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Purdy - My Mini Project


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#1 tino

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Posted 29 June 2013 - 04:43 PM

Hi Everyone , 
 

It's been far to long , but I am eventually starting to rebuild my mini. I bought her back in 2006 and drove her for 3 years during all conditions whilst I was at Uni, unfortunately she wasn't looked after during this time and also some of the bodges done by the previous owners became apparent , so she came of the road and has been sitting in a garage / my drive since. 


I now own my own house so I can commence work on her although there is no cover which could be interesting in the Winter months.....


Here are some pictures of how she looks now...


mini-9.jpg


mini-8.jpg
 
Edit : Is there a way to resize the images with bbcode?

Edited by tino, 16 October 2015 - 07:16 PM.


#2 tino

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Posted 29 June 2013 - 05:12 PM

Here is my first attempt at welding. 
 
Reasonably happy with some of the welds , some don't look to good but I think that was due to me not having the air mix turned high enough. 
 
welding-6.jpg
 
 
Also I started to grind out the front floor pan on the passenger side .... going through the petrol pipe ( even though I had moved it out of the way , doh!!! ) 
 
mini-16.jpg
 
 
How do I go about grinding through this? 
 
welding-2.jpgwelding-3.jpg
welding-5.jpg
 
welding-4.jpg
 
 
I guess I also need to grind the following down aswell rather than just spot welding on top? 
 
welding-1.jpg

Edited by tino, 16 October 2015 - 07:16 PM.


#3 alex-95

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Posted 29 June 2013 - 06:20 PM

Looks like a good project, What is your plans for it?

 

The peice for the last pic (toeboard and floor on top) needs to taken off. It will be easyer to use a spot weld drill and drill the old ones out, (where you can see the round dips). You will have to weld a new lip on the toeboard out of 1.2mm metal, as it looks like you have cut it off. Have a look at page 5 on my Ritz thread to see.

 

http://www.ebay.co.u...=item3a471fef24


Edited by alex-95, 29 June 2013 - 06:24 PM.


#4 tino

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Posted 29 June 2013 - 07:31 PM

Looks like a good project, What is your plans for it?

 

The peice for the last pic (toeboard and floor on top) needs to taken off. It will be easyer to use a spot weld drill and drill the old ones out, (where you can see the round dips). You will have to weld a new lip on the toeboard out of 1.2mm metal, as it looks like you have cut it off. Have a look at page 5 on my Ritz thread to see.

 

http://www.ebay.co.u...=item3a471fef24

 

Thanks for the reply , I intend to restore it to its original condition , nothing special. Just as standard as I can make it. ( She's got sentimental value to me as I bought her with my inheritance from my Gran and Grandad ) Also has my personal plates on it that I can't remove due to it being SORN'ed to long :( 

 

I had a feeling I had taken out more than i should of although what was underneath was completely rusted through anyway , so I would of have to replace it.  It a lot worse on the other side unfortunately. 

 

I'll look at getting a spot weld bit from a local DIY store tomorrow. If not I'll go to ebay. 



#5 Minidarren83

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Posted 29 June 2013 - 09:41 PM

Hi there first off looks like a good project the usual mini rot so good luck. Second you said how do I grind through this? What discs are you using? Try 1mm thin cutting discs. Cut all your rust out then lay your new panel inside the car drill through both panel and car and bolt the two together for marking. Mark out cut out and but weld in. Hope that is of some help
Darren

#6 sonikk4

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Posted 29 June 2013 - 09:45 PM

As mentioned grind that section off or drill out the spot welds. You can if you want add another section to the toeboard to get the lip that the floor sits on at the front.

 

This will allow you to really support the floor there.

 

You also have rust travelling further up the toe board so you will need to address that as well. The lower section of the flitch will need to be replaced as well. This will have a return flange on it that the floor should also sit on so that section of the floor will need to be left unwelded to carry out the repair.



#7 Petrol

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Posted 29 June 2013 - 10:11 PM

My advice would be not to cut too much out at once and repair one section at a time. I am also new to shell refrabrication and have learned the hard way. I don't grind much and, as already metioned, use a 1mm cutting disk to cut. For dressing welds I use a flap / sanding wheel. These are far better than a grinding disk. There are lots of seams on mini's and you need to be careful you don't cut everything out and have no seam to weld to. This thread is what I used as possibly the best guide on here

 

http://www.theminifo...ration-project/

 

This is my thread, I started on the shell properly on page 9

 

http://www.theminifo...-rebuild/page-9

 

I have tried to explain exactly what I have done in my thread and maybe it will answer some of your questions.

