235 replies to this topic

[timmy850]

Looking forward to see how you go with this one!

[MikeRotherham]

A couple of questions:

 

How will you straighten out the floor damaged by improper jacking?

 

If you don't mind me asking this on this thread, How far are you booked up to for jobs like this one?

[Ben_O]

A couple of questions:

 

How will you straighten out the floor damaged by improper jacking?

 

If you don't mind me asking this on this thread, How far are you booked up to for jobs like this one?

Providing the floor isn't creased and has just popped up, you can pop it back easily enough.

I have a piece of 2x4 which is about 1.5ft long. I usually find that placing one end in the front outside corner of the heel pan pressing of the floor  and then hitting the other end with a club hammer usually pops it straight back.

If the floor is creased then the above will get most of it and then finishing touches by hammer and dolly.

If the sound deadening has cracked then it can either be removed or heated up gently and stuck back.

 

No worries at all asking here. Seems the most relevant place if the questions relate to the car in question

 

As for bookings, early 2020 is about right at the moment but I do have a couple of quotes ongoing as well as a booking that still needs to be confirmed so priority would go to those.

Cheers

Ben

[MikeRotherham]

Hi Ben thanks for the info. It was the question about your workload that I was wondering about whether a public forum was a suitable space to be asking you.

[Ben_O]

Before removing the subframes, I want to get the sportspack arches fitted so that I can assure that the wheels fit evenly within them.

 

Starting with the front, I printed out a template to mark out how much needs to be trimmed

 

 

Then cut

 

 

Then trial fit the new reinforcer

 

 

Before spot welding onto the wing and drilling the mounting holes

 

 

And then fit the arch

 

 

Then repeat on the other side

 

 

 

I popped the front bumper on to check alignment with the front of the arches

 

 

Then on to the rears

 

First weld up the redundant holes in the quarter panel

 

 

 

Then template

 

 

Drill the holes

 

 

And mount the arch

 

 

And the other side

 

 

Check alignment with the bumper

 

 

And done

 

 

It's a tad over arched now so we need wheels

 

 

Ill pop the tyres on and try them in the morning.

 

Cheers

Ben

[rich_959]

It's so nice to see a solid (oriignal) MPI - quite a rare sight!! 

[Ben Rose]

I wish my MPI looked like this! 

[Ben_O]

I fitted the tyres to the rims and then fitted them to the car to have a look.

 

 

 

Despite the shell sitting high on the suspension, everything sits as I would expect it to so time to finish the stripping.

 

Once the wheels and arches were back off, I removed the front subframe

 

 

And the rear

 

 

And then stripped both to make storage easier

 

 

Then removed the final bits from the shell

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now I can start the prep.

Ill deal with the small amounts of rust first

 

 

 

 

And if you wondered why your Mini's tend to rust across the back taking out the boot floor, valance and back panel, then this won't help matters.

 

 

Bare metal behind the boot hinges where they painted the shell with the panels fitted.....

The A posts are the same behind the door hinges.

 

Ben

[JXC Mini GT]

Nice work Ben (as always), I see another couple of Minis in the photos and is that a Blaze Lambretta as well?

Edited by JXC Mini GT, 31 July 2019 - 04:28 PM.

[Steve220]

I'm probably being naive, but it doesn't look too bad for an MPi!

[Ben_O]

Nice work Ben (as always), I see another couple of Minis in the photos and is that a Blaze Lambretta as well?

Thanks John.

The other Mini's are a 30th Anniversary which was in for an MOT but ended up needing quite a bit of work to get through. Mainly wheel bearings, gators and lots of electrical issues.

All solved now. It just needs a tune up as the emissions are too high and it will be good to go.

And that's the Pick-up in the booth which is almost finished now. It just requires the final polishing. I must get that update done for that.

The Lambretta is a bit of an ongoing thing. The owner is a builder who does work in one of the neighboring units. He saw your GT when it was in last and fell in love so being a scooter fanatic decided to turn one of his scooters into a 1275GT Mini replica type thing. he has been and bought the decals and just needs the early shield type mini badgeto go on the front casting.

I am painting it on the condition that he does the prep work first so its a bit slow going.. 

 

I'm probably being naive, but it doesn't look too bad for an MPi!

 

Hi Steve. It's a very good one and has had no previous panel work. All completely original except for some minor paint work to the front end at some point given away only but the teardrop bolts having blue heads and the asbestos warning sticker on the slam panel had been masked.

The only rust on it is due to a brake fluid spill under the bonnet and what you see behind the hinges due to just being bare metal. There is some slight rust staining at the front of the step/outer sill seam both sides so ill investigate. It's only going to be minor.

 

Cheers

Ben

[cooperd70]

Yeah Ben...you should check out Ben Rose's MPI thread. I follow that one too and unfortunately for him his is in a much worse state. This one must have had a good home (garaged for the entirety) to be in such amazing condition. All the MPI's I see are mostly in a terrible state body-wise.

[cooperd70]

Amazing work as always here ?

[Ben_O]

Bit more done today.

 

Front end prepped

 

 

 

 

And then a applied a fine coat of etch to cover the bare areas up for the time being

 

 

 

 

Before it can go on the spit, i wanted to prep inside the boot

 

 

 

 

Now it can go on the spit 

 

 

And ill start prepping the underside

 

 

 

Just a couple of small areas of minor surface rust to address

 

 

 

Ill get that finished tomorrow

 

Cheers

Ben

[rich777]

Great stuff so far Ben!

Did you manage to get hold of genuine arches in the end?

 

For those of you wondering, yes this MPI lived a rather charmed life before I got my grubby hands on it...

 

It lived in a heated, carpeted(!) garage for all of its life, owned by an older couple who averaged about 200 miles/year in it since new. Probably just took it down to supermarket and back each week.

 

Oh and hello everyone! (first post)