50 replies to this topic

[Mini Basher]

Thanks for the comments guys,Hi Minimissions, yes it will be a full floor from M machine. It's the only way forward really and it also helps with squaring the car back up again. Looks like I'll be replacing the front bulkhead crossmember also, when you look at the cost of the two end repair panels there is not a lot of difference in cost £30 - £40. To be fair this is quite a structural part of the car and I would rather replace the full piece rather than patch up the ends, do it once do it right. 

Edited by Mini Basher, 26 February 2018 - 11:19 AM.

[minimissions]

Thanks for the comments guys,Hi Minimissions, yes it will be a full floor from M machine. It's the only way forward really and it also helps with squaring the car back up again. Looks like I'll be replacing the front bulkhead crossmember also, when you look at the cost of the two end repair panels there is not a lot of difference in cost £30 - £40. To be fair this is quite a structural part of the car and I would rather replace the full piece rather than patch up the ends, do it once do it right. 

Defo its the way forward for that car, and would make the underneather nice and solid in one big hit, I look forward to seeing this all come together.

[Mini Basher]

So I got to spend a few hours down the workshop tonight, first thing on the agenda was to address the heel board on the nearside, this is what it looked like before
 

 
and this is what t looks like now after about an hour of hammering and dressing the metal
 

 

 

 
Really happy with the results and I think once I cut out and replace the rotten piece of the heelboard it will be perfect, it will just need a final dressing once the inner wing is removed as this will give me more easy access to the panel for dressing.
 
So the next step this evening was to remove the nearside inner wing, First I located the spot welds on the A post door panel and drilled them out 
 

 

 
I then got the grinder out and started to grind away the spot welds to the edges of the panel and also were the shelf is attached
 

 

 

 

 
I've still got a bit of grinding to do around the front window opening, hopefully I'll get that done tomorrow evening and then I can dry fit the new inner wing panel

Edited by Mini Basher, 25 October 2018 - 12:13 AM.

[minimissions]

She will soon start to come together once some new big fresh panels go in, keep those pics coming :)

[Mini Basher]

Hi Guys, quite a big update today as I haven't been on here for a while, when I left of last time I was nearly ready to dry fit the nearside inner wing, here it is clamped in place

 

 

 

Haven't been able to do a lot this week due to the weather and being able to get to the workshop, but I did manage to get there yesterday and started to address some of the rust/rot areas on the bulkhead

 

 

 

First thing I did was to cut around to steady bracket back to sound good metal, removing the bracket and the rotten metal it was fixed to.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I then cut a replacement piece of metal out of some 1.2mm sheet steel and welded it back into place

 

 

I'll do another update later as I'm on my way out now.

 

Andy

Edited by Mini Basher, 04 March 2018 - 03:22 PM.

[Mini Basher]

Hi guys, sorry for the delay in updates recently , it's been really busy at work trying to play catch up after all the snow the other week. Had a really good day in the workshop today, because of delays and waiting for parts for the front end I decided that I would remove the rear boot floor and rear seat panel and replace. I got down the workshop early this morning and spent most of the day removing the old metalwork. I removed one of the wheel arches also but left the other in to aid with lining up of the panel. Once the old metalwork was removed I dry fitted the new boot floor panel.
 

 
I used the three bolt holes on the rear panel to fix the floor panel onto location at the rear end and once the panel was in the correct location with the old heel board and rear seat backrest I locked the floor panel in place using Cleco panel fixings
 

 

 
Once everything was lined up correctly I then fitted the wheel arch and clamped it into place.
 

 

 
Once all the panels were dry fitted and fettled I then removed them all to clean the areas where the welding needs to take place, I also fitted the battery box as this is much easier to fit whilst the floor is still out of the car, I also removed the transit paint from the wheel arch and applied a good coat of zinc primer, I then refitted all the panels ready for welding into place tomorrow
 

 

 

 
Once all these panels are welded into place I will remove the other wheel arch and repeat the replacement process.
 
Oh and I also managed to remove the two side opening windows, the screws in the piano hinge had rusted really badly so I had to drill the heads of the screws to remove the windows, but they are out now with no damage to the frame fixing points

Edited by Mini Basher, 12 March 2018 - 11:38 PM.

[Chappers]

Hi Minibasher. Another early mk1 build, Great!

Looks like you didnt waste time and got stuck in, you work fast!

Interested to follow your build as Im going through something very similar.

What are you plans for it? Engine, colour etc

[minimissions]

This will soon be a solid shell at this rate, its good to see another Mk1 coming along.

