MK1 bodge to Cooper replica

[AndyPen]

Patience is indeed a virtue - impressed!!

[Philsa]

Cheers Roger McNab and AndyPen

So I had to move the outer plates of the brace.

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After a bit of straightening and some primer to ensure the rust stays at bay.

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Had to fix where the bonnet hinge brackets go on the rear edge.

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Marked up .... it had moved quite a bit from the original position.

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Then the pesky little hole had to be gone.

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[Philsa]

Inside of bonnet went from this

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To this in about 15 minutes thanks to the South African sun burning a crisp 34 deg Celsius.

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So all clamped up and ready to weld.

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And result.

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[Philsa]

Now onto a job I have been putting off intentionally.
The new floor where it meets the bottom of the toe board.
Spot welded the sides as far as I could, then drilled a 3.2 mm pilot hole and fitted 4.2 mm Tek screws to pull everything together.

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Seam welded the bottom first

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Then plug welded each screw hole as the tek screw was removed.

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Trimmed the excess metal from the flitch repair and welded that too and that means the lh is done now.

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[Philsa]

Deleted a extra hole on the scuttle.

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Deleted the indicator hole in the RH wing.

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Had to patch the toe board with some 2mm metal to finish up the RH floor pan welding.

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After some more work I called it a day.

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[Philsa]

Had to finish sanding the doors down so...

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Result for both items.

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[Philsa]

Removed the front sub-frame since all welding on the nose was completed.
The toe board with all rubberising removed.

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Cleaned up inner trays, toe board and flitch panels and panel wiped them, ready for some primer.

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After some primer.

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[Philsa]

Now the mangled bottom dash was next for some attention.

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Managed to fix some screw holes with the dolly. Made some patch panels.

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Just need the edges bent at the correct angle after some more trimming.

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[Old English White]

Some really great progress on this car

[Philsa]

Thanks Old English White.

So next I fixed the gear selector area, well sort of. Since the other mk1 body has the gear selector hole mangled, I looked at pics online and ended up with this for now, till I cut this hole bigger and to the correct shape.

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RH door step corner getting some attention.

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The LH was much more of a challenge.

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[Philsa]

Made the little strengthening brackets for the wing to A-panels.

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Stripped the rear sub-frame next, but had to fit some items before re-fitment.

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Fuel tank bracket.

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And negative cable mounting point was re-used.
Moved to the front to the radiator shroud, not my best work, but it will work.

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[Philsa]

Moving along, next was the top engine steady bracket.

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And then

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Moved back to rear of the car, got tired of trying to weld, paper thin metal so... the boot floor was cut into again.

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Done.

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[Philsa]

Left these little problem items till now.
Started to ensure thread was still usable.

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Welded captive nut to the back and then back into the sill.

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Rinse and repeat

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Salvaged boot handle bracket and cleaned it up a bit. Installed it.

[Philsa]

These holes on the driver side of the slam panel needed some help

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And done.

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[Old English White]

That's a nice detail SO often overlooked on early cars which have had a replacement front panel fitted

[Peter Laidler]

Re the bracket - see 6th picture down from the top[ Phil. If I was doing that again....., maybe a bit late for you, I would have bolted that bracket in place with pan-head/truss bolts. I welded mine, like you and the bracket slowly cracked along the 90 degree bend. There's a lot of leverage on the weak bend point on that bracket

There is just sufficient room for the nuts and spring washers inside the box section to clear the clutch and brake arms and master cylinder rods.

[Philsa]

Thanks Old English White and Peter for the kind words and good advice.

Well I modified the indicator mountings by removing the holes for the Rover items.

I towed the car to the spraypainter so now the ball is in their court.

I have to build a project 1275 engine (1330cc) that will be going up for sale and thereafter start to look at this build and it's items again. Most probably recon the front sub-frame that I will be using etc.

Cheers

[Philsa]

On with the build then.

I paint removed the front sub-frame.

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After some paint.

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Found a MK1 Left hand tank.

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This was the inside though.

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I rust treated that, so wil see how it turns out.

[Philsa]

Decided to carry on with the engine.

Removed the flywheel and I think the last person that worked on the engine just is clueless.
Oil seal was fitted the wrong way round...

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The ring gear was welded on

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This is how bad it was, getting machined straight.

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Before being re-assembled.

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[Philsa]

Much better

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Fitted a better clutch plate and diaphragm.
Started with the engine that had flaking paint and was soaked in oil.

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Some paint stripped treatment.

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Stripped the ancillaries, fitted old water pump, rocker cover and plugs and masked it up.

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