1843 replies to this topic

[Petrol]

I've had a bit of time to think about this and have decided to strengthen the toe board. Can't seem to find much on it  and I don't want to weld the shell at this stage so am thinking of bonding stiffening plates from underneath. Structural bonding is common place on cars these days, I just need to get my choice of materials sorted. In the meantime, I've started fitting up the front suspension.

 

New wheel bearings, ball joints, adjustable tie rods and adjustable camber arms

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pete

[Ben_O]

I love the Bonding idea Pete. I have dabbled myself before and found it to be very good.

[Artstu]

Nice, it must be a bit of a challenge not to chip the paint. I'm very surprised to see those unpainted track-rod ends 

[Jase]

Nice, it must be a bit of a challenge not to chip the paint. I'm very surprised to see those unpainted track-rod ends 

 

Bet they've been laquered 20 times :)

[evansisgreat]

All looks so shiney and new!
I know things aren't tightened and torqued, but is the steering rack not meant to have a plain nut on it before the track rod end? On my rack it was tightened against the rod end to stop it moving, not that I think it would.

[sonikk4]

When I fitted the door skins, I painted zinc on both the frames and skins before folding them over wet. The result is a complete coverage of zinc within the seam. Welding down the edge of the door would burn the zinc paint off resulting in no protection at all. It would be impossible to try to force any sort of rust proofing in after the folds have been made.
As far as welding a strip down the bonnet goes, the problem is filling it to make an invisible repair. Unless the strip has a significant amount of weld in it making it totally rigid to the bonnet skin, there’s always the risk of the filler cracking. Body filler, unlike seam sealer, is not very flexible and over time will crack with any movement. I’m sure most of us have seen Minis with the scuttle to wing seam filled and cracked.
The golden rule is – seam sealer fills seams, filler fills dents.
 
Pete

I should have said something about this statement a lot earlier. The metal strips were fully welded, so minimal filler and nope it won't crack as it's solid. No point whatsoever in leaving gaps and relying on filler to fill the gaps.

Anything like this I always use a torch behind to see if there are any gaps and if there are any they are welded up.

[Cooperman]

I presume the drawback of solid mounting is increased noise and vibration in the cabin? Probably not important depending on the intended use for the car of course but I am curious just how much of a drawback that really is, I'm some way of having to make a decision on this for mine but it is something I've been giving some thought to.

It's a myth that solid mounts increase NHV to a bad level. All the early cars had solid mounted front sub-frames up until the mid-'70's. The reason for the change was the change in target market from younger people to middle-aged ladies who were thought to want a really smooth ride even at the expense of steering feel.

So if you want to drive like an old woman, keep the rubber mountings, but if more dynamic steering and feel is wanted, the only way is all-solid up front.

[alchall]

I think I'll be adding some strengthening to the toe board to keep this as an option, not sure how far I need to actually go with this though

[Petrol]

 

When I fitted the door skins, I painted zinc on both the frames and skins before folding them over wet. The result is a complete coverage of zinc within the seam. Welding down the edge of the door would burn the zinc paint off resulting in no protection at all. It would be impossible to try to force any sort of rust proofing in after the folds have been made.
As far as welding a strip down the bonnet goes, the problem is filling it to make an invisible repair. Unless the strip has a significant amount of weld in it making it totally rigid to the bonnet skin, there’s always the risk of the filler cracking. Body filler, unlike seam sealer, is not very flexible and over time will crack with any movement. I’m sure most of us have seen Minis with the scuttle to wing seam filled and cracked.
The golden rule is – seam sealer fills seams, filler fills dents.
 
Pete

I should have said something about this statement a lot earlier. The metal strips were fully welded, so minimal filler and nope it won't crack as it's solid. No point whatsoever in leaving gaps and relying on filler to fill the gaps.

Anything like this I always use a torch behind to see if there are any gaps and if there are any they are welded up.

 

 

As I mentioned, fully welded it will be fine   Since my welding skills, even this far down the line, are only very average, I didn’t feel confident to do this. I seem to like a lot of heat and feared for warping the bonnet skin. The other thing that’s more specific to this build, is that the bonnet is on pins and will be removable. I didn’t want the bonnet too tight a fit for fear of chipping the paint.

 

 

I only fitted the track rod ends to torque up the steering arms. I need to paint the ends and buy some lock nuts.  

 

 

Vented disks require the drive flanges drilling out to 10mm to take the bolts.

 

 

 

I want to paint the non contact area of the disks to stop them rusting. I’m also going to paint the rear mini fin drums black.

 

I'm trying to find some Dural plates to strengthen the toe board. Seems hard to find though. Still looking into a bonding adhesive 

 

Pete
 

[Jared Mk3]

Those discs look good. Great job as always 

[Petrol]

I'm not particularly a fan of grooved disks but I couldn't get plain vented. Painted them today

 

 

Along with the Minisport superfins

 

 

Build quality on the 4 pot calipers is excellent. I went for retro black rather than bling

 

 

 

 

 

Hopefully this combo with Mintex pads and shoes will give good feel to the brakes without fade.

 

Pete

 

[Ben_O]

I wasn't sure when you said you were going to paint the minifins but i have to say they look great.

 

Ben

[RossKnight]

Pete, any tips for not getting any runs on shapes like that? Wheels etc as well. I'm fine with easy surfaces etc, but when it comes to something with a deep recess in it, I always try to build get the paint down into the gaps etc, which just leads to runs.

 

The minifins look great painted.

[Gr4h4m]

I'm going to ask it but are the stainless bolts strong enough for the suspension?

[fwdracer]

Cheers for this thread. It has convinced me to scrap my K-plate '93 shell. Rover were producing some real sh**te towards the end of Mini production.

 

Top skills on your rebuild - perseverance and patience rewarded.

Edited by fwdracer, 20 March 2015 - 10:34 PM.