670 replies to this topic

[big-jay]

Update,

Some more progress on the doors today, here's a few pictures.

Left the Deox Gel over night and it's worked great as usual -





Wire brushed the frame and then wiped off the Deox Gel. Then applied a few coats of zinc primer -



Flipped the frame over and removed the Magnum black paint from the front. Sanded down the flanges and then zinc primed it -







Placed the frame into the skin, positioned it roughly where I wanted it and then closed the edges of the door skin over the frame -



Took it out to the car and bolted it to the A-post, gaps aren't too bad for an initial fit -





Drivers door -





Both still need more work and I've bought some weld rods to get the gaping right. This is where I'm going to spend the extra time because if the gapping isn't right then it'll ruin the whole look of the car. I haven't welded the passenger side door skin to the frame yet though, so I've still got room to manoeuvre that about.

I'm going to set them more or less where I want them for now and then I'll come back to the door gaps after I've got the front end on, should be the last job to do before it goes off for paint !

Edited by big-jay, 31 July 2014 - 04:17 PM.

[big-jay]

Update,

We've been having a play with fitting and lining up the front end for the last couple of days, it's all starting to come together now and the gaps are looking quite good so I'm fairly pleased !

Anyway, here's a few pictures.

Fitted the front subframe back to the car, for the first time in almost seven months, using all new mountings -



Then we fitted the bonnet and adjusted the gap to the scuttle -





Fitted the front panel and adjusted it until it sat nice with the bonnet -







Then it was onto the wings which proved to be a lot more tricky. Took a few hours to wrestle them into position, but the gapping has come good thankfully.







So that's all clamped into place but will still need a touch more fetteling before we're 100% happy to weld it in place. Still got the A-Panels to put on and line up but that's a headache for tomorrow !

[Jared Mk3]

Some really nice and even gaps there, looks neat. Keep it up.

[big-jay]

Some really nice and even gaps there, looks neat. Keep it up.

Thanks a lot Jared !


Update,

Well I've put my two week break from work to good use, I've now got a complete front end on the Mini.

Carrying on from my previous update, I went around the front end panels and tweaked them until I was happy with the position they where in. Then I went about drilling all of the holes required for plug welding.

Wings -





Front panel -





Clamps required to hold the wings and front panel in position -





How that looked from the outside -





All welded in place -









Completely welded the wing to front panel seam to minimise the risk of corrosion -





Also had to redo a few of the spot welds Magnum had done on the front panel as they hadn't caught at all -



How that all looked with the bonnet placed on -



Next up was the A-Panels, zinc primed the door post -



Zinc applied to the A-Panel -



Clamped into place -



And then folded the lip over using the method shown on this forum, which involves the use of mole grips and a piece of wood. Came out really well -



Exactly the same procedure for the other side -



Overall look -





Also gave the welds on the wings a quick grinding down and applied some zinc primer -





Still not finished with this as I've got a lot of grinding, priming and sealing to do, but at least i now have a complete Mini ! (sort of)

Anyway today we decided to have a look at the door gapping's on the drivers door.

Door to rear quarter -



Door to A-Panel, hard to see in the picture as the A-Panel is still in the black E-Coat -



Not brilliant and much to wide for my liking, so we marked out where the problem areas where and tacked welded some weld rod to the door -





Happy with the general position they where in we took the door off and fully welded the rod to the door front and back -







After a quick grind down and a bit of shaping -





Bolted the door back to the car and we now have this, not 100% finished as I'll still need to tweak it a bit, but a vast improvement non the less -



(Again hard to see as the A-Panel is black, will apply some grey primer tomorrow and take a picture, so you'll hopefully be able to see the gapping a lot easier) -



Not to much left to do now, just the passenger door gaps to sort and then all the tedious jobs like sealing and what not.

We'll be phoning the place that's going to be painting her on Monday to book her in, probably looking around the middle of this month so that should give me enough time to finish the last few jobs !

[deepee71]

Super work !, must have great neighbours?...I used to have to work outside before we moved and have a garage. The problems it used to cause with the exposed noise etc....

