Time lapse full metal Broadspeed GT restoration/transformation

[mk1]

Heritage panels are only marginally better than any of the others. They all need fettling so they fit right.

Luckily, The Doc has more than enough skill to make all these panels fit perfectly.

[Dr.Mabo]

The BMH door skin on the right, however, was the absolute nightmare. Under industrial quality parameters, it would have been an absolute reject. In comparison, the adjustments of the S-swing of the left door skin were almost a piece of cake. On the right-hand door skin, the entire bead below the window channel, in the transition to the curvature, did not fit. It was roughly 5 mm too high. To correct this, you have to do a lot of head scratching , or just throw it away and buy from a manufacturer who can do it right. Returning them to BMH was out of question, as it had been ages since I bought them.

After a lot of back and forth, I decided to have the beading redone. Luckily I was able to do it with my beadroller on hand. After that, everything sat the way it was supposed to. Even the S-curve fit without further adjustment.

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[Daz1968]

Superb progress, I look forward to your Sunday updates, best project I have seen.

[Dr.Mabo]

The door skins have so far only been adjusted, but not yet connected to the door. It is therefore a good idea to make a few modifications to the doors.

With sliding window doors, there is often the problem that during final assembly, which is usually after painting, at the upper hinge the door skin deforms unsightly when it is tightened. This is because it is only supported by the thin door skin. And also the screw runs onto the door skin at an angle. There are beveled aluminum spacers for this, but they tend to twist and don't necessarily fit. So I made an additional stiffening plate that already has the slanted spacer welded on. This allows the forces from the hinge to be better distributed over the door skin.

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Also, the window frame tends to crack at the forward transition to the door frame. This can be easily prevented with a reinforcement piece. I designed it in such a way that the exterior mirrors can also be mounted in it. The small bullet mirrors will go on the Broadspeed. The swiveling radius of these mirrors is often not large enough to be adjusted properly on the passenger side. That's why I angled the mount a bit.

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[jayare]

Nice solutions to both problems and fantastic fabrication skills as always!

JR

[Catmint]

Brilliant Idea's Doc, I can see a few people using these in the future

[UHR850]

O my, it's going on and on with this already famous Broadspeed.

Kees.

[solomorris]

very good
very good
excellent workmanship

[winabbey]

With sliding window doors, there is often the problem that during final assembly, which is usually after painting, at the upper hinge the door skin deforms unsightly when it is tightened. This is because it is only supported by the thin door skin.

In Australia at least and I thought on all Mini doors is a thin flat washer under the beveled spacer on the rearmost fixing of the upper hinge so as to spread the load. The washer was about the thickness of door skin and deformed slightly to take the curved shape of the door, which minimised the problem described by Dr.Mabo.

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[Dr.Mabo]

Thanks for all your lovely and motivational comments I'm really flattered

I also took photos of the door skins being put on, but it's probably not very exciting because I didn't go down any innovative paths here. Therefore, I will refrain from showing it.
One could actually think that the major sheet metal work is now finished. Nothing of the sort . Of course, the Broadspeed should also have an original style dashboard. The original dashboard is completely made of GRP. But after I realized while building the fresh air inlet plenum for the heater, that GRP is not really my material, I decided to build the dashboard out of sheet metal as well.

And this is how it should look like.

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This is an old original photo of the white Broadspeed EOP89D. That's where the journey should go.

I started with the upper glare shield. It is slightly curved across the entire width and has a very gentle radius on the side facing the interior. My goal was to form the glare shield from one piece. So first I had to find something with the right radius for the front edge. While browsing in the hardware store, I found a nice solid water pipe. But when I got home, I had to ask myself how I could bend it evenly over its entire length? In the end I clamped it to my steel beam on the garage roof and hung on to it. Step by step it got the desired bend. Fortunately no photos exsist of that task

Then I could stretch the prepared piece of sheet metal over it and bend it around the pipe. Of course, it took quite a while until I could persuade it to do so. But in the end the clever one gave in . After folding it over, there was a bit too much material in the middle, so I had to shrink it a bit more. Finally, I changed the rolls on my self-made hand beading machine so that I could use it for smoothing.

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[mk1]

I am speechless!

Brilliant update again.

[roger mcnab]

hi doc
that is amazing work steel is a hard medium to work but perserverence ? will win out in the end and it is all looking great
well done
cheers roger

[morris-miner]

I love this threaded, your skills and dedication are second to none.
Would love to see it in the flesh/metal some day.

Congratulations Doc.

[hanlminiman]

As today is the 1st anniversary of entering Lockdown in the UK I would just like to record that this thread has been my favourite lockdown, self distancing visit, without donning a mask other than a virtual welding mask. Keep up the good work and the posts Dr Mabo. Thank you.

[steve1071]

On the subject of door skins I’ve just stripped a CKD South African car and it has these stiffeners on the top hinge that look original,

[mk1]

That looks like a sensible mod!

[66Traveller]

I wonder if it was because quarterlights and winding windows are heavier? Radfords fitted a top hinge reinforcement for that reason.

[hanlminiman]

Just like this Radford

[Dr.Mabo]

That looks like a strong solution.

[hanlminiman]

It was to strengthen the door hinges as the Piper Electric window motors are HEAVY and from much bigger cars like Rolls Royce, Bentley & Aston Martin and made the doors drop.