1658 replies to this topic

[James182]

You have just reminded me that i have to tidy my garage up after yesterday. FAIL! lol

Looking great! Love orange and black! my uncle had a orange and black cooper s. He showed me pictures the other week and it looks the nuts! This will turn out to be equally gorjus!

[Deathrow]

It's a nice feeling once it's done though .

Thanks for the kind words guys, more progress tomorrow me thinks, but tonight I think some revision is in order!

[Deathrow]

Got an update ladies and gents!


Holes drilled for plug welding.


Weld through primer for the valance.


Weld through primer all round!


All welded up.


Overall shot.


Hi-lo's wound down, just to see what it looked like.

Thanks for looking .

[Deathrow]

Well today has not been a good day! See below.


The flange where the sill will plug weld to was all messy so I set about cleaning that up.


Test fitted the sill, all fits in place nicely.

Then after a I removed a piece of metal that was in the way of me putting the sill in place properly, I came across this:



As you can see, rust has had its way here and I feel its probably crept between the subframe mounting sill to heel board bracket and the heel board itself, it'd be a complete false economy to weld the sills on leaving this like it is.

I've decided I think the best bet is to cut out a section of the heel board on both sides (in this area), leaving the bracket in place. Clean up the back of the bracket, treat with kurust all over, clean up again and replace the sheet metal on the back, plug welding to the bracket. After its painted, inject it all with waxoyl.

That should keep it all solid and happy for many many years. It's a minor set back and one I can't be bothered dealing with at the moment so I'm going to start work on the front end and the doors. I'll come back and do this before I fit the sills, which will now be the final job.

[analogue_radio]

Nothing you can't handle mate looks exciting.

[panelbeaterpeter]

The way you propose doing it sounds about right, it would likely last a good few years as it is, as the metal in that area is quite thick. You can buy new subframe mounting brackets, if you wanted to go that far.

[Deathrow]

The way you propose doing it sounds about right, it would likely last a good few years as it is, as the metal in that area is quite thick. You can buy new subframe mounting brackets, if you wanted to go that far.

I wouldn't be able to change the bracket easily now I've repaired the bottom of the rear quater would I? Wish I'd noticed this earlier.

I'll leave it for now, I'll leave it as the last job and see how I feel about it then. But I'm leaning towards replacing the rear skin with fresh so I can clean up the back of the bracket and then i know it's all solid metal.

We shall see.

I have to thank you and Shifty (he got my by PM) for your inputs!

[Shifty]

As it is should be ok, just make sure you pump a shedload of waxoyl into the inner sill when you've done and it will last for ever!!

[Deathrow]

After the amount of time it's taken to do all the welding (including learning how), it's likely Elliot will be getting her sills topped up with waxoyl every 6 months. I don't want to be doing any bodywork for some time!

EDIT: Just remembered I have welding to do on a friends Mini, haha.

[Deathrow]

I didn't get a chance to take a picture of the new front end when it arrived, but I had to get it back out today so here we are:


Wings, front panel, inner wings.

I'm going to order the bits I need to put the front panel on the front subframe so that I can sort out replacing the inner wings .

Thanks for looking.

[tedmcedd]

looking good!!

shame about the heelboard but it doesnt look too bad...

Ed

[Deathrow]

looking good!!

shame about the heelboard but it doesnt look too bad...

Ed

Nah I don't think it is really.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do about it yet, seems daft to leave questionable metal in there at this point. Hmmm.

[Deathrow]

Well, wasn't really much I could do today as I'm waiting for some bits so I can start getting the front end together.

I want to apologise as well, some of the pictures have a massive flare on them because I've managed to scratch the lens on my camera , looks like it's going to be going in the bin once I can afford a new one.


Rolled out the garage.


I wanted easy access to the front so I rolled it down the drive and turned it round. I tell you what, I was worried I wasn't going to get it back up the drive! They're alot heavier once you get on a bit of an incline.


Front end roughly clamped in place.


I crossed some things off my to do list and then added three times as many .


Tucked away back in the garage!

I'm waiting on some bits and bobs from Mini Spares before I can start work on putting the front back together properly.

Thanks for looking .

[jeff-jeff981]

The first thing im going to say is wow!!!
ive just read the whole of your thread from start to finish and its simply astonishing. ure skills have come on leaps and bounds, i can only hope that my skills will be half as good as yours are

i will be following your project closely as its really inspiring me to get on with mine albeit a tiny project in comparison

good luck with it all jeff

[Deathrow]

The first thing im going to say is wow!!!
ive just read the whole of your thread from start to finish and its simply astonishing. ure skills have come on leaps and bounds, i can only hope that my skills will be half as good as yours are

i will be following your project closely as its really inspiring me to get on with mine albeit a tiny project in comparison

good luck with it all jeff

Thanks for your comments Jeff, it's always nice to know that people enjoy reading my project log .

Ahh, but you see that's how all Mini projects start out! I was originally just patching up the boot floor and here we are now!