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Any tea bag areas were chopped out and new steel let in whilst I was committing tin butchery to the boot floor.



Repairs to the R/hand wheel arch area. Much the same as the l/hand side but slightly bigger.











This section was built up off the car otherwise I wouldn't have been able to get the spot welder in.

That's another ferrous oxide ridden section just about finished.





L/Hand side crossmember repairs.













Both 1/2 floorpans glued in UHU.



Heelboard replacement is the next instalment.

Respect

That's coming along nicely.

Thankyou gents.
Now that the floorpans and arch repairs are completed it's time to hoick in the heelboard.
The centre area of the original was in fairly good condition , but what's the point of trying to repair it and go through the grief of all that extra measuring and trying to line everything up.

Out with the old.







Before it was welded in I transferred the battery bracket thingy over and added a couple of extra captive nuts for future mods.















The next task is to stick this lot on. Not much space to get the spot welder in.

nice work there

Cheers Malcs.

It's now the turn of the closing plates to be stuck on.
Nearside rear quarter lower panel repairs, chop out the old section first to get some room to plug weld the tongue of the heelboard to the inner sill. Awkward job especially when most of the companion box is still in place.







Bottom of the companion box was a bit ropey and bent because some eejit with a jack decided it was a handy place to raise the car.





Wheelarch closers and inner sill closer.

Just a few minor "let ins" before the lower repair panel gets spotted in.









Test fit the repair panel and finally, at last weld the darned thing in place.





Woohoo. Same again on the drivers side.

Right, where was I.?
Oh yes, R/hand wheelarch and companion bin closers..



Plug welding the tongue of the heelboard to the inner sill. The job is much easier with the bottom of the companion bin is cut out.





Wheelarch closers.

Thats looking great!

Great progress, especially as your making alot of your own repair panels.

Looking really good

Thankyou guys.
@ Matty, I sometimes wondered if it was worth the time and hassle of tin bashing some of my own repairs.
In some cases I had to because new bits and pieces are not available, but in the process of making my own one off repairs I learned a fair bit about metal manipulation. Its amazing what can be achieved with a few flat bits of steel bar, lumps of wood, cold chisels and bolsters. Oh, and a large assortment of persuaders.

Some more repairs to the previous area.









And finally I can spot the bottom companion box repair in.





Looks a bit better than what was originally there.

InimiaD wrote:
Looks a bit better than what was originally there.

was anything there ?

Looking so nice now a job well done.

Jens Christian

Once again I am staggered by some of the skills displayed in this thread. You are doing a truly fantastic job that makes my skills look very poor in comparison.

Keep up the good work!

Thankyou gents. I appreciate your comments.

It's time to tackle the rear subframe rear crossmember. Only the ends had some rot and I was going to cut the ends off a new crossmember and let them in. It turns out that the new crossmember that I had won on Fleabay was actually a van and pick up item which is different to the Estate type. (part buyer and part seller to blame for that Co*k up).
Whilst doing the rounds at the Beaulieu MCR day autojumble I found the proper crossmember at the fraction of the retail price.
The wrong crossmember was duly sold off and went to a deserving home.

Out with the old.





Repairs to some tea bag areas.



Added some captive nuts for future mod.



Rust now you ba$%#rd.



In you go.





The easy bit. Gawd I love my spot welder.

The next job was to fit the lower rear corner repair panels. I was dreading this job because of the lack of any decent reference points. The original lower corners had just enough metal left to get some idea where to stick the new ones on. As for the closing inner panel that was a different story with sod all to work from.
I spent many a Mini show crawling around on wet grass underneath mint Woodys trying to see how the inner closer corner panel fitted etc.
When I did this repair I had to make my own from scratch, but not long after I had finished the tin bashing M- Machine started making the repair panels. Oh Well.

The n/side repair.

I love watching these threads developing, you are really cracking on. I'm still at the stage where I'm cutting metal out & scratching my head. That is when I can manage to drag my lazy bones into the garage.

Know that feeling well Mark. Got an associates Mini in the workshop at the moment patching a supposed hole in the front floorpan. The job has now turned into something a lot bigger with 2/3 of a new floorpan end crossmember heelboard inner wing etc.. The biggest headache is undoing all the previous repair attempts. Keep plugging away Mark, It'll be worth it in the end.

R/hand lower corner repairs. Much the same as t'other side.











Next job was to fit the rear apron etc, but after dry fitting and tin bashing for a day I gave up and started hunting for another replacement. Oh well.

Had a gutsfull of the back end so ventured tentatively towards the front end. The doorsteps were about 70% good because a previous owner in their wisdom had bothered to waxoil the box section and rather than get replacements which are total rubbish and the wrong profile I let in my own repairs.

Some let ins on the A post. Once again the use of Waxoil had prevented any serious rot in the box section.

Before.


After.