260 replies to this topic

[daveeeeee]

Lol. Tell you what you can help me with, I'm trying to decide what to do with the lip on the outside edge of the flitch panel. Most repair panels do have a lip which faces towards the back of the A panel. But my A panel has a stiffening strip down the edge which the edge is rolled over, and my flitch panel was just tacked onto it at regular intervals down the panel and sealed up.

What's standard for my car, what do you think I should do with it ?! :/ to be honest if I do add a lip going towards the rear of the car, I can't weld that lip to the a panel any way!

[daveeeeee]

Here's where I'm at, crunch time - lip or no lip?

[daveeeeee]

Rain is a *******.

[AndyMiniMad.]

Mmmmm. After thinking about it for a while, I reckon no lip. I think I would Seam weld the new metal to the existing A panel. I cant see how it will make any difference to the overall finish. Nice work on the fabrication, Grinders been busy. But where is the petrol tank to rest it on?

Edited by AndyMiniMad., 29 September 2010 - 06:53 PM.

[daveeeeee]

After much thought I'm going to do just that, but probably not seam weld it that'd be over kill? I might make some kind of strengthener on the panel any way as I need to add a lip for the flip front.

[daveeeeee]

First up I got home to find my new toy! Dad suprised me with this



Awesome gift, great value - very versatile and definitely does the job. I contributed towards it as he also got me a clamp for it, some cutting oil and drill bits. It's just like christmas!

So I had a go at drilling out the studs in the hinges, but I ran into a problem. Once I get deep enough to find where the weld on the back has penetrated, my drill bits just cant take it - the metal is way too hard. Very strange! Any recommendations on how to finish the job are welcome...



I then moved onto my panel, cut it out put a fold in it. It probably needs a bit more angle but I haven't checked it against the car. I folded it using my vice, a big block of wood and a hammer, I should have hit it closer to the vice to give it a nicer fold but it'll have to do! I also used aluminium angle to give the vice a straight edge.





Work drinks tomorrow so hopefully some progress Saturday morning, hopefully going to visit my Uncle and his recently aquired cooper in the afternoon. =)

[daveeeeee]

Poor mini was soaked through this morning!



Did some grinding and tidying, this fits now, had to shave some off. Also needs clamps to tweak it into place.



Kurust!



Only primer I've got left it's not anything special >.<



Off to my uncle's now to see his mini, tomorrow I'll be back home for the weld-a-thon. =)

[minimk1]

good luck mate your doing a good job so far keep it up

[daveeeeee]

Thanks! Home now, my Uncle's car is brililant - I'm very jealous. Looks very solid, loads of character. He's got water in the oil so we took the head off, but yet to find a problem (it didnt appear to be the gasket). I've encouraged him to utilise the forum for help but he's also got a lot of literature, so hopefully he'll be back on the road soon =)

Any way, I need to get on the mini now so I'll check in later =)

[AndyMiniMad.]

Hope you get those hinges drilled out ok. Great progress, keep up the good work. Its pouring rain in Inverness and I cant get motivated to go out to the garage. The golfs on the telly and im nice and warm.....

[daveeeeee]

hinges are giving me greif so I'm saving them for a week night ^^

I've been working on the flitch panel for what seems like forever today. I got it in real sweet with a nice fold, only to realise it needs to be a curve in order to touch the framework behind it for the spot welds

Lesson learnt! Just waiting for paint to dry before I start welding it in now. I'm suffering from some serious exhaustion, but I wont let the mini get the better of me! Pics to come.

Edited by daveeeeee, 03 October 2010 - 02:33 PM.

[daveeeeee]

So hinge panel was first thing this morning





Then got my repair panel to fit in the gap



But don't fold it like that! Total nightmare trying to get it to back up against the panels behind. Took hours to correct it.

I've now done all of the plug welds but I still need to seam weld the repair in, unfortunately I've got quite a large panel gap so some messing about is required

Bed soon, woo!

[AndyMiniMad.]

Nice welding job on the hinge panel. The flitch panels are a sod to weld in even if you buy the heritage ones, they need a lot of persuading to line up with the dash rail.

[daveeeeee]

Cheers, I'm sure next time round will be much faster. I've bought some extra tools to speed up the job. Spot weld drill bits arrived today, slightly different style to standard so interested to see if they'll work. Also bought some of those clecko style manual fasteners to help me line up panels as per sonikk and son's build. That reminds me I was going to buy a face mask because I'm sick of the onslaught of metal swarf destroying my face

Also really tempted to get one of these, they're not cheap but they are cheaper than some alternatives:

[daveeeeee]

Decided to have a break today but couldn't help myself, went out and started work grinding a hole in the back of the hinge. Think I've already made the burr blunt despite cutting oil, time to hit ebay again.