Now I have the engine, I want to get the mini booked in for the remaining bodywork and paint as soon as possible. Realistically, it’s going to be a few months before I can get it booked in, but I’ve been thinking about what I want doing when it does go in.
Firstly, I’ll get the wheel arches tubbed, removing some of the rear quarter panel to give more clearance for the wheels when the suspension is under compression, shown by the green line in the pics below.
Existing wheel arches 
Green line showing how the panel will be trimmed back
Next, I’ve been thinking what to do with the battery. In a standard mini, the battery is in a box beneath the boot floor, on the drivers side. Locating the battery here makes sense, as it helps to balance the weight of the car by moving a reasonable amount of mass to the rear of the car, balancing out the weight of the engine at the front. Being below the boot floor means the mass is low, helping reduce the centre of gravity of the car and being on the driver’s side balances out the mass of the petrol tank on the opposite side of the boot.
Thing is, my car will have twin petrol tanks. The twin tanks means the mass from the fuel tanks will be relatively well balanced across the axle and there will be more mass at the rear of the car (due to the second tank) and less mass at the front of the car (due to the lighter engine). I’d like to move the battery to a new location, which would be a fabricated plinth in the middle of where the rear seat used to be. This will move the mass closer to the centre of the car, though admittedly it will also raise the centre of gravity slightly. The green box in the below pic shows where I’m thinking of putting the battery.
The rear bench, cut back to allow fitment of the roll cage 
The green box shows where I’d like to mount the battery
If I move the battery, I’ll no longer need the battery box in the boot. I’m contemplating whether I should have it removed and a steel plate fabricated and welded in, to cover where it used to be, or whether to cut out the boot floor and replace it with a carbon fibre boot floor, like this one from Carbon Weezel.
The bulkhead of the mini was previously modified, with a section cut out and a box welded in to make room for the inlet manifold of the Honda VTEC engine.
When it went in for bodywork previously, the bulkhead box was removed and it now looks like this:
Turns out this is problematic, as where the box has been filled in, it’s had some sheet steel fabricated to fill the gap, but it’s not back to standard mini spec. The issue I have now is mainly with the area in the green box. This is where there would usually be a plate with two holes for the heater hoses and some bolts going through the bulkhead. One of the engine steadies needs to use those bolt holes to mount to and on my car, they’re not there.
To rectify this, I’ll ask the bodyshop to cut out that section of the bulkhead again and weld in a section from a repair panel, so it’s back to how it would have been from the factory.
The other bits I want doing are mainly just tidying up bits of the bodywork that have already been done, but aren’t finished to a very high standard. For example, I had plates welded in to convert the rear lights to mk1 style, but they’re not very tidy:
Also, where the roll cage has had plates welded between the cage and the A-pillars, I’d like the welding filled in and smoothed off, so it looks nice before it all gets painted, as this will be very visible through the windscreen.
Other than those items, it should just be a general tidy up and then paint.
I’ve already decided on the colour – BMW Imola Red II. My biggest worry is about keeping the shell free of marks and scratches when it comes back and I’m building the mini up.