1498 replies to this topic

[Ben_O]

Finally I have an update! 

After months of very little progress I am up and running again. The reason I couldn't progress was because I couldn't sort out any gas for the welder.

Any way that's all sorted now and I have been working on the front cross member and bulkhead.

over the past couple of days I have fabricated a section of the lower front parcel shelf and welded it in and finished welding in my repair pieces onto the front cross member. Besides this I have fabricated an end repair piece for the lower dash rail and that is welded in now.

 

It doesn't look like much has happened but all the fiddly jobs take the time. 

I should manage to get the next lot of panels ordered this week so that will be the top dash rail, scuttle, inner wing complete and inner sill as well as the windscreen frame boxing panel and door pillar boxing plate. 

 

This end of the cross member was totally rotten so I have replaced the front and bottom or it

 

I have fabricated this end of the lower parcel shelf and welded in place. this was before I had put in the other piece as I wanted to add it a bit at a time so it all stays in the right place.

 

This is the other bit I fabricated to go in, and yes I did de-rust all the visible rust to the left of the picture before I welded it in place.

 

After a quick grind up, jobs a Godden. I shall tidy up the welds some more before it gets its proper primer when the rest of the shell is done.

 

And I put in the end piece of lower dash rail that I made but it still needs ore work along the top. God that's an awfull shape to reproduce as it tapers of flatter towards the door post!

 

So that's my days work done.

Doesn't look a lot but it was very bad in that area and needed a lot of work.

Tomorrow ill be working on the lower bulkhead that I replaced before to get that all finished off then hopefully by then ill have some panels!!

 

Cheers

Ben

 

Comments welcome as always

 

 

[rally515]

Wow smart repairs there Ben!, im getting the bug for some fabrication time haha

 

Great work here and some good skills being used, bet it'll be a good feeling when you finaly get a brand spanking new innerwing in filling big gaps is always a great feeling

 

Keep it up

 

Cliff

[Ben_O]

Cheers Cliff, It is a good feeling to finally get some work done. I trained as a panel beater and worked in an accident repair centre for 10 years but I haven't been in that game since 2008 so its good to get back into it again. Just a bit rusty. me and the car!! lol

 

Ben

[rally515]

Haha yeah very rust!.....the car i mean     haha

 

Wish i could do a panel beating course of some descrition as its something id love to be able to do not only on the mini but as a possible job

[Ben_O]

I trained for 4 years at EMTEC in Nottingham which is a Vauxhall approved college and did an apprenticeship at a Vauxhall main dealer. It was aa great course but repairing crash damage on euroboxes soon becomes very boring. 

I much prefer to do restoration work because once you have alor of experience repairing even major accident damage the job becomes too easy and I like a challenge plus crash damage doesn't give you the opportunity for fabrication work, its just drilling sport welds, jigging bent motors and fitting panels as well as all the other repairs and filler- urghhh!!

 

Ben

[rally515]

Ahh i can understand that now you say it, and yeah working on classics that have rusted is abit better, dream resto for me would be one of these 1930's yank tanks with bg swooping wings the needed re-making from scratch, never done any english wheeling as i cant afford one or dont have the room to store one either so tiz but a dream for now

[Ben_O]

I had a go on an English wheel at the college but those sorts of repairs were not part of the syllabus so I didn't really learn much about using one properly. I have always had a passion for repairing panels rather than replacing them. I respect you cliff for what you are doing on your mk2 with the b posts. 

When I was 19 I had a Mercedes 190E Cosworth and I stacked it into the back of a BMW. The damage was pretty bad, the bonnet was folded in half, broken headlights and splayed wings etc, was a mess. I don't have a pic of it after the accident but I have a pic of it once I repaired it.

I only replaced the headlights, indicators and plastic grille insert and the rest I repaired. took ages but I didn't have much money so had no choice really. I also painted the front end under a marquee!! those were the days. god I miss that car!

[rally515]

Wow what a car to have at 19 haha, not into mercs although we had a 190E about 4 years ago now, had overheating issues and a stiky blue leather interior but apart from that it wasnt too bad really

 

Im guessing insurance wasnt too bad back then ? haha

 

Absolutly stunning how you managed to straighten all that out, i can imagine the bonnet being a hard panel to straighten ? because its a large panel to work with and has subtle cruves to replicate..

 

Ahh thanks, haha this is my first real panel beating type of thing i,ve done before so we'll see how it turns out haha

Think my future projects will consist of alot more panel making rather than buyin, with the mk2 i wanted to get panels that were right or as near as possible for a A-post area as i,ve nothing to work from other than non accurate photos so for this one i,ve bought quite a bit :/

[Ben_O]

The hardest bit once the front panel was straight was getting the bonnet to fit roughly and close then it was just hours and hours of hot spot shrinking and body filing, then a skim with the ol body filler. It did look a bit wavey in some lights but it was pretty good. I could have just chucked a second hand bonnet on it but I wanted to repair it for the hell of it really! 

[rally515]

I could have just chucked a second hand bonnet on it but I wanted to repair it for the hell of it really! 

 

Now thats a true british outlook on a situation

I respect you greatly for being able to do this body magic whitchcraft Ben haha and i hope i can atleast try and copy your work in time as no doubt i'l be using your project as reference along the way

 

Might aswell be cheeky and ask.....is there anything i'l need to be doing to the B-post in order to get it right or is what im doing now ok and then finish with a planishing hammer/slapper ?

No idea how this hot spot shrinking buisness works yet so maybe something i need to do ? (sorry to clog your thread up, you can reply on my thread if you like or i can PM you..)

 

Thankyou

Cliff

[Ben_O]

Hot spot shrinking works by applying heat with an oxy-acetylene torch in a circular motion on a stretched panel and then planishing it to shrink the panel back while its cherry red. Its a great help when you need to beat a panel straight especially in situations when the panel is caved in as the metal stretches and this method helps tighten everything up. 

I will reply to your thread about the b posts.

 

Cheers

Ben

[rally515]

Thankyou Ben, appreciate you sharing your knowledge and experience :)

 

Cliff

[Ben_O]

Thankyou Ben, appreciate you sharing your knowledge and experience :)

 

Cliff

No probs mate

 

Ben

[Ben_O]

Little update.

I have finished the welding on the lower front bulkhead that I fabricated and its getting strong now! got all the loom tabs welded in of the old rotten bit and got the heater brackets welded on too until I realised that I had wrote the measurements down wrong and fitted them too far apart but hey ho! that will have to be re-done.

next I need to drill the holes for the throttle pedal and weld in the captive bolts and fabricate a piece of lower front cross member for the other side to sort out some more rot..

But.... overall the front is coming on nicely and will very soon be ready for the inner wings to be fitted.

 

Photos to follow as my camera died.

 

Cheers

 

Ben

[rally515]

Look forward to seeing the progress Ben, have one question...are you restoring this to standard 25 spec ?

 

Cliff