mk1-forum.net

Glad you like the car. It gives us great pleasure . It recently completed an uneventful but enjoyable drive of 200 miles to the Mini Cooper Day at Beaulieu and since then has passed another MOT! The wheels an this car are the narrow 3.5" S rims (they're replicas actually) with 145/10 tyres so they do stay well within the arches when fitted to the "S" braking system - probably not much beyond the track of a standard 850 really.

Andrew1967 wrote:. Not so sure about the gold roof but sometimes these things look better visually than in the mind.

the gold roof on my er' looks fantastic


miles better than the boring white roof it previously had, im really pleased that I had it done

rich@minispares.com wrote:

Andrew1967 wrote:. Not so sure about the gold roof but sometimes these things look better visually than in the mind.

the gold roof on my er' looks fantastic


miles better than the boring white roof it previously had, im really pleased that I had it done

Like I say Rich, it'll probably look great in the metal (or paint) but doesn't sound quite so good in my mind

Agreed that a different to the norm coloured roof usually looks good.

rich@minispares.com wrote: the gold roof on my er' looks fantastic


miles better than the boring white roof it previously had, im really pleased that I had it done

I do like the roof on yours. I just need to find out the paint code for the Minilite gold wheels.



I've been plugging away again and got the wheel arch repairs welded in.




With the arch repairs in I did the final trim on the boot floor repair and welded it in along with the valance closing panels and battery box.


I painted the cavities behind the closing panels and then it was on with the valance.


The front of both arches need repairs but I decided to replace the heel board and closing panels first to give me something to line everything up to.




After lining the closing panels up I took everything off as one unit to weld before it was refitted.


At the moment it's only welded along the seat base and exhaust tunnel as I'll be replacing the floor soon.


With those parts on I cleaned up the holes in the arch and seat base and started making templates.


I'll get these welded in next week and then I can get onto the other side before doing the floors.

Tupers wrote:



I do like the roof on yours. I just need to find out the paint code for the Minilite gold wheels.

the roof on mine is just the standard 'out the mixing scheme' gold, no tints or anything like that

the wheels where powder coated gold, its darker than the gold that minilight do the new ones, that seems to be far to light coloured in my eyes.

it was a happy coincidence that the two match so well on my car!

rich@minispares.com wrote:
the roof on mine is just the standard 'out the mixing scheme' gold, no tints or anything like that

the wheels where powder coated gold, its darker than the gold that minilight do the new ones, that seems to be far to light coloured in my eyes.

it was a happy coincidence that the two match so well on my car!

I like the darker gold that's on your wheels so I'll probably take a picture of yours and see what they've got. I think green and gold is going to look pretty smart.



I've been cracking on and got the new section for the RH arch welded on and linnished down.


I also got the LH arch sections made and welded in.




Now that most of the rear is finished I've moved into the middle and started removing the LH floor pan.




The seat crossmember needs work on one for the front faces so I drilled out its spot welds and removed it to repair out of the car and I'll refit it once both floors have been replaced.


I drilled out the spot welds in the toe board with a regular drill bit as I'll use these holes to plug weld in new floor in latter.


I also removed the subframe mounting gusset as it was a bit ropey and cleaned everything up.


Here's a freshly made pair of strengtheners ready to be welded in latter on.


After a bit of trimming and shaping the LH floor is nearly ready to go in it just need a few holes punching and some areas cleaning.

The toe board strengthener is welded on now with zinc182 on the underside to keep the solid in the future.


For the best combination of strength and neatness I've joggled the edge of the new floor pan so it sits on top of the exhaust tunnel. The outside will be lap welded in shot runs and the edge on the inside is plug welded at 2" intervals.




After a lot of jiggery pokery, moving clamps and shooting sparks the floor is in a looking lovely.




The external joint came out really nicely and will now be linnished smooth like the rest of the repairs.


The internal joint will stay more of less as it is now but I'll run a bead of seam sealer over it before painting.

I've been on other things over the last few days but yesterday I eked out some time to move the shell and start on the drivers floor pan.


The remainder of the floor came out fairly easing as time and rust had done most of the work for me. This side will take a little more work before the floor goes in as there are a few repairs needed on the exhaust tunnel.


The toe boar dis also a little rough on this side.


After drilling out the spot welds holding the remains of the floor and cleaning up the inside I marked out the area that will be replaced.


Not much else for this week but I did make up the new section of toe board from 1.2MM plate.

I did the final trimming done on the toe board repair this afternoon and checked fthe fitment.


When I came to welding I clamped a piece of 30MM box across the toe board to maintain a level and then used that to line up the new section.


