My name is Nigel and I live in Victoria, British Columbia Canada. My car's name is Orangie. It's a 1976 Mini, and it is orange in colour with a white roof and Cooper stripes, it originally had a 998. It now has a Suzuki turbo intercooled 997 3cyl and five speed gear box. I also rewired the entire vehicle by modifiying the Suzuki wiring harness. I have also fitted 9.5" Accord brakes wrapped with 13x6 sport pac wheels that I had powdercoated white and Sumitomo 175/50/13 tires. I welded in many new panels and patches to remove all of the rust. I am currently working on a flip up front that is opened by gas shocks and is activated by keyless entry. The front already flips up on it's own all I have left to do is mount the front electric latches and then do the body work on it and paint it. I have used the Suzuki seats mounted as low as I could with custom mounts so I would have a lower centre of gravity. I was using the Suzuki guages but I missed the factory look with the central guage pod. So now I am building a custom set of Mini guages using the bodies of the factory Smiths guages and using the internals from the Suzuki guages but having custom faces made up so all the guages look like Smiths guages but all read accurately.
My other Mini is started as a blue 1977 Mini 1000. The engine was rebuilt when I bought the car and I still have not fired it up. I started building the car a few years ago but I when I went to Chiropractic school the project was left on hold for a few years. Then I got side tracked by my Orange Mini and the turbo engine swap and I haven't gotten back to work on the blue Mini.
The blue Mini is now painted a pearl dark cloisonne blue with clear coat. The colour is a Corvette colour that was only used on 1000 Corvettes in 1994 and also on the Gran Sport Corvettes in 1996. I have deseamed and deguttered the car and moved the rear window forward to make a two seater coupe version of a Mini. I have molded in fender flares and recessed 70's Corvette taillights. I welded in the front quarter of the hood to the fenders and made a custom hood to cover the rest of the opening. The rear boot lid is opened by keyless entry with gas shocks. I have custom upholstered seat in side and a modified Jaguar spoiler for the rear of the car. It rolls on 10x5" Minilights on 165/70R10 Yokos and is slammed as low as I could using adjustable hi-los. The brakes and suspension are rebuilt and it has a new rear subframe. I started with a bare shell and built it up from there making sure everything that went into the car was custom, new or rebuilt. I really should get back to it. But since it's my slow "pretty-boy" custom Mini it does not have priority over my faster Mini.
if you have any questions email me
[email protected]
pics at of my Minis and some of my other projects at:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/nigesrotarolla/my_photos
