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In the 80's I had a business restoring and repairing minis. Did most things from basic service to complete rebuilds, exported many a Cooper and woody to Japan in the boom years before people here realised there wer'nt many left! Had a lot of contacts and therefore if anything interesting came up often got offered it. Sometime in the 90's a contact brought an old Morris Mini which looked interesting so I gave him a drink and put it in a shed. Eventually looked and realised it was very early model so decided to keep it as the dreaded 'ONE DAY JOB'. Well it has been mouldering ever since so feeling guilty I moved it into a corner of the workshop last week in preparation for a leisurely resto. As you can see its a mixed bag, the usual rot spots on the wing and scuttle as well as the top of the A panels are mint as it had the early splash guards fitted. The interior above floor level is OK and the engine bay inner wings fine.
The plan therefore is to save every panel possible. Those such as the floor and boot floor will be replaced but I think I may be able to save most others even the wings and most of the A panels. the door skins may also be retrievable with a new strip at the bottom.
I can hear people thinking why bother saving the wings and A's? True it would be easier to put new on but for some reason I would rather try to repair for originalities sake. No criticism of anyone else just that for years I would just put on new panels and in the end got fed up doing that and eventually closed the business. Really I could'nt be bothered to start without a challenge like that and may well fail but hey ho thats life.
I also forgot to mention my wife may not be very suportive as she wants me to build a house this year as well.......women!

I must be mad.

Even the dog looks disgusted with you and won't look at the car,



Better building a house and keep the wife happy first ,but don't use reclaimed materials, then you can attack the car and she won't be giving you grief, good luck with the project.

Goodness me! That's a project & a half!

Looks a good project and it has a glass washer bottle . year /Month is it ??

Ian

STG95F wrote:Looks a good project and it has a glass washer bottle . year /Month is it ??

Ian

Jan 60 chassis 14,400 ish

mk1 wrote:Goodness me! That's a project & a half!

Yes and no really only out of the way bit is the roof and seam rust but I have deseamed enough so re-seaming will be a novelty. Also I had the sense to cut out a repair panel years ago, actually came from a terminally ill mk2 Cooper.
If you think that a floor that is as bad as mine is no more difficult to replace than one a lot better, actually easier because the cutting out is mainly done for you!!!

Oké, but when the job is done you build your self a whole "new" car

Good luck with your ............................................................................................... wife

Looks Great , My March 60 has the same problem with seams and roof also boot floor.

Thats my next project

Must have been sat under a leaky roof or kept outside judging by the rot on the seams and roof but lack of rot on the scuttle. I'm sure it'll be worth it in the end and you could always flog the glass bottle and take the Mrs on a cruise?! I've got a Feb '60 in bits, welcome to the 'Almost A '59 Club'!

Wow, leisurely resto eh?

One thing is certain - every time I feel overwhelmed with my own restoration, I can count on a reality check from this here forum on how easy I've got it. Good luck sir!

Thats pretty much on par with how my pick up started out

Hope it all goes well and will make a great restoration thread for sure.

Mao said the thousand mile march begins with the first step so here it is, probably the most transforming part of the whole resto........I washed it!!!!!
looks a bit better but unfortunately revealed that the roof has been used for storage since 1976 (year it came off the road) and carries the scars. So first job will be to find my hammers dollies and spoons and revisit my panel beating skills to try and get the roof shape right. If not it may be a new roof.
Just to prove I am mad I have all of the panels to replace those I am attempting to repair. I had a think as to why I am repairing rather than just replacing and it all comes from my upbringing in the days of motor engineers not fitters if you get the distinction. I learnt to panel beat in the seventies
and love the ability to turn a piece of metal from the shape it wants to be to the shape you want it. I learnt it from an old boy who used lead not filler so you had to get it pretty accurate or you would be low on one side! Now where did I put those tools?

Nice MK1 Cosmic.

