Factory jigs?

[NicholasUpton]

I am trying to collect picture of any of the factory jigs. Everything from the ones used to build the body/ sub assemblies, to the carts that held sub frames while the body was dropped on.

Thanks for any help

[Tim]

These are good, they show a few different jigs, unfortunately the images are grainy and low resolution.

Building the Baby Austin 7 Part1 and Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkTDCOQB-rg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3jcIBPmYpY

My favourite is the machine that comes down and torques up all the head nuts at once, and the rotodip stuff is interesting.

Tim

[mab01uk]

Didn't most of them go to BMH at the end of production?
They do Factory tours, see link below.......but not sure if visitors photos are allowed.
http://www.bmh-ltd.com/

[Smiffy]

As above but back in 2005 they where all still outside.........

MITP 2005 93.jpg

[IAIN]

The link that mab01uk has posted, if you click on, and down load the mini parts guide, then scrole down you will see the shell jigs.

[guru_1071]

As above but back in 2005 they where all still outside.........

MITP 2005 93.jpg

they are not jigs, they are the press tools for stamping out body panels

[Smiffy]

Pretty sure there was a few jigs in that lot, definitely one similar the one I've seen at MiniMachine. Which I believe is a body straightening jig.

[NicholasUpton]

Thanks guys, I have a small restoration shop rebuilding Mini's here in the USA and want to copy a factory body jig to fix/ rebuild the body-shells Currently just going off the measurement given on this site, but wanting to know if any other points were used when building the bodies.

[NicholasUpton]

Does anyone have a picture of the front or rear sub assembly jigs? The ones used to assemble the the complete front and rear sections that went over to the final body jig.

[mk1]

This is an interesting challenge.

I suspect that photos of the sort of tooling you are looking for are few & far between to say the least, I for one have not ever seen any in 30 odd years of passing interest. BMC / BL / Rover were always very ticklish about letting people take pictures in their factories & production lines & would have been unlikely to have recorded a lot of this tooling themselves, apart from in original tech drawings.

As I am sure you can tell, the jigs used by BMH are mainly flexi jigs that can be re set to any configuration, this no doubt explains the shockingly bad panel gaps on a lot of the shells they produce

As far as front & rear end jigging is concerned, the best bet would be to make your own with a good square subframe as a basis & whatever other reference points you prefer hanging off it. The shell dims given in the technical section are the ones that were used as a bisis for all shells from the early days.

I would be interested to see what you come up with.

Good luck,

M

[Milo]

The way they claim that the cars were rust protected is interesting, as mine seems to have missed out.
The floor area paint,inside and underneath can be scrapped off with my fingernail and there is no evidence of any undercoat or protection under the 1 coat of paint sprayed at a distance.Perhaps I'VE got a Friday car.

[NicholasUpton]

I already have a factory style spotwelder (25 inch reach & 400+ lbs between the tips makes class A spotwelds). The next two big projects are a Wolsey Hornet, and Mini Pickup that both need over 40 panels each. Plan is to build a factory style jig to build the sub assembly's then assemble the complete lower section on a body jig and finally set what is left of the original car on over the top.

[mk1]

This is definitely the best way to proceed if you a) Have the space & b) can expect to do a few. Sadly for most of us garage dwellers the opportunity of building proper fixtures is not an option.

M

[NicholasUpton]

Here is what I have come up with so far. I am using uprights in the front to pick up factory jig holes in the inner fenders. Good thing I have lots of mini shells around to compare measurements on as the factory drawings are incorrect. The front jig is built to accept both twin bolt and single bolt subframes with just a change in spacer. I did find out that the rear subframe points are identical in elevation from a MK1-3 and LWB cars, and the front shock mounts were installed where ever the tech felt like that day (measurements off of 6 cars)

[NicholasUpton]

A little bit of progress. Also need to know the original length of the load-floor front stiffener panel the origional was hack out years ago.

Will have more pictures on my facebook page/ website soon.

http://www.boot2bonnet.com
https://www.facebook.com/Boot2BonnetRestoration

[InimiaD]

Now that's what I call a spot welder.
By the looks of it you're building the pick up from scratch. Nice work.

[NicholasUpton]

I have to admit the spotwelder is quite the luxury, as I spend more time correcting aftermarket panels then welding them together. So far I have been able to reach everything except the handbrake mount

[NicholasUpton]

Pickup is now completed, see my website for a complete photo set of the bodyshell rebuild http://www.boot2bonnet.com

[mk1]

Excellent work!

You could teach Heritage a thing or two about assembling Mini shells.

M

[minicentie]

I wonder when someone will produce proper panels.
After 8 different front wings from the heritage ,i found an old stock which fitted perctly.
The heritage stuff is smashed in the mould and the head ligth rings,are mislined some cm's.
I wonder if there is any quality control??????