51 replies to this topic

[Hexxeh]

Got it onto the jig:

 

 

Felt very strange seeing it upside down in the garage...

 

Front corners of the floor look pretty rough, have a feeling I'll be finding holes behind here:

 

 

Wire brush to make the seam weld of the oversill clearer:

 

 

Grind it all off and find what horrors sit beneath:

 

 

Lovely! It's had quite a few patches to the floor/inner sill over the years, and not much remains of the original outer sill (removed most of it before taking this photo). Decided this needs a new outer and floor/inner to first groove, so order a pair of "Sill to First Groove Assembly, Complete" from M Machine today.

 

Using a carbed 998 engine too, so I want the slatted inner wing, ordered a front half of an inner wing to swap that too.

 

No turning back now! 

[colinf1]

Looks like you have roughly the same size shed as me, it's amazing how quickly you run out of space when doing bodywork, couple of grinders, welder, bucket of clamps and you have no room left. Then finding somewhere to store the panels safely...

I had to shimmy the shell to one side today while it's still on the jig to make room to do my door repairs.

[Hexxeh]

Looks like you have roughly the same size shed as me, it's amazing how quickly you run out of space when doing bodywork, couple of grinders, welder, bucket of clamps and you have no room left. Then finding somewhere to store the panels safely...

I had to shimmy the shell to one side today while it's still on the jig to make room to do my door repairs.

 

Yeah it's about 2.5x5m, just about manage with a Mini but when I park the MX5 in there there's not really enough space to do any work on it. Thankfully the jig is on wheels so I can move it about no problem.

 

Spent two days getting all the bitumen off the floor, bit of a slog but I know what I'm doing and it feels like progress:

 

 

What's left is paint where the bitumen was missing but it'd been painted around. I was curious what all of it would weigh, so I bagged it up as I went along.

 

 

About 6.5kg, as it turns out.

 

With all that cleaned, I went back to trying to split the welds to free the floor from the rest of the shell ready for replacement. I'm really quite struggling with this: the car has been patched a fair bit so it's hard to see spot welds, there's a bunch of seam welds in places that shouldn't have seam welds (and are hard to get to in corners, so difficult to get a grinder on). In other places, it's a rusty, twisted mess where a flange should be, so it's hard to see what needs to be removed.

 

I thought drilling out the spot welds on the front edge of the companion bin would be an easier bit to get on with, but I think I made a bit of a mess of that:

 

 

I drilled where I thought the centre of the weld was, but sometimes I was quite a bit off.

[Kevinmini]

Great Project, 

 

They always are a lot worse than expected once you get near the sills and heel boards!!! what a mess

 

Tips for spot welds - Use a good quality 2mm drill bit and just go all the way through or at least through the top skin directly in the centre creating a pilot hole. When you use the spot weld drill it is a lot easier as will follow the pilot hole

 

Use a flap disc that is for removing paint only, don't use anything harsh as it will or could thin the metal and it is then just a blow through nightmare when welding!! trust me lol as I made this mistake

 

Check out my last few videos on Youtube - https://youtu.be/hQUOPMxR_50 pocket rocket garage as I am doing the sill areas and floor areas as we speak!!

 

Kevin (pocket rocket garage)

[Hexxeh]

Great Project, 

 

They always are a lot worse than expected once you get near the sills and heel boards!!! what a mess

 

Tips for spot welds - Use a good quality 2mm drill bit and just go all the way through or at least through the top skin directly in the centre creating a pilot hole. When you use the spot weld drill it is a lot easier as will follow the pilot hole

 

Use a flap disc that is for removing paint only, don't use anything harsh as it will or could thin the metal and it is then just a blow through nightmare when welding!! trust me lol as I made this mistake

 

Check out my last few videos on Youtube - https://youtu.be/hQUOPMxR_50 pocket rocket garage as I am doing the sill areas and floor areas as we speak!!

 

Kevin (pocket rocket garage)

 

I'd centre punched before using the spot weld drill bits, they didn't wander, my problem was spotting where to drill exactly!

 

I think it'd be a lot easier if the sill hadn't been patched to death: there's three or even four layers in some places where I think there should only be two. That and I've been trying to grind most of the welds from the "waste" side rather than drill so as not to leave the panel that's staying full of holes (even small ones).