Being such thick steel it welded really nicely and looks very tidy now it's linished down.


There was also a small repair needed inside the tunnel of the toe board so I made another repair section from 1.2MM sheet and got it welded in.




Again it linished down very nicely.


This side of the car certainly seems like the bad side as there was also a little collection of holes on the tunnel behind the seat crossmember.


We keep a few scrap floor pans around just incase so I cut a section out and tacked it in.


Yet more linishing and it's on to the next job.


By far the worst part is the front of the exhaust tunnel which had been visited by the tin worms many times.


Fortunately another section from the scrap floor came to the rescue. Juts a little more work now and I can start on getting the floor back in.

I never tire of watching work like this.

M

mk1 wrote:I never tire of watching work like this.

M

Thank you very much sir.


It's been a bit busy again down here but I did mange to get the final rotten section of the tunnel removed yesterday.


I salvaged a replacement section once more and got it tacked in making sure I had enough of a lip on the edge for the joggle on the new floor.


A bit of linishing and DAing latter and it's all shinny and smooth.


With the tunnel sorted I span the shell around and got onto test fitting the drivers floor pan.




This side has been cut slightly differently to the passengers because of the tunnel bulge but is still joggled.


Lots of welding later and it's in for good. It does look nice without a big hole in it.



After so much welding I decided I'd had enough of working on the floor switched to the rain gutter at the top of the rear panel.
The gutter was peppered with rust right the way across so I decided to replace the whole width.


I have the top section from a Heritage rear panel to use but it has the wider window aperture so I marked out my cut lines starting on the top of the window rather than the side.


Everything's chopped out now so hopefully it should be a simple case of cutting down the new section and welding it in tomorrow.

So how about another update?

The rear panel section took a little more fiddling than I'd expected but it's now welded in, linished down and looking fancy.


While working on the rear panel I noticed a bit of a hole next to one of the body seams.


It was a quick piece to chop out with a body saw and the repair section just needed a little stretching on the seam to match the curve of the body.





The body should be off the spit soon so I've been rattling around the edges doing all the pieces that'll be a pain to get at later.
Two such pieces were the drip rails which were fairly far gone.


It didn't take a lot of work to remove either side as the rust had popped them off most of the way.


Before I could continue with the drip rails I had to sort out a long section of rotten roof gutter.


I put a gentle curve into the new section by knocking it over a piece of 8MM rod and then welded it in.


One it was finished I ground the welds down and then ran a sanding block over to make sure it was straight.


Although the drip rails aren't handed my new ones weren't curved at the end like the originals so I used my shrinker stretcher to add it as you can see on the left.




It now tucks in nicely at the end.


After popping a few holes, I plug welded them so that's one more job off the list.





I also thought I'd better get all the welds linished down on the underside while they're still easy to get to.






The final pieces to go onto the floor were the battery cable channel which is the original one that I've cleaned up and tabs for the battery and fuel lines.




A simple bit of plug welding and linishing later and that's the outside done.

Unlike yourself I managed to remove the drip rails from my MK111 and repair them. I was thinking about using glue to re attach as I figured this method would prevent the ingress of moisture. Has anyone tried this method?
Nice work there and looking forward to further up-dates.

MK111 wrote:Unlike yourself I managed to remove the drip rails from my MK111 and repair them. I was thinking about using glue to re attach as I figured this method would prevent the ingress of moisture. Has anyone tried this method?
Nice work there and looking forward to further up-dates.

You could probably rivet the drip rails on with proper solid rivets which would allow you to fill the mating faces with something like tiger seal. I'm not sure how much better it would be than welding filling the edge with seam seamer though.


Being the sort of person that likes to salvage part where possible I thought I'd repair the original seat crossmember as the only really damage to was on the front RH face.


After making a card template I tranfered the shape onto some steel and bent it up. The two angled flanges were done by clamping the steel under a piece of angle iron and gently hammering them up with a panel hammer.


Before it went on the captive nuts were added to the back. You can also see the crossmember cut out and the top edge joggled for a nice strong joint.


Clamped up for final check of the fit.


As per the usual I welded it up, linished down the welds and then ran the DA over it.


With the crossmember ready to go on I painted the area it would cover before getting the clamps out.


After test fitting it and adding a few clicos to hold it in a place I span the body on its side to plug weld the crossmember in from underneath. I've found this method makes welding and cleaning up simpler.


The jacking points have also been added with a few additional seam welds to make sure they're strong.


Here it is from the inside. Nothing special really but nice to see one more piece back in.



