63 replies to this topic

[johnR]

It's coming on well now

[MaximMini]

Hi Everyone,

 

Rear subby all repaired and powder coated:

 

 

Cheers from the Pied Piper's Town

[MaximMini]

Hi Everyone,

 

I can't believe it's been more than a year that I last worked on my Cooper body shell.

 

With my healths (and enthusiasm) finally been restored, I have restarted the work again.

 

The car back on the ramp / lift / hoist (depending on where you live

Following my initial plan of attack to go through the shell from back to front, I continued with the L/H sill. The outer sill was still pretty okay and I even had repaired the back end (see above) but still decided that removing the outer sill was the only way to repair the rust damaged on the inner sill / floor pan.

 

The removal of the outer sill an subsequent tidying up left me with three 'areas of concern'

And finally with two big holes

And a considerable amount of dust (much more in my hair) and scrap metal

Next will be filling the holes with fresh metal and welding on a new (BMH) outer sill.

 

Not to bad a progress for four hours in the workshop but best thing is that I could move the next day without any serious pain .

 

 

Cheers from the Pied Piper's Town

[sonscar]

Looks quite sound and an easy repair.Enjoy and look after yourself,Steve..

[MaximMini]

Hi Everyone,

 

I have spent some time in the workshop busying myself with letting in fresh new metal today.

 

Repair section (with indentations)

Welded in

And welds ground flat

Result

I left the workshop after promising myself to come back more frequently in the future .

 

 

Cheers from the Pied Piper's Town

[MaximMini]

Hi Everyone,

 

It has been far to long since my last update again .

 

Beginning of August I had another go in the workshop and continued where I left with the door step / inner sill repairs:

 

and while preparing for the outer sill to go on I found some more pitting in the floorboard / inner wing region .

 

Having spend some time enjoying my SPI and going RC racing I returned to the workshop only in December.

 

This is the repair of the floorboard / inner wing region:

 

What's left to do before the outer sill can go on is filling of some pinholes and antirust treatment.

 

Next on my agenda, the replacement door. The original one was not only rusted but heavily cracked between the door hinges which lead me to get a replacement. Unfortunately the replacement door wasn't that great either which meant that I had to repair the bottom of the inner door frame first:

 

before I could hang it to check fitments:

 

In hindsight I should have started with a better one .

 

Something that is true not only for body restoration work is that being patient and taking your time will not only lead to better results but sometimes will take less time overall in the end.

 

And with stitch welding I have found that upping the setting on the welder can reduce the heat you bring into your weld because you can get a solid stitch in a much shorter time. this also reduces the material you bring in and consequently the amount of material that needs to be ground back afterwards. In general, the better the initial preparation / fit of the panels the easier the welding and the easier the welding the less grinding is required.

 

With this in mind I'm happy that my Mini project provides lots of training opportunities .

 

 

Cheers from the Pied Piper's Town

[MaximMini]

Hi Everyone,

 

Having spend some more time in the workshop this is the progress I made:

 

 

I had to replace the upper rail of the front panel after it had been distorted in a crash inside the workshop. The I considered it a good idea to replace the bumper lip to repair a rust hole in the lower L/H part of the front panel which proofed to be not a good idea since welding on the lip was a real pain. And finally I redid a repair on the L/H wing below the headlight where I had tried my welding skills on 17 years previously. And that was the front pretty much done. Next I will try my very best to get the replacement bonnet to fit which it currently doesn't do. It seems like it has to much curvature where it meats the scuttle panel, the middle section being too high while the ends are too low. Plus it doesn't really follows the curve of the wings. Looks like I need to play with my shrinker /stretcher here.

 

 

Cheers from the Pied Piper's Town

Edited by MaximMini, 30 January 2022 - 07:18 PM.

[MaximMini]

Hi Everyone,

 

This week in the workshop I started with welding up a tool post for my shrinker/stretcher:

 

 

This post is designed to take different tools in the future. I may post more details in a separate thread when I have done different tool holders.

