Our Story & Mission
As stated on the Home page, our mission is to create & build a car to our own design.
But first, we need to learn some new skills, such as metalshaping compound curves, and how to use 3D scanning techniques to speed up the design stage and prototyping, as well as improve our tig welding skills, especially when it comes to welding the aluminium panels together.
And so we hit on the idea of buying a rusted-out shell of a classic Mini to use as a buck to practice forming double curvature panels, as the classic Mini has quite a rounded design and lends itself to that quite nicely.
Then we thought, why not solve the Achilles heel of all classic Minis .... the bodyshell rust problems ... by making a whole bodyshell and all the panels out of aluminium. It will also need a bespoke chassis making out of steel to put the strength back in just as the coach built cars of yesteryear had.
So that was the project .... except for one other challenge, in that our workshop has very limited access: a classic Mini is approx 1.3 metres wide, but our access is via a narrow passageway that is a maximum width of only 1.2 metres!
Below is a photograph of how we got the rusted-out original shell through the back door of the adjacent garage, where the access to the workshop narrows: to give you an idea of what we are up against, we cut the roof off and took the rest of the bodyshell through on its side!!!
If we went ahead and made one out of aluminium, we wouldn't want to have to cut the roof off to get it back out ...
Therefore, we have decided to shrink the Mini we are building down to 1.1 metres wide, which is about 80% or 4/5ths the size of a normal classic Mini, to guarantee we can squeeze it out of the workshop once it's finished.
We call it our Thinni Mini .... but just changing the width without altering all the other dimensions in proportion leaves it looking a little comical.
What we want to achieve is a car that looks exactly like a normal sized classic mini: one that you almost have to do a double-take when you see it because it looks like what you thought, but you don't quite remember them being that small.
Therefore, we are shrinking the dimension in all three axis:
Length and Height as well as Width.
Now that adds another level to the challenge, and will hopefully also increase the interest factor of this project.
When people ask us why, we could say all of the above...
But really it's just b Cos We Can :-)
Follow Us on This Journey
We think this project is very exciting. It will be a big challenge but hopefully we are up to it.
As there is a big Mini community out there, as well as general petrol heads, we wanted to share our progress, and so have created a youtube channel, where we are documenting our trials and tribulations along the way.
A lot of these sort of projects on social media skip through the learning process, and the tasks that need to go on in the background.
The format we have adopted is one of photo montages and timelapses with voice overs talking you through the necessary steps, partly because we're not that comfortable yet being centre stage, but also because we think this way of delivering the content will make it more informative where it needs to be, without being overly repetitive where a speeded up timelapse will better hold your interest.
Hopefully that works, but if you do follow us on our youtube channel, then no doubt you will let us know in the comments ... and we can refine our approach as we go.
You can see the current state of progress in the photo to the right (rolling chassis completed), and to see how we got this far, and what is next, please see us over on YouTube @bCosWeCan.
