1658 replies to this topic

[Deathrow]

So far I've spent all of today running around trying to get welding rods. Sadly, Lancaster is a bit useless so I've had to order some off eBay. Hoping they will come tomorrow or Saturday and then I can get cracking with the door gaps.

Until then I will have to get on with some other bits and bobs to keep me occupied.

Edit: I got 10 meters worth so if I need to make any amendments on the boot lid, I can.

Edited by Deathrow, 29 September 2011 - 02:47 PM.

[minimaxie]

ahhhhhh ive finally read up-to-date on whats going on... am in total awe of you sir! Such a fantastic job youve done here mate! have been reading this from the begining since the start of last week during work hours when theres nothing to do around here gotta say this makes me want to get my mini EVEN MORE and experience the blood, sweat and tears that you get rebuilding a mini! cant wait to own one (i know that sounds lame on a forum where 99% are mini owners already!) and have to go through all this! cannot wait to see Elliot in all her glory when shes done keep up the awesome work dude, you'll reap the benefits of your hard work soon
max

[hughJ]

We're all in awe of him, max.

Hugh

[minimaxie]

haha true! this man is a legend

[Deathrow]

You guys are giving me too much credit! If anything I should be told off for being very very lazy.

I've not touched the car in a few days, dreading doing the door gaps for one reason or another. It's making me keep putting it off .

[bcjames]

Get on with it Adam!!!

(you know everything so far has come out really well and the door gaps will be no different!)

[minimuk]

You guys are giving me too much credit! If anything I should be told off for being very very lazy.

I've not touched the car in a few days, dreading doing the door gaps for one reason or another. It's making me keep putting it off .

Just weld them on and that's that, use that "welding putty" (absorbing the welding heat) to prevent the panel from warping, weld on low setting tack it 1" at the time top-bottum top-bottum, seam it after. sand back to perfect line. job done,... just do it.

[Deathrow]

I'll get cracking on it tomorrow! Can't be that bad I guess.

[sonikk4]

Doing the gapping will be straight forward Adam, just a little time consuming.

[grahama]

Neil,

have looked on erm's thread but not sure about this one. Did you just weld filler rods to the outside and have a step on the inside of the door or did you blend the fillers in all the way from outside to inside??

Graham

sorry to hijack thread but thought it may help u too

[sonikk4]

The rods were all welded to the edges of the door and welded both sides. The rod thickness being 3.4mm is toughly how thick the edges are give or take. It will need to some hammer and dolly work as the heat will try and bend the edges over. When you do this you do need to check the welds as they do tend to crack with repeated blows.

With the edges of the door and the radius of the rods it does make for a nice area to fill with weld but you do need to keep cooling the welds down to ease the amount of distortion. You will get some no matter you do.

When its all ground back a skim of filler is all you will need on the edges and it should look just an extension of the original door edge.

[minimuk]

I'll get cracking on it tomorrow! Can't be that bad I guess.

If it does go wrong, start again, fiddly to start but then when finished, you'll say how easy it was,....

Good luck or have you done it already?

[Scootay]

come on lad... stop playing that block game and get some work done. if i go to my mums on saturday and your not working on elliot there will be hell to pay! haha

[Deathrow]

come on lad... stop playing that block game and get some work done. if i go to my mums on saturday and your not working on elliot there will be hell to pay! haha

Haha, the block game isn't guilty! I've been trying to get the boiler sorted this week and I've also got some work from a friend which is going to pay for Elliot's paint .

Boiler is fixed now so progress will resume.

[Deathrow]

Long overdue but here is an update:


Built up my courage to start on the doors. Here some metal has been added in.


All smoothed out now for an even gap.


Here is the front gap.

The bottom gap needs work too but since both doors need exactly the same treatment I'm going to do them together.

Now I know the gaps are bigger than Neil achieved with this technique on Project Erm but I'm quite happy with the size of the gaps. I don't think they're too big or too small and they match the rest of the door frame and other gaps on the car like the boot lid. They're about 4mm wide if anyone is interested. That also happens to be smaller than the gaps found on alot of modern cars so I'm happy.

I've also got a little bit of work on at the moment which is going to pay for Elliot's paint. Good times .

Thanks for looking .