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Old 2nd March 2013, 18:35
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tlrtone tlrtone is offline
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Went down to see Mike at Miglia today and saw the first kit roll off the production line.....




I didn't fully appreciate the amount of work that has gone into this. The dashboard is actually part of the body ...



The door shuts are finished nicely, and the doors are pretty weighty items that should close with a nice thud! Even the bolt holes for early mini door hinges are moulded in so you can't drill then wrong! Nice attention to detail.




Another little "feature" is that the frame bolts to the chassis, and then the body is mounted, like the Sammio/Ribble kits, but this time, the body has mounting points so you can't get it misaligned.. nice! No more faffing with the bonnet gaps and door gaps this time!






Also, I didn't appreciate that the front end is significantly longer than the Sammio I built, meaning that the front bumper corners on the chassis won't need to 'fall off', and there is lots of room to put a choice of radiator and mountings in there.



And because the body is one piece, the frame comes right to the front and adds additional support. No more bonnet flexing or adding in additional strengthening. I am hoping for a quick build so all this helps a lot, having gone through the long-winded sammio route first time.

Oh, and you get a front bulkhead as well and this is set back from where the original is so you get around 8-10" extra room at the front in the engine bay - ideal for my BMW servo I have planned. The flat bits at the font cover the front outriggers, and is where I will be mounting the battery so it is accessible, but out of the way, again no more worrying about a lowered battery tray!




So really impressed with the set up - even the jig for making the frames is a work of art!



And here's the next kit underway...(hopefully mine )







So all in all I can't wait to get mine started now!

Last edited by tlrtone; 4th March 2013 at 16:15.. Reason: repaired broken links to pictures. oops.
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