396 replies to this topic

[stuart bowes]

Lol yes sorry I should have specified, a method that gets the job done in under a year

[johnR]

Any chance of posting your pics with imgur? - it would be great to see them easily.

[stuart bowes]

bit awkward that because my main collection here is all 2mb files, to post them online I crop and resize to 900px wide, then after all the uploading I delete those smaller versions 

 

so I would have to go though what is now hundreds of pictures either uploading big versions which would take ages or resizing them all again which would take even longer

 

was there any particular are you wanted to see because I could maybe upload a batch to a public Gdrive or something

Edited by stuart bowes, 10 June 2023 - 11:15 AM.

[stuart bowes]

continued work on the rear parcel shelf, decided I want 6x9's and so obviously the best time to do the cutting etc is right now 

 

after checking with fuel tank for clearance, traced out shapes including removal and plating-in of the two inner holes of unknown purpose (old mono speaker setup maybe? whatever it was, not wanted now)

 

 

I didn't want to cut too close to the edges of the pressed in strengthening dimples because a flat surface is easier to linish off, so I was left with a little bit of the flange from the small circles.  grips to bring them level and a hammer and dolly soon sorted that out

 

 

 

the air saw made light work of the 6x9 holes 

 

 

and to get rid of the remains of the adjacent dimpled sections I cut relief slots

 

 

and clamped them flat followed by a bit more hammer and dolly

 

 

 

same both sides, obviously

 

eagled eyed will notice I also dealt with those little D shaped holes by cutting them out into a easily fillable triangle shape

 

 

traced filler shapes and made in steel

 

 

 

used a length of RHS and two bits of copper pipe hammered flat to hold the shelf flat while welding up the two slits from earlier

 

 

and tacked in the replacement pieces

 

 

you may notice with the small triangles I have allowed myself some metal to weld out onto this time, instead of blowing out the edge of the oval (which still needs a bit of tidying with sanding drum but actually came out pretty much spot on so I don't want to ruin that)

 

that's most of the superfluous holes gone, and two good holes added

 

next chance I get will finish that all off, flush and primer 

Edited by stuart bowes, 13 June 2023 - 08:43 PM.

[stuart bowes]

one side finished off using the dregs of the gas bottle, literally ran dry as I finished the square piece in the middle

 

the latest batch of etch primer is a darker grey for some reason not that it matters really

 

 

you can still see where the square hole was obviously but after a thin scraping of filler that will vanish 

 

new gas bottle finally turned up 4pm today (ordered thursday last week !?!)  so can do the rest tomorrow

 

in the mean time having been binging Binky again I noted they used boxster boot hinges for the bonnet, so knowing the original mini ones are a pile of crud I thought I'll have a bit of that.  £10 the pair free delivery off ebay, it's worth that just for the gas struts

 

 

annoyingly the triangular bracket gets in the way on a 'real' mini and I really don't want to cut into that so that's out ... however I can copy and modify the design to make it work (i think) . 

 

firing up Solidworks and ordering a pizza.. 

Edited by stuart bowes, 15 June 2023 - 06:39 PM.

[Jarvis_SPI]

one side finished off using the dregs of the gas bottle, literally ran dry as I finished the square piece in the middle

 

the latest batch of etch primer is a darker grey for some reason not that it matters really

 

 

you can still see where the square hole was obviously but after a thin scraping of filler that will vanish 

 

new gas bottle finally turned up 4pm today (ordered thursday last week !?!)  so can do the rest tomorrow

 

in the mean time having been binging Binky again I noted they used boxster boot hinges for the bonnet, so knowing the original mini ones are a pile of crud I thought I'll have a bit of that.  £10 the pair free delivery off ebay, it's worth that just for the gas struts

 

 

annoyingly the triangular bracket gets in the way on a 'real' mini and I really don't want to cut into that so that's out ... however I can copy and modify the design to make it work (i think) . 

 

firing up Solidworks and ordering a pizza.. 

 

Watching the Boxster boot hinge solution with interest....

[stuart bowes]

1st effort... want to take a few more measurements yet and make a mockup, may need some adjustment, but it works in principle

 

the L shaped piece attached to the bonnet needs trimming off at the end I just noticed, also the bracket on the bonnet itself would need moving back half inch or so, not a particularly difficult task

 

the bonnet lifts about 1.5" or so before pivoting up and backwards, which stops the rear edge hitting the scuttle, and then should open to vertical which is the whole point,  I just need to check and possibly tweak that to get it right

 

and I've got to work out where I'm putting the gas strut obviously

 

 

 

 

Edited by stuart bowes, 15 June 2023 - 11:54 PM.

