Lilspeed's "about flippin time" Freestyle build

[Lilspeed]

Well, this summer is over and I still haven't got the damn thing finished! In my defence though I've been working a fair bit so haven't found as much time as usual to get out to the workshop.
But I've had a good day on it today, and now I've pretty much finished fabricating and painting(bar the engine covers), things are moving along nicely.

Since the last update I've got most of the wiring done, finished making the frame to hinge the front cover, made some mods to the rear nerf bar, and painted and fitted the dash panels and centre console. And today I fitted the fuel tank cover, seats, wheel arches and mirrors so it's starting to look a bit more up together now

Anyway the sun was shining so it seemed rude not to get her outside and take some pics!







Looking the part now but there's still a lot to do. I've had a local fabrication company cut me some new treadplate side panels so I might see if I can get them on tomorrow.

 

[Lilspeed]

Buggy's First Day Out



I never miss the Miniworld Action Day at Castle Combe so this year I made a last minute decision to trailer the buggy up and put it on my Mini club's stand.
With Paul's Mini with brand new throttle bodied twin cam parked beside it, we had loads of people looking round and chatting all day.
Also whilst browsing the trade stands I got a phone call from a mysterious scotsman, informing me he was "standing by some pile of sh1te on the Yeovil stand".
Yes, Mr Smart made an appearance, so after a catch up we took the buggy out for a few parade laps of the circuit. Which went surprisingly well considering that so far the timing and mixture have been set by ear and the tracking and camber by eye. The engine feels really pokey too but we were keeping the speed down due to one of my brand new wheel bearings (perhaps not such an ebay bargain) having probably 5mm of play in and making horrible noises.

Overall a brilliant day out was had, picked up a few bits n bobs, and now really looking foward to getting the last few jobs done and getting her on the road!

 

[Lilspeed]

Heck of a long time since I updated this, but to be fair all the recent work on the buggy has been fiddly little finishing off jobs and probably not very interesting reading I'd imagine!

Anyway, after a following 2 frustrating months of paperwork, emails and phone calls I finally managed to get here!;



As I expected, it failed. But considering that was due to 3 very minor problems I'm absolutely over the moon! Great result.

So, the surprisingly short list is -

1. Excessive exhaust hydrocarbon content. When I unloaded it off the trailer it was running a bit rough, hardly surprising considering it had just spent an hour being dragged up the M5 in the pouring rain. But despite half an hour warming up in the test lane (after the massively rich-running Atom in front choked the test probe!) it still wouldn't clear up, so it passed on CO and failed the HC. Tune up and ignition service should see it right I reckon.

2. Rear registration plate space. I had worked out that the reg plate space on the nerf bar was too narrow for the VOSA rectangular test plate, so was planning to go for the 'square' option. I failed on the fact that around 40mm of the square test plate hangs unsupported off the bottom of the nerf bar. So I need to make a mounting plate for the reg plate. Easy as peas

3. Park Brake Control Mechanical Components. The O/S handbrake mechanism JUST touches the flexible hose when the handbrake is on. Couple of washers to pack it out (maybe some attention from my percussion persuasion device ) and job's a good 'un.

Here's hoping the wait for a re-test isn't too long! And that we get some decent weather this summer . . . . . .

 

[Lilspeed]

Well that's one hoop jumped through. Back to Bristol this morning and breezed the re-test!

Waiting for registration forms from DVLA now (ordered two weeks ago! : ) and hoping I'll be taxing it for July

 

[Steve]

Well done, will we see you at the shows or on any of the runs.

 

[Lilspeed]

Well, the buggy has now been road legal for just over 2 weeks, and I've clocked up 600 miles! Absolutely loving it.
Over half those miles were done on it's first major mission, to the International Mini Meet at Detling in Kent last weekend. I know a Freestyle is a crazy thing to behold but I was still blown away by the attention it got!

Loads of positive comments, loads of pictures and it's apparently going to appear in a French mini magazine too.

