409 replies to this topic

[1984mini25]

Also fixed a rather annoying coolant leak with some jb weld and new helicoils, caused by the head corroding away round on of the thermostat housing studs. Although I did think with all the time waiting for the jb weld to set (left it overnight) I could have swapped the head over in half the time.

 

 

 

 

[Rocket.]

Neat job on the JB weld !

[Stu.]

Shouldn't the outer sill be fully seam welded between the vents for MOT?

[1984mini25]

Shouldn't the outer sill be fully seam welded between the vents for MOT?

 

It will be, just I ran of flappy disks to flat down the welds and then fill in-between. There's more than enough welds for it to be drivable. And if I had go the local 'garage' to weld it on all they would have done the same, flatted down the welds and then covered the whole lot in sealant (based on previous 'welding' I've seen). Plus I have until September for when the mot runs out/is due.

Edited by 1984mini25, 12 June 2016 - 01:08 PM.

[Ben_O]

Why not drill a sries of holes along the bottom edge and then plug weld it to the inner?

[1984mini25]

Why not drill a sries of holes along the bottom edge and then plug weld it to the inner?

 

I didn't fancy plug weld while laying on my side/upside-down. There's still more tacks/weld than there were spot welds on the original sill.  

[Stu.]

Good show chap. Just checking

[1984mini25]

Still haven't got the welding finished on the n/s sill or made a start on the o/s, thanks to the British summer of rain and thunderstorms every 5 minuets.

 

But I have finally bought myself a new orbital sander (borrowed one the last time), witch turned out to be the typical ordeal it didn't need to be. Bought one from a seller off eBay with plenty of stock, only to get a message and refund 3 days later saying that the sander I'd bought they never had stock of in the first place. So another hunt around on eBay and sander number 2 was bought, then a week later a parcel arrives and sander number 2 looks nothing like the one in the listing. After a bit of google searching it turns out its the new undated version and is around £3 cheaper than the old one. Buts as the nearest stockist of this sander is 30 miles away, an extra £3 isn't the end of the world.

 

But armed with some local sourced cheap paint stripper (not as easy to find as you'd think) and the new sander I set to work stripping the pant off the original boot lid thats been off the car for a few weeks.

 

 

 

 

And it appears that some time before my ownership, the boot lid had taken a hit in the past to the right hand side of the boot lamp and pushed the boot lid in, witch has then been pushed back out, filled and repainted. Witch is odd as the boot was the only part of the car to still have the original mini25 sticker and pinstripes, so must have been masked up when it was repaired and repainted.

 

And apart from the odd minor bit of rust creeping under the paint witch easily sanded off, it's now been re-filled, primed and painted.

 

 

 

In-between the odd thundery downpour during the sunny spells, I also stripped and primed the n/s door step. Witch apart from the patch of filler I already knew about (welded a patch in a number of years back) looks pretty good.

 

 

Apart from this annoying little bit that will need chopping out and welding.

 

 

 

I've also managed to pull the rear seam trims off, de-rusted the insides by stuffing them with kitchen roll soaked in vinegar and leaving them a day or two before sanding and repainting.

 

 

 

 

I've also got the trim clips soaking in a jar of vinegar, hopefully the ones that don't disintegrate will clean up and be reusable.

Edited by 1984mini25, 17 June 2016 - 11:10 PM.

[slidehammer]

When I did mine I use stainless trim clips from Mini Spares to stop them rusting straight away. The other thing you can do is give the steel ones a good soaking in wax oil.

[1984mini25]

Not a massive update, but while pottering around in the garage tiding up (trying to find stuff) I removed the rear bumper and set to with the paint stripper to the bumper lip. What little rust there is will get sanded off and painted when I swap the boot lids back over.

 

 

 

 

Edited by 1984mini25, 18 June 2016 - 07:40 PM.

[1984mini25]

My order of eBay flap disks finally turned up, only a week and half for 48hour delivery, courteously of yodel economy. Although the wrong postage is the least of the problem. The total number of discs is correct, but the quantity of each grit is wrong and missing one grit entirely.  

But as it finally stopped raining this afternoon. I swapped back over the now painted original boot lid and hinges. And set about hacking away at the drivers rear quarter, with is both warped and full of filler.

 

 

 

So what started off as a perfectly ok panel soon turned into this...

 

 

 

Where the filler had lifted its allowed water to get in behind and you pretty much now the rest. Hopefully my replacement panel will cover most of it, but I'm thinking it might just be easier to replace the whole quarter panel instead.

[1984mini25]

finished attacking the quarter panel and filler with a wire brush/drill combo and kind of wished I hadn't.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And with a quick once over with the red oxide.

 

 

 

 

What you probably can't quite se in the pics ins the front half of the wheel arch has been pushed in, pushing the quarter panel in with it (hence all the filler) how I'm going to fix it, I'm not quite sure. Although my quick pop riveted and sealed patch won't be staying.

 

 

And a few of the boot, even if it is covered in filler dust.

 

 

[1984mini25]

Well I got absolutely nothing planned yesterday done, partly because of the weather and the dick of next-door neighbour (who conveniently had a day off from work) firing his rifle at the back fence 'testing it'.

 

the police were called and responded quite quickly (for once) But I was made to feel to feel like I was wasting police time and made to apologise (in effect) to the neighbour for calling the police.

 

His excused were he didn't know I was working (or at least trying to) on the car or in the garage (despite going out and coming back just 10 minuets before, with me working with the garage door/back gate open etc.) about 4 to 6 foot away from his fence/target, (being the lid of a wheelie bin full of grass cuttings) and never intend to cause and alarm or distress (pretty shook up at the time and still am)

 

But according to the police as an airsoft gun is 'low powered' it's NOT classed as a firearm and perfectly 100% legal to use, even in your back garden and even if you don't know were all the pelts fired finally end up.

 

So I'm pretty stuffed with what to do.

[1984mini25]

Got a tiny bit more done.

 

Finished up (welded the nuts on) some little brackets for the boot latch. As the standard screw holes and threads had pretty much had it. So I've drilled them out completely and used the brackets I've made up bolts up from behind. I might get round to welding the brackets to the boot lid, but I'm also debating upon whether or not I weld up the redundant holes for the boot lid seal.

 

 

 

And cleaned up the outer/inner sill to asses its condition.

 

 

 

 

[1984mini25]

N/s sill fully welded, sealed and painted. I'll give it a silver top coat (even though the tin of paint is 'silver') when I get round to buying some.

 

 

 

 

 

Although for y next lot of work I need to move the other mini out of the garage. But predictably as it hasn't moved in over a year the battery is knackered and so is my other spare one. So I kind of need to borrow a battery for a week.