[stuart bowes]

back on the parcel shelf, welding now all completed 

 

 

 

 

I know theres one that warped a bit I did take a hammer and dolly to that afterwards and got it a lot closer to straight (still not perfect)

 

it's about as good as I can do in terms of welding and linishing especially in this heat and especially considering the whole thing is going to be covered in sound deadening and/or some sort of shelf covering anyway. But I will still give it a skim of filler just to make it a nice flat surface and hide the welds

 

I'll also have a look into those speckly brown marks underneath as well at some point although I'm pretty sure it'll all wire brush off like most of the ones I've found 

Edited by stuart bowes, 17 June 2023 - 02:51 PM.

[stuart bowes]

busy with childcare and stuff still at the moment but some small progress being made on the new bonnet hinges

 

 

taken about a million measurements, over and over again, remodelled it more accurately etc, reasonably convinced it will work now but there's only really one way to find out

 

getting one bend in the right place is easy! getting the next one right is much harder.  In the end I found it more accurate to do one bend (with heat, checking for no cracks and welding it up when it happened once)  and then cutting and welding the next angle on and taking endless measurements to check.  got them pretty much bang on I think.  holes drilled when all bends / welds completed obviously because that makes the positioning easier to get right

 

remaining pieces are flat plate cut outs so that's easier in some ways but still need to weld in some stud (or actually bolts with the heads cut off.. that note at the bottom should actually say M8, I changed my mind but forgot to update that note which I realised just now)

Edited by stuart bowes, 10 July 2023 - 08:30 AM.

[Steve220]

Amazing work as always!!

[stuart bowes]

cheers let's wait and see if it actually works first haha

 

I reckon just from initial impressions Im gonna have to weld up and redrill two of the pivot points .. but it is a work in progress I suppose

 

really I should stop messing about and get back on with welding the underside of the boot floor but it's such a crap horrible job being upside down I'm doing it little bit at a time 

[stuart bowes]

So.. as you can see the bonnet lifts up, and sort of rotates slightly forward at the bottom, and up and over at the top to a notably higher angle than standard.  I've measured it what must be a million times and I'm convinced the back corner of the bonnet clears the gutter in the up position

 

up position

(primer ground off in places where I had to make a couple of adjustments)

 

 

down position 

 

 

in the down position though the angle is a bit off so I'm adding a bit of extra meat to that bracket piece to give me fixing positions in the right place. 

 

 

More finishing off happened after that obviously..  it's way too big but that was the offcut I had knocking about .  I'll mark up and drill positions, then trim to suit

 

This will mean of course mean losing some of the 'up' angle but I can trim the stopper tab to allow a little more movement and get some of that back

 

another few hundred measurements taken means I'm also fairly convinced it will clear the wiper motor on the other side as well but that will just be a bit of last minute excitement when I find out one way or another I guess

 

and welding 3mm steel is so easy! it's actually quite enjoyable being able to just weld rather than fannying about blowing holes

Edited by stuart bowes, 05 July 2023 - 10:00 PM.

[stuart bowes]

Hinges completed and primered for now, looking good and as far as I can tell the same both sides (or close enough..)

 

 

I decided the best chance to make sure everything's located correctly is to bolt them to the bonnet, and then hide in the engine bay with a torch and a marker pen while my dad puts the bonnet on with good gaps all round, and then after that there's the usual amount of adjustment on the bonnet fixings so a little in any direction isn't a problem

 

to that end I figured the next job needed to be getting the front subframe off and the car suitably high up in the air 

 

 

the other upshot is I can now strip down both subframes and get them down to the sandblasters before painting 

 

I was expecting the traditional holes behind the shock mounts but turns out I have only surface rust it seems 

 

 

that will get a really good angle grinder wire brushing to make sure but looks good initially anyway

 

and then I removed the original bonnet hinge arms.  Brackets will just stay there in case the hinges don't work, or some future person doesn't like them for some reason

 

Then I stood there looking at the bulkhead for a bit having a nice cold beer and thinking about possibly welding in a a few of those holes (or maybe just getting a pack of mixed grommets.. I dunno)

 

 

I am slightly tempted to weld a flat plate in place of the unnecessary massive rotodip hole which now only serves to let in noise 

 

either way some work is clearly required there to clean back to good metal and protect it for a few more years

Edited by stuart bowes, 09 July 2023 - 07:56 PM.

[colinf1]

The only benefit of the rotodip hole is if you have a center binnacle, you can do wiring of clocks from the engine side. I put some 20mm foam sheet in mine and it lessened the noise coming in, but I'm gonna put more and more on interior side of bulkhead.

[stuart bowes]

I will of course have to leave a hole big enough to poke the loom through, but that really only needs to be the size of the big grommet which is, what 45-50mm or so.. I'll have to measure it

 

I would probably leave a square hole with something like 80mm sides, then have a piece that fits onto that grommet and bolts in.  like the original cover plate, just a lot smaller

 

or maybe I'll just leave it alone lol there's enough stuff to do as it is

Edited by stuart bowes, 09 July 2023 - 11:01 PM.