It survived the trip, but I do have some work to do now! It ran hot all weekend, and was consistently blowing water from the rad overflow, so I managed to get a bargain on a 2 core alloy rad which I hope will help, but I also have some ideas for ducting more air to the engine bay too. I may also end up whipping the head off just to rule out head gasket issues.
On the way home one of the gear linkage rollpins managed to drop out - despite being lockwired in??!! ???
Luckily one of my mates had a split pin handy to save the day.

I'm still getting used to getting stared at like I'm mental everywhere I go in it (although that has always happened occasionally anyway ;D )

 

[Lilspeed]

Well despite the awesome weather today I actually managed to get the spanners out and make myself useful instead of taking off to the coast!

I've had a fair amount of oil dripping out the bottom of the clutch housing for a while now, so decided it was time to replace the primary gear oil seal before the clutch got contaminated and started slipping.
I'd normally lift the engine out of a Mini to do this job, but considering that a) there's better access on the buggy, b) getting the engine out of the buggy is more hassle and c) Danny said it could be done ;-) , I decided to have a go with the lump in situ.
All went rather well actually! Had to strip the clutch cover right down to get it out, but otherwise no major problems.

My beast of a flywheel puller

Handy hint - old big end shell as a flywheel locking tool ;-)

So, ordering parts this week, hopefully back together next weekend!

 

[Lilspeed]

Bit quiet at work this week so took today off. Beautiful day, so seemed rude not to put the buggy back together. All went well apart from suffering torque wrench failure whilst tightening the flywheel bolt! Luckily my mate Rob is off work this week so I nipped round and borrowed his.
Couple hours later it was time for a nice test drive in the sunshine

When I'm not driving it my next favourite thing to do with it is park it amongst 'normal' cars and admire how barking mental it looks ;D

 

[Lilspeed]

I thought it was about flippin time I dragged my build thread up from the bowels of the forum once again! (See what I did there?)
My Freestyle has now been roadworthy for two and a half years. And I have to admit, there was a time early last year when I seriously considered selling it. I liked driving it, but didn't feel like the amount of enjoyment I got out of it tallied with the amount of time and effort that went into building it.
But I decided stick with it, and now I'm glad I did. Last summer saw the experiments with suspension set up pay off, some carb mods and a set of hotter plugs got the little A series on song, and starting some minor cosmetic fettling made me enjoy looking at it a lot more!
The trip to Castle Combe for the Mini Action Day in Sept was brilliant fun, and I finally felt like the buggy had gained some character.



Unfortunately, 2 years of far from gentle driving had taken a little bit of a toll. The bushes in the diff flanges are so worn that the oil leaks out continuously, but the main issue is a hairline crack in the fuel tank, which was unceremoniously bodged with epoxy once, but has now made a reappearance.
So, with the Wales run now in the calendar, I've got some jobs to do!
The fuel tank is out again, and I'm weighing up my options regarding methods of repair, or get a new tank made by someone who knows what they're doing . . . :-\

 

[Lilspeed]

Fuel Tank Repair Attempt No.1 - Silver Solder
Result - Fail!
Details - Amount of heat required deformed tank to the point that I could poke the solder rod through the gap with ease!
Conclusion - It didn't blow up or catch fire, so I might as well try welding it now . . .

 

[Danny]

Whats the tank made out of?

 

[Lilspeed]

2mm mild steel. Heavy doody
But mainly because it was easier to weld up than anything thinner or lighter.

 

[Lilspeed]

Fuel Tank Repair Attempt No.2 - Weldering
Result - Success!
Details - Got myself some 0.6mm MIG wire, cleaned up and V'd out the damaged area, welded, pressure tested and re-painted.
Conclusion - Job's a good'un ;D

 

[Lilspeed]

Lovely day today, so i went out to the workshop, had a good tidy up, and spent my day fettling the buggy to perfection for the coming summer.






Yeeeaahhh, course i did!!!! ;D



The A series loved the chilly air more than I did but much fun was had.
Seems I may have been pushing my luck though as when I eventually got back the nearside inner CV had shed it's boot (again), and there's oil and grease everywhere. So definitely time to fit new pot joint bearings and seals. Lots of play in them now.