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Juhunio

M-03 Mini Cooper Restoration Rebuild

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On 9/7/2020 at 9:21 PM, Badcrumble said:

If you’re not in any hurry, I may have one. I’d need to dig it out and make sure it works. You’d be best to use an existing set in the meantime though!

Thanks very much, but after a bit of testing I'm going to bring it all into the modern world and leave the past behind :)

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On 9/8/2020 at 12:11 PM, Carmine A said:

FANTASTIC recovery and a skilled rebuild!!!  Also stirs Memories...

WELCOME to the M Chassis Cars Club!! Hard to stop at just ONE, especially after you've run a few Batteries through it!! 😁  I may have to see now if I can find a dirt cheap M03 Mini Cooper to restore.... I MISS mine.

Thanks very much! A lesson I have learned is that however 'cheap' the Mini might be, it's probably not cheap enough for the time and money it will take to bring it back to health. The end result will be fun, satisfying, sure...but not cheap!

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I was very kindly leant an Acoms transmitter and receiver by @martinjpayne, which I used to give the Mini's electrics a run today. Things weren't great!

Both servos were very twitchy, making constant noise, twitching back and forth, causing the MSC to throttle on and off without any encouragement from me. It sounded like a massive short circuit waiting to happen. And everything was reversed; left was right, reverse was forwards. It was probably sortable, but I've kind of run out of tether with it

So I took all the olde-worlde electronics out, put a new servo in the front and a Tamiya ESC and Absima receiver on top and brought it into the modern world! It all worked perfectly, first time.

Phew!

The MSC and old servos have gone back in the box, to be filed away in a sort of 'Service History', and I'll carry on with the easy-life!

Hopefully we'll have a dry 24 hours so it can have its maiden run tomorrow :D

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56 minutes ago, Juhunio said:

Thanks very much! A lesson I have learned is that however 'cheap' the Mini might be, it's probably not cheap enough for the time and money it will take to bring it back to health. The end result will be fun, satisfying, sure...but not cheap!

Yeah.... Initially cheap!  Definitely fun though. My M05 was built piecemeal - and ended up costing over $260 just for the basic build!!! 😲 THEN upgrades started. Absolutely a labor of love.

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That is a remarkable rebuild and restoration! Really, from what you were presented with to what you have accomplished is an amazing achievement.

I love the fiberlyte parts, and have enjoyed watching everything you have done to it. Well done.

I bought my M03 mini new many many years ago and still have it, but am slowly refurbishing it. I can't even remember the MSC parts, although I dont recall the TEU-101BK coming with it either. I could never sell it though.

Thanks for the build thread. And don't let the M03 be your last M-chassis, they are fun and addictive little cars! 😎

 

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6 hours ago, berman said:

That is a remarkable rebuild and restoration! Really, from what you were presented with to what you have accomplished is an amazing achievement.

I love the fiberlyte parts, and have enjoyed watching everything you have done to it. Well done.

I bought my M03 mini new many many years ago and still have it, but am slowly refurbishing it. I can't even remember the MSC parts, although I dont recall the TEU-101BK coming with it either. I could never sell it though.

Thanks for the build thread. And don't let the M03 be your last M-chassis, they are fun and addictive little cars! 😎

 

Thanks for the very kind words, I really appreciate it! The final decision to install modern radio gear has been weirdly calming, like it will be actual fun to run now rather than a twitchy glitchy period-correct nightmare :lol:

I've got a NIB M-06 Beetle in the loft, which seems an apt rear motor / RWD combo, so that will happen soon

I love the Renault Alpine and Karmann Ghia shells but probably both 'suit' the R/R M-06 too? The Alfa Giulia is gorgeous but should be F/R. 

Beyond that I don't really feel any love or affinity for the M chassis body shells. Some of the R / Concept chassis kits do look amazing though. 

Any recommendations?

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The Karmann Ghia is a lovely shell, and not a small one either. It works well on the M-06 with loads of room for the motor in the boot, and also goes nicely on the M-04 and M-08 when built in LWB configuration. If your M-06 is going to be a runner, you might use the Beetle shell for running and the Ghia shell for display as both use the same wheelbase settings. 

While Tamiya make some beautiful old-school M-size shells, I think the M-07 and M-08 deserve more modern offerings. Mine wear a Fiat 500 and Mazda MX-5 shell respectively. I am thinking of getting a Mazda 2 shell for the M-07 too. Do any of the newer shells appeal to you at all?

