202 replies to this topic

[minimikej]

Hi, new to this forum but it's been quite inspiring so far and think I'll chart the very slow progress of my 1963 mk1 mini. I've owned her since about 2004, an ebay purchase that had been recently - well, not restored really, but made sound. A mix of floor pans, patches and ill fitting doors but solid enough and she was cheap. I drove her as my daily driver up until a change of job to a place in Warrington really started clocking up the miles and I couldn't keep up with the running repairs. We've since had an old vw camper that took up my spare time but now we've sold the camper and I've moved the mini into the garage for inspection and dismantling.

My initial plans were to do a spot of welding just to get her back on the road but what with having a baby daughter I realise my priorities have changed - this is not going to be a quick job, so therefore want to do a 'proper job'. So my first thoughts turned to the floor pan. With what look like hand made rear pans and repair panels in the front the structural integrity seems compromised and I want to replace the full floor pan, sills, heelboard, the lot.

This weekend I've stripped the interior, lifted the engine, removed the fuel tank, dropped the rear subframe and chopped out the rear bins and part seat base (wife and daughter been away!)

The boot floor looks like it's on the way out, and the wheel arches are either very patched or rusting badly.

So, looking at the heelboard repairs, It'd be messy trying to mate that with a new floorpan assmembly. That and the other holes in the boot and I'm thinking I should replace that too. And maybe the arches too...

Anyone have a preferred order to do things in? Thinking boot first, with wheelarches, then floorpan? Either way it'll probably be ages 'till I get some more free time so no hurry.


As you can see, this was an 'every expense spared' when it came to its previous rebuild by the last owner. I've not shown pictures of the floor pan yet but it's pretty shocking, as is some of the welding (but not all, intererestingly)

Cheers
Mike

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[munkey26]

Oooh, this is going to be nice when finished.
Have you thought about geting it dipped and then e-coated?

[minimikej]

Oooh, this is going to be nice when finished.
Have you thought about geting it dipped and then e-coated?

Hi, yes, looked into this a while back. Seems the only place is Surface Processing in Birmingham, but it's over £2K all in with e coat. Now I'm thinking that I'll take the 'easy' way out by replacing big panels en masse so it's probably less of a necessity, i.e. the sills, crossmember etc will come with the complete floor pan. I think I'll end up removing the front wings 'because they don't fit well and by that time there's only the inner wings and roof left to clean up!!

So think when I get to that stage I'll get those areas media blasted somewhere local.

Does anyone have any comments on the order of work?

Thinking I need to go in this order: Boot hinge panel first, so that I can reference it to the existing floor. Then take out seat bulkhead and boot floor, leaving wheel arches for ref when refitting new boot floor (although one arch has been replaced by p.o. and I'm not confident it's in the right place). Repair or replace wheel arches using rear quarters for ref, then take rear quarters off ('because they're bodged and I'll need to get into the rear bin area when fitting the floor). Then, the floor pan, using mounting points for ref, get that tacked into position before finally sorting out the door steps and rear quarter panels.

Easy
Or not...

Like I said, long project. Not planning on having much free time for the next 10 years or so! But worth doing I think. I always said that this would be my last mini, and would be for keeps. Might as well do a proper job I suppose...?
Cheers,
Mike

[munkey26]

Oooh, this is going to be nice when finished.
Have you thought about geting it dipped and then e-coated?

Hi, yes, looked into this a while back. Seems the only place is Surface Processing in Birmingham, but it's over £2K all in with e coat. Now I'm thinking that I'll take the 'easy' way out by replacing big panels en masse so it's probably less of a necessity, i.e. the sills, crossmember etc will come with the complete floor pan. I think I'll end up removing the front wings 'because they don't fit well and by that time there's only the inner wings and roof left to clean up!!

So think when I get to that stage I'll get those areas media blasted somewhere local.

Does anyone have any comments on the order of work?

