15 replies to this topic

[Pseudonym]

Hello TMF,

 

I've been driving my British Open Classic for a few months now, it is my first car, and I started getting into changing things on it (as you do). At one point I removed my black OEM special wheel arches and door sill rubber moulding to change them to newer, nicer arches - but what I found under my nearside door sill rubber moulding has left me worried a bit. There is some rust, a worrying amount, and I do not know what is the process for treating rust, but I do want to resolve this. What is the normal course of action for this amount of rust? I have never worked on cars before this, but I am very keen to learn. I have included links to the rest of my imgur albums which highlight spots of rust throughout other areas of the car, though the other rust doesn't appear to be as serious as the door sill rust.

 

overall view of nearside door sill rust:

 

 

another overall view of the nearside door sill rust with door shut:

 

close up of rust towards the front of the door sill:

 

 

 

close up of the rust towards the middle of the door sill:

 

another close up of the same spot, head on:

 

 

 

a shot of the same spot from below, showing the underside of the car a bit:

 

 

a shot of a rust hole on the door sill, towards the end of where the door shuts:

 

 

So those are the pictures which show the rust on the nearside door sill, here are links to the rest of my imgur albums of the mini, as you can see this is the most serious place of rot that I've managed to find on this mini:

 

http://luissteuer.imgur.com/

 

Thanks for viewing! Please advise on what to do TMF!

 

 

 

 

[Ben_O]

The normal course of action here would be to replace the door step panel and outer sill. But Mini's being Mini's, you will most likely find more rust behind and will end up replacing other surrounding panels.

 

You can get these panels fairly cheap but try to get genuine parts as they fit much better. Most non genuine door step panels will require quite alot of re-shaping to match the profile of the original step and it goes without saying that welding will be required.

 

The job is fairly straight forward. I would start by cutting along below the join where the sill meets the door step all the way along and drill the spot welds along the bottom of the sill and up the front and back. Remove the outer sill and then cut out the step drilling the spot welds underneath the door seal where it meets the top of the inner sill. Prepare to find alot more rust on the inner sill behind.

It's best to get the new panels before you begin so you don't accidentally cut too much off. 

 

There are plenty of people in the projects section that have tackled exactly this repair so i would advise having a look around on there for some ideas.

[alex-95]

Like above it ideally needs cutting out and the door step and sill replacing as it will probably be quite bad once it's opened up, you could get away with patching the hole in the door step and sill and wire brushing the rest of the rust and paint it for the minute.

 

I'll probably get told I'm wrong and to just do it right first time, but if you can't get it welded soon I would put something over the hole like duck tape or a bit of sealent.

[alex-95]

Looking at you other pictures,for the bootlid take off the number plate and bolts, get a wire brush on a drill  and wire brush the holes and the seam , then you can use some rust converter like hammerite kurust and then paint it body color.

do you have a battery cover? if not I would get one or make something to cover it.

On the front under the drivers headlight I would be careful with it as it looks like if you do anything with it you'll go right through the panel so the the wing would then need to be repaired or replaced. for the rust by the bumper you should be able to wire brush it and kurust it and paint it again. same agian with the rust in the corners of the front panel where the corner of the bonnet go's and the edge of the bonnet.

[minidaves]

2 options cut it out and do some nice patch repairs of do some complete panel replacement. but it requires attention sooner rather than later

[Covert]

Depends how much money you have and if its your daily driver, i see restoration/ panel replacement on the cards soon though

[mini-geek]

What ever you do done be conned and put cover sills on.. It will just make it worse!

[Ben_O]

Agree with Mini-geek about cover sills. many garages will use them as they give a very presentable finish by covering up all of the rot and cause a hell of alot of future problems.

There is absolutely no point in just welding a plate or cover or anything over the top of existing rot. Its money down the pan

 

You could well make a small plate to repair the worst of the sill and clean the rest of the rust up and make it look great with some fresh paint but the chances are, the rust you have there will have worked itself through from the inside so repairing the damage in this way will only be temporary as the rust will just continue working itself through a few weeks later.

 

I'm glad you are planning to tackle it yourself. Its a much better way of doing it as you know what is happening to your car and you have total control over how the repairs are carried out.

 

There is a member on here who has a van he is restoring. he had his welding done at a garage and after paying them he noticed what a bodge they had done so ended up teaching himself how to do it and re-done all of the garages repairs to a much better standard.

 

Plenty of help and advice on here for doing the work. I will have a look at the other photos later when i get a chance.

 

Ben

[sonikk4]

I would definitely be looking at replacing the complete door step and outer sill. If you are lucky?? there will be limited rust damage to the inner sill.

 

M Machine will be producing their own door steps very soon so hopefully they will be better than the Magnum steps which are pants. Their own outer short sills are very good and is something that i use a lot now.

[sonikk4]

Quite a bit of rust showing on the car.

 

Right the boot lid rust, that is under the outer skin flange so not an easy fix. That will need a boot skin or a replacement boot lid to sort that out properly.

 

The bonnet will need the front trim removing to see what's lurking behind there.

 

The drivers door window frame is a pain to fix and will need either the skin off or a section removing to repair that properly.

 

The good side outer sill is starting to show signs of rust. Now it looks ok from the outside but the rust will be on the inner surface.

 

The staining on the B pillar looks like glue residue to me.

