Mhuffy The Traveller.

[InimiaD]

Mhuffy is a late Mk1 Morris Mini Traveller which was given to me by a good mate mate.
It wasn't entirely free though and a few Mini related items were handed over during the swop.

Pics of when my mate collected it.







When I got it it was minus it's front wings 60% of the trim no engine MK4 front subby etc etc.
My other mate has a recovery truck so he was duly employed to move it to its new home where the panels list was drawn up.
This was not going to be an easy resto. The amount of rot in the rear subby mounting panel and surrounding area was frightening. When the rear subby was removed, when grabbing / lifting the rear of the woody the area around the rear bin / wheelarch was actually flexing very badly. Ho Hum
First job was to strip all the paint off it, what paint there was. 1 coat of primer and probably 1 top coat.
Then gave it a coat of Unidox Zinc primer. I knew I wouldn't be rushing the resto due to work etc.





Decided the next move was to stiffen up the rear door aperature. Had to tin bash my own repairs to the bottom of the rear door pillars.





Dry fitted a new tank whilst I was in that area.







With the back end stiffened up it was time to tackle the rear window runners / channels.











When both sides were repaired I made a bracket to hang a scaffold tube off so I could get it on the spit.





Easy access to the underside so it was out with the Zipwheel.

[Matty]

That looks like it will keep you busy for a while!

Looking good so far though.

[tomkidd]

Looking good! As Matty said, should keep you busy for a while... ps that Rover SD1 looks bright!

[InimiaD]

Thanks guys, and yes, that SD1 is bright, or should I say, was bright.
The plan with this Woody is to have a rot free, fun, useable everyday car with a few modern (sic) touches while trying to keep it reasonably original to look at and any mods could be easily reversed. (famous last words ).
Check out the rot in the rear wheel arch, heelboard, floor areas.











The left hand companion bin had a homemade piece of box section welded in as a repair and that to had practically rotted away. Ah well, I wasn't in a hurry to finish the resto.

[JC T ONE]

Well done good of you to save this little "woodie"

keep up the good work (and pics coming)

[guru_1071]

i wonder if anyone has ever stripped an old well used mini and been surprised at the lack of ro?t.........

when ever i strip cars it seems to be a constant stream of 'oh for fu*ks sake......'

looks a good project!

[InimiaD]

i wonder if anyone has ever stripped an old well used mini and been surprised at the lack of ro?t.........

when ever i strip cars it seems to be a constant stream of 'oh for fu*ks sake......'

looks a good project!

The phrase "Rose tinted spectacles" comes to mind and a lot of classic Mini owners seem to suffer from that syndrome.
I'd rather see another classic back on the road and not being on that slow boat to China to be made into whatever.

Anyway, o/side floorpan replacement.
When I changed the floorpans on my MK2 S when I went to fit the heelboard I encountered problems with it not fitting well over the tunnel. After a lot of head scratching it seems that the tunnel had sprung, ie; opened out. I made a cramp out of angle and lengths of studding welded it to the rear of the tunnel and tightened the "cramp" up. Hey presto, the end of the tunnel closed up enough to get the heelboard in place. PHEW.
So, with that cock up still in my mind I was determined that the same problem would not happen on the Woodys floor surgery.
So I cut some angle to size and welded to the inside of the tunnel.



Old 1/2 floorpan.





Braced ready for the chop.



The offending floor section.



The hole that was ready for filling with fresh steel.



Prepping the areas that were going to be mated together.





The floor insitu.







The seat crossmember wasn't replaced. There was some repair work to do though, pics to follow.

[InimiaD]

A milestone was reached yesterday and a major leap forward in Mhuffys restoration.
I loaded it into a trailer and took it to the sprayer.
Only 13 months late. Ah well, what's the rush.?

[InimiaD]

The seat crossmember was in surprisingly good nick.
Some minor repairs on the lower ends is all that needed doing.











All rustproofed and ready for the floorpan.

[JC T ONE]

Welldone great work .


Jens Christian

[InimiaD]

Thankyou Jens. The L/Hand floorpan replacement was much the same as the R.hand so not much point in showing those pics.
The following pics shows the rebuilding of the n/side rear wheelarch / seat pan and surrounding area.
I was going to replace the whole arch assembly, but all the replacements including heritage were of a thinner gauge steel.
Did the Mini Van / estates have thicker steel in the inner section.
This part of the job was made all the more difficult because there was so much rot in so many different panels so a lot of any reference points had gone.

What I started with.



Inside.



The boot area before tin bashing commenced. Looks harmless enough.





Line up the new M Machine panel.
I gave up trying to fit it in one piece so had to do it in stages.

[IAIN]

[quote="InimiaD"]Thanks guys, and yes, that SD1 is bright, or should I say, was bright.
The plan with this Woody is to have a rot free, fun, useable everyday car with a few modern (sic) touches while trying to keep it reasonably original to look at and any mods could be easily reversed. (famous last words ).

Thats what I have done with my woody. ie modernised but with standard looks. Its great to have that little extra power and better brakes and no one expects it.
Last summer we came out from a show following a triumph spitfire. After winding through the small roads, got to the motorway still following the spitfire sitting at about 50 mph, I pulled out and sailed past it over the limit he looked a bit surprised. Great fun.

Well done in getting to this stage. At times it must have seemed like it would never end.

[InimiaD]

That's the way to do it.
Carrying on from the last update.

Repair section for the back of the companion bin where it meets the, ahem, wheelarch.



wheelarch repair.





Wheelarch meets companion bin repair.



Inner wheelarch repair.



Nearly there.



Seat base end repair.

[dhenry]

you are truly mad. this car barely still existed before you started. I think there is more car missing due to rust than there is car left. I much braver man than I. bravo, and really nice looking work. You seem to have a good eye for detail.

[InimiaD]

Ha Ha, Yep, guilty as charged Daniel. Mad as the proverbial box of frogs.

More wheel arch repairs etc.











That's the bulk of the rear n/side wheelarch finished. Only the top to repair / rebuild.

[vulcanbb18]

That is a truly amazing repair, in Oz that shell would have been stripped of anything useful and sent to the crushers!

Cheers

Jacob

[chris-pilling]

nice bit of fabrication there!

[Tim]

That is a truly amazing repair, in Oz that shell would have been stripped of anything useful and sent to the crushers!

Maybe, but it is a Traveller so is much rarer than a sedan.

Tim

[36inter]

Can I ask what you used to form those sections of wheel arch or were they bought in replacements, nice work though. We have a lot of rebuilds going on at the moment on this site and as I cannot start mine in earnest yet it is all good information for future use, keep going men.

Pete

[InimiaD]

Thanks for the kind comments guys.

@ Pete, I formed the arch repairs from a flat sheet of steel. A piece of thick card (template) was cut to the same curve / contour of the piece of arch to be replaced.
The edges were a little bit harder to form but i got round that problem by cutting Vs on the outer edge then bent the arch to the shape I wanted and migged the Vs up.
With a bit more patience the repair could have been a lot neater, but it is certainly passable. (for me)
If the arch was any more rotten then I would have replaced the whole thing with a new one.