hey guys was wondering with people making mini utes and convertables what is actually involved apart from obviosly cutting the roof off etc does there have to be chassis strengthening etc? and how is it done prob a bit hard to explain it but was just wondering cheers guys

The roof is structural on a mini so you need some seious strengthening to make a convertible , and some good strengthening to make a ute . Where abouts are you , you'd be best to go and have a look at one somebody has already done and talk to them about what they had to do to get it engineered .

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Get a Moke, then you can have a convertable ute.

dont like mokes and im not really that dedicated at the moment to doing it so i prob wont go lok at someones does any one have any pics of the strenghening?

thought there would be at least some pics floating around

have you seen this site?

http://www.autofashion.co.uk/convertible_kits.htm


very helpful and specific

thanks mate shows a bit of what is done so is pretty much all the strenthening done on the inside (just those red bits) doesnt really seem like much though i get there feeling there would have to be more to it cheers anyway

A ute is very different as it still has half the roof remaining, and the rear wall is boxed in and then the sheetmetal used to fill the void adds strenght, also the tailgate needs to have alot of strenth top and bottom to stop the rear end from flexing. I havent read as much about convertibles, but i know it involves alot more work in terms of the structure beacause as mentioned earlier, the roof plays a large roll in keeping the mini ridgid.

Ryan

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Ryan Filippi
Minis In The Gong
[email protected]
www.minisinthegong.com.au