47 replies to this topic

[danie garry]

 

And a mix of budget and quality discs for the angle grinders:

 

 

 

be careful with cheap wire wheels.....can end badly! experience of surgery where one does not want surgery!

[wombatjock]

Yikes! I don't think the wire wheels are _that_ budget - all Silverline, but may do some reading. Cheers!

[wombatjock]

I meant to get out for a wee while last night to finish prepping the inner wing, and spraying it with weld through primer (on the mating faces), but I didn't. So I did it this today.

 

 

That left me with it needing to cure, so I turned my attention to starting to strip off the other inner wing, starting with the A panel. Bit of a freaky ghost face on it! You can see a nice bodged repair under the closing section.

 

 

Quite stunned at the general state of it, and the number of bodge jobs done before.

 

I buzzed the paint (and a LOT of high build) off the A panel where it should have been spot welded to the inner wing, only to find that there were no spot/plug welds - just clean metal. Didn't take long to work out that it had been attached the edge of the door check/inner wing (once I had peeled the silicone sealant out of the way). Same as the other (near side) there was no flange on the inner wing where the A-panel is supposed to be folder over. Ah well - there will be once the new wing is on... Got it removed by cutting at the top and bottom and then cutting the welds between it and the door check. Nice original sticker on the inside of the A panel. Too far gone to work out who made it Clearly not treated/painted at the last fix..

 

 

Good view of another, quite large, bodge repair.

 

 

The inner wing had been seam welded at the edge to the door check - so easiest seemed to be to grind the inner wing side with a flap disk to thin it right down, then gently chisel it off, then grind back the welded edge of the door check. Also cut around that bodge, to find that I couldn't see into the car. Odd . Quite concerned about the state of the door check. Nice rust sandwich. May need to replace it. As you'll see later, there's more to replace on this side....

 

 

 

Some nice holes in the A pillar, and the vertical continuation of the door step section (lower A pillar) is also pretty rotten.

 

 

Oh well. It's not like a wasn't expecting about 1000 unpleasant surprises. Par for the course.

 

Got most of the spots welds drilled out, and gently chiseled the flanges apart. Will need a bulkhead repair at this side too. That gaping hole was wedged full of seam sealer.

 

 

Next step should be welding the near side inner wing - unless I bottle it again and work on something else!

 

Some last pics of the bodge jobs, and the state of the inner wing.

 

 

 

 

[wombatjock]

Cheeky midweek update. Got a couple of hours, so the nearside inner wing is (partly) welded on. Didn't take a photo of the welds on the back through the stiffener and box section, but they are there.

 

I don't have clamps long enough for some parts, so those are on order and will be here in a couple of days.

 

[Jgguinness]

Great work, well done. I’ve got to do pretty much the same repairs to the front of mine so I’ll be following your thread with interest.
Ive got the same welder, it’s an excellent piece of kit, much better than a SIP one that I had a few years ago.

[wombatjock]

Cheers JG. I'll try not to mess up too badly then

 

I bought the welder based on reviews on the uk migwelders site and haven't been disappointed.

 

Jim

[wombatjock]

After a hectic garage-free weekend, I got a couple of hours this evening to do some more welding on the inner wing. No pics, as I wasn't in the mood, but picture the inner wing above with all the plug welds done apart from to the kick panel and a few of those done.

 

Now I've decided that it's not quite right. It seems perfectly lined up at the top, but maybe a few mm out at the bottom. Short of spending many hours trying to get it back off (and probably needing to buy another one, I'll leave it for now. Once the other side is done, I'll fit the subframe again and reassess.

 

Bit annoyed with myself, although I may just be making a storm in a teacup.

 

Bah!

[jamesquintin]

If you're afraid you've misalined it, you're going to need to get all the other front panels clamped on to check and/or compensate...

Q
 

[wombatjock]

Cheers Q.

 

I did that when setting the position in the first place, and it was all spot on. I think it's more messing with my OCD than anything else.

 

There'a a fair amount of tolerance on Minis anyway, since no 2 were ever the same, but still messing with my head.

 

I think it has slipped a couple of mm, even with the skin pins, so I'll either check it again, or bite the bullet and try to reposition it.

 

Even if I end up replacing the panel, the lessons learned were probably worth the cost.

 

Jim

[jamesquintin]

Just wait until you try and get the gaps right between the wing and the scuttle... I spent about a month on it!

Q

[wombatjock]

Leaving the n/s inner wing alignment to one side, I attacked the other side today.

 

The bodges were a lot worse than I thought and it took a while to get it off, but it's mostly done. The floor and sill section still needs to be cut out - still bodge central. The floor and sills will be replaced later, so not too worried about doing that nicely.

 

I still have a lot of cleanup to do on the lower dash rail and the kick panel. I'm pretty much decided that the box panel (inner side of the A column) will need to be cut out and replaced too - like I did on the other side. 

 

Most of the outer A column is ok - so I will weld in repair panels where it's a bit rotten near the top.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by wombatjock, 06 October 2018 - 05:43 PM.

[wombatjock]

Ok - was over on Minisport to order the inner A column (boxing panel) and noticed they have a non genuine repair panel that covers all the rot in the outer A column. Since even a pattern panel will be better than me repairing it, I bit the bullet and ordered it.

 

While I was at it, just ordered the new hinge panel as well.

 

Will be at least a week until I get them as the repair panel is out of stock.

 

I normally order from Minispares, but I don't feel like paying double for the boxing panel just because theirs has the little right angled panel to weld under the lower dash rail - can make that myself in a few minutes. Minispares also don't have the repair panel.

[Jgguinness]

Nice progress mate, will be a nice feeling when all that horrible metal is replaced with nice new bits.  

Ive not had any time on mine recently, been building a car port and have been away camping with the lads last weekend too.  Must pull my finger out!

[wombatjock]

Cheers JG. It's the best period of progress since I bought the car 4 years ago!

I know what you mean - life just seems to get in the way sometimes.

I'm hoping I can keep this going for a while yet!

[wombatjock]

Off on a tangent today. I still have prep to do for the o/s A column and inner wing, but parts are at least a week away, so did something different.

 

This door has been up in the rafters of the garage for years. Time to see what kind of state it is in. There are rust bubble near the bottom of the skin, so not holding out too much hope...

 

 

So. Window and regulator out. Interior door handle mech. Followed by the lock mech and the exterior handle.

 

 

Grinding disc around the lip to split the skin on its fold.

 

 

Most of the skin split - just the 5 spot welds to drill/grind out.

 

 

There's still the sections of skin which are seam welded up top to deal with, but it's off.... At this point I thought I'd won a watch as the bottom, whilst showing a lot of surface rust, looked solid. Time to attack it with the wire brush attachment.

 

 

 

Nope. Swiss cheese. 

 

 

 

On the plus side. The damage is really only on the lip. The bottom of the door is actually ok apart from the lip, and even then only in between the outer drain holes.

 

I could fairly easily fabricate a bit of angled metal to replace part of the bottom and the lip, or I can buy a repair panel and only use some of it.

 

I'll price it up and work out what's the easiest. I need to get the skins ordered anyway.

 

As I may need the other door to check the alignment on the A column, I'll leave it whole for now.