Manky's Pop.

[Manky Monkey]

With the door shut it becomes more obvious, (though not from this angle), that the body's "channelled" a couple of inches over the chassis. When the floor's fitted, there'll be a small step up from the outside sill level to the inside floor.
PantherShaun's used the orignal Pop chassis in his pick-up build, which doesn't have the deep "Z" at either end of the cab like ours does. In order to sit the cab as low to the ground as ours, he's had to channel it much further, resulting in a far bigger step up to floor level, so much reduced headroom, although he has an identical 3" roofchop. The avantage of designing our own new chassis.

[poprodder]

thats looking good, looks nice out in daylight with space around it.
the tops of my cills are nearly level with bottom of chassis!!!

[Manky Monkey]

Would be interesting to get them all together to compare notes.

[Manky Monkey]

This afternoon's playtime in the workshop resulted in me slicing the driver's side outrigger off & re-setting it flush with the rest of the floor cross members. Worth doing cos it would've irritated me if I'd left it. With that one sorted, I welded the passenger side one in too. It's getting harder to clamber about inside the cab as we fit more cross members -keep getting my feet trapped & falling through the gaps in the chassis.
I tack-welded the body to the new outriggers, then cut out the lightweight tubular braces that have been supporting the bodywork. It should've all stayed put, but somewhere along the line something's shifted & the driver's door's dropped a little. No big deal. The door's sitting on temporary hinge pins made from 6mm bolts, with loads of movement in them, so no point worrying about door gaps till things are a bit more finalised

[Manky Monkey]

Now the bracing's gone I can put the seats in their intended position, almost touching the back of the cab.
We rescued a seat runner from an old Peugeot hatchback, thinking it had both forward & backward & up & down adjustment. On closer inspection though, it turned out to be just back & forth sliding, with a hinge to allow the seat to be tipped forward for access to the rear hatchback seats. No use to us in a pick-up cab, so I might just buy new sliders from one of the kitcar suppliers.
I'm starting to seriously think about re-upholstering the seats.
Mike Simms, the local upholsterer did a lovely job on the bases, but with the seats sat at ride height on some off-cuts of 4 or 5 inch box section, they feel kinda unsupportive. Whiff, an auto upholsterer of the Surrey Street Rodders recently pointed out that the front edge of the bases needs to be raised to support the backs of your legs. Otherwise you end up with back-ache from constantly holding your body in tension. I'm thinking of getting Mike to add a 5 inch wedge to the front edge & a thin layer of foam to the seat backs, before recovering them in plain black leather with narrow pleated tuck n roll. Maybe.

 

[Manky Monkey]

Loony & I have been building this project together from the start, with more or less equal input of ideas. His trade insurance will cover him to go cruising in the Pop when it's done, so we need to make it comfy for both of us to drive. He's a couple of inches taller than me so with the seat the right height for me, he has a limited view through the chopped screen.
I'm wondering if we could set the seat up low enough to be right for Loony, then add a thick MDF "booster" under the upholstered base to raise the ride height for me.

[twolanes]

sure is getting there mate.

[gsxrsam]

ford explorer seats have up/down, tilt,slide, all electric, are super comfy and stinky cheap to buy. 

sam.

[poprodder]

ford explorer seats have up/down, tilt,slide, all electric, are super comfy and stinky cheap to buy. 

sam.

if you fitted them there'd be no where to sit!!!!     lol

[Manky Monkey]

Nice idea but electrically adjustable seats ain't quite the basic, stripped down hotrod image we're going for!

[NeilG]

Andy what about early mini runners,i'm sure they had a adjuster to raise them slightly?.You could just use the ratchet bit.
I should know being we have the Hornet 
If you're going Sunday to Wykedown we should have it there if you want to have a look.

[Manky Monkey]

The Picket Piece classic show? Yup, I should be there, (Taz is away, working at a horse event for the weekend). I was going to order some from Europa Spares, (kitcar parts people), but will shop around Ebay & the Mini parts places first. Thanks Neil.

[NeilG]

Only pic i can find Andy,you can see the seat lever,might be able to use it some how to raise seat.Has about 3 settings to move seat.
More work 

[Manky Monkey]

Had a quick look on various Mini spares sites, but no-one seems to be selling the runners seperately. I can buy them new from Europa Spares but they're 35 quid per seat.

[voodoo]

There is a mini specialist in Amesbury that do anything from a rebuild to a full rally car...I can nip in there and ask if they have a coule of sets of runners if you want?......oh and we are going on Sunday too....Voodoo...