1976 Mini Clubvan 1.6 16v

[mt2man]

Right, thought it was about time I made a project log of my Mini Clubman Estate, with a twist

It started of life like this:

(Cant find most of my pictures from this early on unfortunatly!)







It was a £450 barn find which wasnt in too bad condition really considering it hadnt seen the road in a while! It was originally a auto which I started converting into a manual and apart from that I was going to run it as is really, it was tatty but pretty original, but then my plans changed a fair bit.

I started removing the wooden trim from the sides (i know many people will hate me for this but ohwell!)





The front end was pretty rusty so I removed it and fitted this roundnose for a while, but soon after bought a new fibreglass clubby front again!





Then I decided I wanted door poppers so I removed the door handles etc and went about welding in blanking plates and filler and smoothing over. I also welded up the holes where the wooden trim was and smoothed it over.











Then I decided I really wanted a van, but being poor I opted for these fibreglass panels instead.









Filled the edges, with possibly abit too much fibreglass filler! But it will all sand down okay









I shall update with the Nissan part in a moment but that bit is far from finished yet!

[mt2man]

As promised, the Nissan part, it shall have a 1.6 16v Almera engine upfront, but i will be trying to build the subframe in a way that could allow me upgrade to a SR20 at a later date if i so wished but i think a 1.6 running bike carbs should be good enough for the mean time!

I have finally got all the material i need to build the subframe, and have finally made enough room in the garage to actually get on with it, hopefully i will keep update this week as i have time off work!

Not much to say but here are some pics of the engine, the template it is sitting on shows me where the tie bars and suspension mounting points are, trying to give my self some idea of how much room i have to play with, its going to be tight!







Then i bought the subframe over to compare widths etc, its quite wide but not to bad!







Thanks for looking!

[mike174]

looks interesting not seen this conversion before. I'm currently fitting a 1.4 k series to my clubby. Was this for sale at some point? I'm sure i remember looking at an ad...

[mt2man]

I havent seen it done before either! But i got the donor car cheap and sold the rest for bits and actually made a profit on the engine!

And yeah it was for sale a while ago when money was extremely tight, but i now have a decent engineering job and an actual income and can afford it again!

[mt2man]

Started planning some more for the subframe, just wondered if anyone had any ideas or anything?! I'm thinking i may just do it staight where the bars are atm going down straight to where the 2x2" box section is, i will be attaching the tie bar mounts to the 2x2.

I have repositioned the engine so the sump doesnt foul the tie bars and it seems alot better, the engine mounts are lined up perfectly where my frame needs to be and i don't think the gearbox will get in the way of anything so fingers crossed! Its all guess work at the moment though! Trial and error haha.

I havent seen this engine fitted before so it could possibly be a first?













And the carbs shall be making up a manifold for them once i know the engine position etc, if possible i may try and refit the fuel injection but that depends on bulkhead clearances etc!

[mt2man]

And a couple of pictures of the body work, its still far from finished but thought i would put a quick coat of paint on to highlight the worse areas and to try and avoid any moisture getting under the filler etc.

Lotsss of work to do but i think its going to look pretty good once its finished!

[will930]

awesome work so far, good work with the bodywork.

any more info on the fitting of the engine? and the later idea of fitting an Sr20,

if you have any queries and need a hand with anything at all drop me a PM, i work at Fusion Motorpsort and we specialise in Japanese Vehicles and tuning (currently refitting a fully rebuild GA16 turbo engine to a micra k11)

[mt2man]

Cheers its getting there slowly, ive had this far too long and only really started seriously working on it!

And I'm hoping to start the cutting and trimming of the subframe tommorow, start positioning it all tommorow, my dads off work from Thursday so its always handy having another hand while positioning everything for welding so hoping to crack on then.

I am doing a welding course next year and have some experience in welding but don't trust my welding for such a serious part of the vehicle so its most likely going to be tacked by me and my dad and get our family friend who is a qualified welder to do the major welding, better to be safe then sorry!

I may drop you a PM regarding GA16 distributors etc! Because i may be getting rid of the injection, NATS etc i was wondering the best way of solving the ignition side of things, worse comes to worse i shall run megajolt or similar, but i don't know if its possible to just run the existing distirubtor as just simply a distributor not using the NATS or anything?

[will930]

there are many different ways that we can solve it and would be able to book your car in, in the future when the engine is in....

give us a call on 07799627087, and we can talk you through the options now if you like

Will

[mt2man]

I shall drop you a PM, thanks for your messages!

[gurnersimps1963]

Nice job there Jack,love the van fibreglass panels,did you sell the merc then?

[kcchan]

That engine conversion is becoming increasingly popular in mini's. So unfortunately, not the first.

[luckygti]

Looks like this will be a great little car. I'd still love a pickup but a van would do One day maybe!

[mt2man]

Id love to see a link to this engine conversion?! I have seen Micra engines done many times, but never a GA14 or GA16, do you have any links?

And yes unfortunatly i had to sell the Merc as the insurance company i got quotes from refused to let me have the policy because of my age and other policies were over £2k

[miilor]

hello I'm from Spain, I have the same car and almost the same engine, I have 1.3 micron, I hope this helps a bit

www.16vminiclub.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26025&page=5

[kcchan]

Ah maybe I'm mistaken then. Come to think of it, I think they're all the cg13's not the 1.6 that you're using.

[mt2man]

miilor your car is gorgeous! I love how you did your inlet manifold, i may have to give that a try! I assume you just blanked off the injection part of your manifold? I don't know whats the best way to go about it on mine, but I'm very impressed with your subframe etc, its given me a few ideas for mine, thanks!

And yeah the micra conversion is a good route to go down, and if i had found a cheap micra i probably would have gone down that route too!

[mt2man]

Not much of an update, but got a little done this morning, ill crack on again this afternoon!

But i bought a set of seats and a set of 5 superlights on ebay last night and picked them up, got the seats for £2 and the wheels for £80 so i was quite impressed! The wheels will be refurbed, polished rim and black centre, 3 of the wheels have been sprayed white and look naff so I'm looking forward to getting them done!

The seats are originally front a Tigra, i was going to fit the Almera seats but these were already on custom made subframes and made life alot easier! They even have height adjustments and everything! haha





The wheels:





And i have started on the tie bar mounts on the front and the front of the subframe, havent done and welding yet, just in the planning stages!

















Going to be welding the box section to the front of the box section and cutting the middle out out for clearance for the exhaust

[mt2man]

Right thought i better update this, i recently moved house not alot has been done really, just been little jobs like refitting the headliner, rubbing down bits of rust and trying to remove some of the underseal etc.

But today it actually feels as if some progress has been made!

I done this:



It was actually suprisingly easy, none of the bolts gave me any trouble , hardest part probably is the brake splitter thingy.

I was expecting lots of rust but it was actually suprisingly solid! This was the worst area, a 1p sized hole (not sure if its rusted or was a hole for cable etc)

[lukeevangelou]

Actually loving this! That almera engine will pack a hefty punch with those bike carbs on it! Haha
Have you any ideas of the power output of the engine with/without the bike carbs?