whats the thickness of steel on mini bodies?

1.6mm

The very early ones were built of a lighter gauge,only the early 850 that why the race boys loved them so much they were about 50-60 kilo lighter than later 850 but dont think you would find one now

_________________
Roundies and Clubbies(except vans) are both ugly that is why I have Midas and a van
1293 Mini Midas Bronze,1275 Clubman van

Is that what they refer to as lightweights?

_________________
1970 Mini Deluxe - 1275, Weber, Clive 346 cam, MS 4-pot slotted discs, Megajolt ignition Now with new improved Mambas... almost on the road
1966 Van with Traveller rear seat conversion
2008 Prado GXL
All in various states of repair...

Yeah these are the light weights all the savings are in the body

Jon

_________________
Roundies and Clubbies(except vans) are both ugly that is why I have Midas and a van
1293 Mini Midas Bronze,1275 Clubman van

If really desperate you can acid bath the shell, this thin's the steel making it lighter, was a trick some of the hilllclimb boys used, but not that convinced just how good it was to the poor shell.

Or let it rust for a bit

_________________
---
Roads need more corners
A Deluxe(CG13DE), 2 Clubbies(998 and 1275) and 2 Morris 1100Ss

yep, Scotland is full of lightweight shells...

What year/ body number did they change to the thicker guage?

_________________
1962 850

Is it really 1.6mm? That's pretty thick. I know from my Clubman that the floor plan is thicker, but the sides are more like 0.8mm. In fact there's no way the side panels on any of my 3 minis are anything like 1.6mm.

Not sure , mine is late 62 and is the thinner body , easiest way to see is they often had cracks in the B pillar near the door striker plate as the metal wasn't up to the slamming of the doors over time . Check the wreckers etc and you'll see what I mean if you find one , mine's been repaired now so can't show you photo's .

_________________

Body shell panels are nowhere near 1.6mm but the floor is. I measured the `64 850's when I put the 2 new front pans in it.
BTW, the new UK pans were only 1.0mm...

_________________
DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

If you mean like the Bob Holden "lightweight" then not really. His car and other lightened race minis of the time had panels removed, replaced with thin alloy or plastic\glass or perforated, subframes perforated etc. I think the Bob Holden one that Biante Models now run was down to approx 460kg in weight. Right?

Sorry , slight hijack , when did Biante releasse this , what scale is it in ?
EDIT , just found it on their website , doesn't say released yet so will have to have a chase around and see when it's on sale , looks good though -

_________________

Biante sponsor the actual original car which has been restored and runs in historics with the Biante livery.