4" not the 4 1/2" S type.

looks better already with a wash lol

this should turn out to be an interesting thread, looking forward to following it.

mikep wrote:

mk1 wrote:Goodness me! That's a project & a half!

Yes and no really only out of the way bit is the roof and seam rust but I have deseamed enough so re-seaming will be a novelty. Also I had the sense to cut out a repair panel years ago, actually came from a terminally ill mk2 Cooper.
If you think that a floor that is as bad as mine is no more difficult to replace than one a lot better, actually easier because the cutting out is mainly done for you!!!

I would be really interested to see how you do the repairs to the roof and guttering. I say this because my 1965 car has a rusted through area on the roof corner just above the drivers door, where it meets the gutter. It would be most helpful to see how you tackle that sort of repair so hopefully you can post some photos as you go along -after you build your house of course.

gogsymac wrote:

I would be really interested to see how you do the repairs to the roof and guttering. I say this because my 1965 car has a rusted through area on the roof corner just above the drivers door, where it meets the gutter. It would be most helpful to see how you tackle that sort of repair so hopefully you can post some photos as you go along -after you build your house of course.

Will do when I get there but car is still sitting outside at the moment, that is a clue to the likely pace.

Amazing I got a bit of work done on the mini this week. I had a thought and decided to describe in a bit of detail HOW I do things rather than 'this was done'. I appologise to those experienced in this work but as this is going to be a panel repair as opposed to a replace restoration it may be helpful to some of you. So if you are sitting comfortably!!!!!
First I had to asess the state of the roof. This can be done by eye, touch and long bed sander in increasing accuracy order at this stage. I used a hand sander as shown in the first photy to show the level differences in the dented area. Roof panels are particularly difficult to beat because of the large unsupported area they cover. It is very easy to stretch the metal and then you have a hell of a job trying to chase it all back. I used a trick that always worked well for me on these roofs. It is a version of panel beating 'off dolly' whereby the dolly is at the edge of the low spot and the hammer is working just in front of it as it is drawn over the hollow. For this because it can be a stretch to reach I used a heavy dolly that will not bounce and a rubber mallet as you cannot be sure of a 100% flat hit. The dolly in question was a 10lb sledge hammer head. Patience is essential as the movement is little by little, judge how you are going by more sweeps of the sander. I aimed to get the panels so that the worst areas needed no more than 1/8th inch of filler but most areas a lot less, luck was on my side and it worked well. Satisfied that the roof panel was recoverable the next thing was the rust repair to the roof and gutter at the nearside rear. The repair panel was offered up and an estimate of its cover was marked on the roof. This can only be guessed at first because of the underlying old panel. Take care to err on the side of caution. Knowing where your panel will cover you can now cut out the rusty metal. I used an angle grinder with 1.2mm cutting discs but be careful as it will cut anything, the spot welds were cut with a special drill bit.
The repair panel is now trimmed slowly bit by bit to fit. Be sure to not get frustrated and take a large amount out in one go because it is amazing how the fit changes with each increment. Care is better than the Oh F..K moment.

Getting the fit right is not easy as you also have to allow for the fact that the panels will have to be level when finished so some relief will have to be given to the edges, this can be by rolling the edge with a special roller which forms an 'L' shaped lip on the edge about one panels thickness to allow overlap.I used this on the roof part of the repair section but don't like using them on bits like the 'C' pillar as it was in a bad shape. Instead I put a series of cuts in it to allow the panel to be bent in a bit with a pair of pliers as shown. Where it is not possible to get an overlap I welded tabs in by plug welding and drilled holes in the repair panel to allow these to be welded to complete the joint very strongly.
One vital piece of knowledge that some people don't know is that electric welds ALWAYS weakens the metal because of undercut so when butt welding it is advisable to bridge the gaps to put strength back.

The repair panel edges were then rolled and the panel fitted and tacked in, special attention was taken to use all reference points to make sure the placing was accurate.


Satisfied it was as good as it gets the panel was then fully welded in.