 

Andy

[big-jay]

Super work !, must have great neighbours?...I used to have to work outside before we moved and have a garage. The problems it used to cause with the exposed noise etc....
 
Andy

Cheers andy,

To be fair, I haven't had a problem thus far, seems a lot of them take a genuine interest in what I'm doing. Helps that I work nights too so when I'm up in the day there usually at work.

[domdee]

them gaps are looking great

[big-jay]

them gaps are looking great

Cheers bud,

Definitely worth that extra effort to get them looking good !

[big-jay]

Parts update,

Received a big package from Force Racing today, I wonder what could be in it -





My long awaited Exacton split rims, they look absolutely stunning, and will look even better when I've had them blasted + powder coated.

Here's a couple more pictures -











An absolute credit to Carl at force racing, he does a cracking job !

The paint shop will be coming to pick up the Mini next Saturday, so it's going to be a busy weekend getting all the small jobs finished off so she's ready. It'll probably take them around two - four weeks to completely paint the shell so that should give me time to get all the running gear and what not refurbed and painted.

[Jared Mk3]

I really want a set of these 

[big-jay]

Update,

Well the Minis off to the paint shop on Saturday, so I've been doing all of the small jobs that are required to make sure she's ready, lots of sealing, bits of fillering and a few welds here and there. Nothing too interesting so I didn't take too many pictures, but I'll put up what I have anyway.

Completely welded the scuttle flange to the wing/a-panel flange -





Had some extensive pitting around the fuel filler neck, so had to replace that with fresh metal. Cut out the rot -



CAD template made and transferred to steal -



Clamped in place -



Welded in and ground down -



Tried the rubber seal for fitment-



Cleaned up and welded the bonnet stay bracket back in place -





Welded up the holes in the bonnet as I'm going for the clean, de-badged look. Still needs going over with the power file to make it completely smooth, then a lick of filler to finish that off -





Lots of sealing done underneath the wings -







Same was done for the other side, that's just a small portion of what we've been doing, but as I said, it's not very interesting so I haven't been taking too many pictures. Still got more sealing to do tomorrow so will put some more pictures of that up when I've done it. I've also been doing more work on the door gaps, I should get that finished tomorrow so they'll be some pictures of that too.

Now onto something a little bit more interesting, I bought some new hinges from Minispares recently but I found them to be pretty poor if I'm honest, so I decided not to use them and to try and get my original ones repaired, as they had a fair amount of play in them.

So we went down to our local engineering shop to see about getting them reamed and having new pins put in.

I had the holes widened to 7mm to eradicate the wear in the hinge, bar the last section which was left at 6mm to ensure that the pin would not drop through as it wears. Then I had some new pins made from solid hardened steal, these where machined to 7mm, with a 6mm taper at one end and a rolled edge at the other so it will grip tightly when pressed into position.

Here's a few pictures to better explain.





As you can see, the bottom hole, of the part of the hinge that screws to the door, has been left at 6mm, the rest has been machined to 7mm -

Here is the pin, note the step at the bottom -



And a couple more pictures -





A really nice job done, obviously the pins haven't been pressed into position yet, so won't be sticking out like that when finished. I'm going to get the hinges powder coated soon, speaking of that, I've also taken a lot of things down to be blasted and powder coated, should be picking those up tomorrow so will stick a few pictures up when I've got them.

Edited by big-jay, 21 August 2014 - 09:38 PM.

[megamini_jb]

Such an amazing built!

Loving the splits! How wide did you go? 6"?

Edited by megamini_jb, 21 August 2014 - 07:15 PM.

[big-jay]

Such an amazing built!
Loving the splits! How wide did you go? 6"?

Thanks buddy,

Yes, there 6" wide.

[Jared Mk3]

Been waiting for an update - some real good progress, can't wait to see it in paint.

[big-jay]

Been waiting for an update - some real good progress, can't wait to see it in paint.

Cheers Jared,

Me either, then just got the mammoth task of putting it all back together again, should be interesting !