I've got a little cleaning up to do on the under side and I can get the body onto my frame and start on the inner wings and front end panels.

I wasn't sure if I was going to weld on the sills on before I took the shell of the spit but decided to after a bit of thought and my god am I glad I did.
I think welding these on took about a 10th of the time it would with the car the other way around.




It seemed logical to clean them up while they were easy to get to. I love the smell of fresh sills in the morning.




Now that the floor work is done it's onto the frame so I can work on the front end.


After many spot welds were drilled and a bit of careful air sawing the flitch is loose.


Just as one part of the car's looking good another part comes out. Fortunately I've become quite familiar with replacing flitches.

Great work, I have got to do a similar amount of work to my Mk 2 Super Deluxe so keep up the posts!

While checking over the front end I noticed how both of the crossmember strengtheners had popped out due to rust behind them so decided to remove them.




Both side came off fairly easily as there are only 10 spot welds on each side to drill out. I also removed the remainder of the RH flitch and all of the LH flitch.





The original flitch gussets were pretty nasty at the bottom and needed some attention. It would have been quick to replace them entirely but I thought I'd use the bottom half of the MK3 style gussets that came on the heritage flitches to repair the originals.


It was a simple case of cutting away the rot, trimming the new piece and lining it up. I also added the hole as it's not present on the new panels



The RH gusset went through the same procedure but with slightly different cuts.



Seen as there's a big hole in the car once more I should probably get the new panels ready to go in.


I started by removing the MK3 style gusset and wiper motor indent.


In the past I've cut a crescent moon shaped section out around the MK3 heater intake lump but this time I decided to slit the edge and then planished it smooth before trimming off the excess and welding it up.




Filling the hole left by the wiper indent was a simple case out making a new section with a slight bend to match the flitch and then welding it in.




More of the same welding, linishing and DAing and it's done.


There was also a nice surprise waiting for me at lunch in the form of a fantastic pair of M-Machine A-panels. They should simplify the alignment to the car make for a tidier job when it come to fitting.


Lastly for this evening, they say you learn something new everyday and today I learnt than a Mini bulkhead is perfectly shaped for holding all of my air tools.

Impressive work as always.
I usually park my tools on the nearest area of uncluttered concrete floor.

Hi. Can you tell me what tool you use to cut out your steel? Both the intricate repair shapes and the large floor sections? Also, what do you use to grind down the welds? It's a great job you're doing and a very interesting read so far. Many thanks.

BLT wrote:Hi. Can you tell me what tool you use to cut out your steel? Both the intricate repair shapes and the large floor sections? Also, what do you use to grind down the welds? It's a great job you're doing and a very interesting read so far. Many thanks.

Most of the intricate curved cuts on the car or panels are done using an air hacksaw. I do almost everything on the repair sections using a pair of right handed aviation snips. An angle grinder with a 1MM disc is my go to for cutting out old panels out and to rough trimming of stuff like floor pans. If the angle grinder's to big to get into a gap I use and die grinder fitted with a 3" cutting disc.
I use 40 grit flap discs on the grinder for cleaning up most welds and a 90 degree die grinder with a 3" rolco disc for detailed parts. If space is really tight I use an air powered belt sander with a 40 grit belt.

InimiaD wrote:Impressive work as always.
I usually park my tools on the nearest area of uncluttered concrete floor.

I did try the whole tools on the floor thing but there's only so many times you can trip over an angle grinder before something goes horribly wrong.


The first thing on the agenda for today was welding the crossmember strengtheners back in. This is where using spot weld drill bits comes in handy as all the parts already have the perfect size holes in them for plug welding.




Next up was rectifying the not uncommon sight of a snapped engine steady bar bracket.
I'm not entirely sure how this happened considering the car was originally an 850 auto and would have bairly had enough power to pull the skin off of cold rice pudding.


A bit of grinding and few beefy plug welds latter and the new one's on. Hopefully it will last a little longer than the original.


Moving slightly higher up on the front end there was a quite a heavily holed and pitted area on the top RH side of the bulkhead.



I started out by making a paper template of the various folds and creases on the panel before transferring it to steel.




I used a block of pine and a few different sized blunt chisels to beat the panel into shape and got it clamped up to check the fit.


As the panel was slightly larger than I had original planned I also added the indent for the tab that holds the wiring loom.


Then it got welded in.


A little linishing and some gentle planishing and it looks like this. I also made a new loom tab and plug welded it on.


On closer inspection the RH inner A-post also looked quite nasty so I decided it needed to go.




It's now out of the way and I'll get the new one in before the flitch goes on.