 

Popped the front shock mounts off, presuming there'd be a hole behind:

 

 

Yup! Having struggled a bit cutting the floor out, I decided to start getting the underseal off instead. Took about four hours to get it all off the floor pan and some of the heelboard:

 

 

In the meantime, these arrived from M-Machine:

 

 

[Hexxeh]

Got most of the floor that needs to be removed gone today:

 

 

Crossmember lip was a bit rough having been seam welded to the floor at some point, cut the front/rear flanges off to replace with new ones:

 

 

Hit a bit of a snag with the rear though, not sure how you're supposed to weld the floor/inner sill to the bracket/stiffener from the heelboard if it already has the outer sill welded to it and in the way...

 

 

Is this a case of having to replace part of the heelboard as well at the same time?

[colinf1]

You could drill 2 small 3mm through holes on the heelboard side of the bracket, then remove the bracket completely, clean it up and offer in floor, get the floor set in correct position then put in bracket and align with the 3mm holes clamp it place on the inner sill.
Remove floor and get bracket welded onto inner sill, then floor in again, align with the 3mm holes then once the rest of the floor is welded in use the 3mm holes as a start for plug welding from outside...

Seems like its going to be a difficult job but I'm sure you'll get there ...

[Hexxeh]

You could drill 2 small 3mm through holes on the heelboard side of the bracket, then remove the bracket completely, clean it up and offer in floor, get the floor set in correct position then put in bracket and align with the 3mm holes clamp it place on the inner sill.
Remove floor and get bracket welded onto inner sill, then floor in again, align with the 3mm holes then once the rest of the floor is welded in use the 3mm holes as a start for plug welding from outside...

Seems like its going to be a difficult job but I'm sure you'll get there ...

 

Ah, that makes sense. Unfortunately it looks like the ends of the heelboard have been plated over so I can't see those holes...

 

I've ordered a heelboard, I'll chop the ends off and replace, since a sandwich with the plate over seems like bad news anyway.

[Hexxeh]

Took some of the heelboard off tonight, was hoping that'd be the last of the cutting at the back corner and I could start cleaning it up and getting fresh metal back in.

 

Found what looks like a patched in piece of the wheel arch closing panel?

 

 

 

 

 

I think this is http://www.minispare...c/14A6611.aspx? Looks like a bit of an arse to weld in with the rear quarter still on, that curved lip looks doable with the spot welder but the inner lips that face the companion bin and wheel arch look tricky when I can't actually get into the car because part of the floor is missing and it's on a spit...

[colinf1]

You could plug weld it from the arch side, then ignore the companion bin lip as you'll seam weld the closing panel to the boot floor and along the heelboard.

See the post from Ben on Victor's thread;

Looking good mate

Only thing I would add is the closers should also be seam welded to the heelboard too like this



Cheers
Ben

[Maccmike8]

You could plug weld it from the arch side, then ignore the companion bin lip as you'll seam weld the closing panel to the boot floor and along the heelboard.

See the post from Ben on Victor's thread;
 

Looking good mate

Only thing I would add is the closers should also be seam welded to the heelboard too like this



Cheers
Ben

 

 

Wow such beautiful welding.

[Hexxeh]

Cut out the closing panel that'd been butchered/patched a bit:

 

 

At this point, cleaned up the flanges for the new floor/sill panel and started to offer it up:

 

 

Heelboard section looks like it's all lining up nicely, had to cut a tiny slot out of the inner sill (maybe 8x3mm) to get it to sit right.

 

At this point, the idea was to bolt up the subframe to check everything was lining up right. I even had new bolts/bushes ready. Unfortunately, the old trunnions were absolutely buggered, and I couldn't press the bushes in properly. One trip to Mini Sport later:

 

 

Lovely bit of billet steel should sort it! Hopefully gonna get it mounted up tonight, tack the heelboard to the floor to get the alignment between the two, then take it off spot it all together before putting it back to start welding it to the car.

[Hexxeh]

Project stalled for a bit, so keen to move it on, I've decided to buy a Heritage shell. The new plan is to dry fit everything, cut any holes needed, fit rivnuts for lights etc and then just send it off to a local company for prep/paint. Should arrive by the end of this week.

 

I've listed the old shell for sale along with all the repair panels needed to restore it, until that's gone the new shell is going in my back room... 

Edited by Hexxeh, 15 May 2023 - 11:10 AM.

[miniQ]

Sending the heritage shell straight off for paint? sourced your own paint guy?

[Hexxeh]

Yeah, thinking I'll use Cooper Car and Commercial in Chorley for the paintwork. They do minis quite often.