One Purple Chassis!

27th October...

A big rush and panic on Friday to hire a van ensued when the Kit builder called to tell me that he had other commitments and I couldn't pick up the kit on Sunday. My mate had offered to take me down on Sunday with his Van, but he couldn't drive me down any other day! Shame really but thankfully a local rental place came to the rescue and I picked up the Van that Afternoon!

We had an eventful day on Saturday, got up early in the morning to run down to the Kit Builder to pick up the Chassis and parts, I hired a long wheelbase van to ensure I could bring back the goods! It was a long 4 hour journey, but as a bonus my Dad (who came along to help) and I stopped for a Bacon Sarnie!

We loaded the Van and had a cup of Tea while a couple of parts were modified, the Kit Builder Dave is a really good bloke but with some odd welding techniques, but that's another story! Had a look around the other Freestyles littered around and picked up a few ideas of how to build mine up!

It took even longer to get back, but the traffic was really heavy, so we left in the dark and got home in the dark!

28th October...

Being rather late and being rather tired we left all the bits in the Van overnight and unloaded on Sunday morning! It seemed to take forever to unload, but finally, here's a couple of pics of my lovely PURPLE chassis!

It all went horribly wrong!

October 7th...
We never made it! The owner couldn't get the subframe manufactured in time because he had a near death experience! So anyway, he promised to deliver it on October 12th!

October 12th...
Another deadline missed! The Chassis is made, but the powdercoater has let him down!

October 13th...
A new date for collection set as October 28th, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for this one! maybe it's a case of 3rd time lucky?

Colouring the Freestyle Chassis

The Freestyle Chassis is officially being constructed as we speak!

I decided to have it powdercoated, and my ten year old daughter (bless) chose me the colour scheme. Yes you guessed it, all shades of Purple!

One interesting dvelopment was the powder coated didn't have the colour I originally requested, but they had a much darker colour which I think will add some... er... um... ok it's just a nice colour... well ok it's PURPLE!!!

It'll be different is all I can say! Anyway, I'm looking forward to picking it up on the 7th October!!

Stripped!

So I took a battered rusty old Mini, and full of optimism I though yes I could salvage this?

Ha, so i managed to salvage some bits for resale, I should be so lucky, even the chassis is in a right tangle! Glad I'm not restoring it now!


Out of virtually a whole mini, I have a complete set of window glass and some replacement panels, that's it! the rest is junk! (Apart from what I'm keeping of course!)

So Engine. Front Subframe. Electics (with some brute force). Steering wheel and pedals. All came out easy. Rear subframe, nightmare! a twisted wreck! But, I only need the rear hubs so I'm not worried. To be honest it came apart easy, just need to get rid of the body shell!

Rusty old doner in pieces

So I won the doner!
Payed almost double what I expected to pay for it but hey it's worth it! 4000 miles on the Engine (need to verify that) and most parts look ok, or will clean up nicely!
Anyway, thanks to Alan (An owner and club member) offered to help me out!



We picked up a trailer and collected the Mini!
My daughter came along too and bless she help us to load it on the trailer!
It was a long day, and I think she was grateful not to go with me and Alan to take the trailer back and pick up my car!



Anyway, on the way back we managed to pick up a 2 foot steel rod in one of the rear tyres (I dunno how either!) this prompted frenzied action to get the 4x4 off the road before the tyre went flat!
That would have been an absolute nightmare!




My next entry will be on deconstruction and I hope to be able to throw in a few piccies too!

Finding a Donor!

So, I messed about making a workbench and faffed about looking through magazines and it was finally time to bite the bullet!
I started by getting in touch with the owners club and thankfully a local member got in touch and invited me over to see his and another members buggies, it was great to meet them and see the buggies. It got me hooked!
So I seriously got looking out for a donor vehicle. Ebay was my last hope since all the usual places were showing up nothing!
I eventually found a Metro, and thought I could use that as a donor, but there was a bidding frenzy and it went for way over my maximum!
So back to square one, I gave up with Ebay and decided to get in touch with "Funbuggy Dave" the owner and manufacturer of the Freestyle buggy!
He was very nice an gave me the confidence to build a car even if it was from parts and I committed on the spot to buy the buggy space frame on the spot!
A couple of days later and a coupl eof phone calls and I was bidding on a new donor and sent off a deposit!

Playing Catchup

Ok, so I should've started this Blog a couple of weeks ago! Since I'm writing this a couple of weeks behind and playing catchup! anyway, read on...

So I have decided to begin building a Freestyle and whilst looking for a suitable donor, I thought it might be prudent to mention to my Grandmother that I intend storing a battered mini on her drive and building a car in her garage!

Phew! She has no problems with it!

Instead of placing my order, I decided the best way to begin would be to build a workbench!

I bought some wood, and my Daughter and I both began to build it!

It's now sitting in the back of the Garage and has no vice and indeed, no worktop!

That was 3 weeks ago, it's still there, no worktop!