1146 replies to this topic

[hughJ]

Hi Graham - thanks as usual for your pleasant comments. Yes. I do most of my folding with the vice and a panel beating hammer. They are pretty much 90º and adjusted to fit.

Hugh

[087dave]

Praise from Deathrow!! That's one of my heroes! And thank you Graham and minimuk. Welcome to my Posts , Adam. I wish it were fantastic but it's bog standard repairs - as you will have read I am no expert. I would have to confess to enjoying welding now! I don't really enjoy all the hours of preparation but there is something satisfying when a piece is welded in and the damage is gone!!

Not much to report - I did the two holes forward of the panel I just welded into the rear boot floor.

There was just a small hole to patch on the right side - the hole cleaned up and a plate made up to fit it - holes drilled for plug welds



Welded in



Welds dressed



And a wee bit of primer



The hole of the left side was a bit bigger





The plug welds are awful - I pressed the power on the welder to High instead of the 1/2 switch to position 2 - of course I'm too slow to puzzle this out and continued. Could have melted through the earth's crust with the power it was set to.







Every little takes me on. I need to make strengthening plates for the rear subframe mounts. Does anyone know what thickness of steel I should try and get hold of?

Welding on

Hugh

Hi Hugh, nice bit of work! The thickness of the steel is 1.2mm as i have done mine today
keep it up

[hughJ]

Thank you Dave - that is most helpful

Hugh

[Deathrow]

Making me look more and more like the amateur I am Hugh!

I don't mind though . Keep it up!

[minimuk]

Nice job Hugh your welding is getting neat, you tuning proffessional!.......bit more cut out near the heal-board by the looks of it, don't forget that area is hidden by yr subframe after, so it is a perfect place for rust to multiply and you can't see it......but when you do see it,.....it will be to late and you have to start all over again. not to worry that won't happen over-night.

[JustSteve]

Hugh, I check the projects page everyday, though there are only a few I look out for... yours is one of them.


I don't think I've posted in your thread as I've not really had anything to say, but I've been keeping an eye out and watching your progress.
... and you really have been making progress! Your skills are improving and your welding is looking really good indeed!



Well done Hugh Keep up the good work, I just know you're going to do a great job of this.


Steve.

[hughJ]

Patching

Found myself at the bottom of page 4 which is a sure sign of laziness. But I'm a school teacher on holiday so I had better get something done.

I do thank you Deathrow for your kind words but I wouldn't dare stand in your shoes. Yours is one of the best topics on this forum. Thank you minimuk. Always good to hear from you. Hello Steve and welcome and thank you. I do enjoy the welding now but I hate removing rusty old metal and grinding!!!

I'm needing to get steel and some panels so I moved to the passenger side sill.



Kind of horrible



So I removed the old sill. This sounds easy bit it takes a bit of time with a grinder and chisel



Then had to do repairs to the inner sill











The only way I could get the sill to fit was to remove the flange at the end of heel board and make a new piece. There is no way to grind behind.







And more holes on the inner sill











But the jacking point is gone so something else to order and slow me down - so I decided to patch the wheel arches. I had tried to get the panels but never heard more form the company I order from - so to save a few pounds



I used a bit of the old rear quarter to make a patch - talk of being thrifty - but I am





I never got a good fit. In fact the gap in some places was 2 - 3 mm. In the past I'd never tackle welding that but I just kept following it when the weld got too wide. At the lower bottom corner, in the photo, the weld ran away but I kept following it and eventually it filled in - not beautiful!

Well that's a couple of days work. Hope I can keep moving on.

Patching along

Hugh

[darky32]

Love reading your updates Hugh, Keep up the great work

Mark

[sonikk4]

Still keeping busy then Hugh but not wanting to put a downer on what you are doing but there is still a lot of rust still left in those inner sills. The sill material is quite thin anyway and those areas that are still pitted will be weaker and the rust will come back.

To be honest you would have been better to replace the inner sills rather than patching them. Don't get me wrong there is nothing wrong with what you are doing but with all the work you are putting into the mini it would be a shame for the rust to come back especially now that the car is in a good position to replace the sill.

The welding is certainly coming on Hugh, it doesn't seem that long ago when you started the wee beastie.

[minimuk]

Hi, I tend to agree fully with Sonnik4, your welding is gettiung better all the time, and impressive, now you need to improve your cutting skills a bit, inner sills are not that expensive either, cut the old one out, in 10 minutes, weld the new one in in 20 minutes, job done and rust gone!!

[grahama]

Hi Hugh,

blimey your welding is getting very neat, mine is going the other way at the moment due to the welder acting up a bit. I like the patch work but have to agree with earlier comments that some of the surrounding metal does look pretty badly pitted. Patching is fine but cut out the crappy stuff and fit a larger patch. That's my philosophy on it !!

Nice work though despite the mini trying to bite back via advice, keep at it.

Graham

[hughJ]

More patching

Thanks gents for the friendly advice. I probably need to do a bit more to the inner sill but I feel if you can weld to it the metal is thick enough! It does look horrible but you can wallop with a screwdriver and it does not go through - well I have found another place not quite as thick as I thought. As I say my budget is tight. As well as having two boys in further education my daughter goes to University in September and I'm the breadwinner!! I would love to fit all new panels but with the state of my Mini it would really need a new shell. If I can get five years happy motoring out of it then when the family are all on their own feet I can splash out. I do know you gents are very wise and would love to take your advice. Sorry Graham not to have been in touch for a wee while. I lost heart.

And thanks Mark. Always welcome.

I am also going to save by roller painting - take a look at 1984mini25's work Karlos. I had already bought an aerosol of Rustoleum to try out and its very close to his colour.

Well more grotty patching

At the drivers side rear wheel arch at the back







And did a poor repair to the bottom of the rear seam





It was terribly hard to get at. Why did I not repair it before doing the boot floor!! I just don't see the problems ahead

The 1.2mm steel sheet arrived so I made the subframe strengthener plate





So trying to get to fitting the rear valance. I have to do the same repairs now to the passenger side.

Its a wee bit further along the road

Grinding along

Hugh

[grahama]

Hi Hugh,

been away too and have done a little but not update worthy yet!! Off on hols next week so more time gone. I understand your reasoning behind patching and agree that budget is everything in some cases. Trying to do mine as frugally as possible and to an extent I an not doing too bad, but being a Scotsman you will be doing better !!!

As you say, as long as it's strong and safe, as your's will be looking at it, you should easily get the five years use from it. The work from the BL workforce at the end was I believe not the best, and the minis still lasted 20 years before going bad so you will be fine.

Rustoleum is my choice too for now, and Avenue paints will mix your colour to order aparantly, so that green if they should be obtainable.

As you say, keep grinding on !!

Graham

Edited by grahama, 09 July 2011 - 07:22 AM.

[puggered]

Hi Hugh, what a fantastic project you have there. I can't wait to see the finished result!

Best regards,

Sean

[hughJ]

Even more patches

Hi Graham, always glad to hear from you. Glad another Rustoleum man is there. Hello Sean, thank you. You may have to wait a wee bit! I go in fits and starts. However got a wee bit further on.

Decided to finish the passenger side wheel arch











So now I have a sound wheel arch and I didn't have to buy a complete panel



Also did the subframe strengthener plate for the passenger side







So the backend has reached this stage



Hopefully to fit this early next week



So we crawl onwards

Grinding along

Hugh