192 replies to this topic

[carthorse]

Progress has been a bit glacial of late due to boring stuff like earning a living, seeing the family, taking my eldest round universities (frighteningly expensive this further education business ) etc etc and while the weather has been half decent I've spent quite a lot of spare time indulging by other passion for cycling and mountain biking.

I have got the rear subframe stripped down and the front one is getting there which will allow me to finally tidy up the garage so I've actually got some space to work on the shell. With this in mind and anticipating a long winter of cutting, grinding and welding ahead I've bitten the bullet today and ordered a rollover jig from Handling Solutions. Years of crawling around underneath and into the crevices of aeroplanes have left me with a knackered knee and temperamental back so being able to rotate the shell and weld standing up should make life easier. (My welding so bad eneough anyway when I'm comfortable with good access, so anything attempted lying on my back quitting myopically upwards will never be structurally sound!)

I'll get some pics up when the jig arrives and I'm spinning the shell round wondering where on earth to start ...........

[DaveJH]

Just read through your thread, love your story-telling style 

 

Keep up the thorough work and write-ups! Your pickup looks gorgeous already, can't wait to see it completely rebuilt. Will you keep the current colour? Also, I like those bike front wheel mounts, are they home-made or available online somewhere? I'm into my mountain biking too, need to get bike racks for my roof rack at some point. Probably should wait until after the engine/gearbox rebuild I've just been forced into...

 

Always wanted a pickup 

[jonlad]

Hi - Enjoying reading about Percy.

 

I think I live on the same estate as you, I have noticed (coveted) the sprite on your drive while I was walking the dog. I have a sprite which looks rather poorer than yours! 

 

As I am about to weld a new front end on I wanted to ask where you got the hobbyweld from as I think the closest places were leek or crewe last time I looked

 

[carthorse]

Yes mine came from the tool hire place in Crewe next to the retail park (can't remember the name for the life of me....!)

Are you in H/C on the lakes estate? I haven't seen another mini round here for ages - feel free to drop in for a brew or say hello if your passing and the garage door is open - I'm away quite a bit with work or on nights shifts a lot at the mo so don't worry if nobody answers or the wife says I'm asleep

The blue Sprite is rusting well underneath the shiney paint - it's away in Stockport at Minidivision at the mo waiting to get to the front of the queue for Neil there to rectify some previous bodgery I missed when we (I) bought it!

[jonlad]

PM'd you Carthorse :)

[carthorse]

Just read through your thread, love your story-telling style 
 
Keep up the thorough work and write-ups! Your pickup looks gorgeous already, can't wait to see it completely rebuilt. Will you keep the current colour? Also, I like those bike front wheel mounts, are they home-made or available online somewhere? I'm into my mountain biking too, need to get bike racks for my roof rack at some point. Probably should wait until after the engine/gearbox rebuild I've just been forced into...
 
Always wanted a pickup 

Glad you like the write ups - if you're into biking and like my rambling s on minis try www.thedecliningcyclist.wordpress.com or search for 'the declining cyclist' on Facebook for my biking related musings
Final colour for Percy is under constant review everytime I wallow in the bath thinking about how I want him to turn out, one evening he's staying blue, the next I'm sure I'm going to paint him Kawasaki Green with a black roof...... Or maybe a pale blue ....... Or perhaps battleship grey....... You get the idea

The bike mounts were off eBay and came from Austrailia where they are marketed for bolting bikes into the load beds of vast pickup trucks.

[carthorse]

Long time no update, work has crept along but due to temporarily misplacing the camera memory card with the pictures on I haven't actually got round to posting anything...... anyway I fondly found the little blighter hiding on the floor under the workbench this afternoon so was able to snap some pics and get them up.

Here's Percy suspended from the jig I bought from handling solutions. Building painting and getting Percy onto the jig took several days of sporadic effort. Sensibly due to my meagre welding skills I went for the pre-welded option but it still took a far bit of head scratching to figure out exactly how it all bolted together. Luckily I found a couple of build threads on here with pictures of other more competent peoples projects spinning merrily round which proved most useful.

 

Once he was suspended and balanced on the jig to the point were I could rotate him without the risk of popping a catastrophic hernia it was time to weld some bracing in so the poor little chap doesn't fold up like wet cardboard when I start attacking his underbelly with and angle grinder.

 

I deliberately didn't take any close up shots of the welding on the bracing as I'd be able to heard the howls of ridicule clear through by broadband connection..... all you need to know is that its functional rather than aesthetically pleasing!

 

So now I have unfettered access to Percy's underpinnings the full horror of the floor of many patches is revealed. Its like peeling back an onion of bodgerry thats taken years to ripen to this point 

I could add more pictures but I'm sure you get the idea! So this afternoon I phoned the nice lady at M-machine and a complete new floor will be winging its way to me in a couple of weeks. 

 

So now I feel like a nervous novice surgeon poised with his scalpel over his first live patient. I've just got to pluck up the courage to make the first incision....

[carthorse]

Floor removal has commenced. Luckily for the neighbours after couple of hours on Saturday and short stint today I ran out of cutting discs  How Percy had a valid MOT when I bought him is utterly beyond me. Three layers of floor pan and oversills in places held together with lashings of filler and garnished with thick coats of glutenous underseal and the odd weld.

 

Feast your eyes on the obligatory 'why thou shalt not fit oversills' picture and a couple of others of the horror that lurked beneath. 

 

[url=http://s286.photobuc...10612.jpg.html]

Edited by carthorse, 02 October 2016 - 04:13 PM.

[carthorse]

Well, most of the floor is now roughly chopped out. Now for the more careful (hopefully) process of splitting the seams and finding some good metal to weld the new floorpan to when it arrives in a couple of weeks.......

[Rosslin Racing]

love the oversills and floor. how is the welding practise coming on?

[carthorse]

love the oversills and floor. how is the welding practise coming on?

I'm a welding God for a few seconds everytime then it's back to tall blobby welds and blowing holes .... But every day's a school day with a rusty mini!

[Rosslin Racing]

try tips and tricks.com for how to weld. its a great site filming the welding pool so you can see what you should be looking and so on.

[carthorse]

Still cutting out bits of rusty Percy. Unfortunately after removing bits of his heelboard today the spot weld drill broke through the load bay floor in a couple of places. Now, either Percy is a special prototype with a double skinned load bed ........ or some chancer has bonded another panel over the top of the old one to cover up a world of woe.
Too test this nasty suspicion I set about scraping of the extremely thick layer of underseal from the bottom of the load bed. Unlike the very flat nice condition top surface, underneath was dented, rusty and missing in a couple of places.
I'm going to have a stiff drink now and contemplate my probable increasing spend on panels.

[g111mds]

Great thread and progress so far. Any more updates?

I viewed a pickup yesterday which while pretty much complete, will need the complete floor too so reading your thread with interest. I think it's certainly the best way forward.

[carthorse]

Great thread and progress so far. Any more updates?
I viewed a pickup yesterday which while pretty much complete, will need the complete floor too so reading your thread with interest. I think it's certainly the best way forward.

Unfortunately apart from thinking up schemes for selling the kids toys and Mrs Carthorse's shoe collection to pay for new panels I haven't made much progress over the last few weeks.
I've just moved jobs so I'm feeling obliged too show a bit more interest that usual and put in a bit of overtime in a deluded attempt to impress my new boss so free time in the garage has been a bit limited.
I'm also reluctant to cut out anymore of poor old Percy till I've got the new panels so I can judge just where to insert the angle grinder!

Edited by carthorse, 14 December 2016 - 10:46 PM.