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On 9/10/2020 at 9:47 PM, TurnipJF said:

The Karmann Ghia is a lovely shell, and not a small one either. It works well on the M-06 with loads of room for the motor in the boot, and also goes nicely on the M-04 and M-08 when built in LWB configuration. If your M-06 is going to be a runner, you might use the Beetle shell for running and the Ghia shell for display as both use the same wheelbase settings. 

While Tamiya make some beautiful old-school M-size shells, I think the M-07 and M-08 deserve more modern offerings. Mine wear a Fiat 500 and Mazda MX-5 shell respectively. I am thinking of getting a Mazda 2 shell for the M-07 too. Do any of the newer shells appeal to you at all?

Good tip on the Ghia, I think I'm going to go for the Alpine M-06 kit and then maybe get an M-08 with the Ghia shell.

This means I need to sell my Beetle M-06, doesn't seem much point in having two and I've kinda fallen for the Alpine and it's back in stock too :wub:

The more modern shells just don't work for me, I find most contemporary 1:1 small hatches or coupes a bit dull compared to the 60s-90's. A 205 GTi would be great, and a genuine F/F set up too. That was my first car IRL, and would love a 1:10 version but haven't found a 'road' shell yet

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24 minutes ago, Juhunio said:

Good tip on the Ghia, I think I'm going to go for the Alpine M-06 kit and then maybe get an M-08 with the Ghia shell.

This means I need to sell my Beetle M-06, doesn't seem much point in having two and I've kinda fallen for the Alpine and it's back in stock too :wub:

The Alpine is a lovely shell too, and a suitable running companion for the Mini with which it had a real-world rally rivalry back in the day as you probably know.

It also works really well in rally trim, with M-size rally blocks and a tad more ground clearance than stock. You can preserve the correct wheel-to-arch spacing, but tuck the tub further up into the shell that way, as in stock trim the tub sticks out below the shell quite a bit.

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35 minutes ago, TurnipJF said:

The Alpine is a lovely shell too, and a suitable running companion for the Mini with which it had a real-world rally rivalry back in the day.

It also works really well in rally trim, with M-size rally blocks and a tad more ground clearance than stock. You can preserve the correct wheel-to-arch spacing, but tuck the tub further up into the shell that way, as in stock trim the tub sticks out below the shell quite a bit.

That's a good point about the Mini and Alpines' shared history, adds an extra story to the build!

Noob question; for that extra ground clearance, is that a case of spacers in the dampers? 55mm CVAs leftover from a TT02 build seemed to fit the Mini well so would probably use another set of leftovers for the Alpine build too, so would appreciate your advice on how to achieve that extra bit of ground clearance for rally trim. Thanks!

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56 minutes ago, Juhunio said:

That's a good point about the Mini and Alpines' shared history, adds an extra story to the build!

Noob question; for that extra ground clearance, is that a case of spacers in the dampers? 55mm CVAs leftover from a TT02 build seemed to fit the Mini well so would probably use another set of leftovers for the Alpine build too, so would appreciate your advice on how to achieve that extra bit of ground clearance for rally trim. Thanks!

On mine.... I fitted the Mini CVA Shocks. You may know that they come with short and long ends.  The Long ends made them approximately 62mm... 

This gave me more Ground Clearance than my Friend's M05 RA!  Now, I use CVDs in front, I don't know if that much drop is safe with Dogbones. 

BTW..... Totally in agreement with the Bodies. The Karmann Ghia is Lovely and the Alpine is just SEXY!!

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Ah, that makes sense, thanks very much! 

Universals also make sense too when changing the angle of dangle 

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4 hours ago, Juhunio said:

That's a good point about the Mini and Alpines' shared history, adds an extra story to the build!

Noob question; for that extra ground clearance, is that a case of spacers in the dampers? 55mm CVAs leftover from a TT02 build seemed to fit the Mini well so would probably use another set of leftovers for the Alpine build too, so would appreciate your advice on how to achieve that extra bit of ground clearance for rally trim. Thanks!

55mm Mini CVAs are what I use on my M-06. My other M-class chassis use 50mm Super Mini CVAs or alloy equivalents, and the extra 5mm makes all the difference. No dogbone issues either! 👍

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