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me and my mum putting a donkey in the back

totally priceless , been keeping an eye on this thread, how great to see a proper body shop in action, this car will have that indescribeable feeling of not being over-restored when it is finished [i know what i mean ], top, top job

Loving this project!

I've always admired the Crayford Minis, but I've only ever seen them in books!

Cheers,

susan downs wrote:How good to see my dads mini finally being done, i remember her from when i was small she was a great car , all my life shes been hanging around waiting to be repaired wishing you lots of luck Sue Downs

I'm glad to see you found the thread, it's really is a pleasure to restore her. Hopefully she'll have another 50 years of making family memories in her once she's done.

JC T ONE wrote:

Why dont you have a spot welder ?

I do but I have a lot more trust in the strength of a plug weld and considering car has so little structure I'd like to make it as strong as possible.

slowboy wrote:been keeping an eye on this thread, how great to see a proper body shop in action, this car will have that indescribeable feeling of not being over-restored when it is finished [i know what i mean ], top, top job

It should be a nice clean resto that can be taken out and enjoyed once it complete. There's no sense in having such lovely car and lot letting it out.

bnicho wrote:Loving this project!

I've always admired the Crayford Minis, but I've only ever seen them in books!

Cheers,

Thanks bnicho, I had never seen one in the steel before either. It's great to have the chance to get her back it fighting form.

So in preparation of the new inner wings I thought I should probably remove the rather tar like seam sealer from around the ends of the bulk head.
I popped the front stand off and bolted my trusty steering rack stand on and used a wire wheel, blow torch and paint scraper to clean everything up.






Then a nice coat of zinc.




The rest of inner structure was given the same treatment.




The shape central hump in seat crossmember was way off so I cut the flange off a made a new one.


After forming a new flange I clamped the crossmember in and tacked the two pieces together.


Then a little welding and yet more zinc.


I also had the inner sill stiffeners arrive as well as the rear valance and valance closing panels.


The sill stiffeners had hole for a rubber bung that I deleted to keep them correct.




Then they went right in, just the added Crayford stiffeners to do now and it'll be ready for new pockets.




I drilled holes in the closing plates and started lining them up to the the valance. Everything went together nice and easy so it shouldn't take long to get them all welded up on Monday morning.






Say tuned for next week's work.

Tupers wrote:
I do but I have a lot more trust in the strength of a plug weld and considering car has so little structure I'd like to make it as strong as possible.

Ahh I see


Keep up the good work

Excellent progress.
The "adjustment" to the crossmember must be frustrating. I have had the same problem on a previous resto. I suspect that the tunnel "springing" open when both old floorpans are cut out contributes to the crossmember not matching the tunnel.
It could be just poorly made crossmembers as well.
Keep us posted with progress.

Just a thought, depending on how early the car is, shouldn't the valance corner closing plates be the type that are longer and open at the ends (my 63' has this type but I don't know when they changed off the top of my head) you are doing a nice job on the car, looking forward seeing it finished

WOW! When you guys cut a car APART, you do NOT mess about! There's more air than car in some of those photos. Brave men indeed!

- Paul B.
USA

Looking fab!
I'd be delighted to have you restore a shell for me.
I know it's probably hard to estimate but how many hours do you reckon this project will take to complete the shell?

Vespanation wrote:WOW! When you guys cut a car APART, you do NOT mess about! There's more air than car in some of those photos. Brave men indeed!

- Paul B.
USA

Hello Paul & welcome inhere




Jens Christian

the problem with using the later heritage corners is that the mk1 style petrol tank nut holding bracket will not fit as they interfer with it. mini machine sell the correct ones.

i always leave the little cut out in the box panel, its just the right size for getting a waxoiling lance into!

its great to see the work thats been done on this, a large, well lit clean workshop - jealous, me?

oh, and those crossmembers - arrgggg!!!!!

InimiaD wrote:Excellent progress.
The "adjustment" to the crossmember must be frustrating. I have had the same problem on a previous resto. I suspect that the tunnel "springing" open when both old floorpans are cut out contributes to the crossmember not matching the tunnel.
It could be just poorly made crossmembers as well.
Keep us posted with progress.

