852 replies to this topic

[JonnyAlpha]

Copied from another thread but here's what I have been up to:

 

Had a go at test fitting the door frame but sadly I could only find one hinge - all the actual hinges are off getting sand blasted so I'll have to wait.

 

 

So in preparation for fitting the skin I had to strip of the paint:

 

 

Then had to do the back as well:

 

 

Then before I finished up for the day, after some sanding I managed to get some Epoxy primer on both the inside of the door frame and door skin:

 

 

Not the best spray job as when I started I had the pressure turned down too far. 

Also cleaned up the last few odd brackets that needed painting (Blanking Plate, Bonnet Mounts, Engine Stay and some Door Hinge Plates).

 

 

 

 

And then today I marked and drilled the holes for the Wing Mirrors and installed 2 x Rivnuts:

 

 

 

Then after rubbing down the runs with some 320 W&D I put on three or four coats of Top Coat. All ready for when I get the Hinges back so I can line up the Skin, do some fettling and get it welded on.

 

 

While I had the spray out I did a few bits that had been primed:

 

 

 

Also went along to my first auto Jumble with Coxie today, came away with a few bits, didn't really need anything but you know how it is 

 

Picked up a Mini Wksp manual (complete) for the princely sum of £2.

 

 

A couple of really good condition glass Indicator lenses, complete with chrome surrounds for £2 each.

 

 

And picked up a future project, an HIF 38 Carburettor for £15

 

 

That's all for now folks!!

 

 

 

 

 

[alex-95]

Looking good, glad you got the wheel straightened and balanced 

[JonnyAlpha]

Looking good, glad you got the wheel straightened and balanced 

 

So am I, I have been scouring the web for a single Weller (or even two) and nothing has been coming up or damm expensive for grotty wheels. Than today two immaculate Wellers Powder Coated pop up for £35 - go figure!!

[JonnyAlpha]

Yesterday I managed to get the RH Engine Mount fitted and fitted both front flexible brake hoses. Boy what a BIT%& of a job that was. You need fingers like and Octopuss at one point I managed to start the thread on a nut with just the tip of my finger blind!!!!!!

 

Before I fitted the brake hoses I cleaned up and painted the respective areas:

 

 

 

Also removed the two front rear Subframe Mounts. The RH Engine Mount wasn't too bad but one of the Subframe Mounts had perished:

 

 

Busy morning, picked up my last few bits from the sand blaster (Bonnet, Boot, Door, Hinges etc), bought the last litre of Cellulose Green and some Yellow Engine Enamel and a Bosch S4 Battery and some Brake Fluid.

 

First job when I got home was to fit the new battery:

 

It was a bit of a squeeze with the 5 x 10 Spare Wheel but it's nice and powerful. As the car has not been serviced yet it takes a while to start and the battery had no trouble with this.

 

 

 

 

Next up I finished bleeding the brakes. It took ages but I think I got there in the end. The brakes work but there is a lot of travel on the pedal?

 

Too late this afternoon to sand down the last few bits to paint so I decided to have a go at fitting the headlights. I was going to fit Riv Nuts but decided to hold them in with a couple of bolts. I fitted some crimp on connectors (I would have rather soldered but I have had a box of connectors in my draw for a couple of years and decided to finally use them!!

 

I had to renew one of the plastic Bowls and Inner Chrome Ring but the rest were original. Also took a while to figure out the wiring.

 

First the Left:

 

 

Then the Right

 

:

 

 

And lastly the new Stainless Steel Headlamp Rims:

 

 

Job done. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ben_O]

cool beans

[JonnyAlpha]

Few more days progress. Started to sand down the last few bits for spraying, bonnet, boot, doors. The tricky areas on these had been sand blasted:

 

 

The DA sander came in handy. I used a 180 grit pad with a spray bottle of water. Messy but effective:

 

 

Thought I was ready to spray but then realised that I still had to skin one of the doors. I started a separate thread about this regarding how to line it all up. This is a Magnum Skin so not a direct fit.

 

After some deliberation I decided to use the door handle screw hole as a a reference point. With the screw hole lined up and secured with a 5mm bolt and wing nut the swag line of the door skin lined up with the the rear quarter and scuttle but the top level of the skin is a lot higher than the inner skin.

 

 

 

I measured the top if the door skin on my other door and found it to be 10mm high, the magnum skin was higher on one end so I trimmed it.

