Mk1 shell

[mini_surfari]

Mistake from all people M Machine , no battery cable on the floor pan and no tank support on the left side boot floor . also no captive nut .

Do M machine usually supply all of that? Heritage ones come bare other battery box.

[Peter Laidler]

Luckily, both Mini-Surfari and Swifty are gifted with the ability to work wonders with your panels as good tinnies. And that includes a bit of rectification and adding the odds and sods.

Great work from both of you over the years I say

[swifty]

Yes M Machine use a heritage boot floor and add there little mods to it .

[swifty]

So today I welded in one of Gordon’s boot floor panels , rubbed the boot floor down and clamped it up . Tomorrow rear panel

[68Deluxe]

Some gorgeous metalwork there!

[swifty]

I was going to fit the bottom half of a rear panel but I didn’t like the pressing around the lamp areas and other swage lines , so decided to fit a lower repair panel that ive had in stock for years . I may swage the joint as this gives me a bit more room for alignment.

[swifty]

Next stage rear panel preparation. Paint stripper and DA sander . Align up lower repair panel with boot floor and. I won’t weld yet as I need to try on a boot lid . Trouble is there’s a scaffold pole in the way ! .

[swifty]

Had to take the shell off the spit to check the bootlid gap . All ok so I can crack on with some welding now .

[mini_surfari]

Will you leave that panel joggled? Or will you cut and butt weld it?

[swifty]

I will leave it joggled . The metal can get a bit thin sometimes with a but weld that’s ground off . Plus it’s got the boot lid hinging from it . I will see if I can get a decent picture of the rear tomorrow.

[swifty]

Rear panel welded

[swifty]

So swapping work to the front of the shell as I need to start welding the floor pan . So I’ve levelled the shell and dropped several plumb lines and marked the floor . Diagonally it all measures up ok , so next welding the front of the floor to the toe board .

[Peter Laidler]

That's exactly what I did on my shell with measurements and plumb lines, taken from the workshop manual. except my shell was astride 2x 6' fold-up tables, sat on a sheet of shuttering ply.

So far as I recall, using that method and a slave rear subframe only one drop line was slightly out of true.

GREAT work Swifty and a pleasure to watch your progress

[swifty]

Thanks Pete . .. plug weld on the floor pan . Also showing the underneath weld penetration. I’ve seen lots of bad welding over the years with people just filling in the hole . When I can get the spot welder in there I will add a few spot welds for a bit of detail . I was going to replace the quarters but it’s looking like I can save them with just a repair panel let in . Stripping the paint has revealed some earlier repairs .

[Peter Laidler]

That polyfilla on the rear sides looks horrendous. Interesting to see what is behind the stuff....., and at the bottoms

[swifty]

Not to much done today . Just a little patch