417 replies to this topic

[johnsn]

You wouldn't happen to be looking for a project?
Chris

You trying to get me killed! That's what the wife would do if I brought home another project

As for the pictures of the rear seams Worse then I remember.

This is how I would fix them.
Carefully grind/sand off the excess weld on the outside of the seams.
Then patch the holes.
Then weld on new seams.
They won't be real seams, but they'll look real.

I'd be willing to help. I have 20 years more experience then when I did that mess.
john

[CLM]

You wouldn't happen to be looking for a project?
Chris

You trying to get me killed! That's what the wife would do if I brought home another project

As for the pictures of the rear seams Worse then I remember.

This is how I would fix them.
Carefully grind/sand off the excess weld on the outside of the seams.
Then patch the holes.
Then weld on new seams.
They won't be real seams, but they'll look real.

I'd be willing to help. I have 20 years more experience then when I did that mess.
john

Lol thanks John, they are nasty, and the panels are a bit warped around them, best way I can see to fit them is the same way I would replace any batch of rust, cut out and weld in new (or in this case older) metal Done right you likely wont be able to visually tell there has ever been a repair there.

And what are you saying? This was your project from the past so doesn't count!

Chris

[johnsn]

And what are you saying? This was your project from the past so doesn't count!

Chris

ROTFL
That sounds reasonable to me. But I'm not a woman. And female logic is different.

On the seams, I still think that if the exess weld was ground off, the panels could be straightened.
When I think about removeing a strip containing the the seam and then welding in replacement panels, I see two problems.
1. When you cut out the bad seam the panels will spring apart. So you would have to weld some kind of bridge to hold the panels in place.
2. After welding in the panels, you would have to dress the welds and straighten the panels.
That's why I think grinding (dressing) the welds and straightening the panels, and then adding fake seams would work better.
I'll pm you and we can talk offline.
john

[CLM]

I have been quiet for a while, I have been working to pick up a new base for my pup conversion, and.. here in it's rusty brazed glory...



Long trip from Coos bay Oregon to Redding California 12+ hours of driving time, but It's a better base then the saloon shell was. Door frames are correct for a pup, wheelbase is correct, so I can build a jig to keep the dimensions when I replace load floor and the heelboard with pup specific ones... out of the van heh. And I have my estate rear load floor for the van. I noticed these had the mounts on the floor for the battery behind the front seats, but the floor still has a pressing indentation for the place the early ones had the battery box near the spare, could I go and re-employ this for use as the battery location I wonder?

The rear doors are going to be cleaned up and go on the van.. the van doors are going on a wall as they wont get used they are far worse then these, the windshield is good, the front doors are usable with a reskinning. Parts alone I think it was worth the $600.

I have too many projects D:

Chris

[CLM]

Well the page has been down for a bit and I habve a couple pages of mini spam to post. I got a couple days to examine the wagon, talk about bodging...

The important things looked good from the inside, the load floor needs a minor ammount of repairs and will happily go in the van.




there is a hole in the left side rear,



but as the right side while probably needing replaced, it is intact so I can pattern from it.



Even where the tank goes is pretty nice.



Look shiny under the roof!



The heelboard will need new ends fabbed up but the center is useable and sound thankfully.



the surrounds where the rear windows go are somewhat crusty, a good thing I wont be using them.



The front panel needs replacing in the worst of ways as does the right front wing, there is a square cut out on the right inner wing for something, it should be nothing to patch...

This is how NOT to repair the lower skin of a door.



continued

[CLM]

The first day I really had no way to roll it so the floor was a mystery, the top didnt look so bad though it was all edged in fiberfill material like a seam sealer. It was made up of 4 new repair panels that still have most of their e-coat intact, barring nothing else I should be able to extract them and make a half-assed floor for it or the van.

\





Looks decent huh? Well remember what that door looked like.... I was able to roll it up on it's side...

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...

...

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AARRRGHHHHH!!!!



I swear the person who was working on this was blind....

Look at this sill! And this floor extension!!!





Or heck... under the front seat crossmember!?



Thankfully mr bodge did not make it all the way to the load floor! Whew!



I was able to pull the panels off with a hammer and small pry bar >.<



...