Thinking I need to go in this order: Boot hinge panel first, so that I can reference it to the existing floor. Then take out seat bulkhead and boot floor, leaving wheel arches for ref when refitting new boot floor (although one arch has been replaced by p.o. and I'm not confident it's in the right place). Repair or replace wheel arches using rear quarters for ref, then take rear quarters off ('because they're bodged and I'll need to get into the rear bin area when fitting the floor). Then, the floor pan, using mounting points for ref, get that tacked into position before finally sorting out the door steps and rear quarter panels.

Easy
Or not...

Like I said, long project. Not planning on having much free time for the next 10 years or so! But worth doing I think. I always said that this would be my last mini, and would be for keeps. Might as well do a proper job I suppose...?
Cheers,
Mike

Try Redditch Shotblasting for media blasting .

Good luck with it.

[minimikej]

An update: Had some time on Sunday and removed the rear valance and boot floor. The arches need replacing too but I'm loathe to remove them just yet as I'm worried I'll run out of reference points. Any thoughts anyone?

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[minimikej]

The rear seat back was pretty rotten at the lower seam, but is definitely salvageable. I'll probably start with letting in some L shaped repair sections.

[Mike Delaney]

Mike, I think your plan of attack is correct. I will keep checking in, being that I am picking up a Mk1 the first weekend in Nov. my grandfather gave me.

[jagman.2003]

Looking good Mike. I've got a MK1 to do after my MK3. The metal in these early cars is so much better than later on. Good luck.

[defmini]

An update: Had some time on Sunday and removed the rear valance and boot floor. The arches need replacing too but I'm loathe to remove them just yet as I'm worried I'll run out of reference points. Any thoughts anyone?

I have a 64 MK1 and brought or made repair sections before i cut anything out, After making the mistake of cutting out a section of boot floor to find that the repair section wasn't big enough DOH !! I always left as much metal around repairs as possible just for ref. but you will find that things vary as these cars were not exactly precision built (the passenger door on mine is 10mm bigger than the drivers door) Only other advice take your time to do it right first time as it's frustrating having to do things twice.

[minimikej]

Well I started welding the rear bulkhead but the flange at the bottom is very thin and whilst I did an acceptable butt-weld decided that the repair will always be visible and not what I really want from the finished result.

So, I shopped around and found that Moss have got a sale on at the moment, 13% off and have bought a heritage boot floor and rear bulkhead for £214 all in which is pretty good value.
Hoping to get a few hours to myself over xmas to work on the mini, will post some more pics as I progress...

[minimikej]

Another huge part of my resto is the floor pan. I mentioned earlier that it is currently made up of one original nsf corner, a repair panel osf corner, and the rear corners are basicall sheet steel with some ribs spot welded on the underside for 'strength'. So about as strong as a crisp packet in event of a crash. I want to replace the whole floorpan to remove all the junk and think I ought to bite the bullet before VAT goes up in Jan.

So, I've been shopping around.

MiniSpares have got a VAT free couple of weeks early Dec for online orders and the sell the latest Mk5 pressing
http://minispares.co...ty=pb&pid=38652

for £475 or £404 without VAT, but don't have any in stock.

Then there's just the floor panel without any extras (sills, crossmemeber, heelboard etc) for £155 (132 ex VAT)
http://minispares.co...ty=pb&pid=37548

Then there's a mk1 floor assembly from m-machine
11.33.00.00 which is currently on for £616 inc vat

Finally there's this offering from old skool mini parts for £500
http://cgi.ebay.co.u...=item5884921898
except that this is made up from floor halves and I'm not convinced I want that, nor that it will fit all that well

Somerford lists one but that's 650 odd plus VAT

The easiest and neatest thing to do is get the M-Machine one, but I'm tempted to get the Mk5 pan from minispares and modify that for the round tunnel & direct gear change.

Anyone else fitted a complete floor pan like one of these? Can someone help me make up my mind what to do!

