1966 Mini Van (the rustiest one yet)

[solomorris]

Great job and a lot of perseverance
Congratulations keep going on the right track

[Peter Laidler]

When I have painted wheels before I have hung them from a roof beam with a bit of string attached to a piece of wood set in the inner wheel well. Spin the wheel and remain in the same place while holding the gun and let the wheel spin and slowly slow down. Great even finish all over outside and in the tyre well too. Did the insides when outsides fully dry.

[harrymini]

Went and collected some panels today, still waiting on the full floor, load bed and crossmember which unfortunately means these panels cannot be fitted to anything until the big items come, but will be stripped and have weld though primer applied ready for when they do come.

[mini_surfari]

Harry,

If you put those heritage arches in with an m machine floor, you may find you have some quite big gaps, took me some serious pulling and fettling to get them closed up.

Apparently the Vans/ pick ups had wider, longer and taller arches...

[harrymini]

Mini-surfari

I have heard this before, my arches on the van are strangely quite solid so i may compare and decide on what is the best to use at the time.

[coopersean]

Think this is the van type : https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/254949498430 ... Sw8A1d1Z7c

[harrymini]

Well, i finally have a proper update, i bought some RSJ beams to make a jig for mounting the shells onto, to hopefully make it quicker in the future (as i seem to still have a load of shells to do)

Got it all tacked together, and measured corner to corner and it was MM perfect, so clamped it up and moving around slowly welded the whole thing.



My poor evo saw did some big cuts:



Cut some thick spreader plates for the castors:





Bolted the castors in:



Prepped and masked up:



Got it sprayed up, my rooms is all red now, but i am very lucky to have the space so were building a spray booth and blast bay at the moment, so my fabrication area should be paint free:



My plan now is to get this van squared up on subframes (and measure lots) and then start making the metal mounting points that will bolt to the jig.



I got the chance to collect my M-machine / minispares order so managed to get some clamping up done:






So hopefully by the time the pickup gets done i can have some solid mounts on the jig where i know the points are square and speed the process up. The front will be all fixed in place but i will have two bolting locations for the van/ pickup length and then saloon length. The floor will not just be resting on the jig as seen in photos, this will all change.

[Fanfaniracing]

If i remember right, there are drawings in the workshop manual with all the correct measurements how the Subframes should be aligned on the jig.

Can take a picture tomorrow if it helps? (And if i don't forget...)

[harrymini]

I have seen this drawing also, another look would be good.

[kit of bits]

Looking excellent, that’s a lot of hard work going on..
D

[Peter Laidler]

I did mine in a similar way to Harry except that instead of a steel frame on rollers like Harry, I bolted 2x 6 foot tables together. Wish I'd been able to roll it around though!!!!!. I used the drawing from the workshop manual and accurately set up the sub frames and built up the floor/body around it.

[roger mcnab]

hi
well the ultimate jig i have seen is the one nik blackhurst made for project binky it is amazing every mini restorer should have access to one
but it would cost a arm and a leg
cheers roger mcnab

[harrymini]

Thanks for the replies, another update:

I am trying to get as many panels clamped / cleco pinned / screwed in place as i can before everything gets taken off, areas where there will be welding, blasted and primed:











As expected, the rear arches need fettling to fit, but not a huge job:



The pillars that hold the rear doors on are basically floating, so i will make a good door gap then build the bottom of the pillars and weld to the load floor:



Pretty happy with progress, just going to spend a while now improving fit up and gaps of everything. Surprisingly there are not alot of screws or clamps in the inner wing/ crossmember / bulkhead and toe board to floor and everything is sat there nice.

[kevs 1961 mk1]

sterling work and excellent progress ,coming together well now and in such a short timeframe well done mate , il need to get back on with my mk1 shortly , panel gaps take some time to perfect very fiddly but well worth it

[mini_surfari]

That’s some serious speed! Makes my efforts look terrible

[AndyPen]

Great pics too by the way - easy to follow progress wise

[Costafortune]

Will the shell be welded together and in primer before Xmas?

I bet it will.

[harrymini]

Will the shell be welded together and in primer before Xmas?

I bet it will.

Maybe sooner

[Costafortune]

MOT May 1st 2022?

My first car was a Mark II 998 Mini Van so I do like them.

[Andrew1967]

Brilliant and inspiring work there Harry