Home Racing World

Got this old classic Mini Clubman body from a friend but the wheel arches are positioned low and as a result the chassied car sits quite high.



Their old classic Mini Cooper body's the same, so I cut off and re-glued the arches after re-radiusing the openings to sit higher. I like this much better.



Got out the Dremel with the thin razor disc and gave it a buzz being careful to save as much of the wheel arches.



Lots more to go.

Dan

This is going to be fun to follow!!

Yes, I agree with Lou E. There's one of these sitting on my shelf waiting for some time on the workbench so it'll be very interesting to see what direction this takes.

My Mini Cooper's chassis build runs well and the wheel base is spot on, so I'll prepare another one for the Clubman.







It's a slightly trimmed Reprotec Fiat Abarth 1000 chassis rolling on custom Ranch Design rims to accept BWA wheel inserts and trued down Paul Gage tires. Motor's a green can motor (26K?) purchased long ago from Slot Car World with Slot It gearing, a 9t pinion and 28t crown. A old Ninco spring guide fits well. I don't find it overpowered at all and it's quite driveable, so I'll duplicate it.

Radiused the arches and test fit the body to my Mini Cooper chassis.



Filed the wheel arches to fit, glued and mock fit.









Stance will be fine with some adjustment.

More body work and a dedicated chassis to come.

Dan

Looking very, very good!

Allan

Dan .....the wheel arch Wizard !!!!!!

That looks awesome, the tailpipe is a nice touch, very cool!!

Dan,

I have followed you various adventures in Mini-making with great interest. I recently entered a Scalextric bodied Mini in the ill-fated 2018 TA proxy where I had to use an inverted offset JD axle bracket to clear the Piranha motor while utilizing 1/48 scale wheels. This somehow resulted in a very poorly preforming racer, but really funny... Anyway, I was looking at this thread and was thinking about what a great proxy this would make, in the same vane as the Sprite Challenge. If that were ever to materialize, I’d be all in! Any chance you’re thinking about re-popping some resin bodies?

Maybe call it the Verne Troyer memorial....

Val

@ Val - Co-ran a proxy (U13 Challenge) years ago (http://www.slotcarillustrated.com/porta ... .php?f=250) with these 1/32 Minis eligible as an under 1.3 litre engined car. It was great fun with entries including Hillman Imps, Toyota S600s, Trabants, Bugeye Sprites, Fiat 850s and Minis. I've been thinking of a follow-up to the Sprite Proxy 2018 with a Mini body-based one. It would be 1/24 scale using a Tamiya Mini Cooper S kit or my own resin body cast and be front wheel driven. This would be quite a technical challenge as we're so use to rear wheel drive. Here's my build thread testing out the concept. viewtopic.php?f=45&t=17643

In the meantime, good progress on this build.

Already had a partially built chassis, so just had to add wheels/tires and a crown gear. Ranch Design rims are no longer available so I'm using Slot It 14" plastic rims/tires at the front and BRM Nascar rims with my own urethane tires at the rear. Used L-shaped Evergreen plastic for side-mounting the body.



Body-wise, trimmed the front grille/bumper, rear licence plate and rear bumpers from the Scalextric's original chassis. The rims are Mini lites 3D printed by one of our GVSCC members. The driver figure's my own cast go-to one of unknown origin.



Should be done and running in no time.

Dan

Done!

Body mounted to chassis with windows and driver tray installed. One piece original was broken in pieces so I kept the front and rear screens and made my own passenger sides.



Raked stance's more like a rear drive but I'm fine with it.











Just added some paint detail to the front and rear tailights, gas cap and rear decklid. Like the patina and wear of the original body so that wasn't covered up.





You gotta like that wide arch look.



My Cooper S has a modded Scalextric running mate now.

Dan

That hot rod look suits it. So what are the arches glued on with? They look real tidy.

Used Lepage's super glue, Ultra Gel, that I've just learned about. Friend uses this to glue tires.

The front arches are filed quite square and flat. The rears as well but with some contouring to fit the tail light area. Some red colored plastic filler would close the rear arch gaps at the top of the radius but I'm fine with it as is.

Dan

Thanks for sharing the build Dan!!

I am wanting to go back and add some arches to past builds and watching your handy work has got me ready to get started!!

Mini looks great!!!

Dundee Denny