Well, after a lot of deliberation I have decided to attempt a mid engine conversion. It's going to take me a while as I'll be doing most of the work outside as I stupidly converted my garage into a kitchen but to be honest the garage was so small, not much would fit in it anyway and I've got a reasonable workshop in the back garden to carry out a lot of the fabrication work in so it shouldn't be too bad.

Mrs T and I built this from scratch outside so it's definately possible.



I won't actually be starting for a few weeks, but I thought I'd get the discussing thread going to air a few of my ideas on how I'll undertake it.

OK, I've actually started the strip down to enable me to check a few measurements and make sure the engine and box will actually fit and I apear to have made a bit of a mess inside


Anyway I've offered up the new front subframe, wishbones, hubs and wheels to the rear and they fit perfectly I needed to check that I had enough room between the rear engine mount that located on the centre of the front cross member (now at the back)and the cross member you can see in picture four above where the rear seat tub drops down to the rear footwell as this is where I intended cutting the rear panels out and as it happens it is 90cm, which is exactly the same as the front



As you'll see from the next set of pictures, the original front pick up point is very close to one of the original rear pick ups, so it won't take too much to adapt that one, I'll then have an additional box section going between the rear chassis legs to mount the rear of the new front cross member to.

So, next job is to start cutting the boot floor, rear bulkhead, inner wheel wells and rear seat tub out, I'll update when I've done that

I've made a bit of progress on the car this week, I've stripped the car down to pretty much a bare shell, test fitted the cage and started cutting the floor out. I've now got to drill out all the spot welds to neaten the cuts and then seam weld them.



I've also got the engine and box into the workshop and started cleaning 120,000 miles of dirt off, ready to mock up the rear craddle.



It looks like I'm going to have to modify the chassis legs slightly to clear the pulleys, first job though will be mounting the cross member with wishbones, hubs and wheels in the correct place before I can add the engine and box and lift into place to check clearances.

The hardest part so far has been moving the engine from my drive at the front of the house to my workshop at the end of my back garden, it's very, very heavy

A bit more done today and I've had a slight change of plan, a few more pictures first though:-

A very light Coupe!

A big hole, but not big enough!!

Starting to neaten the edges

Anyway, the slight change of plan is rather than try and squeeze the engine and box between the existing chassis legs by modifying them, I ve decided to take both rear chassis legs and inner arches completely out.

This may sound a bit drastic, but I think it wll make a better job in the end, in the picture below, I've marked the area I'll remove (both sides)and strengthen the remaining panels.



With the legs removed I'll have an area 140cm wide and 120cm long which will give me loads of room. This will then allow me to build a completely inependent rear craddle that will hold the engine, box and suspension and will bolt to the back of the car and add more strength.

Finaly got a couple more things done to the project this week, I've shot blasted and painted a few engine parts (not all pictured) I'm going to do the plenum chamber the same red crackle finish as the cam cover, should look good through the rear window



and painted the calipers and roll cage



Now the worst of the weather is over (we hope!!) I'll crack on with cutting the rest of the rear bodywork out so should make some progress there soon.

OK, another day's work done, I've finished cutting out the rear chassis legs, bolted the cage in and roughly set the rear cross member in place ready to measure up for the frame.


That's one big hole I was amazed at how poorly some of the rear panels were put together there were large sections that hadn't been spot welded and just covered up with seam sealer and other areas where the spot welds had missed the seam and someone had obviously one round with a mig and blobbed a bit of weld on!!



Rear subframe roughly in place ready to measure up.



How the rear wheels it in the arch, I'm going to have to roll those arch lips

Once I've got the subframe in the correct position, I can move the engine in, the rear engine mount that bolts underneath the subframe will then set the engine position for me.

Well, the sun was out for nearly a whole day at the weekend so I thought I'd do a bit more to the coupe as I was nearly at the point of getting the engine and box in place but first I needed to get the exact centre line of the car transposed to the back of the car as there wasn't an awful lot left at the back to measure so, after measuring, measuring and re-measuring I used a laser to mark the centre point of the rear of the car and subframe etc




Next job was to bolt the rear subframe fixings to the temporary bar at the back to set the position of the whole subframe and suspension, the rear engine mount that bolts under the subframe will then set the position of the engine.

OK, time to bring the engine round from the back garden to the front drive and as you'll see the back garden is a bit of a mess at the momment, MrsT's fault of course

And that is one heavy engine for an old bloke to move on his own Anyway, after a lot of this a few of these a little bit of this I got it round the front, with Mrs T making sure I didn't damage anything on the way ( house and garden, rather than me)

It rolled under the wheel arch with about 5mm to spare, all calculated of course



Time to get it into place and bolt it in to it's temporary fixings, about three hours later, this was the result







So, pretty chuffed with how it's going, I'll start making up the basic parts of the subframe next and then I need to finally decide on weather to use the original struts (KW Coilovers) or to do what I originaly wanted to do and make an upper wishbone to keep the suspension nice and low and also give me negative bump camber at the rear.