 

I hope that helps

 

Pete



#8 sonikk4

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Posted 29 June 2013 - 10:23 PM

My advice would be not to cut too much out at once and repair one section at a time. I am also new to shell refrabrication and have learned the hard way. I don't grind much and, as already metioned, use a 1mm cutting disk to cut. For dressing welds I use a flap / sanding wheel. These are far better than a grinding disk. There are lots of seams on mini's and you need to be careful you don't cut everything out and have no seam to weld to. This thread is what I used as possibly the best guide on here

 

http://www.theminifo...ration-project/

 

This is my thread, I started on the shell properly on page 9

 

http://www.theminifo...-rebuild/page-9

 

I have tried to explain exactly what I have done in my thread and maybe it will answer some of your questions.

 

I hope that helps

 

Pete

 

I would agree with using the flapper discs but there are some very poor ones out there so be careful what you buy. They do not last as long as grinding discs so i would suggest knocking back the welds first with a grinding disc then finish off with a flapper wheel.



#9 tino

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Posted 29 June 2013 - 10:39 PM

As mentioned grind that section off or drill out the spot welds. You can if you want add another section to the toeboard to get the lip that the floor sits on at the front.

 

This will allow you to really support the floor there.

 

 

Is this the 1.2mm thick toeboard section that I cut out you are talking about? 

 

 

 

You also have rust travelling further up the toe board so you will need to address that as well. The lower section of the flitch will need to be replaced as well. This will have a return flange on it that the floor should also sit on so that section of the floor will need to be left unwelded to carry out the repair.

 

The rust on the toeboard I only noticed in the left corner by the flitch , the rest was all solid and withstood a lot of poking with a screwdriver. 

 

The flitch itself has gone completely at the top and all along the side , so I intend to replace the whole thing. 

 

 

My advice would be not to cut too much out at once and repair one section at a time. I am also new to shell refrabrication and have learned the hard way. I don't grind much and, as already metioned, use a 1mm cutting disk to cut. For dressing welds I use a flap / sanding wheel. These are far better than a grinding disk. There are lots of seams on mini's and you need to be careful you don't cut everything out and have no seam to weld to. This thread is what I used as possibly the best guide on here

 

 

Pete

 

To cut that section out I asked about I ended up removing a fair chunk of metal to get around all the previous repair welds ( reason I was asking how to get it out ) An I am now missing a large part of the Outer Sill and most of the lower flitch and I think I've gone a bit to far in for the flitch repair panel so will have to patch that. ( I'll take some pictures tomorrow. ) 

 

Still its a start , and I will continue to learn.

 

Does anyone have any comments on my welding? I know its only a few practise welds but I 'think' they are ok for a start.  


Edited by tino, 29 June 2013 - 10:40 PM.


#10 Minidarren83

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Posted 29 June 2013 - 10:48 PM

The welds look ok for a first go but what is the other side like? Also try practicing a vary of welds ie butt, lap, and plug all with the same 0.9mm steel used on the mini and make the steel as clean as you can play with the setting to get the best bead shape and penetration and I would almost forget about seam welding it will just distort the thin steel try pulsing, it's just a series of tacks joined together with more tacks slowing the steel to cool between bursts

#11 sonikk4

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Posted 29 June 2013 - 10:49 PM

You may need to up the wire speed slightly as the welds look a little light. I would practise pulse welding for the thinner floor skin because if you intend to butt weld its very easy to blow holes.

 

Get yourself two pieces of 0.9mm steel sheet, clamp them together using some inter grips. These will leave a even small gap of less than 1 mm. Now tack weld every inch for a few inches. Now Pulse weld in between each tack weld. Overlap a tack weld with another until you reach the next tack, miss an inch then pulse weld between the next tacks. When its finished it will look like a seam weld. Now flip it over to see what the penetration is like.

IMG_0918.jpg

 

 

Also practise doing some plug welds. Drill some 3/16th and 1/4" holes in another piece of 0.9mm. Clamp this piece over another sheet of metal. Now up your power and wire speed (you need the power to ensure a good weld) and fill the hole with weld.