Even the toeboard has been badly bodged it seems...

It's a good thing I still have the front end that was going to become the pup before I got this, it's going to donate many bottom parts, possibly an entire tunnel.



There are more pics avail at. http://s1202.photobu...74/clm1977/pup/

Overall I know that will need an entire floor built at least safely, some of these pannels just fell off there, nothing I cant do, and nothing I didnt figure I would need to do in my pup project, it's just the sheer bodgery that befuddles me sometime! lol

My next post is going to be something about wirebrushing and cleaning out the inside of the windshield posts on my van... fun fun O.o

Chris

Edited by CLM, 10 August 2011 - 04:46 AM.

[CLM]

The van has been stalled for a bit because I didnt want to box up my only access to the windscreen post before I could do something about the surface rust inside it that was bugging me. I was at a loss as to what I would use to brush it out as I had very limited access to the inside of the box section. a couple weeks of brainstorming and browsing the web netted me something that I felt would work a treat to wirebrush it down.


http://www.mcmaster.com/nav/enter.asp?partnum=7353T29

Single-Spiral Single-Stem Loop-Handle Brush, 304 Stainless Steel, 1-1/2" Brush Diameter, 3" L Brush, 27" Overall $5.69

It took a while for it to arrive from Mcmaster-Carr but it looks the business, I was expecting a short handle on it but it had plenty of reach and just fit in snug enough to do the work I needed it to do, Sort of like a miniature chimney sweep. My one complaint though was the handle was not quite as stiff as I would have liked it as it bent and flexed as I was trying to brush it out.





Having that handled to my satisfaction, the next task was getting the Ospho... phosphoric acid... and the paint up in this box section, but a trip to my hardware store answered that in short order when I was looking at the smallest roller brushes. They had some with a foam and some with the fiber heads and the 4 inch ones looked a treat, and first time I fit one in it proved correct. Instead of fitting them to the roller I chose a wooden dowel that just fit in the end of the roller so I could use them as a cavity brush.

The Ospho was fairly easy and messy to get in there as it would be at the angle the van was sitting at. Basically I soaked the roller with the Oshpo and scrubbed up and down being carefull to not go so far up and break the dowel (again... the reason the red thing is sticking out of the one roller!) I alternated a few times, Ospho then rinced off the roller and scrubbed with clean water, then Ospho again. I find it helps remove the rust the acid has broken loose, see the van door episode a few pages prior for what I mean. The last coat I used Ospho and let it dry so it would etch the metal. I then ran the second brush up once dry to make sure all the dust was out.

The paint was somewhat messy, I mixxed up the pain and dipped the clean roller in the pain to get a large ammount and then up the post it went. I cant really tell what the overall coverage is like but I am hoping for good coverage, I will waid for this first coat to dry and recoat it one or two more times.

I feel this is satisfactory in the effort to keep it from rusting out in the ensuing years, deffinatly better then just ignoring it and welding it up.





One coat.



Untill next time,
Way too many concurrent projects - Chris

[hughJ]

Hello Chris - yes too many concurrent projects! One is more than enough. I take it this latest acquisition is just a source of spares. But it must be so difficult to remove panels undamaged for reuse. All the best with it. Thanks for sharing your methods of de-rusting and painting in inaccessible places.

Hugh

[Pitcrew6464]

Great thread

[CLM]

Hello Chris - yes too many concurrent projects! One is more than enough. I take it this latest acquisition is just a source of spares. But it must be so difficult to remove panels undamaged for reuse. All the best with it. Thanks for sharing your methods of de-rusting and painting in inaccessible places.

Hugh

Thanks Hugh,

Actually yes and no, I am using panels off of it, but also going to use it as the basis of the pup I am wanting to build. As it has the correct style door frames with the quarter and a-panel spot welded to it instead of pressed out of a single piece like the saloon donor was. Not to mention... it already is a lwb mini so I can just build up a jig to keep dimensions when I do the rebuilding.. instead of trying to stretch a saloon

My 3 projects break down to,
60 Saloon, First mini low intrest it will be pseudo restored if I manage to finish it possibly willing to sell it

80 van, medium intrest it is helping me figure out the pup, and with a 3 pot suzuki engine will be good on gas being able to use the load floor from it in the pup will save me $1000+

mk1 pup no year as it is being built out of various bits This is the mini I really want done, but the one I have the least of. It will be bits of that wagon, bits of the van, and bits of stuff I don't even have yet. The biggest remaining panels aside from the floor that I still don't have for it would be bedsides rear bulkhead, tailgate... etc

If I could just do one project it would be the pup, I just haven't found anyone worthy to take the 60, and the van... um It still has pup panels in it lol.

