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Thanks.

Rather than dwell on all the door step and A panel stuff I’ll skip ahead to the wings. I first set my bonnet to the original scuttle which I retained. Then I aligned the front panel to suit and trial fitted the right hand wing which was fine.

When it came to the left hand wing, what ever I did it appeared too long. The inner tail edge where it meets the scuttle was behind its edge.
Bringing it forward left a gap with the A panel and pushed the slam panel ahead of the bonnet. In the end it had to be surgery. A thin slice on the rear edge was enough. The scuttle repair panel also need a tickle with the cutting disk.
The result briefly mocked up with filler on the scuttle. I will lead load it later.
D

To cut a long story a little shorter and bring us up to the present, the car ready for a touch of the blast media. I have left the rear parcel bins out and the inner sills just held with self tapping screws. This way I can get rid of all the blast media from inside the sills and give the hidden bits a final lick of paint before welding things shut.
D

Dearg1275 wrote: This way I can get rid of all the blast media from inside the sills

thats what you think, i bet the remainder will make its self known just as you are laying down the top coat!

thats why the inside of the roof of my race car looks like the bottom of a budgie cage!

Rich,
At least it’s a plan.
D

Dearg1275 wrote:Rich,
At least it’s a plan.
D

its a good one, but well getting busy with an airline and a henry hoover once you get it back, blasting sand is still appearing in my race car nearly 15 years after i had it done!

rich@minispares.com wrote:

Dearg1275 wrote:Rich,
At least it’s a plan.
D

its a good one, but well getting busy with an airline and a henry hoover once you get it back, blasting sand is still appearing in my race car nearly 15 years after i had it done!

Last time I looked in Mark's Hornet it was still producing a good crop of sand about ten years after it was restored,

When I had it round Blyton a few years ago with my lad he dropped his phone. (you know exactly where this is going... ) . So after ten laps of chucking the car around on solid engine mounts we came back into the paddock, he picked his phone up (fell butter side down) and his phone screen looked like a pub window, totally blasted.

It will go round and round on its spit, air line, hoover and some gentle percussion and yes I will still be spitting feathers and grit at some point. Done it all before.

On one of my cars, to avoid this, I decided to have it chemically stripped and then epoxy primed. When I got it back the inside was like 60 grit paper. Needs less to say I was not amused when told, “we micro blast them now once dipped to be sure of a key for the paint”. What an expensive waste of time!

David

Excellent work David, well done.

A trip to the blasters is a long way off for me and yes, it is fun ( ) trying to get rid of it all.

I would either paint stripper it, power washing between coats lifts the paint quick, but is messy, or soda blast it. To me blasting is asking for grief latter and risks damaging the flat panels. Soda washes off or if blasted dry, blows off, then you can just wipe it down.

Iain,

Paint stripping and soda blasting are fine but not if you have surface corrosion that needs eliminating. The outfit I’m using say, and I will believe it when I see it, that they use soda blasting and media blasting selectively. They know it’s an early car with thin panel work. Fingers crossed it will be OK.
D

Thin panel work You haven't worked on am mpi I think early cars have the thickest metal just less of it.

IAIN wrote:I would either paint stripper it, power washing between coats lifts the paint quick, but is messy, or soda blast it. To me blasting is asking for grief latter and risks damaging the flat panels. Soda washes off or if blasted dry, blows off, then you can just wipe it down.

Providing you use someone who isn't an animal with the blasting gun and knows how to turn the pressure down, distorting of panels should not really happen.

The guy I used to use wouldn't do the roof, just around the gutter and up the curve of the roof perimeter. I then just paint stripped the rest. A friend had his SPI fully blasted recently and it came back perfect. Not cheap but a great job.

That said, if I used the animals that are next door to my workplace.......they can distort 6mm thick sheet with ease and alarming regularity

My project is up and running again now that the shell is back from the blasters. They did a superb job taking ever scrap off paint and rust away with no distortion, all finished of with a very even coat of epoxy primer.

It was as well I left the inner sills just screwed in as they were full of blast media. These and the rear pockets are now welded in and a good layer of stone chip now graces the under side.

It is so nice to go from this To this.
The new 2 inch floor bungs from 360gts were spot on. I did need to fettle my punched 2 inch holes to have them snug in.

I’m just waiting for some warmer weather so that I can get some more paint on. It could be a while yet up here in the north Highlands.

D

Floor looks great. Where did you get you front floor pans from if you don't mind me asking? I need the same style for my 61 Seven.

coopersean wrote:Floor looks great. Where did you get you front floor pans from if you don't mind me asking? I need the same style for my 61 Seven.

Look back through this thread and you will see how I modified the later floors. You need to buy an extra pair of front foot wells to act as donors. Apart from the third straight flute the foot well needs widening in both directions. I made a paper template from the original floor as a guide.

D

Looks great David, nice work

Thanks Andrew. Just got to keep plugging away now.

D

For once the weather in the Scottish Highlands has been fantastic and provided the window of opportunity to get paint on my 1960 Mini Minor. A change in colour to OEW as Cherry Red just wasn’t for me.

I have to say that I found spraying with the white very difficult especially over a pale grey primer. I just could not see where I was laying down the paint there being too little contrast and too much light off the white. Probably just me.

The shell, doors, boot and bonnet are all now safe from the elements under several good coats of 2K paint. I won’t pretend there were not a few runs to sort out! Here is the result.

Looking very good. The weather has been perfect, although when I painted my roof white the flies seemed to like it, so had to pick a day when none about on second attempt. They didn’t like blue for some reason

Looks really good David.

OEW looks even better with a Cherry Red roof