188 replies to this topic

[rooney123]

keep up the good work minilegs very good for first project I'm learning from scratch and enjoying it don't have that much skill with many things but getting the hang of it................oh yeah love the pup..............andy   

[Minilegs]

looking very nice mate and your puppy is so cute! cheeers tom 

 

cheers Tom! he may look cute, but he can be a little bugger at times!

keep up the good work minilegs very good for first project I'm learning from scratch and enjoying it don't have that much skill with many things but getting the hang of it................oh yeah love the pup..............andy   

Thanks Andy, slow progress but it will get there in the end. I have come to the conclusion that with welding, you will never reach a point that you are happy, you will constantly want to improve which is a good thing. I am still very hit and miss, sometimes it comes out well, sometimes it goes proverbials up. But thats half the fun, and with experience i guess the good/bad ratio favours towards good.  One day i want to be able to weld like sonikk, but thats going to take a lot of practise :)

[ToM 2012]

your welding is very good mate nice and neat. im just lucky i have a grinder to make mine look a bit better lol

[Minilegs]

Thanks Tom, my welds are getting better, but still reliant on a grinder to tidy them up!
But as long as they are solid, who cares lol

[mini_mad_andy]

I'm glad you've said that, I feel heavily reliant on the grinder after welding, but thought that as due to being an absolute amateur welder!

Your work is very inspiring. Keep it up!

Andy.

[alex-95]

great work on the bootlid, I bought the skins of a mk1 outside without the lip and a double skinned inside. I will be able to copy how you've done it now

[Minilegs]

I'm glad you've said that, I feel heavily reliant on the grinder after welding, but thought that as due to being an absolute amateur welder!

Your work is very inspiring. Keep it up!

Andy.

 

I think even the best welder in the world will still need a grinder when working on these biscuit tins :)

 

 

 

great work on the bootlid, I bought the skins of a mk1 outside without the lip and a double skinned inside. I will be able to copy how you've done it now

 

The tubby lady ain't singing yet, as i still have got to weld the flange back on, but fingers are crossed :)

[scrumpymini]

Love the work on the car and your dog even more, we have 11 month old Working Cocker Spaniel, she has more energy than the rest of us put together.

[Minilegs]

i decided to have a break from the boot lid, and started on my rear parcel shelf. It was in a bad way, from rust and also previous repairs done to it. 

Both ends are rotted out and the edge which attaches to the back panel was no-existent. Another donor panel required, which i got when i sourced the rear lower window section.

 The only problem was as it was a later rear shelf, it was a bit different to the the one i have. The main difference was the amount of flutes on the panel, with the mk1 having more. Also, the edge which attached to the back panel was different to accommodate the larger rear screen. So, i decided i would have have to chop things about quite a lot to keep my tray to mk1 spec.

I started by removing the front area, taking lots of measurements to reference points to help check the new section was in the correct place.

after i removed this, i wasn't really left with much......but hey ho 

 

Next  I needed to get the shape back to the corners using the donor panel again. These were a bit rusty in places, so i decided to concentrate firstly on getting the out line of the tray correct, then get the little bits of rot out.

 

 

I then made some little repair pieces , to get rid of the rusted areas.

 

finally, a test fit, i still have a few holes to sort on the shelf, that need blanking, but i will do that another time:)

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Minilegs]

Love the work on the car and your dog even more, we have 11 month old Working Cocker Spaniel, she has more energy than the rest of us put together.

yes they are lively. Harry our dog, hes a working springer, and energy is endless! but hes also a clever cookie and we love him to bits!

I hoping that one day, when i get the nasty grindy smelly work out of the way, he can come in the garage and keep me company, But until then, hes in the warm house lol!

[bpirie1000]

Cracking work attention to detail is a great thing.. Well done..

[Minilegs]

Cracking work attention to detail is a great thing.. Well done..

 

Thanks mate, I agree, attention to detail is a marvelous thing, but it also time consuming as I have now found out !

2 months on a parcel shelf, some say I am mad (mainly people at work) but I carry on regardless :) 

[Minilegs]

.

Edited by Minilegs, 03 June 2014 - 11:03 PM.

[Minilegs]

I needed a change from the rear end, so I decided to have a tickle on the n/s rear quarter panel, as it needed a couple of repairs.I have already done some repairs to this panel when I fitted the floor. I sanded it back to metal when i did this, and was really lazy and did not protect it afterwards. Luckily, my garage is very dry, so only a small amount of surface rust had appeared, which was scotched off easily. 

 

 

 

 

 

The previous repairs were the areas along the floor seam, around the wheel arch and the lower corner which attaches to the back panel. The outstanding repairs to this side was the area below the rear quarter light. a section on the seam where the back panel joins, and some minor dings and pitting to sort out in the door shut area.

Now, the problem i have is that most of my work is spread out over long periods, as i may only get an hour here and there to work on the mini. So once i had taken it back to metal, i needed to protect it, but i didn't want to waste acid etch on it, as i would be working on a few areas, and it would have been a waste, So i gave it a coat of white primer, the keep it shiny:) And to remind myself of the repairs needed, I marked them with permanent marker on the steel, so when the paint was applied it leaked through and showed clearly. ..........Yes, I am a little bit mad 

 

 

 

Firstly I tackled the rear seem area, as it had rusted and the pitting was deep and nasty. So I formed a piece of steel to the shape of the area i was cutting out, which was a bit fiddly due to the curves, but i persevered until i was happy with it. Then i chopped the offending area out.

 

Sorry, but i seemed to have no photo of the repair piece i made, but once it was welded it and slightly fettled, i was pretty happy with the result.

 

 

I had a few small dings in the area just behind the door line, which needed attacking from the area behind the lower b pillar. And i also wanted to remove this piece as i wanted to inspect and protect the areas behind,So this happened...

 

 

 

With that out of the way, I then repaired the couple of dents in that area, which again, I forgot to photo

 

Lower quarter light area was rather rough to say the least, but easily repairable,when done right. Sadly, i had another mad moment and chose the wrong way doh!

 

So I decided the best way to repair it was a small section at a time, that way i could keep as much original steel as possible, and keep the shape correct.

 

 

 

 

You get the idea, so I did this until all the pitting an rust was gone, ground it back, then stepped back to admire my lovely repair, but instead I called myself a door opening implement, then turned the lights of and went indoors in a sulk. 

Basically, the back of the repair that the window seal sits on was wonkier that a giraffe's knees when playing twister. I obviously wasn't accurate enough in lining up my individual repair piece, and so hence it looked awful.

A few days later, I had calmed down, so went back in the cut it out and start again.I shouted at it while i cut the area out, and again repeatedly once i had thrown it to the floor and stamped on it several times. Now i had that out of my system, i carried on and tried again, using just one repair piece, like i should have done at the start. Bah! 

 

Finished one piece repair.

 

 

mucho better.

 

 

[ToM 2012]

very nice work there mate same again the other side? cheers tom