 

Holes drilled

IMG_1051.jpg

 

and then filled with weld

IMG_1053.jpg



#12 tino

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Posted 30 June 2013 - 08:28 PM

Thanks for the examples , I didn't actually have any intergrips just some panel clamps and mole grips so have bought some of those , as £15 for 5 its probably going to be worth it. 
 
Not done a great deal today as I'll be getting the 1.2mm Metal tomorrow. Just cleaned up the mess I had made a bit and ground down the raised section on the bulkhead. Also offered the repair panel up and cut it down a bit. Im going to trim it to size once I have the toe board repair done. 
 
welding-8.jpg
 
welding-7.jpg

Edited by tino, 16 October 2015 - 07:17 PM.


#13 tino

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Posted 03 July 2013 - 10:10 PM

The inter grips arrived today so decided to practice a bit more with my welding. 
 
I started of pretty poorly ( actually if i'm honest it was appalling ) however I remembered what Sonikk had suggested and the last few were actually quite good imo. 
 
Tacking the bit in place. 
 
welding-15.jpg
 
Dreadful welding , you can see a few of my practice bits after as I wasn't happy with the finish. 
 
welding-16.jpg
 
Reverse side , doesn't look to go although penetration is there at least. 
 
welding-17.jpg
 
Quite happy with the below , nothing special but it looks ok. 
 
welding-20.jpg
 
welding-21.jpg
 
I think there is to much penetration there and I could do with trying to get it a bit neater , but if its somewhere visible it looks like that could be ground down and retain its strength. 
 
Anyway that's it for now , will attempt to weld the 1.2mm metal in at the weekend most likely.

Edited by tino, 16 October 2015 - 07:17 PM.


#14 Minidarren83

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Posted 04 July 2013 - 01:12 PM

The inter grips arrived today so decided to practice a bit more with my welding. 
 
I started of pretty poorly ( actually if i'm honest it was appalling ) however I remembered what Sonikk had suggested and the last few were actually quite good imo. 
 
Tacking the bit in place. 
 
welding-15.jpg
 
Dreadful welding , you can see a few of my practice bits after as I wasn't happy with the finish. 
 
welding-16.jpg
 
Reverse side , doesn't look to go although penetration is there at least. 
 
welding-17.jpg
 
Quite happy with the below , nothing special but it looks ok. 
 
welding-20.jpg
 
welding-21.jpg
 
I think there is to much penetration there and I could do with trying to get it a bit neater , but if its somewhere visible it looks like that could be ground down and retain its strength. 
 
Anyway that's it for now , will attempt to weld the 1.2mm metal in at the weekend most likely. 


Blowing holes like that is only down to a few factors too much power or staying in one spot for too long

#15 tino

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Posted 07 July 2013 - 06:51 PM

Yeh I think it was combination of both, until the last one. 
 
Not done a great deal since then, spent most of today trying to get the replacement panel to fit to size, also broke a drill bit trying to drill the plug weld holes. ( It was a cheap and nasty drill bit. ) 
 
Anyway here are a few pictures of my efforts. 
 
Welded in the 1.2mm steel I had cut out. Need to do a small repair panel going up the bulkhead by the flitch.  It's not the nicest repair but after grinding down it looked ok and the penetration was there. An it's having a panel on top of it anyway so I just put weld through primer on it and left it. 
welding-25.jpg
 
Trying to get the replacement panel to fit. 
welding-26.jpg
 
Reasonably happy with the distance and fit, it needs to be pushed / pulled up a bit here but if I tack it in place and move the clamps I think I will be ok. 
welding-27.jpg
 
Still need to grind a little of this corner to fit , and i'm thinking I will have to replace some of the inner sill as it looks a bit weak at the bottom after grinding it down. 
 
welding-28.jpg
 
Corner fitting , doesn't look to bad here 
welding-29.jpg
 
I was going to seam weld it on all sides other than where it joins the bulkhead and only plug weld along there. 
 
One thing I did notice was I hadn't removed enough waxoil around the welding when I did the 1.2mm bit , is there a knack to this or just hard work scraping it away...

Edited by tino, 16 October 2015 - 07:18 PM.





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