Austin Mini

One of the benefits of a northern winter is that there's no real distraction from projects. Still a long way to go, but here are some photos of progress so far.

I picked up a couple of series wound motors cheap on ebay, so had to find something to do with them. I shortened them to fit across the mini subframe, so they no longer have the internal fans. They'll be blower cooled instead. I also advanced them 8 degrees as they'll be run at around 120V each, in series, so 240V total. I may try running them in parallel, just to see what difference this makes in steering feel.

The new Soliton Junior controller seems just about ideal at 300+ volts and 600A peak. I'll leave the decision on batteries until the very last, as I made the mistake of buying them first on my last project, and the technology is improving fast.

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Niiiiiice!

That is awesome! Well done! Very professional and it looks like it's going to turn out well

way cool, gonna be classic. your wifey will kill you if she sees that front end in the kitchen. very nice work.

Is that a whole glass fibre shell? That, or someone's done a lovely job of de-seaming.

Either way - COOL! 8)

Thanks for the kind words.

dnmun: yes, my wife was away for the weekend and the light in the kitchen was much better for painting I'm lucky though, she's very tolerant of all my projects.

Jenny: it's a Domino mini shell, all fibreglass. They aren't in production any more, but I believe the Mini Minus shells are being produced again. I don't think it's any lighter than a steel shell, as it has quite a heavy layup, but the real appeal is not worrying about it turning into iron oxide overnight.

amzaing! a true classic! well done!

I don't know about liposuction, but I could definitely use a lipo infusion.

I've just started working on this after a long break. Just dropped the original engine and subframe and I've got a few mates coming round to help me lift the shell off and roll her back. She'll get a good scrub down and then the transplant will begin. Can't afford the controller and battery pack yet, so I'm going to borrow the Alltrax 7245 from my motorbike and load up the boot with some Hawker Odysseys so I can get her on the road. Estimated range will be about 6 miles

Following a bit of advice from Jozzer I plan to try series/parallel switching to get the most from the controller and see how the motors share the load.

Hi Malcom

I have a 350 amp curtis controller 48v brushed pot box and all solenoids wiring built in a steel box. if you need them i am only 15 miles from you, they may help you. they were out of a 2 ton electric grass cutter. I was going to use them on the trike but that is not going to happen, i was nealy sqashed as car drivers dont see you. Now i have a bit of time again i am going to start building a frame for a futuristic bike.

Paul

Hi Paul

Thanks for the offer, but I recently got hold of a 80V/600A forklift controller that will do for initial testing. I know someone local who may be interested in the Curtis controller though. I'll pass the information on.

I gave up on the idea of building a small trike for the same reason a while ago and ended up doing a bike conversion instead. I'll be interested to see your frame.

Cheers
Malcolm