1966 Mini Van (the rustiest one yet)

[harrymini]

On a bit of a whim, i placed a bid on a mini van ending on Ebay. Knew it was going to be pretty rough, but didnt expect to have to replace the whole bulkhead/ cross member. Anyway i will let the pictures do the talking:

How it arrived:



I cut the bulkhead off from the tops of the A pillars as there was no structure holding anything together:



Bit of pulling, squaring up and some bracing, made it look a little better:






Cut out what was left of the old subframe:



Did some paint stripping this morning on it:







It is the rustiest car i have taken on to date, but except for the bulkhead and cross member replacement it is no different than any other early mini i have done.

Planning on doing with magnums new bulkhead and cross member, a heritage full front scuttle and outer pillar section and then a bunch of bits from m-machine and hertitage.

[Hipwell]

Wow great project to tackle, best of luck.

[Andrew1967]

Thats brave Harry, but I’m sure you can do it

Keep up updated with the progress .

[wantafaster1]

I'm going to follow this with interest.
I have an outwardly good spare shell that needs a bulkhead because the sound deadening has rotted it out.

[harrymini]

Thanks everyone.

Wantafaster- This is the bulkhead i am planning on using along with their crossmember:

http://magnumclassicminipanels.co.uk/mi ... ginal.html

Owens fabrication use them so they cant be too bad. Big fan of his teams work.

[GraemeC]

What did you strip the paint with - that's come off nicely for just a morning's work!

[harrymini]

Graeme: I usually use Starchem Synthstrip with good results, but because i had ran out did some research on some sprayers groups im on and heard about Langlow stripper, both a pretty similar product.

Did it probably in an unadvised way, put some on last night, left it. scraped it off in the morning. Did a second coat after that and when soft, wire wheeled it off with a 120mm wire cup on a grinder. Really messy, was wearing goggles, face shield, ear plugs and a 3m vapor mask.

Finally i want over it with a 60 grit Da sander.

Not a nice job, but effective. Also helps I only have half a car to strip

I am going to bare metal the interior but i will wait till its on the 360 jig and the load floor is out to do that.

[mini_surfari]

makes mine look a walk in the park!

Best of luck with this!

[harrymini]

A small video of how it arrived in the garage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCY88dZE3RU

[kevs 1961 mk1]

brilliant project my mk1 was in similar state, keep the pics coming

[harrymini]

Got a pair of doors together for the van, as usual needed bottoms and a skin on each. Loads of sanding to bare metal on the frames.

Mixed up some 2k paint and applied it just by a brush to anywhere where you have metal on metal to protect it.






Ideal only having half a van as you have loads of space in the workshop!



Drivers door in place, used 3mm spacers to set the gap off the quarter and used a laser line to set the swage line so it is dead straight though the car.





Put a large order in with m-machine and done a small somerford order so some more updates should be appearing soon!

[Southwest]

That's a fantastic workshop.. van and workshop envy!
Great project to follow.

[GraemeC]

Van, workshop and skills envy!

If you fancy another to do after you've finished this one.......

[Pandora]

Makes mine look like a walk in the park!

I wonder if it'll turn out easier to fit the door frames to the door than the other way round!

you're a brave fella, but with a load of new panels it looks like it'll be a cracking job

Al

[Peter Laidler]

Like Pandora man says, that's a bluddy good idea to fit the door frames to the doors than vice verca. Is that deep green going to be the finished colour, like the old GPO Telephones vans. What's the old drum braked bike? ExWD BSA?

[harrymini]

Yes possibly, i have loads of clamps and clecos so i could do either.

I wont be spot welding anything till the car has most of the components on it.

Peter, the bike is indeed a Royal enfield. More of a modern one, but being made to look old (ish). Has a rear hard tail frame section courtesy of Craig Jones (Doghouse customs) Not at all far off, struggling on colours, but going towards keeping the olive drab sort of colour.



The deep green is only for protection it will be going willow green eventually.

Also did the passenger side this afternoon and test fitted the windscreen surround:





Obviously will be messing with gaps will just keep playing around with it now till everything starts fitting nice.

[roger mcnab]

hi
every shed should have at least 1 bike in it i have 3 to help spread the frustration but a bit of diversion helps with the insanity
cheers roger mcnab

[rolesyboy]

Brave project but I love it.
Looks nearly finished now you've hovered the doors in place lol
Great looking workshop. Got to ask what's the big fan and ducting on the last picture?

Got a pair of doors together for the van, as usual needed bottoms and a skin on each. Loads of sanding to bare metal on the frames.

Mixed up some 2k paint and applied it just by a brush to anywhere where you have metal on metal to protect it.






Ideal only having half a van as you have loads of space in the workshop!



Drivers door in place, used 3mm spacers to set the gap off the quarter and used a laser line to set the swage line so it is dead straight though the car.





Put a large order in with m-machine and done a small somerford order so some more updates should be appearing soon!

[harrymini]

Thanks, the fan is a weld extraction system from Nedermann. Do a fair amount of contracted welding projects either structural or decorative, so i invest in a few bits every year.

[harrymini]

Been working on the rear doors, pretty happy with them, took some fettling and im still going to work on them gapping up better when the seals arrive.

Cut the old skin off:




I used a replacement panel and did the join on the fold line to minimise distortion:



Tacked it in then smoothed off:




Refitted (ignore the handle )





I carefully removed the old roof vent stiffener and refitted the new vent, just with rivets for now:




Stripped the interior panel work back to bare metal:



Thats all for this week im just going to keep neatening it up as much as possible before i collect the main panels.