1972 Morris Mini Van

[Old English White]

Great progress
Well done!

[Andrew1967]

Looking great Oli, will be a really nice van when done

[Costafortune]

What colour will you paint it? Teal blue always looked nice on these as did Damask red.

[Pandora]

yup, I look forward to the day I make any progress on mine! I have a plan, but only time will tell if it pays off.....

In the mean time, inspiring stuff, keep it up!

Al

[mini_surfari]

Thanks for the all the comments!

I've added a few more pictures I found for the floor replacement.

Costafortune - Colouring in stage we're away off yet, although recently keeping it black has been a thought BUT we'll likely stick to the original plan with for it.

Al, hopefully the thread is of use to you, few plans for this one, guilty of not keeping things standard!

[mini_surfari]

I shall now make a leap to the doors and a panels...

The drivers door was beyond saving, so that will be used just for the window frame, to get better gaps on the current doors.

Both doors received new skins and door bottoms,





Test fit to see how we're looking



A little tight on the a post, but we can sort that as its rotten anyway.



I couldn't find any pictures of this repair complete, but I used a mk4 pillar and tweaked where needed.

In goes a complete inner wing on the drivers side, the passenger side was salvageable though!







Marking out for the welds



Added the bonnet bracket and loom tabs



Job Jobbed





Passenger side done



FE plate added back on,



At some point during this time the door step was repaired too. Cant remember when now

[850man]

Got to love a solid sided Van. I have owned a few over the years and now just have one, a flat roof Austin.
Are you going to try and find an original front panel for it?

[mini_surfari]

Bulk head was rather flakey.



Attacked with the knotted wire wheel, and then coat with BH Deox Gel, and wire brushed again.



80 Grit sand a coat of epoxy



Now on to the front end fitment

The scuttle had the extra holes welded up.




The van had a later front panel fitted originally. Which meant I needed to find a original grille. I'm not a huge fan of the M machine reproductions, its nice that something is available. But they're missing one of the swage lines.





After usual battle with alignment, some screw were put in to hold it all together.

I had to cut and reshape the top of the Passenger inner wing repair panel as it was miles off.





The bonnet will be getting a slice near the head lights to open the gap up a little as its just too tight.



Now it doesn't look too far off here.... BUT we hit a snag, more on that tomorrow.

[mini_surfari]

Got to love a solid sided Van. I have owned a few over the years and now just have one, a flat roof Austin.
Are you going to try and find an original front panel for it?

Certainly did!

[850man]

Got to love a solid sided Van. I have owned a few over the years and now just have one, a flat roof Austin.
Are you going to try and find an original front panel for it?

Certainly did!

Nice work.

[mini_surfari]

Now quite a while back we put a quarter panel in the van...

Here it is tacked in





The drivers side C pillar had also taken a bad knock. Luckily Tupers came up with one from a clubman estate!





All cleaned up and welded in



The rear doors on the Van were so rotten we decided to just get a new pair. Which reminds me, still need to drill the floor for the door lock.



At this stage we were thinking, Happy days, not much left to do. The front door gaps needed tweaking still, and the roof needs repairs. But largely thought we were there, so started testing the fit of parts, windscreen, bumpers etc (save any heart aches post paint).

[mini_surfari]

Now foolishly we didn't sand back all the paint earlier, as it looked original.

However we unearthed this..









Someone in the past has fitted 3/4 of a side into the van, but not removed the original gutter or drip rail. This has resulted in the door frame being too low and too far forward.



Here you can see someones had a go at bashing the door frame back...



But the over lap in the gutters have also caused a rust trap.





B***ER!

A few ideas were thought of how best to repair it, and suggestions were made. However there was only one way I wanted it done, and I think this is the easiest, a new side.... (or rocking horse poo, whichever came first)

Mk1martin and Andrew have come to the rescue here, so a big thank you to them!





So the plan is now, to remove the rear quarter, door step and C post repair we had put in. And put those panels in... ultimately it will be a far better job, so swings and round abouts.

I think that's it for now, I shall try and update this more regularly rather than bombard you all

Cheers!

