289 replies to this topic

[Ben_O]

Continuing on with the quarter panel repairs.

 

With the worst of the damage straightened out, I decided to make and fit the repair piece to go behind the arch.

 

 

First, I mark out the shape onto sheet steel

 

 

Then cut it out

 

 

Fold the edges to create the seams

 

 

And then trial fit it to the car

 

 

Once I am happy with the fit, I then scribe across the top, remove the new piece to get the cut off from behind and then clamp it up for welding

 

 

Then weld and linish

 

 

 

Next, I welded up the various holes from previous arch extensions

 

 

And then a splash of paint

 

 

 

I shall finish up the repairs come prep time.

 

Next, I fitted the newly acquired l/h valance closer

 

 

 

Once that was spot welded in, I prepped them ready for the valance to be welded

 

 

And then welded on the valance

 

 

 

 

 

And that completes the back end bar the filler neck hole which I shall drill once I receive the hole saw kindly donated by TMF member evoderby. Thanks for that

 

 

 

 

 

Before moving on to the heelboard, I bolted in the subframe to check everything was square.

 

 

 

 

It fits like a glove.

 

Next, I had to do some very careful planning. Before I can cut out the heelboard, I need  to support the shell on the stands in a way where there is no stress on the floor and so the weight is evenly distributed.

 

I placed stands with blocks of wood on the back of the arch tubs where I usually do and this caused the car to bow very slightly, enough to make the door catches rub on the strikers a tad when opening and closing them.

This highlights the problem with cover sills, There really is very little strength.

 

Anyway, I ended up moving the stands forward to a point where the doors once again opened smoothly but this meant making up some special stands to weld to the outer sills

 

 

One either side does the job perfectly.

 

Back on with the heelboard, I cleaned back the underseal to reveal the spot welds

 

 

The original plan was to fit heelboard ends and retain as much as the original as possible but on closer inspection, the bottom edge where it folds over the floor pan is very corroded all the way along and certainly not worth trying to save.

So a complete heelboard shall be fitted.

I made a start drilling but ended up having to help out elsewhere so progress had to stop for today.

 

More next week

 

Cheers

 

Ben

[Carlos W]

Superb mate

[cp2708]

Love your work, such quality.

[sonikk4]

Its always the way mate. that was my plan for Paddy but no after all of the crud, waxoyl etc was removed the issue was the same as yours. Never been a fan of heelboard end repairs having done a few now its never quite the same.

[Ben_O]

Its always the way mate. that was my plan for Paddy but no after all of the crud, waxoyl etc was removed the issue was the same as yours. Never been a fan of heelboard end repairs having done a few now its never quite the same.

It was more about keeping as much original metal as possible but there is no way I would be happy to leave any of this in place.

I started unpicking it this afternoon and there is plenty of rust between the seams. I might end up with floor repairs to do but won't know until it's off..

 

Cheers

 

Ben

[Petrol]

 

Its always the way mate. that was my plan for Paddy but no after all of the crud, waxoyl etc was removed the issue was the same as yours. Never been a fan of heelboard end repairs having done a few now its never quite the same.

 

I started unpicking it this afternoon and there is plenty of rust between the seams.

 

 

 

That's the problem with restorations, you always find rust in seams. That's why I went mad on mine splitting the seams because it's a keeper.

It's a difficult call...

I have to say Ben your doing a fantastic job of this. I'm fussy but if this was my car....I would be more than happy with your work

 

Pete

[Ben_O]

 

 

Its always the way mate. that was my plan for Paddy but no after all of the crud, waxoyl etc was removed the issue was the same as yours. Never been a fan of heelboard end repairs having done a few now its never quite the same.

 

I started unpicking it this afternoon and there is plenty of rust between the seams.

 

 

 

That's the problem with restorations, you always find rust in seams. That's why I went mad on mine splitting the seams because it's a keeper.

It's a difficult call...

I have to say Ben your doing a fantastic job of this. I'm fussy but if this was my car....I would be more than happy with your work

 

Pete

 

Thanks Pete.

That means a lot. 

 

I think that's the thing. For the 'perfect' Mini restoration, you would have to go to enormous lengths to get every single trace from the seams.

I loved you approach for your cooper with opening up the seams and cleaning everything back.

I intend to do exactly that when I restore our lovely pink 1998 Cooper next year but with that, i can spend as much time as I need 

 

Cheers

 

Ben

[Petrol]

There is a big difference between you own build and working on a customers car
I think you have gone the extra mile on this
Like I said, top job fella!

[Marco1972]

Top job Ben

Quality mate

[g111mds]

Really nice work on this :)

[docka]

great work, how it should be done

[Ben_O]

Cheers guys.

 

Ben

[Cookiez]

Love reading about your work Ben

 

Top Quality as always

[Racer Dan]

Quality craftsmanship as always. It is great that you take the time to document the process and spend the time updating all of us. I learn more from your posts than anywhere else!

I hope Mill Road Garage see the effort you go to sharing this with us all and no doubt generating additional future restorations.

[Ben_O]

Heel board day today.

 

First, out with the old.

 

 

 

As you can see, there is no way it was worth saving the original centre section and just fitting ends

 

I removed the LH end. there is no need to unpick spot welds here since I will be replacing the inner sill beyond the first groove so I just sliced the back edge of the floor out with it

 

 

I'm happy to say that it looks fairly clean inside the sill this side with no old sills lurking in there

 

 

I then cut the other end off

 

 

And this side looks quite clean too

 

 

I'm going to need to make some small repair sections up for the back edge of the floor but that won't be an issue.

 

I cleaned back the surviving steel that is staying

 

 

And made up a repair section for the RH floor end

 

 

 

And then trial fitted the heelboard to the car

 

 

At this point, the repair piece I just made is sitting roughly in place. Ill come back to that later.

 

To make sure that the heelboard was central, I popped the subframe back in

 

 

All went well. I bolted up the shock tops into the arch tubs to hold the hubs up and popped some wheels on

 

 

I just wanted to check that the poke was even. There is no reason why not but better to see any issues now before welding everything up and it being too late

 

 

 

All good.

 

Looks fine in here too

 

 

 

Once I had checked everything and was satisfied, I popped some self drilling screws in to hold the heelboard firmly in place

 

 

 

There are more underneath into the floor but I forgot to photograph that.

 

I popped some down here to hold it tight to the companion bins as obviously, I can't get to the other side yet

 

 

Once that was done, I removed the subframe again

 

 

In order for me to determine how much of the previously fabricated floor section I would need, I measured and marked where the new inner sill would come to

 

 

I did get a bit further with that and the new piece is 'cut in' and ready to weld. I want to get the floor repairs done and fitting snugly before I remove the heelboard again to prep it for welding.

 

More next time.

 

Cheers

 

Ben