691 replies to this topic

[alchall]

I only really spent a couple of hours on it, I was amazed how easily I got the bonnet hinge brackets off, partly I think because I'm now a little better practiced at drilling spot welds out

[Hendred]

I only really spent a couple of hours on it, I was amazed how easily I got the bonnet hinge brackets off, partly I think because I'm now a little better practiced at drilling spot welds out

Thats great when things start getting easier, motivates too!

[alchall]

More good progress this weekend, got the passenger side doorstep and A post boxing plate done....

 

I didn't take any progress photo's of the door step whilst doing it but here's a couple when it was in and the paint drying, you can see on the first one how thick the paint is on this car as it has two coats on top of each other, one the original flame red and then on top knightfire red and I didn't take any care to feather it as I'll be stripping it all back eventually anyway...

 

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Anyway, after that I decided to take some more of progress for the boxing plate, so here's the holes drilled for welding it in....

 

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I decided to use some garden wire as a hanger for the lower dash rail so it ends up in the same place it started, didn't do this on the other side as I wasn't thinking it would just ping loose (obvious in hindsight), this made the job easier, no messing to get it in the right place.

 

It's actually tricky to measure it's position as it's round and the top dash rail is also round, I think I may have fixed the drivers side about 5mm too low now having looked at it more closely, not sure if this is going to be a problem or not, the car had an open dash and if I kept it that way probably doesn't make a lot of difference but I was going to put a dash board in so I may purchase one and see how it all fits together to see if I need to re-do the drivers side.

 

Anywho; plug welded, cleaned up, dash rail welded in, all burnt paint removed and coat of Electrox applied.....

 

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And it's done....

 

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I blew the first plug weld at the top of the A post as I just held it too long, but the rest went nicely, only a couple of small gaps to weld up and no holes left, I'm definitely getting the hang of this welding malarky now!

 

The door step it's self inside was in remarkably good condition, however, the outer edge along the seam was completely shot, very thin and almost non existent in places, B post looks much better on this side than drivers side too.

 

Next job is the dash shelf, keep changing my mind about replacing the lot vs just replacing the ends, I think I'm going to replace the lot, may as well since I have it. I'll then fix up the top edges of the bulkhead and re-attach the bonnet hinge brackets before the big job of the inner wings begins.

[Hendred]

It amazes me the extent of your resto being your first one and never welded before, really hats off!

 

John

[alchall]

It amazes me the extent of your resto being your first one and never welded before, really hats off!

 

John

 

Thanks Jon, such kind words, really appreciate it!

[Ben_O]

I agree.

 

You are doing so well mate

 

Keep it up!

 

Ben

[alchall]

I agree.

 

You are doing so well mate

 

Keep it up!

 

Ben

 

Thanks Ben, great to have such positive feedback!

[alchall]

So I had a spare hour this afternoon and decided to see how the inner wings fit, a bit of bashing and wiggling and they're not a million miles of being in the right position by the looks of things, I suspect the last couple of mm will take a bit of time but I at least have enough here to be able to make up my repair for the top edge of the bulkhead on the drivers side.

 

First pic, was quite exciting to see this coming together, even if it is just temporary...

 

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There looks to be a gap here along the bottom edge (same on both sides) but actually it's very small and there's a lip that curves outwards so while it looks like a large gap it really isn't...

 

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Top edges are not quite there, worse on the passenger side but I can see on both sides what I think I need to do to get it right...

 

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A couple of mm backwards, should fall into place as I sort the other area's out...

 

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From the inside it's starting to look none too shabby, pretty sure I got the toe board right looking at this little lot!

 

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And just for good measure I plonked the scuttle on top just to see it looking more mini like!

 

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No point even trying to see how the wings fit as there's too far to go, clearly will be doing that and the doors before I go anywhere near drilling holes for plug welds let alone welding but I have to say I'm surprised just how close this all looks after only an hours work.

 

I'm undecided if buying these inner wings complete with apex panels and door posts is the right thing to do, it's certainly helping with getting the whole lot secure without need to get the clamps out, the only things holding this in place are bolts to the shock mounts and the tight fit into the A post gaps. I can see that the small closing panel that goes under the scuttle on the drivers side is not welded in the right place, it's too low a the front, so this will have to come off and be re-done at the very least, hopefully no other welds need to be broken!

Edited by alchall, 27 April 2015 - 05:10 PM.

[alchall]

I've taken a couple of days off that I'm using to work on the mini, I've managed to finish off the driver side corner so it's ready to fit the inner wing, having trial fitted it I think it's all good!

 

First up was fitting the new edge to the bulkhead, I made up this part while the inner wing was clamped up in position as it is a funny shape to it, here it is part way through....

 

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Next up replace the rest of the damaged part of the edge at the top.....

 

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Cleaned up along with the space for the bonnet bracket which I also re-fitted....

 

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There was a small gap left so I welded in this small off cut to complete the job....

 

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Bonnet hinge brackets fitted and the upright also welded back in place and all cleaned up and given a coat of the Electrox....

 

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In readiness for finishing off the other corner tomorrow I decided to start to slave up both wings and inner wings, it's all looking pretty close to correct, but need more clamps to fully slave up all the front end so I am 100% certain it's good to go before I fit either inner wing.

 

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I like that photo, it makes it look like a mini again

 

[Hendred]

I wouldn't be surprised if you get this done within a year (start to finish) if you carry on at this speed.

[alchall]

Not sure it will be done that quickly but I can see me sticking to my original schedule.

Bit of a backwards step yesterday, made a bit of a dogs breakfast of getting the old dash tray off the lower dash rail, the further I went the worse it got so I ended up with a trip to minisport to pick up the last of their lower dash rails they had in stock, hey ho, that's 40 quid I didn't need to spend.

Also ran out of gas, local hobbyweld is closed today so unless I find another not too far away that is open then that's me doing not much else on the mini this weekend.

Anyway, in other news having welded on the bonnet hinge brackets to the bulkhead on the passenger side I found that the metal had got very thin in that area as a result of the rust that I removed so I'm going to cut it out and replace with a fresh peice, don't want it cracking. There were a couple of other area's where I had rust to remove so I'm doing a bit of patch work there too, at the very least I'll be able to cut these bits out and make up the new steel peices this weekend and get the dash tray prepped for installation.

[Hendred]

Hope you find a Hobbyweld supplier especially with the extra day being a bank holiday weekend.

[alchall]

Didn't manage to get any gas, the other one near by was out of stock and waiting for a delivery, it gave me a chance to do some work in the house I've been neglecting to do and laid a new floor in my study.

 

Anyway, I did manage to get some work done on the mini, created the two final repair sections for the bulkhead, de-rusted, cleaned up and zinc primed the inside of the bulkhead (used weld through on the strip where the new dash tray will be welded in), and stripped the e-coat and replaced with weld through from the dash tray and lower dash rail where the two will meet and be welded together, so I think less than 1 days more work and I'll be ready to install the inner wings, looking forward to that day!

 

Repair sections waiting for the welding gas...

 

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And the inside of the bulkhead all done (except of course the rear side of the repair sections...

 

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[Hendred]

Maybe having no gas was a blessing in disguise so you could do that study floor! lol

[alchall]

Maybe having no gas was a blessing in disguise so you could do that study floor! lol

 

You are correct :-D