Next project - ‘62 997 Austin Cooper

[mini_surfari]

Love your repair work!

How do you plan on attacking surface rust that is left?

[Dearg1275]

Surface rust. I’m not sure how I will deal with it yet. Thankfully there is a thick layer of underseal over most of the floor area so not that much to attend to. It will get treated and then get a few thick coats of epoxy primer to seal it before stone-chip. Any recommendations for a good rust inhibitor?

Not much action today as it was bitter early on. Just a bit of bracketry.

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[mini_surfari]

I’ve been thinking about bilt products as a going over once my vans all solid... and then epoxy primering too. Not sure what else to do either!

[Dearg1275]

So as not to let surface rust get too much of a hold I spent the afternoon scraping thick underseal from the underside of the boot floor. Then a wire brush in the angle grinder and finished off with a 3M Clean & Strip wheel. It all came pretty clean with only a little surface rust damage. Good enough to get two coats of epoxy primer on.

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There are still a couple of repairs to finish off in this area and another wheel arch to fit before I can call the back end done.

D

[Dearg1275]

Another day spent in the company of welder and grinder. A seat pan repair. I like to hide the joins where I can so I drill pilot holes to map out where the edge of the rear bulkhead flange is.

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I try to set the edge to miss the spot welds but don’t always get it right. Using a disc cutter I part cut through the floor so as not to catch the bulkhead flange. Then cut from the top side keeping just inside the fold.

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The released section is then waggled out.

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The old section can then be used as a template for the replacement. Fractionally oversize to allow a margin for error.

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Job done. That’s the boot floor sorted.

D

[Dearg1275]

I’m still working at getting g the back end sorted. The rusty rear screen aperture and the parcel shelf. All fiddly stuff.

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Not done with the back end yet but getting closer.

D

[roger mcnab]

seeing allthe trouble you guys have to go to with your minis make me feel blest that the rust in mine is about the size of a a4 sheetwith a bit of scrap left over keep up the good work as i get lots of ideas but one thing escapes me at the moment is running 2 radiators in my mini with the v8 probably easy when i get the wheels on then can see what room is at both ends
cheers roger mcnab

[Dearg1275]

The final bit of welding on the rear panel.

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[Daz1968]

Superb work,

[miniminor]

The final bit of welding on the rear panel.

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D

That's really neat work!

[Charlynsane]

Fantastic work and amazing craftman skills

[Dearg1275]

Thanks for your appreciation.

Quarter panel repair today.

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[Dearg1275]

Final quarter panel repair.

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Yes, there is some distortion but it’s got to be better than it was.

D

[Dearg1275]

Today I fitted the right hand wheel arch. It’s now time to move on to the left hand sill. The door step looked pretty good. I decided to strip it and see what it was like.

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Some rust which polished out but what was it like on the inside?

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Once buffed up not too bad. Good enough to chance it. It’s an easy fix in a completed shell so should it fail it’s no great hassle. A coat of rust arrester with a good layer or two of epoxy tomorrow, then I can get the sills fixed.

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[Coolcat]

I’ve done a bit of metal work myself but must say, you’re a proper and patient craftsman.
Excellent work

[Dearg1275]

I’ve done a bit of metal work myself but must say, you’re a proper and patient craftsman.
Excellent work

Thank you.

D

[Dearg1275]

Today’s efforts focused on getting ready to fit new inner and outer sill on the left. The threads on one of the subframe trunnion mounts was stripped meaning the front subframe mount all had to come apart. I made a jig I use for repairing these. The hole in it is to allow access to weld in a repair. I didn’t need to use it this time.

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Continued.

[Dearg1275]

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All trimmed and ready to add new steel.

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[Peter Laidler]

What surprises me is just how good a lot of the remaining original material is. I can see exactly where you're going in that last batch of pics. Old school craftsmanship

[Dearg1275]

I got off to a slow start today and didn’t get as far on as may be. The inner sill is however in place with some final welding to do. I have got round the issue of not having long spot welding arms by fixing the inner sill closing plate in the companion box with the assembly out of the car. The repaired subframe mount, inner sill and this closing plate go in as a oner.

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It looks like I’m into A panel territory next before the outer sill goes on.

D