Project Binky Episode 8

In reply to T.J.:

I think it is a new episode every 2 months or so.

It's pretty cool that they are on Patreon now: http://www.patreon.com/badobsessionmotorsport?ty=c

I'm going to float them a few $. This show is too entertaining not too.

ebonyandivory wrote: You CAN learn and be entertained! Who woulda thought?

Indeed. The "reverse suspension jig" is bloody genius. Nick definitely makes it all look so easy.

I binge-watched all 8 episodes as well (#8 twice, since I started with that one from this thread). Now I want to go back and watch them again as I'm sure there's stuff I missed.

While fun to watch them do it the way they have, the armchair fabricator in me must say they probably could have saved quite a bit of time by shortening and narrowing the Toyota pan and subframes to fit inside of the mini(after repairing all the external metal on the mini), rather than essentially scratch building the same product.

In reply to Kenny_McCormic:

Perhaps, but head over to NOHOME's thread about attempting slip a Miata pan under a Volvo 1800 body - two cars that are at least roughly the same size - which hasn't proved to be quite as simple as it sounds.

Not only that, but the subtext of some of the ways they've gone about things is that they want to make it look as much like a Mini as possible. They were careful to design the rear floor area so as to be able to reinstall the rear seat, for starters.

Using the Toyota floorpan would not have helped them with a lot of the shoehorning they did, anyway. I'm still shocked at what they were able to fit under the wings and bonnet.

In reply to Ian F:

The Volvo is a bit more structurally complex than a mini, they're built kinda like a gen 1/2 F body or a E type, everything forward of the firewall is mounted to the firewall. To chassis swap one you've more or less just gotta get it between the rockers and figure out how to hang the front clip over it.

In reply to Kenny_McCormic:

Umm... No. Both are uni-body cars. Not sure what you're talking about, but I own both a Volvo 1800 and a Mini and I'm intimately familiar with how both are put together. Neither is anything like an E-Type with its completely separate forward frame assembly. The subframe assembly of the Volvo that the engine/suspension cradle mounts to is welded to the body and extends under the passenger floor. The Mini is similar, although with less structure.

I mean the mini is built kinda like a F body or E type. There's not much structure to be concerned about under the hood. You can drop the stock powerplant and suspension out, hack up the firewall, cut out the floor between the inner rockers and end up with two nice straight inner rockers to locate it on whatever you want to drape it over. I'm not saying it'd make it super easy, just less maddening or somebody without a penchant for banging out sheetmetal for months on end.

Episode 9 released two hours ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v59dDxCk9w

Knurled wrote: Episode 9 released two hours ago.

Yay!

Oh, my.

They've been busy.

Due to budget and time constraints, we are unable to bring you footage of how we made these brackets, but suffice to say, it took absolutely bloody *ages*, and was the source of much weeping and gnashing of teeth... They may look deceptively simple, but honestly, you don't want to know how many hours went into these two brackets. Nik has demonstrably more grey hairs because of these things... However, they're done now so all's well. Well, I say well, it's not all that well, we're not even sure that the bonnet will fit.

Wow. I know those feels, bro. Sounds like the Winter where I had to cram a supercharger and a water/air intercooler into a space where it really would not fit. Ended up with 1/4" clearance pretty much everywhere. Ugh.

I want to be these guys when I grow up. Just caught up on episode 9. amazing

I think to be those guys, first you have to avoid growing up

I want to know why they went to so much effort to fit the nasty, plastic Toyota rad into the car. Look at the inlet, the plastic is cracking.

If they're planning on replacing it, custom radiators are not that expensive and they could pick one up that would fit much more easily and have mounting points of their own specification.

In reply to Keith Tanner:

At one point they say that both of the used radiators they're using are just placeholders for new units that they'll source later on in the build. They go on to say they wanted to use OEM parts so that they could be easily and quickly replaced should the front end take a good shunt.

In reply to Ethnic Food-Wrap Aficionado:

...and then Nik will have to remake those brackets.

Nobody said it had to be an OE unit from the donor car. Just seems a bit silly, but you know how it can get when you focus on solving a problem - without stepping back and seeing if you can negate it with a different approach.

I think they used it because it happened to fit nicely, just like they used the (Vauxhall?) intercooler radiator because it happened to be wider and shorter than the Toyota radiator, so it would neatly snake its outlets around the other one. As a benefit, they already had the Toyota radiator and they knew it would be sufficient for the engine. From experience, nothing sucks more than engineering yourself into a corner than engineering yourself into a corner and then finding out that you engineered yourself into the WRONG corner.

For reference, I'd like to point out that my S40 (the old 4 cylinder one) has a really neat and tidy front mount intercooler arrangement that looks very swappable. The intercooler has top and bottom tanks and mounts to the chassis like a standard Japanese radiator. The radiator bolts to the backside of the intercooler almost as an afterthought. The intercooler is actually larger than the radiator and they both nestle into the same space as a radiator does by itself. It's a lot neater than the setup that Mitsu chose for the early Evo (same chassis) where a fugly intercooler mounted under the bumper and plumbing ran everywhere.

In reply to Keith Tanner:

Keith you're forgetting something. They are in England. Custom, aftermarket and fabbed parts are way way more expensive over there. If the stock unit works for the intended purpose why not keep it, I'm sure over there a new replacement stock part is cheaper than a fabbed part.

Spend time on UK forums and you will see people raving about Summit, Jegs etc. They can buy parts from the States, pay shipping ($$) and pay the 20% VAT (like sales tax only more) and still come out a fraction of what the same part would cost to buy from a retailer over there.

People loose site of how stupidly cheap almost everything (except cable, Internet and cell phones) is over here compared to the rest of the world. Working in the auto industry I see people from other continents all the time over here on business. It's funny to see Japanese people going out and buying Japanese made products or Europeans going out and buying European made retail items to take back with them, as even though the parts have been imported here, they are still way cheaper than they can buy them at home.

Adrian_Thompson wrote: I want to be these guys when I grow up. Just caught up on episode 9. amazing

'Flip front goes up, flip front goes down. Flip front goes up, flip front goes down.'

Heck. These guys are so good that I showed the vid to my wife last night. She has slightly less than zero interest in fabbing cars, but their skill behind the camera and their skill with sheet metal kept her interest for nearly 15 mins before she turned it off. Even with no interest in how cars go together or are made, she could appreciate the skill and workmanship, especially the punch and die for the vents.

One thing I noticed though, for people who know their E36 M3 so well, those vents in the scuttle are in a high pressure zone, so instead of letting hot air out, it will be trying to force cooler air in and increasing underbonnet (underhood over here) pressure which could have the opposite affect to their cooling intentions.