Fortunately with all the bracing in the shell nothing's moved but we've had to do a similar mod on another seat cross member before.

mk1coopers wrote:Just a thought, depending on how early the car is, shouldn't the valance corner closing plates be the type that are longer and open at the ends (my 63' has this type but I don't know when they changed off the top of my head) you are doing a nice job on the car, looking forward seeing it finished

It should indeed have different closing plates on the rear as you'll see bellow.

Vespanation wrote:WOW! When you guys cut a car APART, you do NOT mess about! There's more air than car in some of those photos. Brave men indeed!

- Paul B.
USA

Thanks Paul, I had to take a few deep breathes before I started chopping it was all for the best.

miniminor wrote:Looking fab!
I'd be delighted to have you restore a shell for me.
I know it's probably hard to estimate but how many hours do you reckon this project will take to complete the shell?

It's probably got some where in the region of 50 hours in it so far and I'd say it's got atleast another 50 to go.

guru_1071 wrote:its great to see the work thats been done on this, a large, well lit clean workshop - jealous, me?

Thanks, having lots of space and light really helps on a big job like this.


I couldn't save the old valance closing panels but fortunately we've got another early MK1 that I was able to copy.




I started out by removing the latter curved plates.




Then a added the extension to the vertical part of the closing plate.




The valance closers also had a small folded section on the end, I measured up an original one and made two new ones.




Here are the closing panels now, all ready to weld onto the car.

I repaired the ends of the Crayford rear inner sill strengtheners.



They're just tacked in until I get the pockets and can check it'll all fits together correctly.




The outer sills and seat cross member are also welded on.

The last job to do before welding on the new rear valance was to clean up and refit the captive nut and bracket for the fuel tank strap.
It started like this.


Then I removed the old bits of floor, treated it and gave it a good coat of zinc.


We borrowed a tank from another customer project and got the bracket lined up and welded on.




With that in place I was able to weld the rear valance on after very carefully laying the car over.


The final job for the underside of the car was to linish down all of the welds then zinc prime the whole lot.


As I type this a pair of Heritage MK1 flitches should be on their way to us from Mini Spares and our next job will be fitting the front end, A-panels and doors.

excellent work looking really good, how many hours do you have in welding so far would you say.

Oh and I like the old trusty wooden table looks like it gets put to good use

Blatantly showing off the tank Chris looking good.

nick@dunsdale wrote:excellent work looking really good, how many hours do you have in welding so far would you say.

Oh and I like the old trusty wooden table looks like it gets put to good use

Thanks Nick the table gets a lot of use as it's a nice height for plate making. It tough to say what we've got in it off the top of my head but we're probably getting close to 180 hours.

Matt_Tupman wrote:Blatantly showing off the tank Chris looking good.

Well I'm very proud of it, it's a tank worth showing off.

The new flitches arrived this week and I set about modifying them to correct MK1 spec.


As they're based on late van pressings they have indents for MK3 air vents and wiper motor recess that need removing.


After cutting the lumps and bumps out I did a little gentle shaping and got the new section tacked in.


Then it was just a case of slowly welding between the tacks to avoid distortion and linishing down the seam.

I got the second flitch smoothed out this afternoon in between fitting floors into a '68 Hornet .


All chopped out.


Nice new contoured pieces flushed in.




Once it was all done Jon bolted the front end up while I carried on welding the floors into the Hornet.


After all that was done Dad cleaned up and re-bushed a set of hinges and we got the O/S A-panel welded on. (Wing had already been lined up then removed for better access)

So dad's been pressing on with the Crayford and It's now all but ready for the wings and front panel to be fitted.

The original rad cowl has been plug welded onto the new flitch but we chose to braze the commission number on from the back and at the same angle as the original to keep it looking factory.




Dad also saved the NMP tag from the front panel and brazed it onto the new one.


While he was at it he replaced the latter number plate brackets with the MK1 versions and added the tea strainer for the heater intake.


And last but not least all of the welds inside the flitches have been linished down and the whole lot zinced and primed as well as the inside of the wings.

Nice details what does NMP, on the small front end tag mean ?

Nuffield Metal Products?