[Mini Basher]

Hi Chappers, thanks for the comments, the log book says it's just a 1961 850 mini, I've got other idea's though. It's going to be built as a full blown cooper S, haven't decided on the badging yet if he has any at all !!!!. Colour, now that is a big debate, on my previous build I discussed with other members about the way to go and Yukon Grey and a Black roof was discussed, that has now become quite a popular scheme so I'm thinking of mixing it up a bit, still keeping with the Grey body and Black roof but maybe going a satin/ matt finish as opposed to a gloss finish, what do you think

Andy

[Mini Basher]

Hi Minimissions, working really hard to get him back on his feet again but I'm at the mercy of M.Machine at the moment, waiting for the new floor. Things will progress as and when the parts become available and also time but I'm happy with the progress so far

Andy

[minimissions]

Hi Minimissions, working really hard to get him back on his feet again but I'm at the mercy of M.Machine at the moment, waiting for the new floor. Things will progress as and when the parts become available and also time but I'm happy with the progress so far

Andy

Awesome I bet the new floor with transform this build, are you plans for the car to put it back to standard?

[Mini Basher]

Hi Minimissions the log book says it's just a 1961 850 mini, I've got other idea's though. It's going to be built as a full blown cooper S, haven't decided on the badging yet if he has any at all !!!!. Colour, now that is a big debate, on my previous build I discussed with other members about the way to go and Yukon Grey and a Black roof was discussed, that has now become quite a popular scheme so I'm thinking of mixing it up a bit, still keeping with the Grey body and Black roof but maybe going a satin/ matt finish as opposed to a gloss finish, what do you think

[Mervyn]

Sandy Beige with Maroon roof , thats what I'd like to see

[Mini Basher]

Hi All, its been a while since I've done an update so here goes, I'm still waiting for my new complete floor from M machine so I've been trying to keep myself busy with bits and pieces that I'm going to have to do at some point. I eventually managed to get the roof bare metalled, I counted 10 different layers of paint, the last top coat which was white had not been applied very well and had started to crazed and flake off of the previous layer

 

 

 

 

You can see in the last photo how thick the paint layers had become, once I had bare metalled the whole roof I span the car onto its side and bare metalled the inside of the roof also

 

 

 

 

Once the roof was finished I removed the old rusty drip rails to the underside of the gutter and replaced with new rails and plug welded into place

 

 

 

Once the inside roof was bare metal I then proceeded to weld up the arial whole, I then applied some filler to the roof around the arial hole repair. Both the inside roof and the outside roof then had an application of etch primer to protect them from moisture. I have also stripped down the front and rear subframes and these have gone away to be media blasted, when they come back they will be treated to a couple of coats of POR 15 chassis paint, when I removed the radius arms I found that someone in the past had taken a grinder to one of the stub axles to get the nut off and also cut off the shock mount bolt, so I've cleaned up the radius arms and they've gone away to have new spindles bushes and stub axles fitted, when they come back they also will be treated with POR 15

 

 

 

 

For those of you that have been following this for a while you will remember at the early stages of the rip down I removed a rotten piece of the rear lower window opening, My mate Tim Harber at Mini Mail kindly donated a section from one of his scrappers which I went and removed yesterday morning, unfortunately when I got it back to the workshop and cleaned it up it was to far gone with the old tin worm so I used it as a template and made a new piece from 1.2mm steel sheet

 

 

I wasn't very impressed with the finish so today I cut it back out and remade a new piece and welded that back in, it still needs a little bit of fettling and shaping but I'm much happier with the finish

 

 

 

 

I haven't welded fully the bottom seam as the bottom rear panel is going to be removed and replaced with a new Heritage one so didn't see the point. I have also welded in the other wheel arch so now both sides are now done. The only other thing I have managed to do is to look at the nearside rear quarter panel, It was bonded out with nearly 10mm of filler in the deepest area's

 

 

So this afternoon I decided to grind out all  of the filler and made a start on dressing the panels back into shape, at the moment it looks like I'm going to be able to save the majority of the rear quarter panels, I will have to make up some repair sections but in the long run I think that's better than trying to replace the whole quarter, I do however reserve the right to change my mind if it all gets too much LOL.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking Guys I'll try to update a bit more frequently.

Edited by Mini Basher, 01 April 2018 - 08:39 PM.

[minimikej]

Hi,

How did you find the fit of the top of the nearside inner wing where it's supposed to spot to the A post?