Cheers
M

[jagman.2003]

Hello Mike, I have just replaced the whole floor pan on the MK3, it's the rod change type so not completely what your after. I went for the £158 basic panel & welded on a new seat cross member. I couldn't justify the £474 for a few extra bits & alot more money for someone to do the welding. I have seen the earlier floor fitted on this forum, have you tried searching for "complete floor change" etc. I think the one I saw was the M-Machine one fitted. Hope that's of help.

[tommy13]

Purists will cringe, but I used a Mk3 floor in the Mk1, about £130 from Moss about 4 years ago. As Jagman says the complete floor would be nice, but I couldn't justify the extra expense for a few extra panels and the welding.
If you do this you will have to use the later cross member as the tunnel shape is different (seat mountings are the same). There is also a mismatch with the MK1 heel board which just requires the lip knocking down is one spot. There is only one hole for the handbrake cable.
I opted for the MK3 lever and mounting bracket and cable, but the early lever is a much better quality device.
As regards the gear lever, you can screw a flat plate over the MK3 hole and cut for a "wand" type gearchange, or cut a hole in the blanking plate for a solid remote type and find a boot to fit.
Another possibility is to remove the front tunnel section from the original floor pan and weld it into the new floor pan, This gives as near to original look as possible ( although I think some of the ridges pressed into the floor are different). Unfortunately mine was too far gone in this area for this to be viable.
You will also have to reuse or remake the rolled strip which carries the battery cable.

[minimikej]

Purists will cringe, but I used a Mk3 floor in the Mk1, about £130 from Moss about 4 years ago. As Jagman says the complete floor would be nice, but I couldn't justify the extra expense for a few extra panels and the welding.
If you do this you will have to use the later cross member as the tunnel shape is different (seat mountings are the same). There is also a mismatch with the MK1 heel board which just requires the lip knocking down is one spot. There is only one hole for the handbrake cable.
I opted for the MK3 lever and mounting bracket and cable, but the early lever is a much better quality device.
As regards the gear lever, you can screw a flat plate over the MK3 hole and cut for a "wand" type gearchange, or cut a hole in the blanking plate for a solid remote type and find a boot to fit.
Another possibility is to remove the front tunnel section from the original floor pan and weld it into the new floor pan, This gives as near to original look as possible ( although I think some of the ridges pressed into the floor are different). Unfortunately mine was too far gone in this area for this to be viable.
You will also have to reuse or remake the rolled strip which carries the battery cable.

Ok cheers Tommy. I'm not a mad purist myself and am content to go with the later boot floor and rear bulkhead (without the big hole) so was thinking about using the mk3/4/5 floor pressing. I do want to keep the floor start and magic wand change (on a 1380 with s/c box - probably a mistake!) because these things to me are the essence of the mk1.

When you tot up all the individual panels that make up the complete floor assembly it comes to roughly £440. Looking objectively at my mini I need inner & outer sills, both floor halves, crossmember (badly repaired), heelboard, heelboard strengtheners & closing plates for inside the rear bins (missing!). In fact the only bit that doesn't actually need replacing is the tunnel itself but this has already been cut and welded to by previous repairs and think it may be quite a job to get a clean-ish line where 2 new floor halves would join on. Thinking about it, does anyone know if the m-machine panel is made from a single pressing? They don't seem to list the basic complete pan for any models. Suppose I'll just have to phone & ask.

Cheers
Mike

[tommy13]

Download their catalogue. Mk 1 floor complete 11.33.00.00 £505 (not sure if this includes VAT). If as you say the individual panels come to £440 ( I did think a lot less), then this is the way to go, especially if you have a spot welder, the whole thing can be fitted in very little time and a big chunk of the body work is done.

http://www.m-machine...rts Cat doc.pdf

Prices do not include VAT or delivery.

Edited by tommy13, 01 December 2010 - 05:21 PM.