Rear Panel

Nearside fixing on sub frame seam.














Offside fixing on sub frame seam. Note cut out in panel to clear lower exhaust pipe & clamp

Sierra Master Cylinder

Close up of the modified push rod & clevis

Donningto kit car show

Had a great day at Donnington . Now have a roof box so no excuse for not camping next year. We just had to drive up the mound for those photos - GREAT!

SVA Pass

SVA re-test was a doddle and took less than 10 minutes. Two trips to DVLA Worcester and the registration process is complete and we now have 50 miles on on the clock. Only problem so far has been over heating. Have adjusted the ignition timing, tightened up the fan belt which had come loose and fitted some additional "cooling" capacity as can be seen in the photos.

Off to Donnington Park two weekends in a row in the buggy. Renault World Series next weekend followed by Kit Car Show the weekend after.

SVA result

Well, just 2 fail points. I was not expecting a first time pass but am a bit miffed it has to be said. The tester was a very nice chap and was very fair so no complaints really but while doing the brake tests he pulled the hand brake on so hard he destroyed the hand brake cable. As you can see from the photo the cast metal ends were shattered as he yanked the hand brake on. The only thing I can think off is that the holes in the mounting bracket were a bit to big which allowed the lug to pull thru and it then shattered. Even so he must have given it one hell of a pull. "hand brake inopperative"


The other fail was "no self centring"

More SVA preparation

Final touches - covering up all the sharp edges round the front suspension area.

SVA preparation

Ready for Newark Kit car Show

Ready for Newark - just in time. SVA application form went in the post this morning.

Chasis powder coating

Chasis stripped and loaded onto the trailor ready to be taken for powder coating


And back in the garage looking a lot nicer.

Pedal Box

After much messing about with the old Mini Brake Master Cylinder I was never very happy with the idea of trying to plumb in a remote fluid reservoir. After a visit to see Paul Stares (R1FREESTYLE) it was pretty obvious that fitting a Sierra Master Cylinder was a much better solution.

So out with the angle grinder and cut out the front face of the pedal box as so:



Then prepare a new piece of steel with same hole centres but with a larger hole to accept the Sierra Master Cylinder and weld it on. We had to get the new plate a low as possible to ensure that it cleared the nose panel. After a bit of fiddling about I realised that tilting the top of the new panel back away from the pedal box by about 8mm not only gave more room for the nose panel but also got the reservoir closer to "level"




Very pleased with the result - Thanks to Paul for the idea and for sourcing the Sierra master Cylinder for me.

Rear body work and lights

The idea for the rear panel came from having a sheet of ali chequer plate left over that was the right size. It took some effort to bend by hand !! The panel is fixed to the sub frame underneath and sits flush with the sub frame and exhaust. Still have some trimming to do to clear the gear linkage etc but I am pleased with it so far. The mesh is stainless steel stuff that had been lying around the shed for ages, it looks good but I need to find some more from somewhere to use for the sides.

Final decision on colour scheme has been taken by Matt (my son) and he definitely wants orange & black with the ali chequer plate for that "you,ve been tango'd look)

Rear frame and brackets

This week we decided to remove the original rear light mounting brackets and fit a simple frame instead. The idea is to have a rear body panel in ali chequer plate and to mount the lights and number plate etc on it. This will continue the theme of making our Freestyle slightly different from the norm, covers lots of sharp edges and the hot exhaust etc for the SVA man.



Well tacking the new frame in place I also made a small bracket to pick up the clutch flexi hose and welded it in place.

Then started to make the brackets that will hold the rear mud guards in place.

Head take off

As we don't intent fitting a heater we removed the Mini heater valve that bolts to the top of the cylinder head and replaced with this simple plate/pipe. Using the standard Mini gasket we refit to the cylinder head and run the water pipe from this straight thru the heated inlet manifold and back to the top hose. If we find cooling is a problem we will add an electric fan and could also fit an additional radiator / heater matrix for extra cooling.

Seat back panel

Also cut the seat back panel which is hinged at the bottom to allow easy access to the engine. Also started to fit the additional chasis tube that will have the seat belt mounts for the 4 point harnesses.


Although I am still not totally convinced the "no seats" design will be suitable for long journey's I am starting to grow in confidence as it does seem very comfy and snug when sat down nice and low.