19 replies to this topic

[matt050990]

Morning all

Been stripped my mini back over the last couple of days to a bare inner shell and noticed both the rear bins are rather rotten at the bottoms.

Is this structurally part of the car and needs replacement or can it be trimmed up a bit tidier, kill the rust and drop in a new plate to cover?

The outside is all nice and solid so don't really want to be hacking away at it all.

Also, are the rear bins actually used for anything other than seat belt mounts? Can these be chopped out to create easier access to the area that needs sorting if I'm going to be installing harnesses on a roll cage?


Much ta
Matt

[Daz1968]

The bottom of the bin is the inner sill, it is structural

[matt050990]

Bugger. Was dreading that response.

From the looks of it it's a pretty nasty job to do. Any top tips?

[elliot341]

Why dont you stick some decent photos up and we can have a look on how your sills, floor and inner sills look. 

[matt050990]

Good shout. I'll whip it out this afternoon and take some pictures.....

(some people could really take that the wrong way)

[Daz1968]

The old bodge to hide that is oversills, but not really ideal as its only a short term repair.

[matt050990]

As requested, pictures of my crusty bits.

It's just had respray so don't really want to be hacking it about if I could just trim it back from inside and put a plate in.

As before, do the rear bins serve a purpose other than seat belt mounts as could take them out to make it easier to access as will be getting harnesses with a cage soon.


Much ta
Matt

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[Verderad]

Got any pictures of the inner sill underneath the door step? Looks like mine, replacement inner sill up to the companion bins but crusty original in the bins. I had to change the cover sills on the outside so opted for new floors. You could as suggested above remove the bins and just repair that part of inner sill / floor. There is a pinned thread in body section.

[sonikk4]

You have several options.

 

1. Remove the bin completely, replace inner section that is bad.

2. Remove the bin completely but carefully if its in good condition, repair / replace the inner sill, refit the companion bin.

3. Don't remove the bin, remove the outer sill, replace the inner sill as far up as you can go. Fit new outer sill.

 

None of the above are as straight forward as they sound.

[matt050990]

The inner sills outside of the bins are solid, I've given that a bit of a scrape and tap and all good and solid it's just inside the bins that's crusty.

I'm thinking I may just remove the bins to make access easier, trim out what is weak and but new panels and cut / weld what's needed leaving the solid parts in place.

Seems like the easiest option?

Guessing if the mot man saw it they way they are it would be a failure?

[Daz1968]

My guess is if car is solid underneath then you have oversills already and they have been put over the rusty inners, only way to deal with that is to remove outer sills, repair inners correctly and fit new narrow outer sills, as they are spot welded to the flange along door step and rear quarter then damage to main paint can be avoided,. It won’t fail an mot if oversills are fitted as long as they are seam welded. I feel that once you start work then you will end up with quite a lot of work,

[matt050990]

Ah joys. I'll speak to the father in law as he had the mini since he was 18 so will know what's been added / replaced over the years, no doubt it will either be him if he has the time of Josh to do the works so fingers crossed its nothing too bad.

[dyshipfakta]

Looks like typical oversills rott to me

[nicklouse]

as you are fitting a cage the bins will need to be removed. and you do not want to be mounting a cage to rotten metal.

 

i would drill out the spots and cut the seam weld on the bins. then sort the sills out. fit cage and then consider if you want to refit the bins.

[matt050990]

Looks like the car is out of action for a while then.

Thanks for the replies, once again this forum proves more that usefull