130 replies to this topic

[Mito]

I've been doing some of the prep work to get the arches back in but no photos to hand.

These came in the post today.
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Edited by Mito, 04 January 2019 - 05:22 PM.

[Mito]

I continued working on removing the boot floor and rear seat today.

 

I've got the majority of it curt out now and there are just a few remaining bits left attached to the rear bins. The rear bins are also quite rusty at the bottom, so i''ll be removing these as well once I start work on replacing the main floor.

 

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The one thing that struck me as a bit odd is that the rear seat is as different heights when measure against the rear bins. One side is 125mm from the front edge of the seat to the top of the bin and the other side is 135mm. Or it could just be my measurements.

 

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[Mito]

Duplicate post

Edited by Mito, 12 February 2019 - 09:11 PM.

[Mito]

I've taken a fortnight off of work to hopefully get cracking on this.

My new air compressor, spot welder, da sander, and air dusters have all arrived to help speed things up as well.

I started by prepping the boot floor. Welded up the hole for the mpi fuel lines and drilled two 10mm holes for the older style fuel lines. I hope they're big enough!
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Then whilst the paint was drying, I set up my new vice on the bench.

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Then I set about lining up the boot floor using the old sub frame as a job to ensure the holes all line up correctly.


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The gap with the rear arch doesn't look great. It does pull in on the passenger side but the drivers side is miles out and the internal corner profile of either the wheel arch or the boot floor isn't correct.

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I figured I would weld the rear seat panel to the floor and sorry out the rear arches later.

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Here's the underneath

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And then finished off by putting some primer over the welds

Edited by Mito, 12 February 2019 - 09:16 PM.

[Daz1968]

10mm is a bit small for the holes as there is a grommet in one hole and a chamfer on the other, can’t remember size as did mine ages ago but would think near to 16mm but if no one else can confirm I can measure the weekend

Here is pick I did of mine

2CB83AE7-9509-4AB2-B8D6-CB9A0EAA436A by darren carr, on Flickr

[Mito]

I thought it might be. I'll have to go get a sdoped hole cutter.

How do you go about forming the chamfer?

[Daz1968]

I put a poece of tube, although a socket would do on the back of hole that was larger than hole and formed other side with a ball pein hammer, I used a hole saw for the holes themselves, was either 16 or 19mm I can’t remember now, but I measured the original floor first.

[Mito]

First test of the new spot welder.

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I think it's gone quite well.

[MacGyver]

Looks like a good weld! ?
Don't forget to try it with some weld thru primer as that can make a little difference to the weld.

Ben

Edited by MacGyver, 19 February 2019 - 06:45 PM.

[Mito]

I got the same results with weld through primer. A few didn't go so well when welding for real on the car but that was down to alignment of the arms and them touching more than one point at once.

[Mito]

I started off by welding in the rear valance closure plates, after making sure the rear valance all line up of course.
Passenger side
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Drivers side
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Penetration. I had the welder power settings pretty high to achieve this and set the wire speed lower than I usually do for plug welds.
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Then I moved on to welding in the passenger side arch.
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Here are a few of the spot welds. They're more concentrated than in the pic which was taken before I finished. A couple of them have almost blown holes in the floor panel, so I'll plug them later.
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After tidying up the welds at the rear, I decided the next part to get cracking on with was the drivers side door step. A previous owner has fitted the inner sill repair panel and oversills so I am expecting some horrors. The previous owner did try to convince me that the floors were all okay because they'd all been welded and his mate who knew minis had told him they were good.
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I'd previously repaired the forward section of the door step so I knew this bit want too bad and had sprayed on some cavity wax before sealing it all back up and it looks like it has held up quite well considering. The cross member isn't really attached to the door step any longer and the jacking point is pretty much none existent but I was expecting worse considering the oversills have been on the car for more than 3 years.

Now that's mostly cut out, I started looking up the new door step so that I can mark the final cut.


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I'm happy with the rear alignment but not the front. As oversills were fitted and they were 3 layers of metal thick, I'm not sure whether I should care about the gap between the over sill and the door step, so I decided to stop for the day at this point while I decide what to do. I'm more than likely just going to go for it as is as the front didn't line up correctly in this area before so hoping it will be an improvement.

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[hardtop]

looking good, seeing your boot floor reminds me of mine, the wheel archs never fell into place on mine either, nice to see you have an Oxford mig :)

[Mito]

looking good, seeing your boot floor reminds me of mine, the wheel archs never fell into place on mine either, nice to see you have an Oxford mig :)

I'm waiting till I'm putting on the rear quarter before trying the drivers side arch again. I'm a bit concerned the arch lip won't line up otherwise.

It was either one of the Clarke's of the Oxford. I think I made the right choice . The variable wire speed did take a bit of getting used to!

[hardtop]

I put the wheel arch on first, having lined it up with the rear quarter to make sure it was in the right place welding it to the boot floor and rear rear seat squab, my choice was an oxford or the portamig, both made by the same company in York, i got a portamig :)

[Mito]

I've now welded in the door step at the two ends. The rest will be welded once the for is ready for welding.
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Not my best work but they should be fine one ground down.

There's still quite a gap at the front and the back seems to be much closer. I'm hoping the new floor lines up better.

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Then finished off the bracing ready to remove the floor. I've just the subframes to put back on and then it's ready for removal.

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Floor ready and waiting...

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