74 replies to this topic

[Down&Out]

ahem

what

 

(cor the forum corrects bad typing, cant even be ironic)

Edited by Down&Out, 24 May 2015 - 09:17 AM.

[Down&Out]

Hello mini fans

It's been an extraordinarily long time since I've been on here and actively working on any Mini, let alone my own. I've recently actually started on this car again so I thought I'd update this thread (I've been through and updated all the dead photos - mods feel free to clean up any vacant posts)

It's been a classic case of 'life getting in the way'. 9 years on from my last post I've gone on to become a professional classic car restorer/welder & fabricator and these days work on vehicles that are of much higher monetary or rarity value, so for that reason, my own big projects have fallen by the wayside. 

 

I started my own restoration business about three years ago but I had a bit of a lull about a year ago, so I dragged this out of a barn to see how things looked. In the intervening years I've repaired and reskinned one of the doors and done a little general snagging work, but it was otherwise untouched.

 

 

 

My initial reasoning for wanting to push this through all those years back (aside from all the obvious) was its cheap running and insurance costs. I was 21 and broke when I did the bodywork, now I'm a bit older and frankly still not in possession of wads of money and with the recent insurance price hikes and the 'cost of living crisis' I've decided now is the time it needs to be done. (Plus in two years, its tax exempt - woohoo!)

Obviously I'm older, much more skilled and I earn more than I used to, so as much as its frustrating that it has taken this long, I'm somewhat glad that it has, because the end result will be better...
 

Given how long its been since I worked on the thing there is a lot of nuance I missed first time round and a lot needed doing for it having sat for years. The paintwork has ultimately been the thing that has stopped me working on it. I didn't want to assemble it without a respray, and every year I've planned to do it and every year I haven't.

 

I started a sideline restoring vintage guitars some time ago and I've refinished about 20 instruments since then, so it think I've got the relevant experience to do it now, so taking previous experience I decided to start from scratch and bare metalled the whole car. 

After an entire working week with paint stripper, scrapers, wire wheels etc, and a coat of etch primer, things got underway!

 

 

 

 

It became apparent that this car has had a respray before and a a reasonable amount of filler work. So I had a lot of paint and product to remove before I could start building it back up again. There is also a hell of a lot of dents and distortion where I did the work previously or pranged it as a 12 year old.

 

Before I could think about next steps, I had to reinstall the sunroof to make sure the roof stayed where it was supposed to. 

 

Given that I disassembled this car nearly 18 years ago, and had no initial plans to keep the roof, I'd chucked it in all sorts of places. I found as many bits as I could find and found myself with most of a Britax folding roof. I was missing one corner.

I've had to fabricate an awful lot out of scrap and thin air over the years due to the unavailability of certain classic car spares, so I had no choice but to make something. I couldn't find a second hand roof, nobody sells spares and nobody wanted to help, so using some 1" angle iron, and an oxyacetylene rig, I fabricated a new corner:

 

 

 

Luckily my garden-shed creativity paid off!

 

 

 

 

 

With that task complete, I could finally start on the filler work. I've skimmed about a third of the car so far, so I've still got most of the car to do, but I'm hoping to have it in primer by the end of the month. 


 

I'll try and keep the updates regular going forward - wont be another nine years this time, I can assure of that!

[Down&Out]

Well, I didn't get it in primer by the end of the month. You know how things go!

However, I have primed and painted the boot/parcel shelf, and finished the filler work on the roof and primed that too!

 

The roof is now in surfacer, I'll block that back for hi-build in the next few days. After hi build I can paint it all in colour and then leave it until it needs polishing.

Still plenty of filler shaping to do but its nearly there. I'll update when I have shiny pics!

[Retro_10s]

Excellent excellent seeing a scraped front end is all too familiar to me, glad to see the Chelsea reborn

[Down&Out]

Excellent excellent seeing a scraped front end is all too familiar to me, glad to see the Chelsea reborn

 

Thanks! We might actually both have our cars on the road at the same time after all these years eh? ha ha ....

A bit more progress to note, although peppered with disasters as to be expected.

I did paint the roof, and my compressor chose that moment to get moisture in the lines so I had to rub it down and do it again, this is it looking better in the photos than it actually was!

 

New stage was to get the rear end looking something like reasonable. Its evidently had an accident in the past as I took a lot of filler out of the OSR light area to begin with, but I've managed to get it into a half decent shape. I've also treated myself to a DSN classics rear fog light bracket because I've always hated those original 80s ones. (It just clears a centre exit exhaust too, which is nice) 

 

With the rear end more or less the right shape I decided to paint my workshop floor a pretty colour -

 

 

I've still got loads to do to both sides before I can colour coat, but i'm hoping to have it fully painted this week. Plenty of wet sanding required as my workshop is the worst place to paint a car, but its on its way!

[Retro_10s]

Unfortunately you have painted your roof black, which is exactly the same as my intentions, expect court proceedings in the post.

[Down&Out]

Unfortunately you have painted your roof black, which is exactly the same as my intentions, expect court proceedings in the post.

 

Ha ha ha, will race you to the finish!

I have made a little progress recently. I now have hi build on the front end:

 

In an ideal world I'd paint this all in distinct stages but because im fitting it in around work and other obligations I'm having to do bits at a time. After finally finishing the shaping on the nearside, I also applied several coats epoxy primer and a few coats of surfacer and blocked it all level. 

 

 

 

 

After that, I put hi build on top.

 

 

I'll block sand that level and colour coat over the next few days, then I've just got the offside to do!

 

 

More soon!

[Down&Out]

Well, there's a few runs I need to flat, but the majority of the car is now red...

Edited by Down&Out, 01 September 2024 - 08:52 PM.

[johnR]

Looking good, what paint stripper is best to use?

[Down&Out]

Looking good, what paint stripper is best to use?

I use this rustoleum stuff:

 

Its not as noxious as the usual synstrip or nitromors stuff is and it actually takes paint off too...

[stuart bowes]

nitormors is basically useless now by all accounts, apparently some environmental issue or other meant they had to remove whatever it was that made the stuff work (or that's what I heard anyway) either way when I bought some it did next to nothing unlike the olden days when it just made paint come off easy

 

I just use a big wire brush attachment on the grinder, it's noisy but you get straight back to bare metal very easily albeit somewhat time consuming and makes your wrists ache

Edited by stuart bowes, 05 September 2024 - 06:33 PM.

[Down&Out]

Not much to add, other than lots of sanding. 

I did build up the rear plate lamp with new lenses, and then spent many an hour wet sanding and polishing the boot lid. Still much to do but gives an idea!

 

 

[Down&Out]

nitormors is basically useless now by all accounts, apparently some environmental issue or other meant they had to remove whatever it was that made the stuff work (or that's what I heard anyway) either way when I bought some it did next to nothing unlike the olden days when it just made paint come off easy

 

I just use a big wire brush attachment on the grinder, it's noisy but you get straight back to bare metal very easily albeit somewhat time consuming and makes your wrists ache

Yes I did a mix of hand stripping and knotted wheel on an angle grinder. Totally wears you out but its the only way sometimes!

[Down&Out]

A few small bits to update.

I've finally finished the filler work. Or at least I thought I had. I had to redo the doorstep because it was a reasonably horrible shape, but luckily you can fill onto epoxy primer!

 

 

Once all that was roughed-in, I applied a few coats of surfacer. Just need to block that to shape before hi build primer and colour. 

 

 

Nearly there!

[Down&Out]

We have liftoff:

 

 

 

 

 

By rights I can start putting it back together now, though I think I'll repaint the bulkhead and interior so it all matches before the weather truly turns...