This helped a little but it is still a lot higher. I thought about trying to line the door skins up but the bottom of the door would be too low and need a lot of fettling. The door handle would also need to be adjusted, so I decided that the top of the skin would have to just sit higher.

 

 

I then marked a line where the outer skin met the door frame and set about welding it in place. I used the info from Sonnik4 to help by drilling some plug weld holes and once I had plug welded the door skin on I fettled the top front left and right ready for seam welding them up:

 

Here it is all welded all welded and dressed down. It's going to need some filler:

 

 

I then folded down the flanges using my panel beating kit hammers and dollies. Then I re-ftted the hinges and checked the fit, looks fine:

 

 

Best part is I can now dive it in and out of the garage

 

Today I had and early start to catch a window in the weather to get some primer on. 

 

 

 

I decided to lay everything down but had a plan to get both sides done. First side:

 

 

 

 

Then after leaving the panels for an hour of so to touch dry I carefully flipped everything over and painted the other side. I used some cunningly placed wood to keep most of the edges off the ground:

 

 

 

 

Couple of issues from spraying in a confined space. Caught the airline on one of the doors:

 

 

Also had another package arrive. More bits I don't really need (Facebook Sales Site S/H)

 

 

More soon.

Edited by JonnyAlpha, 14 October 2016 - 07:46 PM.

[JonnyAlpha]

Well big hurdle crossed today, the weather has been against me and I have been trying to work out how to get my last few panels sprayed.

After taking some advice on painting during inclement weather I managed to get the last panels (Doors, Bonnet and Boot) sprayed so I can finish rebuilding the car.

 

Due to the weather being so unsettled I would have to spray the panels in my garage but that would mean leaving my Mini outside and getting wet if it rains, engine, boot and inside.

 

So I had to erect the makeshift tent to keep the worst of the rain off of the car:

 

 

It was all hands on deck to get the job done and painting inside the garage is not easy. I warmed the garage up with an electric fan heater and managed to mount the panels on pieces of wood to prevent them sticking to the cardboard that I had line the floor with.

 

I blew all the panels with an Air Line and before Panel Wiping I pre warmed them with a Hot Air Gun. 

 

No pictures during the event but apart from a couple of mishaps it all went OK. I sprayed 3 coats on the underside and then left them for 15 minutes to dry. I then flipped the panels over to paint the top sides.

 

The only issue happened whilst spraying on the fifth coat. Even though I had been clearing the water traps and tank vent I started getting water splatters on the paint!!!  To resolve this I cleared out the water traps and emptied the tank. After about 10 - 15 mins I managed to lightly sand down the areas affected by the water splatters and was able to spray on the sixth coat.

 

For the last (seventh) coat I upped the thinners from 50% to 70%.

 

I left the panels for as long as I was able before packing everything away.

 

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow morning I will fit the front indicators and seat clips and by then the panels should be OK to fit onto the car.

 

 

[JonnyAlpha]

Tasks for today were to get the doors and boot fitted. First up the door hinges. Had to clean the screws first (like everything I took off!! 

Screw them in with some Copper Grease.

 

 

Before hanging the door I glued the headling above the door with some Impact Adhesive and fitted the new door seal:

 

 

The door fitted remarkably well

 

 

Next up the ultra fiddly task of re-assembling the door mechanism!!! Luckily I had a thread to refer to in which the steps required to removed the door lock and attachments are listed. I used this in reverse to remember the correct order. I also had to refer to the parts catalogues on Mini Spares to work out which screws or bolts to use and what washers etc!!

 

Everything had to be cleaned for which I used spray on WD 40 and a brush. The metal work was also polished up. 

The gasket on this door handle had seen better days so as I did not have a replacement I whacked on some Hylomar to hold it in place:

 

 

Door handle fitted:

 

 

Then after a lot of fiddling / balancing and dropping washers etc I finally managed to re-assemble the door mechanisms. Oh and amazingly it work!!

 

 

The only bit that I had to work out is that once together there is a small clip that needs connecting to a small bar on the door handle. 

 

The doors are also a pretty good fit. They both catch on the door check a little as both doors could do with a couple of spacers on the bottom hinge:

 

Once fully shut (nice and tight with the new door seal) the R/H door is nice:

 

 

The L/H door sticks out a little but it will have to do.

 

I was getting tired and didn't really want to do the L/H door but needed to get it finished tonight so I cracked it:

 

 

In between doors I also did the boot.

