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Very good work, plenty of advice for others on your posts, I find the panel work the most enjoyable part of the resto, although my skills are not as good as yours,

Daz, thanks. Putting in too much detail and boring folk was my concern. It’s good to know people find it useful. It’s only how I do it and I’m sure there are better ways of going about things. It all depends on the state of the shell you have in front of you at the end of the day.

D

I filled a few unwanted holes today as well as more rust elimination. Inner wing..
There is more repair work to do where the wing will sit but I’ll leave that until I’m trial fitting things.

D

I made a start on altering the front panel. I had a solid skirt one from M Machine but they still have the larger plinths for the indicator lamps. They do supply panels to modify this. I started by screwing the new panel to the inside of the front, then marked it up for cutting. Pictures tell the best.
I’ll lead load this from both sides as it is in the rot zone!

D

Now that the front panel has a coat of epoxy primer it’s time to start thinking about assembling the front end. I’ve done a trial fit already using an undamaged bonnet. I have the original and it is in remarkable condition and the one I used to trial fit has rust problems. It would be great to use the original but I suspected it may have damage. It was time to see how bad things were.

The first job was to strip the thick underfelt that was stuck to the underside with bitumen of some sort. The blow torch and an exciting bonfire got rid of it eventually. Sure someone didn’t want that felt removed. The reason was obvious. The cross brace had splayed from the skin and here and there you could see damage.

With the bonnet the right way up it was time for some archeology. These are the treasures I found.
It gets worse.
And across to the left.
I started marking up the highs and lows but ran out of room to write.
Do I jump ship here with this one? It is actually a very solid bonnet and it would be a shame to ditch it. It will be not easy. The cross braces will have to come out to get at most of the dings and some are 3 to 6mm deep. I can expect the metal to be stretched. The upside is I can build up the front end using my template bonnet and then check the shape of this nightmare bonnet in the otherwise finished shell.

Hmmm Yep. Give it a go! Got to be mad.

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Yup, Mad, but we love to follow your progress & marvel at what you manage to achieve.

Thanks Mark. So here is the madness.
I hasten to add the deep score marks are not of my making. They were there from the butchering it got in the 70’s. Enough for one day. At least it now seems possible. A bit more work yet.

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Yes, I agree. If it is original and not too rusty - Give it a go! What do you have to loose?
You've done sterling work on the rest of the car.
Alternatively you could spend a small fortune on a new one from Heritage and then spend a couple of days getting it to align decently

Just a shame that such a good bonnet has had such a butchering in the past.

hi did that bonnet get caught in a hail storm as it looks like cars over here that have been caught out in the storm lots of cars get written of over here because of hail car yards can lose their entire stock in the yard it is heart breaking to see
well it looks like you have it in hand i guess practice makes perfect
cheers roger

Thankfully, we don't get hail storms like that. Generally speaking our weather is very boring. All be it unpredictable.

roger mcnab wrote:hi did that bonnet get caught in a hail storm as it looks like cars over here that have been caught out in the storm lots of cars get written of over here because of hail car yards can lose their entire stock in the yard it is heart breaking to see
well it looks like you have it in hand i guess practice makes perfect
cheers roger

No not hail, but the back of a car at traffic lights and the subsequent ‘get it fixed, move it’ on type repair. At least that saved some good metal. It wasn’t going to rust with all the layers of filler, paint and the bituminous under-seal that was slapped all over the underside.

D

Not a lot achieved today. More important things got in the way. The cat needed a trip to the vets = 80 mile round trip.

I did get the underside of the bonnet back to good clean metal, welded up some splits on the edge and straightened them and sealed it all of with epoxy primer.
More tomorrow perhaps.

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It was the cross brace that had attention today. Rust on the underside and paint removed. Trying to work out what the true shape should be and dollying it back to shape was a challenge. There is no frame of reference and the curves are multiple and complex. It was a matter of getting it to look about right, then liberally coating it with primer.
There are areas that need patching up but sadly my welder really has packed up for good this time. Everything is on hold until I treat myself to a new and probably better one. Although I had sort of promised this would be my last mini. Ah well it can’t be helped!

D

hi do not quit just as you are doing such great work there must be another mini with your name on it at least
cheers roger

A few members on here now have bought these. Not the cheapest, but I guarantee you won't regret it.

https://migtigarc.co.uk/tecarc-prof-mig ... gIw7fD_BwE

I decided to go for this welder from R Tech. It has a good duty cycle and smoothy variable, non stepped power control. I like it’s easy access swing door for the wire drive. But most of all the wire drive looks solid and not the flim - flam plastic held together with self tapping screws I’ve had in the past.

It’s light and small so won’t take up too much floor space. It can go on a shelf (if I had shelf space) when not needed.
I guess I will be up earlier than usual tomorrow. Like a kid at Christmas.

D

Looks a good machine, will consider something similar if my old transformer based mig packs up, but not worth changing until it does, hopefully get some more updates from you soon then now

hi can it use gasless wire as if it does then it can be used out side as there is no gas for the wind to blow away also you can weld inside with a fan for cooling and it is cheaper than using gas and the welds are just as good with a bit of spatter
well i find that my mig which uses both wires does a great job if i want to weld alloy i can get the gas then
because of the hot weather were in oz i need to have fans on in the shed so gasless is the only to go
happy welding it looks great
cheers roger mcnab

roger mcnab wrote:hi can it use gasless wire as if it does then it can be used out side as there is no gas for the wind to blow away also you can weld inside with a fan for cooling and it is cheaper than using gas and the welds are just as good with a bit of spatter
well i find that my mig which uses both wires does a great job if i want to weld alloy i can get the gas then
because of the hot weather were in oz i need to have fans on in the shed so gasless is the only to go
happy welding it looks great
cheers roger mcnab

It seems quite versatile. You can stick weld with it. You can use gasless wire and there is a facility to change the torch polarity, which they recommend. You can use aluminium but it’s recommended to change the guide tube to Teflon . If you were alternating between Al and steel the easy way would be to have another Euro torch set up for Al.

It comes with a 3 year collect and re-deliver warranty on the unit.

D