Any thoughts or experiences with either suspension setup would be most appreciated

Took a few more pictures today after giving the old girl a clean.
It was a bit like giving a patient in the transplant ward a bed bath




I was trying to get an image in my head as to what it will all look like once complete and I think I'll probably box most of the back end in, just leaving the cam cover and plenum chamber (Which will be the same red finish as the cam cover) showing.

Should look smart through the rear window

Not getting much done due to the weather, whenever I've got time it's raining

Anyway, I've moved forward a little, I've made up and tacked in the first part of the rear subframe. I need to get this part aligned properly as everything else at the back end will be reliant on the subframe being in the correct place!



The top part of the bracket above is welded to the car and the bottom part is the actual subframe, the bars on the side ensure that it will sit back in the same place each time it's removed and refitted.



The part of the frame going across the car will also be the mounting point for the intercooler, once all the sections are in place, the original centre section of the cars original box section on the left will be cut away ready for the air feed to the intercooler.



Ready to weld in once the alignment has been checked.



I've also managed to make up the metal (Ally over the original frame) sunroof panel and got that in so it's a bit more water proof now.



Just a reminder of how damn good she looks in the sunshine

I can't believe it's been four months since I last updated progress, how time flies!!!

Anyway, over the very wet summer I've been picking away at a few parts ready for the subframe installation.

I had one final mock up with all the suspension components in before I started welding the subframe.



All looked to be in order, so I cracked on and made up some plates in 3mm steel to take the mounting points on the side panels for the top mounts to bolt to.



I then glued, plug welded and then seam welded these to the side panels, so they're in there for good



The larger section on the right is 2mm steel and just seam welded, the concave holes are for access for the waxoil spray nozzel and also give the panel a bit of strengh.

Next job was to set the heights of the coilovers so the position of the top mounts were the same and then make up the top mount plates, I used 5mm plate for these.



Then tried one in the car.



Right, with that lot done it was time for the bit I was dreading, getting the engine and box out and back in the workshop still, it's amazing what you can do when you have to



Does anyone know how much these buggers acually weigh?

OK, time to get the subframe done.



Out of the car



and ready to go in the workshop.


There's a fair bit more to add to it yet but I can't do that until I've set it up in the workshop with the engine, gearbox and suspension all bolted to it so I know which route the main lower bars can go, these will also be where the front engine mounts go and tie in with the original subframe front mounts, making it nice and rigid.

The end plan is to have a couple of mounting points on the front of the frame to put casters on, that way the whole frame, engine, box and suspension cam be wheeled out in one piece buy un-doing the 10 mounting bolts and disconnecting the coolant pipes etc.

Well, that's it for the momment, I'll add some more once it's all set up in the workshop, I need to get my arse in gear if I'm to make it to Brooklands next year

Just a small update, I've started to get the rest of the frame together, just got to do the engine mounting points and it will all be self supporting

Once I've done that I can mount all the ancilliaries and make up any brackets etc I need on the frame to hold the intercooler and exhaust etc.

I had a bit of a thought while I was looking at the drive belt run, as I'm not going to use the power steering pump, I wondered if I could use it as a scavenge pump for a dry sump setup? I wouldn't do it yet, but food for thought for the future

OK, the subframe is now as complete as it needs to be to bolt it back into the car and get the brackets to the roll cage fitted.



As you can see it's completely self supporting now and can be wheeled around on its own, the idea being that you can lift the back of the car, wheel it into place and bolt it in.



I've made removable engine hangers and a temporary O/S engine mount until I decide what to use, as space is a bit tight on that side.



Stripped down again and fully welded, ready to go in.





Next job is to get the frame painted and everything bolted back in and sitting on its wheels ready for Brooklands

OK, here's a few pictures of the coupe finally on all four wheels, this is the first bolt up, so none of the rear geometry has been adjusted but it doesn't look too bad at all Obviously the engine and box arn't in so the ride height would have to be reset once they're in.

Right, that's the good bit, now the bad bit!! Due to some unforeseen circumstances the Mid Engine project is now FOR SALE

I'd like the shell to go complete, but I'll be selling all the other components individualy, I'll obviously put more detail in the for sale section

My appologies to everyone following the project, but hopefully someone else will carry it on and bring the first Mid engined coupe to fruition, the worst part has been done, it's now basically puting everything together, there are some other exciting options for the shell, which, again I'll detail in the for sale section.

Thanks again for everyones input, advice and encouragement so far.

Best regards

Mr & Mrs T