottoms to ensure water doesn't pool in the buckets
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All welded in :
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With the front park/indicator assembly now recessed, the indicators are all but hidden from the side view of the car so I got a pair of Rover Mini indicators and fitted those to each front guard
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The only other bit of work completed was doing some trimming of the grille to clear the front mount intercooler end tanks
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Because the buffer slot/hole on the left hand side is obscured by the intercooler I also has to make a new hole and moved the 'L' bracket on the grille
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