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The car started its life in New Zealand. According to the owner before me, it made its way to the U.S. a several years ago after having 11 owners. He believed he was the 3rd U.S. owner. If my math is correct, I'm lucky #15 in the car's life.

In November of 2013 I purchased a 1964 Austin Healey Sprite racecar and spent that winter getting it back on the track. Since then I've been enjoying the car but wanted something for the road - a 1964 Mini seemed like the right choice.

The previous owner purchased the car in running condition and sometime around 2006/2007 started the restoration process. It stalled and he placed the car for sale in 2014. In January of 2015 the basket case became mine along with all of its RHD, magic wand, drum brake, rusty goodness. On a positive note it was all there (somewhere) and the engine and transmission were running when it was disassembled.

February 2015 - I started working on the rear doors first since all of the body's rear end work centered around keeping the hole for the doors the same size and shape. The car included two sets of rear doors. One set was completely junk and the other was salvageable but would require significant work. I won't bother including pictures of the worse pair!

The car included almost all of the sheet metal required to finish it. Fortunately I did not have to do a lot of shopping. Unfortunately the rear door skins only covered a small portion of the damage.

It probably would have been more economical to buy two new doors but where is the fun in that?

Both doors will require some finishing to hide the welding but I think they'll look okay. If not I'll break down and buy a new pair.
At this point they were done enough to be able to bolt back on to the chassis.

April 2015 - Next was the chassis. The previous owner removed almost all of the rusty pieces but didn't make much progress reassembling.

When I received the car, the body was missing the passenger side floor, sills, front sheet metal, rear sheet metal, and some other odds and ends. I bolted the doors in place and the gaps looked okay. I also took some measurements and it seemed like nothing moved.

Next step was to finish installing the passenger floor and the seat cross member. Everything went smoothly until I realized there wasn't a replacement e-brake bracket in the parts pile. Time for another order....

whats going on with that block that's in the photo - the oil filter area looks very strange?

Hey Rich - its a 1098 block from a Sprite. You're seeing the adapter used to move the filter up about 2". I'm assuming its for chassis clearance.

ahh

every day is a learning day!

Every day I'm in the garage is a learning day!

The previous owner kept all of the rusted sections for reference - turns out it was very useful except for the sling shoe brackets. They were so far rusted that there was not much left. Based on pictures from this forum, I think I got it right.

Need to locate a hole? No problem - card stock to the rescue! After much aligning and drilling, everything was in place and ready to be welded. And rinse and repeat for the other side: Now that the sills were in place it was time to move on to the rear end. Hmmmm....something isn't right....

After some head scratching I figured out the alignment issue - when the previous owner replaced the rear door step, things were off by a little on the left side. Fortunately it was nothing some cutting and welding couldn't fix.

Now that things were square it was time to remove the corner. Since the available repair patches were too short, I opted to make something.
I had a difficult time figuring out how exactly this was supposed to be formed and had no luck finding pictures of other cars - should the flange go around the entire corner or did I guess correctly?

The second job for the rear was fixing the cross member for the boot floor. I could not find a replacement panel so repairing it was my best option.

It went something like cut -> form -> weld -> grind -> cut -> form -> weld -> grind etc. I wasn't sure how the flange on the center would form and was pleasantly surprised when I got it right on the first try.

Eventually I got it to a point where I was happy enough and it made its way back onto the car.

Man, you're clever. Well done.....!

Thanks but I don't know if I'd go that far - if I were clever I would have bought a completed car!

Maybe glutton for punishment is more appropriate?

I was in the UK a few weeks ago prior to heading to Le Mans and stopped by Mini Spares. It didn't take much convincing on their part but I decided to abandon repairing the rear doors - with the current exchange rate, a new set just made sense considering how much time would be needed for finishing. If DHL is correct, they'll be here tomorrow.

I'm officially sold on BMH stuff. The previous owner bought 90% of the panels needed to finish the car but some where not BMH. After trying to make a generic A-panel fit and screwing it up, I ordered a pair of BMH ones. Really wish I would have done it a few days sooner!

On to the front doors next. Both suffered serious rust in the lower sections. I debated between ordering the lower repair section from Mini Spares or making my own - decided to go for the second choice.

On to the corners - I decided to make a former from MDF. The finish isn't a big deal since the flange will be hidden by the door skin. Worst case a pass or two with a flap disk will remove any marks.

After some hammering I had four corners (I didn't think ahead at the time - I actually needed six since each rear corner required two). The window channels on both doors are about as bad as the lower edges. The doors original had two folded sections to create the channel - I opted to use a piece of tubing and a formed angle to create the support and flange for the door skin.

Neat work.

I use old kitchen tops to make formers like that


a mate of mine has a wood fab shop, so its quite handy

InimiaD wrote:Neat work.

Thanks! Your build has been very inspirational.

Interesting idea on the counters - never would have thought of it. I assume they're some sort of particle board?

I've tried plywood in the past but it was too soft and things just didn't form right.

atm92484 wrote:
Interesting idea on the counters - never would have thought of it. I assume they're some sort of particle board?

they are very heavy 2-3" thick dense chipboard with a formica/melamine top. it cuts nice and takes a router to shape it if needs be.

the best thing is that it can be got for free, so many people are redoing kitchens that often there will be counter tops in skips, so you can just stop by the side of the road, ask, and drag a bit into the back of your car.

mdf is ok, but you have to glue loads together to get the thickness and its intolerant of damp.

ive made nearly all the internal panels of the Bentley using 'council formers'

Fortunately damp isn't much of an issue around here.

More former fun - I thought the left door was about ready to start going back together but I was mistaken. The wire wheel punched right through the bead roll.

Nothing more MDF and some sheet metal can't fix!

that's a cracking repair


there is a real good (if long) thread on retro rides about a guy restoring some hopeless jap thing - he has made all his own rollers and folders and is now experimenting making panels by cnc'ing the female and using neoprene as a self forming male part of the press. he is having some great success and is producing panels that are wrinkle free. its very interesting how is is thinking around it