Racing Green 89 Mini

[MiniDave]

Today's challenge, rebuild the driver's seat.

The foam was all squished down and the cushion cover was torn at the back, it also had a piece of black race car tape covering up a tear in the vinyl just under my knee.....so yesterday I pulled it out of the car and took it all apart. I ran the cover up to the local upholstery guy who charge me $100 to take the black vinyl out and resew everything - he promised it today and sure enough by noon he called and said it was ready.

In the meantime since I couldn't buy the foam inserts as they seem to be constantly out of stock I decided to make my own foam insert. I found a place downtown that sold the foam I needed - I was after the stiffest stuff they make and he sold me everything I needed for $20. Of course, I had to assemble it! I've watched enough hot rod shows to think I could do it too, so I found the electric carving knife and set after it. I think it turned out pretty good, it sits well at least and the cover looks terrific....I had to run the seat back up to the upholstery guy as I just could not get the last bits clipped in place and he helped me finish it up for no charge.

It's back in the car now and ready to go.

Tomorrow I'll tackle the rear camber/toe adjusters and see if it needs rear brakes and the bearings repacked, the Friday back up to school to set the alignment yet again. I'm hopeful that this will take some of the darti-ness out of it too.

[BruceK]

Very cool news on the seats Dave.  I've always thought it would be fun cutting foam with an electric knife. 

Pix?

[MiniDave]

I'm afraid I only took a couple while in process......in the first pic you can see how the foam has a big indentation in the center, this makes for a very uncomfortable seat as there is stiff foam below and above the indentation - weird. So I put some foam in to fill it out level.

The bottom cushion has been squashed almost flat, tho this one isn't as bad as some I've seen. The foam I bought was the stiffest they had and doesn't squish much when you sit on it, but it's still comfortable.

When you look at the final two pics you can see the difference - the right seat covering is wrinkled compared to the driver's seat because the foam under the cover has collapsed down over the years.

[MiniDave]

Got the rear camber/toe brackets installed today and tried on my other set of 13" wheels - the ones I ran for a short time on Buzz. They don't fit, the offset is different. I could add some spacers (1/4" would do) but then I'd have to change the studs too....I'll just use the wheels that came on it. I was wanting to see if the change of wheels/tires would eliminate the low speed wobble I get.

Tomorrow I'll take it back up to school and align the whole car - it shouldn't need hardly anything in the front...it will be interesting to see how close the numbers are to where I left it the other day.

I think I prefer the Mini sport style brackets to these, but we'll see when I go to set it up.......

[John Gervais]

Which brackets are those?

I got mine from MSC (MS70)and the small 90° adjustment slider through which the bolt/locknut passes is quite soft metal.  I tighten the center nut once the car is back on the ground, not sure if this is correct - would have to check my binder full of instruction sheets...

They also don't seem to have an extraordinary amount of adjustment, either.  Both sides on my car are adjusted 'full-up' to give maximum neg. camber, yielding only ½° - precisely what I wanted to achieve, but not leaving any room for any more. 

I use CK17 shims between the camber brackets and subby the to adjust the toe.

Edit - as you can barely see, the locknut sits in a braced box and is really hard to access.

[MiniDave]

They were part of a kit from Huddersfield that included the front adjustable lower control arms and tie bars.

We'll see tomorrow how it all works.....but they don't look very substantial to me, compared to the ones from Minisport or KAD.

https://usa.minisport.com/mslms0510-fully-adjustable-mini-negative-camber-tracking-rear-brackets-pair.html

[John Gervais]

The KAD items are indeed a very (elegant) simple design and appear to be very robust.  I'm not sure about the big square hole for the radius arm shaft in the MiniSport brackets (looks like it'd be difficult to control the toe measurement), though, and might want to weld the serrated plate a bit stronger.

I've thought about trimming the box-gusset on the MSC brackets to better gain access to the nut, and try to replace the small adjuster with something a bit beefier, and perhaps using a wheel stud as the adjustment screw.

[MiniDave]

I had a set of the MiniSport adjusters on Buzz and they worked perfectly - you did have to get the nut on the end of the shaft good and tight, but once there it showed no inclination to move. I didn't realize you need shims to adjust the tracking with these brackets....they sure didn't send any -  or any instructions.

[John Gervais]

I got the shims from KC, but MiniSpares has them now also.  (CK17)

[MiniDave]

Well, once I get it on the machine today I'll have the answers.....but shims would only work if the wheels were already toed in too far, cause you want a little bit of toe in in the back.....we'll see what happens once I light it up with the frickin lasers... ;D

[John Gervais]

I had one side more toe'd in than the other after I changed the rear subframe, and neither radius arm was bent.  Preferring 1/16" total rear toe-in, I think I now have one, maybe two shims on one side and one on t'other.

[MiniDave]

Well, I got it closer, but I do not like this style of rear adjuster one bit, I much prefer the Mini Sport style. I had to make some shims and still couldn't get it toed out far enough or the camber where I wanted it with these and I do not think anything is bent.

