The Spare Tire

Hopefully if you are reading this you have had the opportunity to take a slow gazing walk around a Mini Mark? The lines are so smooth, flowing and stylish, that is until you get to the rear of the car and the engine cover. The rear bumper is swept out in the center, and it looks like there should be a continental tire mounted there. The engine cover is even rounded in the shape of a tire.

There are two spare tires, one on each side tucked in the running boards. I made an early on decision during the rebuild to eliminate the running board spares, I just didn't like the way they looked, they broke the flowing lines of the fenders. The more I looked at the car, the engine cover needed a completed look of a continental tire. I took some measurements and tried to match it to a 12 inch or 13 inch tire. Both seemed a bit too big and the weight factor of a wheel and tire combination when you have to open the engine cover could pose a problem. I researched continental kits and the ones I could find were for the back of custom vans, way too big for the Mini Mark.


That wasn't stopping my vision of putting a continental tire there. Why couldn't I make a lightweight spare? I could get the size that I wanted to match the circle that was there from the factory, and make it light enough to still raise the engine cover. I picked up some 1-1/2" thick Owen's Pink
Styrofoam and cut two 24" squares. I then cut a piece of 1/2" birch plywood and made a sandwich with Gorilla Glue to hold it all together. Clamping it overnight and cutting the exterior in a circle  then cutting out the interior. Shaping the "donut" to look like a tire, building a mounting pad out of 1/2" plywood, and then coating the styrofoam with wood glue, I was finally able to start the fiberglass layup of a tire. While I was doing all of this I was able to find a 13" NOS wire wheel cover to match the 14" set I had put on the car, and I made the inside of my "tire" to accept that 13" wheel cover. Layers of fiberglass, resin, sanding and finally it was complete. I knew there would be a bit of a clearance problem opening the engine cover when the tire was in place, so I had engineered two stainless drawer slides to mount the tire to the engine cover. This allowed me to raise the tire assembly to clear the rear bumper when opening the engine cover, and slide it back down in a neat package with the cover closed. Some additional sanding before a few coats of black paint and then off to get a black vinyl tire cover made to complete the look. Even unpainted this was the look that I was envisioning, it completed and took away the unfinished appearance of the engine cover.



SUCCESS! As you can see from the picture to the side the spare tire cover is complete and the tire is now in place. It didn't take long, two days of patterns, cutting, sewing and finished. It is the look I originally envisioned and it didn't take three months to finish. The next step will be the carpet- patterns, cut and fit, inch by inch getting it all into place.