ive been offered the chance to assist with this project and have the benefits of possible ownership once finished. went and seen the car and looks promising but difficult. the hard stuff such as the engineering side of things has been done it now getting the car together and ready. ill let the pictures speak for themselves.










the car is a 1973 mini clubman stretch, its taken 15 yrs to get the the stage that it is at, at the moment and the owner is becoming bored and wants help. the car seems promising. its got a imported mazda 1.5 ltr motor installed and cooper front disks. the cars entire length bumper to bumper is 4.2 metres long. about the same length as a ford falcon. it is set up to be like a properly stretch and the owner wants the car to be completed with in a year. the owner has also offered help and funds when needed. so what do you guys think?

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oil leak?..what oil leak..that puddle under the car is just sweat from all that horsepower

I see a few problems.

First of all cooper brakes don't sound big enough. I would definately be going with cooper s or bigger. If it has taken the owner 15 years to get this stage then it sounds like he is a 'gonna' and never actually gets things done, so whats changed that means it will get finished? Does he actually have the funds? A promise is easily broken, how do you know that all your hard work is going to pay off?

Also, do you have the time to take on a project of this size? By the sounds off things since you have been on this forum, you don;t like working on cars after work. And this one is at a different location so its not as if you can come home from work, have a snack then pop out into the garage and work on it for an hour.

Would you have to take all your own tools? that would be a lot of effort.

I would be talking to the engineer first to make sure its all good. Then i would be looking at buying it off the guy and taking it home.

Ryan

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

Finally, is it what you really want? Most people like minis because they are a fun little spirited car. This is a limo, not exactly spritely.

Ryan

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

I'd get a van... easier to register...

does it have twin carbs?

Is that elastoplast holding one of those doors on via the B pillar?

As for what I think, you crack me up.

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One should never skimp on the zip ties.

Further things you need to thing about?

Can you weld? Can you weld well enough that a) the panels are going to look good, and b) the engineer is going to approve that the welds joining the shells are strong enough.

Can you paint? Can you paint well enough. A special car like this, one that will automatically get lots of attention will be admired and examined by everyone that looks at it. It deserves to have perfectly straight panels and paint.

Can you do it? If you can't how are you going to pay for it? If it is the other guy thats going to pay for it a) Does he have the money? b) What is your role in the build? By the looks of it and by what you have said, the mechanical have been done and engineered? so its just the body and interior to do. Do you have those skills?

You need to sit down with the guy and talk about the budget. This mean writing a list of what needs to be done, who is going to do it and how much it is going cost and who is going to pay for it. Then you need to discuss ownership etc. In doing this you need to be realistic, you need to be realistic about your skills, the time you have, the cost of out sourcing work.

This forum has a lot of wise people who have a lot of knowledge to offer. Think carefully about the questions you ask and then listen carefully to the answers.

Ryan

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

Why would he start doing that now?

the other thing you have to think about is what are you going to do with somehting like that once its done. Not really a daily driver? Although if you had that one and two standard clubbies in the same colour, it would be an awesome wedding/parties/anything proposition...

http://images.google.com.au/imgres?imgu ... n%26sa%3DN

oh this is a good link for you as well. I think this came out awesome... hope the link works...

if you can afford the time and space to park it and have spare funds, go for it.
my 1c

maybe i should give a history about the owner. im not buying the car im helping out and in return i get 50% share of the car. the owner is a metal machinist and has his own welder/ tools for me to use. he is suppling the tools and equipment and most of the funds and he wants to finish it. the reason he hasnt finished it was due to problems with work and health problems i.e depression and such. the car will be store at a near by location and will be worked on the weekends. the plans are for the car once completed to be used for formal events and weddings.

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oil leak?..what oil leak..that puddle under the car is just sweat from all that horsepower

Looks like a fun project.

But do 50% ownerships ever really work? (Apart from maybe in marriage, but even still that's usually around 80 - 20... but that's another story...)

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1964 Morris 850, 1330 Supercharged - 81.8hp atws.
1975 Leyland Mini S 1100S powered - Nice and reliable.
1977 Leyland Mini LS - Project LS-T

Walks into thread, looks, turns around and walks quickly away.....

I really like this point!!!! Just buy something on the road and registered, with a single carb!!!

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http://www.youtube.com/user/Hanras