108 replies to this topic

[jayare]

Well the plan to do some work on the Mini failed big time! I've been working quite a bit at weekends lately which is good for the bank balance but not so good for Mini mending! On the plus side, I have bought a front panel assembly, right hand front wing and the correct floor extension from Moss the other week when they had their 15% off weekend, saving myself a decent chunk - pity they didn't have the bonnet or LH Wing in - they are due in tomorrow according to the person I spoke to at Moss when I got the other bits.

pictures: Front panel:



Wing:



Floor extension:



I have bought myself a Clarke 160TM mig welder and auto-darkening mask from Weldequip over on mig-welding.co.uk - very helpful and quite a bit cheaper than Machine Mart for the same welder. I've also got a big (size Y) bottle of Argoshield light from BOC on the offer that's on Volkszone (it says the offer has expired but if you call Justin you can still get gas at the offer price ) - £35 rental for the year (normally around £75) and £26 for a refill (normally around £48 ).

I've been having a bit of a practice with it with some pretty good results - this is on 1.2mm sheet - actually offcuts of the flitch panels so is fairly representative of what the car is made of:

1st attempts:



I then went on to try welding on vertical sheet - seems a lot more sensitive to power and wire speed than welding on the flat. After a little bit of fiddling with the mig and a few practice runs I was able to butt weld the panel back together after cutting it:



and the back:



I was pretty happy with that! There are a couple of places where I blew holes but I filled them back up too. You can also see some of the practice plug welds in those two photos - again it took a bit of fiddling to get the settings and technique right but I cracked it in the end.

It'll all probably turn to *melon* when I try to weld the car so I'm going to just keep on practising on scrap for the time being. I only have Saturday off again this weekend so probably not too much will be done, especially if the weather is decent as I have to get the garden sorted out before summer. I do have a week off the week after next though so may get some bits welded back onto the car! If Moss get the other panels in I'll be going down to collect them as well.

JR

[jayare]

I can't believe it's nearly 3 months since I updated this! Once the weather got decent I decided to get my back garden sorted out - I made a start on it last year levelling it up (took about 4-5 tons of clay out!) and built a retaining wall using wire mesh gabions and local stone. I started off with this:



Built a set of steps:



Laid the footpath to the shed which I moved last year:



It was a long day doing that bit!!!

Added about 1.5 tons of decent sandy topsoil:



And finally laid turf 2 weeks ago:



So overall it's been pretty hard work but worth it in the end. I have this week off work so going to be doing some work on the Mini now the garden is more or less sorted. Today I have been stripping the 1380 down and cleaning bits up ready to sell. Considering the mileage everything I've taken apart so far has been in excellent condition with very little wear which goes to prove that regular servicing really does work - it's had oil & filter changes roughly every 4000 miles and covered over 50K! About the only bit that's worn is the clutch plate. I still have to check the bearings but expect them to be in good nick going by the rest of it.

Once everything is cleaned ready to sell I'm planning on taking the O/S pocket out carefully - it has to go back in and you can't get replacements at the moment. This should make changing the floor panel much easier and the floor extension possible!

Anyway should have something worth taking a photo of by the end of the week. Oh and I'm still waiting for Heritage to make some Clubman bonnets! When I spoke to them last week they reckon the end of July.....

JR

[roofless]

I've just ordered rear pockets from oz at moss Manchester - not to dear either

[jayare]

For an Estate???

JR

[alexcrosse]

garden looks mint jr! good work

[olds_kool_lews]

garden does look nice! last time i saw it i was pulling a mini shell out of it! lol hows the estate coming along? i got myself one now, 1979, orange, all original too!

[jayare]

Cheers for the comments on the garden guys - certainly looks different to when the Rio shell was in there! Getting all the bits together & cleaned ready to sell yesterday and today - I've booked an autojumble stand for Gaydon so hopefully sell off a load of nice A-series bits so I can get some nice Vauxhall bits (and maybe a new telly if I sell enough bits!)

JR

[alexcrosse]

wear your tshirt so ill recognise you! LOL

[jayare]

Was thinking about it but don't want it getting grubby! I'll have my lovely red Honda Civic daily driver thing - not much good for anything really (not even a transplant donor as it's only a 1.4 with no VTEC!) but it works.

JR

[Teapot]

The garden is really impressive -- great use of different materials and they all go together well. My old gardening boss would approve the open S-shape of the path (got to have an S-shape somewhere, apparently).

Oh, and good luck with the welding and the rest of the car.

[jayare]

Cheers Mr Pot! I'm really happy with how it's turned out. I've got to do some minor bits (a few plants might not be a bad idea) but the hard graft is all done now.

Spent today in the garage cleaning up bits to sell on Sunday at Gaydon and started to cut out the drivers side pocket. It's mostly out now but there's a bit about 2" long which appears to go between the boot floor and wheelarch so I'll have to cut that bit and weld it back up when it goes back in. Should get the pocket out tomorrow and then weld bracing in ready to remove the drivers floor and outer sill.

JR

[jayare]

Finished removing the drivers side pocket today - it was held in by a bit more than I had thought when I finished yesterday! Anyway it's out now!



I also cleaned up the surrounding area. There are a couple of small repairs which I am going to do in this area mainly neatening up previous repairs which although look solid enough they're not as neat as I'd like.



While access is good I'm also going to repair the closing panel which sits behind this lovely bit of bodywork:



The side panel is getting replaced from the window down to get rid of rot at the lower edge of the window, in the picture above, at the B-pillar and also this little lot behind the wheelarch:



Going to brace the door aperture and across the car tomorrow ready to cut the floor out and also make a start on the toeboard repairs on this side. Also got to load the daily driver up with the bits I'm taking to Gaydon to sell on Sunday.

[jayare]

Today I welded in a patch I had previously made for the inside of the A-post - it was my first bit of welding on the actual car and didn't go too badly really (looks OK after a couple of minutes with a linishing disc!).



I had to weld this in so some bracing could be fitted in preparation for cutting the drivers floor out. I could probably get away without it but I'd rather be safe than sorry:



Then removed the stiffener plate where the front subframe mounting bolts to the toe-board as I need to repair the bottom edge of the toe-board and I intend to fit a larger stiffener and found this underneath:



By the time I'd cut back to decent metal I ended up with quite a large hole:



I was going to start making up the repair panel but discovered that both sheets of steel I have are 1mm - one should have been 0.9mm and the other 1.2mm - I need the thicker stuff for this bit so it was a bit frustrating.

Also got the car loaded up for Gaydon tomorrow - I'm selling off a load of the A-series bits and other random bit's I've collected up over the years.

[olds_kool_lews]

good progress! i should hopefully have my parts from minisport soon, so will be doing the floor pans etc in my estate! i also got a good clubby bonnet if your interested? its all there, but needs a good clean up (very little rust, just the underneath has underseal type stuff on it

[Kam]

I spent the best part of yesterday reading through your topic JR, subscribed earlier......

Top marks fella