[Pseudonym]

Looking at you other pictures,for the bootlid take off the number plate and bolts, get a wire brush on a drill  and wire brush the holes and the seam , then you can use some rust converter like hammerite kurust and then paint it body color.

do you have a battery cover? if not I would get one or make something to cover it.

On the front under the drivers headlight I would be careful with it as it looks like if you do anything with it you'll go right through the panel so the the wing would then need to be repaired or replaced. for the rust by the bumper you should be able to wire brush it and kurust it and paint it again. same agian with the rust in the corners of the front panel where the corner of the bonnet go's and the edge of the bonnet.

 

Thanks alex! So the process for simple surface rust in most places is simply to use a wire brush drill to remove most of the rust and convert whatever is left over using products, after which it is ready to be painted over, gotcha. I will look into getting a wire brush attachment for the drill. My car uses metallic paint though, how would I go about touching up the areas with new paint after treating the rust? Would it require an airbrush? I'm very new to this and have no clue, thank you though for the advice on the rust :)

 

Agree with Mini-geek about cover sills. many garages will use them as they give a very presentable finish by covering up all of the rot and cause a hell of alot of future problems.

There is absolutely no point in just welding a plate or cover or anything over the top of existing rot. Its money down the pan

 

You could well make a small plate to repair the worst of the sill and clean the rest of the rust up and make it look great with some fresh paint but the chances are, the rust you have there will have worked itself through from the inside so repairing the damage in this way will only be temporary as the rust will just continue working itself through a few weeks later.

 

I'm glad you are planning to tackle it yourself. Its a much better way of doing it as you know what is happening to your car and you have total control over how the repairs are carried out.

 

There is a member on here who has a van he is restoring. he had his welding done at a garage and after paying them he noticed what a bodge they had done so ended up teaching himself how to do it and re-done all of the garages repairs to a much better standard.

 

Plenty of help and advice on here for doing the work. I will have a look at the other photos later when i get a chance.

 

Ben

 

Definitely. No doubt about that, I agree with you there. Do you know of any good resources of learning how to weld? I would love to restore it myself, and I'm realising that I may need to know how to weld sooner rather than later. I will look into getting only original panels to ensure they fit well and will look at the can thread too if I can find it, thanks :)

 

Quite a bit of rust showing on the car.

 

Right the boot lid rust, that is under the outer skin flange so not an easy fix. That will need a boot skin or a replacement boot lid to sort that out properly.

 

The bonnet will need the front trim removing to see what's lurking behind there.

 

The drivers door window frame is a pain to fix and will need either the skin off or a section removing to repair that properly.

 

The good side outer sill is starting to show signs of rust. Now it looks ok from the outside but the rust will be on the inner surface.

 

The staining on the B pillar looks like glue residue to me.

 

Thanks for taking the time to look through the albums, it really does help me to make sense of what work I could be looking at doing in the near future!

 

As for the bonnet under the trim I recently replaced the shiny trim bit along the front of the bonnet with a new piece when I replaced the original grille - not rusty underneath luckily, but it is on the corners as you could see, matching up to the rust on the corners of the slam panel/grille.

 

Door sounds like it will be a pain :/ Not going to attempt any time soon.

 

Damn. When time comes around to treat the worse sill I will look into the 'good' sill.

 

I'll get some cleaning alcohol on that glue residue and see if it removes it. Thanks!

[Ben_O]

This book isn't too bad and has a pretty comprehensive guide to all types of welding. http://www.amazon.co...haynes car body

I have it and it helped me when i first started out. Pretty outdated now but everything in the instructions obviously still applies.

 

Also there is a mig welding forum which i have heard is pretty good but not actually visited myself.

 

Also lots of help and advice on here. 

 

Ben

[Pseudonym]

This book isn't too bad and has a pretty comprehensive guide to all types of welding. http://www.amazon.co...haynes car body

I have it and it helped me when i first started out. Pretty outdated now but everything in the instructions obviously still applies.

 

Also there is a mig welding forum which i have heard is pretty good but not actually visited myself.

 

Also lots of help and advice on here. 

 

Ben

 

Definitely will look into getting some reading material ( I keep a copy of David Vizard's 'Tuning The A-Series Engine' on my bedside table, I read a little bit each night, as well as having a Haynes service manual and restoration one too) - As well as using the forums and internet sources :) Thank you Ben :) 

Quite a bit of rust showing on the car.

 

Right the boot lid rust, that is under the outer skin flange so not an easy fix. That will need a boot skin or a replacement boot lid to sort that out properly.

 

The bonnet will need the front trim removing to see what's lurking behind there.

 

The drivers door window frame is a pain to fix and will need either the skin off or a section removing to repair that properly.

 

The good side outer sill is starting to show signs of rust. Now it looks ok from the outside but the rust will be on the inner surface.

 

The staining on the B pillar looks like glue residue to me.

 

Hi, I took some extra pictures of the grille removed, which I removed recently when I did an oil change and changed the oil filter, its 4 images, just some strange white marks, thanks so much though for having looked through my earlier albums too though :)

 

http://imgur.com/a/ZY3ix

Edited by Pseudonym, 20 April 2014 - 05:31 PM.

[alex-95]

the white is just just primer where the grille has rubbed through the paint. I would treat that rust asap, it'll only get worse, I would rather have it solid and maybe have a different shade of green than have it rust through the panel.

[Rocket.]

The white stuff looks like it could be filler to me also looks like the car has had some paint work done in the past