289 replies to this topic

[Ben_O]

Good evening all.

 

With the MG Midget virtually complete, It's time to start looking at the next job.

This time it is a 1968 Mini Cooper S mk2 and is in for inner and outer sills.

 

 

I had put it down for inner sills, outer sills, jacking points, flitch repairs, heel board ends and closing panels as well as possibly A panels (inner and outer) to allow access to the flitches for repair.

That estimate was prepared before I saw the car so the first thing I need to do is partially strip it to see exactly what I am dealing with and amend the quote accordingly.

 

First up was to remove the interior

 

 

 

 

The inner sills and flitches have been repaired before to quite a low standard and it is fitted with cover sills

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All of that will be going in favour of new.

 

The next job was to remove the rear subframe to see if the entire heelboard needed replacing or just the ends

 

With everything disconnected, I unbolted the trunnions which came apart quite easily. It never ceases to amaze me what people think are acceptable fixings for the subframes

 

From this trunnion

 

 

 

Came these bolts

 

 

Neither were screwed into anything really and just pried out with a flat screwdriver..

 

And then the frame came down

 

 

The heel board is pretty crusty so will be replaced entirely I think

 

 

 

The front flitches are the standard affair so the bad bits will be cut out and new metal let seamlessly in

 

 

 

The steps are a bit suspect with plenty of filler so ill have to clean them back and see what is left and then make a decision on whether to replace those too.

 

The boot floor holds a few surprises so i will let the customer decide what he wants to do with them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And lastly, the subframe has had some plates added on the bottom either side that are not fully welded.

 

 

 

A decision shall have to be made about what to do with this. It should be an MOT failure but checking the MOT history, it has not been mentioned.

 

This is all for now as the quote will need to be amended and any additional work agreed and then parts will need to be ordered.

 

Stay tuned

 

Cheers

 

Ben

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Ben_O, 09 November 2017 - 07:47 PM.

[sonikk4]

Bloody hell Ben, thats a quality bodge job. I would be very surprised if the customer did not opt for a new boot floor. The underside looks crusty as hell and those cheeky little fibreglass repairs     I think there is a lot of nastiness hidden in the dark recesses of that car judging by those pictures.

[JXC Mini GT]

It never ceases to amaze me how to the untrained eye the car looked absolutely mint, yet when you start to look more closely the hidden patches and bodges come to light. The good thing is that the car is now in the right place to have all the previous wrongs put right and the underside will be looking as good as the rest of the car.

 

PS Thanks for the PM Ben

[slidehammer]

I will be following this with interest Ben, Your posts are always informative and the workmanship top notch. Did look a really sound Mini at the start lets hope the owner was aware and wasn't ripped off by some cowboy. Everyone knows when attaching your subframe with self tapping bolts you need to use rawl pugs and a spot of glue  to get them to stay put! 

[Rocket.]

Amazing what a tidy looking car can hide!

[73MkIII]

I love that the front of the offside boot floor appears to be held together with a "dog hair and paint" patch. Good car to save though.

[Rocket.]

Amazing what a tidy looking car can hide!

[GT Jimmy]

Nice one. If I can't find my subframe bolts I'll grab a couple of coach bolts out of the shed. It'll be a cracker when finished though

[Daz1968]

It just shows how a clean looking car can hide such poor quality repairs and also confirms how bad this mot exemption can be,
My mk2 was better than that and I opted for a full floor replacement along with boot floor, inner wings etc, so I think it could need much more than quoted to be a good one

[ga2davt]

It's great that these cars (not just 1960's Coopers) are now worth investing real money into, rather than a getting a back street garage to put a patch over the existing mess and then hiding it. Tough bit is to find a trustworthy restorer like Ben who will do a quality job. 

[Ben_O]

Thanks everyone.

 

Ill continue with more updates once work begins.

 

As for the extra bits found, I can only repair what I have been instructed to do and advise on any extra work. It is up to the owner of the car to decide what gets done. 

 

Cheers

 

Ben

[Ben_O]

Ok folks, it has been decided that this car is going to have a new boot floor which means a new rear valance and closers as well as the arch tubs.

 

I stripped the back end out this morning so I can now begin with the panel work.

 

 

The customer would like me to look at the fit of the bootlid which sits too high.

I think the cause is a replacement centre hinge section of back panel that has been fitted too high so I plan to modify that whilst the floor is out to bring it down.

 

 

More on this when work begins.

 

Cheers

 

Ben

[lawrence]

Out of interest did the owner know much about minis and rust etc? Not gunna lie the fibreglass is obvious from the boot that something is bodged there?

Make sure you get some fun discovery under the crud pics :) always like them haha

[Ben_O]

Out of interest did the owner know much about minis and rust etc? Not gunna lie the fibreglass is obvious from the boot that something is bodged there?

Make sure you get some fun discovery under the crud pics :) always like them haha

The owner was aware of the history of repairs and was happy that they are part of the cars history.

 

The extent of the boot floor damage was not known until the subframe was lowered and it became apparent that patch repairs would be uneconomical.

 

some of the fibreglassing in the boot looks like an attempt at keeping petrol fumes out of the cabin as it is over every join and gap that should usually be there.

 

There are some small repairs needed to the bottom of the rear bulkhead and to the bottoms of the companion bins but it should be pretty plain sailing.

 

Cheers

 

Ben

[carthorse]

Looking forward to this one. Looking at some of the pictures it’s giving me nasty flashbacks to prodding bits of my pickup and finding out it was only rust and under seal holding it together.

Looks like there’s a good few hours of tedious underseal scraping to do on this one - good luck!