It's better, and starting to drive like I want it to, but still a bit to go.......I may take these adjusters off and modify the original brackets instead......

[John Gervais]

As you can see in my crappy bit o'picture, I ran out of camber adjustment and barely made ½ degree negative, even with elongating the supplied slot to tweek out just a tad more to get to the adjustment screw's lowest possible thread.  I also had to elongate the bottom holes to allow the toe-shims to 'push' the brackets rearward.

If I had access to a couple of small pieces of heavy metal, and if I had welding materials, I'd make myself a new 90° bit with a longer captive wheel-stud adjustment 'bolt' and extend the range of negative camber adjustment.  The MSC brackets are certainly strong enough, just too 'short' for my mini.

The KAD are super nice, but I'm poor now.

You could easily modify the new Huddersfield brackets to something similar to the MSC brackets - strengthen the base, etc.

[MiniDave]

John one side of my car is like yours, I had to open up the top and the adjuster is almost all the way up, the other side was about halfway but - I could not get the toe in set, it was toed out already, and if there are no shims to take out - how the heck to you get it to toe in? The other side was toed in considerably so I made some shims and got it dialed in.

I wound up modifying the bracket considerably - I opened up the slot where the end of the bolt comes thru, I lengthened the slot in the bottom of the bracket where the adjuster bolt goes thru, and finally I removed the web between the two bolts that attach the bracket by screwing into the panel next to the front trunion bolts.

I won't know for sure if my mods will result in proper geometry till I get it back on the alignment machine  - yet again. Third time's a charm I guess.

I had the left side dialed in, hopefully I'll get all of it done this time!

Sorry I don't have any pics of the process, I was just intent on getting it done.

However, I did have one of the only opportunities when it's OK to use vice grips (mole grips over there in Yurrup) -  one of the bolts was rusted in tight and the head broke off as soon as I put the wrench to it, so I got out my trusty acetylene torch, got it glowing cherry red for a few moments, then went after it. Got the little bastard out whole too!

[94touring]

May have skimmed over it but what camber, toe, and caster numbers are you going with?  I've been reading the intrawebs about good street setups. 

[MiniDave]

I use...

Front -
1/2° neg camber
3 ° caster
1/16" total toe out

Rear
1/2° neg camber
1/16" total toe in

Seems to work well, I've set a number of local Minis like this and all have said it transforms the car, makes it easier to drive and very stable. Of course, most of them have had their cars either aligned very wrong (Don had 4° caster on one side and over 8° on the other!) or to performance specs that might be fine on a racetrack but are not fun to drive on the street, so any change was an improvement. I've also seen significant tire wear improvements with these numbers - 12-15K on a set of 10" 008's is easy.

[BruceK]

I use...

Front -
1/2° neg camber
3 ° caster
1/16" total toe out

Rear
1/2° neg camber
1/16" total toe in

Seems to work well, I've set a number of local Minis like this and all have said it transforms the car, makes it easier to drive and very stable. Of course, most of them have had their cars either aligned very wrong (Don had 4° caster on one side and over 8° on the other!) or to performance specs that might be fine on a racetrack but are not fun to drive on the street, so any change was an improvement. I've also seen significant tire wear improvements with these numbers - 12-15K on a set of 10" 008's is easy.

I am one of guys that followed Dave's advice and used those alignment settings.  Huge positive transformation for my car. 

[MiniDave]

It's a good baseline setup, easy to go  a little wilder from there if you want.....but Styers was running the 1 1/2° camber and he said the car was fun in  the twisties but miserable the rest of the time. He's also much happier with the settings I use (I did his car too)

[MiniDave]

So.......last thing I wanted to do with the interior of this car was to give it a couple more gauges. I bought new oil pressure and volt gauges to go with the clock that was graciously donated to me by one of the members here. There is a small difference in the bezel - the clock's is thicker, but I've decided the only one who will notice it is me.

So today I got brave and laid out the holes on some tape, drew them out and got out the small drill press and went to work. They call for a 52mm hole saw, but those don't really exist over here in non-metric land, so I went with a slightly wobbly 2"....still I had to open the holes up slightly by wrapping some sand paper around a smaller hole saw and using the drill to enlarge the holes slightly, that gives everything a nice snug fit.

While I have the dash out and I'm doing electrical work, I have to find out why the dash lights don't work and figure out how to make a gizmo to attach to the steering wheel to make the signals self cancel. Once all that's done the interior is finished, then up to school again on Friday to align it once more (and hopefully for the last time) then it's ready for the Cars and Coffee on Sat.

Still have to rebuild the front calipers but they're working fine for now.

(Dan, still need that 3/4" wheel spacer if you have time to look for one in your stuff)

[towjoe]

Mods to dash look great.
Regards
Joe 77.gif

[Vikram]

Looks great!

[MiniDave]

I really  like the magnolia faced instruments and I appreciate your giving them to me!

[MiniDave]

Ha! found out why my dash lights didn't work.......no bulbs!   :-[ ::)

[John Gervais]

That'll do it every time! 

[MiniDave]

Aha!!!!