 

Next I 'cut out' work for the next time in the workshop:

 

 

And last but not least (after the workshop was heated up enough), I gave the L/H sill inners a lick of paint so that the outer sill can go on next time:

 

 

During the week I prepared a new dashboard for the British Open SPI which turned into much more work than anticipated (hence not jet finished) More on that in my other diary.

 

 

Cheers from the Pied Piper's Town
 

Edited by MaximMini, 06 February 2022 - 06:22 PM.

[MaximMini]

Hi Everyone,

 

This week I finished of the L/H sill by welding on the outer sill.

 

Inner sill all prepared:

 

 

Outer sill prepared:

 

And all done:

 

 

 

Please do comment or ask whatever is in your mind.

 

Cheers from the Pied Piper's Town

Edited by MaximMini, 13 February 2022 - 04:48 PM.

[MaximMini]

Hi Everyone,

 

The last two weeks I continued working on the R/H (passenger side here in Germany  ) inner sill and door step.

 

I have made good progress but not so many pictures .

 

Here is the inner sill in different states of repair:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the door step adjusted:

 

 

 

I had decided to purchase the BMH repair section after I found that the pattern part wasn't even close in regards to the profile.

 

Which left me with one more hole in the wheel well which I will fix before attaching the door step and outer sill:

 

 

That's exiting times ahead with this project ..

 

 

Cheers from the Pied Piper's Town

[MaximMini]

Hi Everyone,

 

Another week and more progress

 

First I welded the hole in the R/H inner wheel arch up:

 

 

I then went on with patching a rust hole in the R/H quarter light frame:

 

 

And finally I gave the inner sill, door step and outer sill a coat of paint before I will weld all this back together next week:

 

 

Today I brought a front subframe in my home workshop for inspection. I had bought this subframe because of it's very good condition and because it was local and only 50 Euro . It has been refurbished before going into storage in a dry shed:

 

 

Some little rust spots where the paint had been scratched and a lick of paint and it will be ready for use.

 

 

Cheers from the Pied Piper's Town
 

[MaximMini]

Hi Everyone,

 

Another day in the workshop this week started with preparing the door step

 

before clamping it in

 

and finally welding it in

 

 

Driven by my enthusiasm I neglected a tip I'm only to willing to share which is to practice plug welds before starting on the object. This resulted in some unsightly first welds .

Next on to the outer sill ..

 

 

Preparation

 

fixed in place

 

and welded on

 

And this is R/H side done with only some minor corrections to do

 

With some more time on my hands I continued with the preparation of the second L/H door frame

 

 

And That's that for this week.

 

 

Cheers from the Pied Piper's Town
 

[E23TFD]

Well done and thanks for keeping alive. Good to see all those pics for reference for others. Appreciate the time taken.
Also jealous if that post lift is your own personal bit of joy!!

[MaximMini]

The post lift belongs to my buddy who rents the whole unit. In return of paying part of the rental, I can use some storage place as well as the post lift when he doesn't need it.

[MaximMini]

Hi Everyone,

 

This week I was back on the replacement L/H door frame. First I welded in the patch that I had already prepared for the lower front corner:

 

before I went on making a repair patch for the rear lip:

 

 

clamping it in place:

 

and welding it on:

 

 

 

And this is what the frame locked like with all the welding ground down:

 

 

With that all done and finished I tried the frame on the body:

 

 

And satisfied that it will eventually fit I gave it some coats of rust converter and some rust prevention primer:

 

As you can see I brought the first door frame with which I wasn't really satisfied to the same state and I will continue with both so that I can possibly use the first one on my SPI.

 

In addition I spend some time in the evenings to provide some coats of POR-15 on the replacement front subframe.

 

 

Cheers from the Pied Piper's Town

Edited by MaximMini, 20 March 2022 - 05:49 PM.