129 replies to this topic

[HollyBaby]

I'm in a similar situation to your Dad... my 18 year old daughter said she wanted to restore a Mini and I've ended up doing all the work hehehe

Ooh he won't be doing all the work trust me! Sadly I can't do as much as I want to with being at uni but making an effort to travel home whenever possible to get stuck in!

[asahartz]

[
just looked at your website link off your profile, very impressed,like the music room too!

Holly records in there. Now that's impressive (you can find her on Youtube, rather talented!)

[asahartz]

I'm in a similar situation to your Dad... my 18 year old daughter said she wanted to restore a Mini and I've ended up doing all the work hehehe

Ooh he won't be doing all the work trust me! Sadly I can't do as much as I want to with being at uni but making an effort to travel home whenever possible to get stuck in!

Ah but you're 22... Linzie promised to work on Evy too but she's been in the garage exactly once!

[sirkieran_1986vtec]

lovelin the pics . lol . will be attacking mine tomoro . just got to get the spit bolted on . :)

[HollyBaby]

Today Holly joined me in the garage. She cleaned and painted the rear subby while I cut out the nearside floor. This proved to be a harder job than expected - patches on patches, so there was up to 5 layers in places! I went through 3 cutting discs and actually killed two grinders (one was old and has been hanging on for the last 6 months, and the new cheapo turned out to be crap - not even worth the £12 it cost!)

So, pics...

Peeling back the sill to find... another sill!

Here's Holly taking a rotary wire brush to the subframe. She now understands why I gave her full protective gear for that tool!

How many layers?

Again, how many layers???

The floor is cut out:

Once cleaned up the subby turned out to be in really good condition (fortunately!)
Here's Holly priming the subframe after a coating of Kurust:

Cut out the wheelarch - quite a job!

The rear subby crossmember turned out to be in better condition than expected, and as it looks pretty difficult to remove the whole thing, we've decided just to replace the ends. Here's the end cut away ready, the end prepped and joggled (new air joggler is cool!) and the floor marked for cutting away to replace.

One primed subby. Just need to flip over to finish tomorrow.

[orangeboy]

very nice work there and the apprentice has done a good job on the subby too!

[asahartz]

Today we put in the nearside boot corner and crossmember end. Holly learned to use a few cool tools - air shears and welder - and then I spot-welded in a repair section to the companion bin base which had been bodged in the past.

Floor corner cut out:

My cross-bracing - galvanised wall ties from Wickes! I had to add an extra piece to the floor to keep the floor position when I cut the corner away.

New boot corner section put in:

New crossmember end:

Holly took a piece of waste from the air shears, formed it into a shape then learned to weld to join the ends!

Bin base repair with a spot-welded plate. Carefully measured to get the right height! Now I know the base folds should be the other way, but I decided that this way would be easier to weld to the new floor pans (when they get here!)

[Tupers]

All looks like it's going well, nice work in the corner repair.

[racingenglishcars]

I was just looking through the Chris Bolus site and am impressed / reminiscant of the cars, guitars and hair colours. I do the cars, my daughter does the guitars and hair colours. http://s183.photobuc...frogeye61/hair/

I find it unfathomable when it is mentioned about (apparently) this Clubman project, "we were plesantly surprised by how good the body is." It seems that, at least with respect to this and the other Mini projects (Skye, Elfie, Evy) there must be a whole lot of rust in GB. You guys seem to be doing a great job with the renovation.

My daughter hasn't really been helping with my Frogeye project (that she thinks she will get when she turns 18) but it's been at least as extensive, though not quite as rusted as the Clubman. http://s183.photobuc...psis/?start=all

Good going. I will be watching this project. :)

[asahartz]

I was just looking through the Chris Bolus site and am impressed / reminiscant of the cars, guitars and hair colours. I do the cars, my daughter does the guitars and hair colours. http://s183.photobuc...frogeye61/hair/

I find it unfathomable when it is mentioned about (apparently) this Clubman project, "we were plesantly surprised by how good the body is." It seems that, at least with respect to this and the other Mini projects (Skye, Elfie, Evy) there must be a whole lot of rust in GB. You guys seem to be doing a great job with the renovation.

My daughter hasn't really been helping with my Frogeye project (that she thinks she will get when she turns 18) but it's been at least as extensive, though not quite as rusted as the Clubman. http://s183.photobuc...psis/?start=all

Good going. I will be watching this project. :)

Ha! Just by coincidence that last picture look about the same colours as Holly's latest hair - chestnut & blue!

But yes, there's a whole lot of rust over here. It's the road salt that is used extensively through the winter.

[Mr.P]

Project is looking good - just about to put the wheels back on my CE so it can go to the body shop. Saw another post from you somewhere else about the rear windows. With ref to that rather nice beige estate that was for sale last year which had a one piece rear window, the chap said all he did was " I bought some new re-enforced felt lined window channel online and fixed it to the car where the old twin channel window seal was. The windows are cut from 4mm polycarbonate sheet to fit and then fitted into the felt channel."
hope this helps!

[asahartz]

Well I've been busy on Evy all week, but finally had a little time to work on Stitch today. Having retrieved my welder from Adam, I made a start on the patch repairs.

I realised that the patch which looked OK from below had a corresponding patch on top... a rust sandwich!



The top patch more or less pulled off... not a good sign, revealing rusty holes underneath.



So the bottom patch had to come off too to do the job properly.



So the rust had to be cut out, and a new patch fabbed up. Proper job!



Finally I put the wheelarch in. Bloody pattern panels! I left plenty of original metal to match up to, and this arch fits where it touches. And it doesn't touch in many places!
After some fiddling and bashing with a hammer I spot-welded the arch to the floor edge - the outer wing is left clamped for now as they're to be replaced.



So next to complete the heelboard repair and fit the floor, step and sill. Before we turn over to do the other side!

[asahartz]

Project is looking good - just about to put the wheels back on my CE so it can go to the body shop. Saw another post from you somewhere else about the rear windows. With ref to that rather nice beige estate that was for sale last year which had a one piece rear window, the chap said all he did was " I bought some new re-enforced felt lined window channel online and fixed it to the car where the old twin channel window seal was. The windows are cut from 4mm polycarbonate sheet to fit and then fitted into the felt channel." hope this helps!

We're going for laminated glass, probably tinted too. Quotes are quite reasonable, and I'm planning a modern flush bonded look. Will be interesting to do; especially as I now have another estate project in the pipeline and will proabably do the same on mine.

[Mr.P]

Project is looking good - just about to put the wheels back on my CE so it can go to the body shop. Saw another post from you somewhere else about the rear windows. With ref to that rather nice beige estate that was for sale last year which had a one piece rear window, the chap said all he did was " I bought some new re-enforced felt lined window channel online and fixed it to the car where the old twin channel window seal was. The windows are cut from 4mm polycarbonate sheet to fit and then fitted into the felt channel." hope this helps!

We're going for laminated glass, probably tinted too. Quotes are quite reasonable, and I'm planning a modern flush bonded look. Will be interesting to do; especially as I now have another estate project in the pipeline and will proabably do the same on mine.

How much are you looking at for the glass?

[josh.goddard]

looking good chris i will keep my eye on this one i want to get another project soon would like a pickup but not one quite this rusty