I never thought it would take so long, but it is finally coming together. On this trip we were able to install the seat belts by cutting out part of the side panels and welding steel boxes in place. Once painted and upholstered, the plastic covering that came on the seat belts will snap into place. The belts came from a new delivery van that I bought that came with rear seat belts, but no rear seat.
I also took the padded dash parts to an upholsterer for renovation. You can see the before and after pictures. I filled all of the cracks and crevices of the bed between the fenders, back wall, and floor with solid foam, and sealed it before painting.
There were lot of details, but now the painting starts.
The paint is Sikkens poliester. 2 liters of base, two liters of top, and two liters of clear. Color: COF, sometimes called BLVC 818, called (from what I can determine) "Signal Red" from 69 to 77, "Flame Red" from 88 to 99, and in some models "Modena Red" in 88 and 89.
The assembly has taken a while, as the front body is a late 1990 or early 1991 Mk V, with a Mini Cooper 1993 engine out of a MkVI. The Mk V brake parts are metric and the rest of the brake fittings are in inches, so I made an adapter for that and another to connect pedals from the left (from the 1975) to the booster on the right, using both pedal support brackets and a steel bar.
The radiator that came with the body was not for this engine configuration, so I adapted the supports to fit, and made an alternator support out of a pieces of a donor frame.
To fit the fuel pump in the tank I had an adaptor plate made.