Chris

[CLM]

Great thread

Thanks! Although I think the title likely should be changed to something like "1960 Morris 850 and friends" lol

Chris

Edited by CLM, 11 August 2011 - 09:50 AM.

[CLM]

I admit, it's far longer to take a shell apart the hard way then the easy way... But lots of panels are still useable if you are carefull!

I need to take apart the old front clip before I can bring my new purchase home and get digging in it. But I wanted to have as much useable from it as possible. I had come to the decision I wanted to try removing the inner wings as intact as possible and repairing them.. though I dont know weather I will use them on which of my minis yet, I know the van could use the back sections and possibly the front, the 850 could use the front, and I am not sure about the wagon yet. So dismantling it carefully is a good thing.

First order of business was removing the door step as I know it's going to be repaired and used on the van after modifications.



After that I decided to dig into the a pillar to see how bad it was, and was only "mostly dead" only some surface rust and a couple holes, the whole left hand inner wing is probably 75-80% condition with a hole near the lower hinge, a hole in the inner a panel near the upper hinge and the top edge of the flitch a bit nasty.






And At that point I decided to pull the shock mount expecting a rather large hole behind it... they all seem to rot there... or do they?



It was actually very sound there, I was surprised.. more then I would have had there been a classic hole!

Then it dawned on me... this nose came off a hydro car originally, and really didnt get a whole lot of miles after It was patched together. Hydro cars like this one hadn't used front shocks so the lack of rust was understandable.

Continued

Edited by CLM, 13 August 2011 - 04:10 AM.

[CLM]

The next day I continued drilling, prying, grinding,cursing at the clip. I drilled some more of the half a million spot welds out of the inner wing before I realised, I should take the nose off or the inner wing will be a pain to remove!

A bit of drilling and grinding and bleeding later...



I have a crappy most-of-a-flip front

The previous owner had replaced the right wing sometime in the past and never really painted under it and actually only welded it at the a-panel the scuttle end and the nose so it wasnt hard to remove. However it had caused a fairly large area of surface rust, it hadn't turned into swiss cheese yet, but it was heading there. I washed it down with my Ospho/water/Ospho/water/Ospho practice, and then hit it with some decent rattle can paint.



Once the nose was off I got back to work on removing the inner wing and after much drilling cursing leaking we have...



Which left us with...



A bunch of minor rust in the seams, nothing that had spread any or eaten into any seam, Had I been a bit gentler removing the upper dash for Smurf I am positive the whole bulkhead would have been in great shape. There are some holes and some slightly tweaked seams from the persuasion I had used seperating them, but nothing that cant be fixed. Heck I figure I could reattach that wing back if I wanted too, It wouldn't be that hard to do! lol

Oh that inner wing? It looks great. Considering it's 64-66ish sheet metal.




Now to figure out what I use it on once I refurbish it! lol.

Still have to remove the other wing the crossmember the toeboard the bulkhead the etc etc... But that will have to be later, it's too late for making any more noise tonight.

Chris

[hughJ]

I'm amazed you can pry the panels apart so carefully. When I do it the metal is left in ribbons!! Looking forward to seeing you make use of this.

Hugh

[johnsn]

I love seeing your work. I've done the same thing, drilling out billions of welds to get Mini panels off to repair or use on other cars.
Seems to take forever, but the parts are clean on both sides. And it's nice to reuse a panel. And cheaper too.
Question, what panels are you using off this front end?
I am looking for a roof, cross-member, and bulkhead. Or part of a bulkhead. Even that one with the big hole would be a start for me.
I think I'm getting some free time later this month, and I'd like to pay you a visit, and maybe help out.
Keep up the good work.
john