[Andrew1967]

Going to be a lovely van when finished Oli, impressive stuff

Glad the part door frame has gone to a good home. The missing bit if anyone is wondering was used on my '60 saloon about 25 years ago.

[AustinSevenMkII68]

Great project! Are you keeping the Dolomite steering wheel?

[java gt]

Fair play for going all out with the new side panel,that is going to be some task to get those welds drilled out.Great that you are still forging ahead,I would have hit the sherry after finding that rust so close to the finish line.

[mini_surfari]

Great project! Are you keeping the Dolomite steering wheel?

On the fence about the dolomite wheel. Probably not atm

Whilst we're at a stop until a new plug etc is fitted in the garage for the spot welder. I'll look at getting some other jobs done.

I assume the hole in red shouldn't be there for a 72 car (or if anyone knows what its for). And the one in green I guess should be there, being left from the 5 bolt bumpers?



Are these also the correct number plate brackets? Unsure if all mk3's had these.



Also, got the new drip rails... however they're too short, looks like I'll have to get some saloon ones, and cut them down...



And finally the only bit of progress at the minute, Dug out the headlight rings and gave them a serious polish.

[mini_surfari]

Just while I'm asking a load of questions, someone has cut the thread on the steering column right down, and then started to cross thread it.

I have the inner from a mk4 column, can I use the this?

I was just going to drill and tap the hole for the self canceler grub screw, if anyone happens to know the thread size?



and will the the bottom end of the inner column make any odds? the wider part is slightly longer, but I cant see any reason for this (still got a plastic bush on atm too).



Cheers!

[mini_surfari]

Well the plug has been fitted to run the spot welder, and the shell has been braced... one large gulp and the angle grinder and drill were thrown in to action once again.



The side stay has now been removed, needs some repairs so that'll be done in due course.

Cant rail was also skimmed with filler which broke away when drilling the spot welds out, so that'll be another repair on the list then



Decided to add some slugs to the sill strengthener while we have access.



Also had to remove the catch fixings and weld them on to the new B post.




So this morning we went out and had a play around getting this all lined back up....







Now the Top of the door frame gap is much better, just need to open the top corner a little once its all welded together.





The door skin however is way too tight, but cant move the quarter back any further



The back has also left us with some thinking to do, bearing in mind the new load floor was fitted using the original quarter as a reference (which was wrong). So now we need to find a few mm in a couple of areas. I really don't want to cut this quarter.....

Not bad here,



Not great here, although a cut in the rear door frame should get this back over.



Can be pulled down here a little



But needs lifting here...





Overall I don't think its bad, just need to think about how these areas can be perfected in the easiest way.... can't mess this up as I wont get another panel

Comments, criticism and idea's welcome as always!

[Van13]

When I fitted my rear floor the rear flange where bumpers attach was pointing down like yours I made a jig which fastened to door hinge and used threaded bar to pull it upwards to close that gap than 3 spot welds as the factory did think mm weld it together wrong in that area,

Do you think the roof may have sagged hence it overlapping rather than not sitting on the lower flange my nos van side panel fit like a dream all I had to do was redrill the holes

When you look at the tightness at the top of the door the rear quater wants rotating up or get a porter power on it

Cracking job though

[mini_surfari]

When I fitted my rear floor the rear flange where bumpers attach was pointing down like yours I made a jig which fastened to door hinge and used threaded bar to pull it upwards to close that gap than 3 spot welds as the factory did think mm weld it together wrong in that area,

Do you think the roof may have sagged hence it overlapping rather than not sitting on the lower flange my nos van side panel fit like a dream all I had to do was redrill the holes

When you look at the tightness at the top of the door the rear quater wants rotating up or get a porter power on it

Cracking job though

That’s a good idea with the jig on the rear lip!

Roofs all good, it was braced up so it couldn’t sag (in theory). What we were doing was lining up the front, door frame and sill line first... but obviously there is less give in the back. So spot welded the door frame to the quarter panel, then lifted the back into place (2 of 4 hinge holes line up perfectly. Then the front went into place far easier.

The drivers side actually has a door gap for the first in 40 years id guess

I shall up date over the weekend with some photos