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Today I finished of the inner sill and slapped on some Rust Buster epoxy paint where no one will see it. It’s like treacle and goes off quite quickly even if you thin it well.
And the art work.
If anyone can tell me how to take better photos of shiny metal using just an IPad, let me know the trick.

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I think your photos are pretty good!

I also like the sound of the black treacle stuff. Any suggestions as to where to find it?

Mark,

Rustbuster Ltd, Spalding. www.rust.co.uk. Tel 01775630958.

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Dearg1275 wrote:Mark,

Rustbuster Ltd, Spalding. http://www.rust.co.uk. Tel 01775630958.

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Is this the same place you got the rust converter/ treatment from?

Learning loads with this one.

mini_surfari wrote:

Dearg1275 wrote:Mark,

Rustbuster Ltd, Spalding. http://www.rust.co.uk. Tel 01775630958.

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Is this the same place you got the rust converter/ treatment from?

Learning loads with this one.

It’s nothing special. I have always used Hammerite Kurust. You can get it from Halfords (at least you could before they started majoring in bicycles). I just get the steel a clean as I can without removing too much material and wipe it down with solvent and let it dry. This last step helps to ensure you have no moisture left on the surface. Paint it on. It will turn a blueish purple as it does it’s stuff and you can overpaint in a matter of hours.

In truth I think this is more an act of faith,a sort of ritual so that you can tell yourself you have done everything you could short of cutting out the panel and replacing with new metal. I think it far more important to get surface rust off and a good non water permeable primer on as soon as you can.

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Last A panel today, or at least investigating what’s behind and what’s left. The photos are upside down because so is the car. I have little room to work if it’s the right way up.

Outer panel stripped off, doesn’t look promising.
Better than I could have hoped for.
The inner hinge reinforcements were still basically solid so I saved these to give me my hinge locations.
I kept a couple of tabs of flange on the original wing to check alignment.

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The door step cut was made first so that the correct height could be established. I also squared of the corners to better match the original door step. The hinge holes needed filing out a little.

The screen pillar cut came last. I tried clamping up the old and the new and cutting through both in one go. I usually mark the original and then cut and now remember why. With the A pillar being at an angle it’s not predictable how wide the gap will be when cut through in one go. Needless to say it ended wider than I would really want, but as one of my fellow mini restorers says “ no matter, it’s all infinitely adjustable”.

Once I have the outer location fixed by some self tapping screws , I can then remove the inner A panel and mend the bottom edge of the inner wing where it meets the sill. Hopefully it will then all be good to go.

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More A panel progress.
With the inner A panel in place about time to check the door. The car is still up side down.
I’m not going to argue with that. It’s a shame the door skin has blown at the bottom. May be the skin will repair. That all for another week.

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Cracking door fit David.

I'm not jealous at all

Thanks Andrew. It helps hugely that this side was undamaged and unrepaired/restored. Every thing was still where it was supposed to be. It really speaks volumes for the M-Machine outer A panels that with very little adjustment they fit so well. The heritage inner just snugged up beautifully.

This evening, I daubed the black treacle epoxy on all the areas about to disappear from sight. Should be able to crank up the welder tomorrow.

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Having all that un-messed originality certainly would help David and I'd agree that the MiniMachine outer A panels are really good. I'll certainly use them again on any future projects.

I’ve just read this tread from start to its current position, very impressive and difficult work. Very enjoyable to watch this progress and lovely history to. Well done!

Thanks Nev. I’m glad you find it entertaining.

Not a lot of progress to show for this last couple of days. It’s been a case of stitching this last weeks preparatory work together. I alway think it’s going to take less time to get the welds done and it comes as a surprise to be still at it a couple of days later.

One trick I have discovered (probably common knowledge but I’m slow to catch on), when doing plug welds if you grind them straight away while they are still hot it’s much quicker than once cooled. The down side is that you are forever swapping tools.

Every thing behind the A pillars is now done. A lick of primer on the bare metal tomorrow and it can come off the spit. Then I can tackle the front end.
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Why is it that you always forget something? The rear quarter light’s inner waist rail was blown with rust. Again nothing ventured nothing gained, so I decided to try and repair it. Besides that the Heritage ones are £50 plus.
The old spot welded flange cut away.
I was troubling about getting the corner radius right when my eyes fell on a fluted floor off cut from when I fixed the inner sills. The flute bend was perfect and long enough.
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A few tacks and then some slow ginger welding.
It will need some filler or lead but at least no waiting for the postie.



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There were a couple of things still to tackle before the front end. If I didn’t do them now they would most likely get forgotten. The drip rails are pretty sound but for a couple of rust blown patches on the underside. Rather than replace..

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The other little irritation was the stress fracture on above the door catch on the passenger side. Having done the other side this almost seemed routine.
I’m not sure why these fractures were such an issue with the earlier Mk1 shells. I have seen it on later ones but not nearly so often. Was it down to a change of gauge or quality of steel perhaps?

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And by way of some consolation for the fatigued bits, here is some surprising sound metal on a 57 year old car. Bright steel behind the shocker bracket.
The rest of the inner wing is amazing as well. The radiator hole is like that because it was fitted with a Kenlow fan, an early one. That’s going back on, so I just dressed up the previously hacked edges.
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Is the Kenlow fan instead of or as well as the engine driven fan?

roymck wrote:Is the Kenlow fan instead of or as well as the engine driven fan?

It is additional to the standard fan. When I got the car it was simply wired to a switch with a warning light but unless you were pretty deaf I’m sure you would hear it running anyway. I may wire it through a thermostatically controlled switch. I thought to use one of the thermostat housings that has the temperature sender take off (used on early 3 instrument 850s I think). May be with a by-pass /kill switch so you have complete control over it.

I thought the mounting a bit flimsy so will dig it out and see if things can be beefed up a bit.

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hi
just watching your progress makes me feel lazy and that i need to get back onto the mini and leave the unipower project to gather some dust instead
after picking up the rover v8 today for the uni gt and struggling to get it out of the trailer and into the shed i had to get it today as the trailer will have a load of dry mix for concrete as i need to re pier the house and a few of the jobs on the bucket list but for a rest period i will do some work on the mini
i was thinking of getting the dust of the rz 750 4 cyl yahaha project but it can wait a bit longer one day
cheers roger
ps your mini is coming along nicely

Roger,

It’s just persistence and doing just something each day.

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