Bit of a problem with the boot hinges. I had not thought about replacing the bottom studs on both hinges and as I did not have any threaded bar to hand I had to adapt. As I had bought new screws to fix the boot hinge to the boot I used two of these and some washers instead. Bit of a bodge but it will do until I get some Chrome Hinges.

 

 

 

Still need to fit the boot seal.

 

Got other tasks to complete tomorrow (not on the car) so back at it Thursday / Friday when I hope to do the Front Shock Mounts (Top and Bottom) and fit the new Front Shocks. Also fit the new front rear mounts on the front subby.

 

 

[JonnyAlpha]

Well yesterday and today I made some progress but as ever it was slow going.

 

Time to finish the front suspension, the upper shock mounts had been removed and painted previously and the lower mounts were to be replaced:

 

 

I whipped out the old bolts and fitted the new setup.

 

Whilst cleaning up the underside of the Subframe I spotted two unwanted holes!!

 

 

This was a bit of a setback so the only answer was to clean and weld them up. I cleaned up the area and then clamped some copper on the top side of the holes, welded them up, cleaned and painted. Hey presto - good as gone:

 

 

The bushes look very perished on the Lower Arms, I do hope this is not an MOT issue?

 

 

I also cleaned up the upper area of the Subframe and gave it a coat of Engine Enamel and fitted the Upper Shock Mount:

 

 

Once it was all dry I fitted the Shock Absorber:

 

 

And that was all for the day. I did want to get the Front Rear Subframe mounts fitted but sadly not.

 

Today the task was to get the Subframe Mounts on and finally get the Wellers Mounted.

As the weather was nice I also wanted to get the Upper and Lower Dashes cleaned and painted. First they got a clean up and a sand down to ensure that the paint would adhear:

 

 

There are a couple of gouges in the lower dash that needed repairing:

 

 

So I decided to use some Dolphin Glaze Filler to patch them up:

 

 

I also cleaned up the C Post covers ready for a splash of paint:

 

 

A few coats later and they look brand new:

 

 

 

The rest of the afternoon was spent fitting the Front Rear Subframe Mounts (one of which was was quite difficult and getting the wheels on:

 

 

Here she is on all four Wellers:

 

 

Tomorrow i'll fit the Indicators and build the dash.

 

[slidehammer]

All the hard work is really paying off now, looking really good.

[JonnyAlpha]

All the hard work is really paying off now, looking really good.

Thanks 

[JonnyAlpha]

Well an afternoon of work with some ups and downs.

 

Got the indicators wired up and fitted and they worked when I turned on the hazard switch. I didn't have the proper fitting clips but found some alternatives in my garage:

 

 

 

 

Before I fitted the Windscreen Wipers I needed to paint the bulkhead. I would have preferred to spray it but ended up brush painting.

Also took the opportunity to re wrap some of the wiring:

 

 

 

The Windscreen Wiper Motor sadly needs a clean up, as with everything I took it off and just boxed it to focus on the rusty bodywork:

 

 

Next up I secured the Instrument Cluster and fitted the lower dash and control panel:

 

 

 

I am a little worried about the wheels, I love them and it gives the car a retro sporty stance but I think it will fail and MOT without arches, not something I want to fit?

 

 

Last job was to fit the Windscreen Wipers drive and blades along with some chrome blanking plates:

 

 

The bad news was that whilst I was trying to get the wiper drive rod into position at one point as I pushed the splines up through the hole in the scuttle it sparked!! I took a look and could not see any bare wires but later when I started the car and turned the lights on - NOTHING. No lights or indicators, the car started OK though and the oil and ignition lights came on.

 

Hopefully its only a fuse?

 

[alex-95]

Coming along quickly now. shame about the lights though, could be worse though and have an engine and gearbox separated rather than in the car   . The wheels will be fine for the MOT, it's the rozzers that can pull you on them, It's just luck I would think. I think mines going to be sticking out about the same. Also on you indicator, the rubber looks sort of squashed out of round, the hole PCD isn't the same all the way around so you need to try each orientation to line the holes up with the rubber and indicator unit, that is if it's squished of cause.

[GT Jimmy]

That's crap about the wellers, my all time favourite mini wheel, but they're going to fail the mot with that much poke out. These days I prefer the arch less look.

Nice work by the way

[JonnyAlpha]

That's crap about the wellers, my all time favourite mini wheel, but they're going to fail the mot with that much poke out. These days I prefer the arch less look.

Nice work by the way

 

I am not a fan of arches wonder if I can stick some on.