202 replies to this topic

[okc78]

Sorry to hear about the accident, done it myself at work before, only got a sprain though so lucky, you can get drills with clutches in now.
Get well soon Mike, I'm watching your build so I know what to do next on mine!

[okc78]

Hows your hand Mike?

[minimikej]

A-ha! Well, pretty weak and I've not got much movement (and a fair bit of random pain) in the little finger yet, but my wife's a physio and is working on it. Have just negotiated some time down the garage tomorrow though, so hopefully will start making progress again. Best be a bit more careful this time :)

Cheers -

[minimikej]

Well that was a pretty dull few weeks.

But work has restarted at last.

Starting with, the biggest petrol genny I could find, 7.5 kw



Turns out it is plenty powerful enough to run the spot welder, so got the o/s inner door pillar on pretty sharpish





Then got round to fitting up the o/s inner wing -



Measured the heights from the subframe towers to the underside of the flange on the top of the inner wings. I'm within 1mm from the n/s.




Can't describe just how much easier it is welding with a bigger genny. I've had to mentally re-adjust all my welder settings. Now I just crank up the wire speed and no more blow-throughs, decent penetration too.

Next weekend I hope to get the o/s A panels on and maybe the windscreen scuttle. Once again the door doesn't seem to fit well in the frame along the leading window edge... Suspect the car has been stuffed at some point.

Feels good to be busy again!

[jagman.2003]

Looking good, nice welding.

[okc78]

Glad to hear your on the mend and getting back to the mini.
The spot welder looks great, must be nice not having to grind off excess weld all the time. I read on somerfords website the mini was unusual in its construction in that the bodys were fitted to the doors. A guy was on the construction line just opening up door aperatures diagonally to fit the doors. So I tried offering up a spare door I had to my car, as in not one of the originals and its bigger than the ones fitted to my car to the point it probably wouldn't fit, all doors not re-skinned, at least as far as I can tell. Just thinking it must have been big crash to move the window frame/A post? Have you any other doors to try?
Good job as usual Mike, thanks for keeping ahead of me its useful to know what I've got to do next on my rust heap.

[minimikej]

Cheers Ollie - well, I've had people telling me 'they came out of the factory like that' when I've explained the problems fitting the doors. Kind of wish I'd kept and repaired the originals now! I tried a different door on the passenger side, equally as bad. The interesting part is that there is effectively zero clearance between the leading edge of the door window frame and the windscreen pillar, whilst the back is lined up against the line of the original B post. So a good 5mm too narrow.

If it comes to it I will perform surgery on the doors, but I'd rather not have to as they are original and perfect in other respects.

Won't get any work done this weekend but I'm hoping to get Wednesday off work to celebrate commemorate the decline of the British car industry and manufacturing capabilities in general.

[okc78]

Don't know if it might help you but I took a quick measurement of my mkII today. A post to B post at dash rail level, just inside door aperature behind where the top of the door skin would fit, between 909mm-910mm. Its the same all the way down towards the door step until the radius/curve front and back. I prefer imperial myself but others prefer metric. I could check other measurements if you like?
Don't think we get Wed off, its not being made into a state funeral/public holiday is it?

[minimikej]

Ah, thanks for that Ollie. Finally managed to get out today to work on the mini.

Finished welding the driver's side inner A post and got the inner and outer A panels on.

This time round, I fitted the A panel to the door with gaps just right, then positioned the door in the frame. I tacked the outer A panel in place and it fitted perfectly with the original line of the A post.

I then seam welded the outer A panel from the inside of the post to the old A post flange.

Once that was done I set to persuading the inner A panel to fit. It didn't. Had to do an awful lot of chopping and bashing before it would clamp to the outer A panel.

Once it did, I seam welded it everywhere.

Hey guess what, the door no longer fits. It will go, but I have some persuading to do. I hate mini doors :)





Finally offered up the wing for fun. Initial signs look promising for fit.



Next time round I will not touch non-genuine inner/outer A panels. If they fit, it's worth the extra cost for all the hassle...

Cheers -

[okc78]

Oh no, don't say that, I've just gone and bought non gen inner and outer A panels.

[minimikej]

Eek! Maybe you will have better luck or more skill that me :)

I had to remove about 3/4 inch from the flange of the inner A panel. This included about 1.5cm from the hinge mounts too. Once that was done it would sit nicely against the inner wing but about 8mm too far forwards for the A panels to meet on the diagonal leading edge. They did clamp together thought but I think that pulled the A panels out slightly and narrowed that door gap by about 3 mm. Grrr.

My advice, given what you've got to work with, is once the Outer A panel is tacked in place (fitted to the door), offer up the wing with front panel also in place to get the 'toe in/out' of the A panel just right. Then, just butcher the inner A panel to fit without resorting to clamps on the leading edge, maybe even losing the leading edge altogether and spot/plug welding the two together...

Live and learn @ ~ |

[okc78]

Oh dear oh dear, were they magnum panels? I went to Malvern mini day with my family and had some cash burning a hole, came away with those and some hub caps for my clubby. Seems they may be scrap then. I havn't fitted anything magnum yet that wasn't utter rubbish. Still, the tight wad in me gets the better of me, I thought for the price vs heritage they might be worth a try. Got loads to do before then anyway.
It looks like you got a pretty decent result in the end.

[minimikej]

Ah, well I didn't mean to panic you unduly. To be honest I'm not sure what make they were. I acquired them off ebay before I started on the project, when the budget seemed to be more important - I say seemed because that's now been blown out the water many times over!

You'll be ok with the pattern inner A panels, but just don't expect to win any prizes if the judge sticks his/her head under the wheelarch :)

Cheers

[Artful Dodger]

Quality build bud!!!!

I got heritage outer A panels and Hadrian inners. Fitted like a glove!! Although the Hadrian holes were about 2 mm out and needed a bit of beating to fit!

[okc78]

Cheers, I might cough up and go heritage outers then.
I was just joking Mike, I'm not massively worried about the cosmetics/exterior panels. The only sleep I've lost so far has been over the squareness (or possible lack of) of the underside subframe mounting areas.
Ha! I blew the budget on day one when I bought the rusty scrap heap.