25 replies to this topic

[Will16]

Thought I'd put a thread up for my latest project. I bought it back in february, off eBay, paid alot of money for it, its a 1979 austin pickup, or whats left of it  Its actually ex royal navy, so was built in 1979 but not registered until 1988, and has been off the road since 1991. The story goes was that it was being restored and all the original parts, engine, interior, trim, etc was stored in a camping trailer which was stolen. My plans for it are not original, its never going to be original, its had alot of panels replaced and there not really much factory bits left in it at all. I'm going to be putting my k series engine from my mk3 into it instead, should be a bit faster than the 850cc engine's performance  It going to be very tight to get it done tho, aiming for the riveria run at the start of May for a deadline haha..

 

When we picked it up..

 

 

 

Into storage..

 

 

Moving them about..

 

 

Bit of work today, got it all stripped down to a bare shell..

 

 

 

 

[KTS]

Looks like a decent shell to start with. Good luck with the build !

[Hedgey]

Nice project, I love the commercial range of minis. Whats happening to the MK3 now?

[Richie83]

Looks like a very decent starting point. It’ll be mega with k series power. Trust me.

[BudgieCake]

Wheres the updates Will!?

[Will16]

Cheers guys, the shell is good in places but as I've found out not very good in others  The MK3 has had a 998 put back into it, it runs but needs some fettling still, I'm likely gonna sell it come freedom. So I'd say I've been quite busy, was trying to smash out all the work and welding to get it ready for L2B and IMM, but since they got cancelled I've lost motivation a bit on the shell so started making my subframe. I made a rotisserie for it and sent the shell to be blasted, very impressed with the result, 100x better than stripping it by hand and on your back 

 

The blasting showed the shell needing a fair amount of work, much more than first thought  Its had bits on the rear loadbed, rear arches, door surrounds, scuttle, B-Pillars, a-panel, roof, quite alot! Ok I might have been better replacing the whole panels but didnt see the point as it looked very isolated to where it had holed. I have ordered the front loadbed part and bulkhead from M-machine but it hasnt arrived and I dont think it will anytime soon.. I've got some work still to do before that though, made a new lower lip for the window surround, new braces, quite a bit to do there yet. Engine bay was next, inner wings were cleaned up and I've boxed in the ends with some dimple died pieces same as I did on the mk3, I've clearanced the bulkhead for the inlet manifold by the clutch master, welded up unused holes, few rust repairs too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[url=https://flic.kr/p/2iMht2R]

 

Edited by Will16, 05 April 2020 - 04:27 PM.

[Will16]

Now on to the subframe, must say I'm really happy with how this has come out. My last one was made from box section, not by myself, and it worked great, my only gripe with it was that it wasnt very well hidden at the front and generally just looked a bit messy. Most minibased conversion frames are done in box section but I wanted to go a bit more fancy and make it out of round tube, so its what I've done  Made the bottom legs, then the front bar, then the side arms, worked out the engine mounts, then fully welded it and gusseted, it should be plenty strong enough. I'd like to weight it as I think it'll be similar weight to a normal mini. This and the rear one will be sent away to be powder coated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[BudgieCake]

Top quality work as per

[wassupcrew]

Really nice repair on upper door surround! i like the swaging on that panel you made aswell. Please tell me you are going to paint the engine one colour though.

[MaxDempsey]

Really nice repair on upper door surround! i like the swaging on that panel you made aswell. Please tell me you are going to paint the engine one colour though.

Yeah I 2nd this, some people shouldn't be allowed nice things 

Nah honestly rest of it is looking really good so far mate.

[Will16]

Thank you chaps   And yes dont worry the engine will be more of an original colour scheme, no multi coloured ness here 

 

Been doing a bit more to it, getting through my list of jobs. So first was the rear screen panel, the lower part had rusted out badly under the seams, I cut this out and bend a new piece with a 90 fold which the bulkhead is spot welded to. I then made and welded in some spreader plates for the toeboard, only 1.2mm as thats all I had to hand but will be fine.

 

Then onto a job I've been avoiding, the rear valence / tailgate hinge mounts. The pickup appeared to have had a new valence on it at some point, but whoever had put it on hadnt put anywhere to mount the tailgate hinges,  and drilled the holes in the wrong place. Where I've mounted the spit, those holes shouldnt exist   Anyway drilled some new holes, brackets got welded in and them the valence and corners. As they were magnum they didnt fit very well lol, the centre piece seemed to be 10mm too short so was sectioned and a bit added so it fitted alright. All in all quite happy with it !

 

I hope my panels from m-machine are on the way, they have charged me lol, without them theres not much I can do the shell now, so I'll start having a look at the doors next 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Will16]

Been doing some more to it and I'm pleased to say the welding on the shell is almost complete    Few little things left, plates for removable front, clutch cable spreader plate and bonnet hinge but they wont take long. Progress is a bit slower than I'd like atm as I'm working a fair bit. 

 

So first off was that my panels from m-machine arrived. I went for the half load bed and bulkhead panel as my rear loadbed is still pretty good. I chopped out the old loadbed bit and prepped everything for the new panel, then the new panel was dropped in and welded up. I could seam weld on the flat section which goes through to the heelboard, left a gap to tie in all three bits so it'll be strong enough.

 

Then the bulkhead went in, trimmed the new panel down then welded it in. It gets welded to the lip that I had put in below the rear window and that lined up well. Then I had to grind down all the welds which took a while and got me filthy 

 

The next bit to do was the loadbay brace. Afaik you cant buy these anywhere and my old one was not serviceable whatsoever, so I made one from sheet. It not perfect and I had to get creative with bending the metal but I'm pretty pleased with it! Done lot of little thing like seat belt nuts / plates , welding up holes drilled wrong in the bed , putting the tailgate hinge slots in , welding any little imperfections that are better with metal than filler.

 

The underside, bed and interior are essentially ready for paint apart from a wire brushing now. I think my plan now is once the welding is complete I'll look at fillering the bits that need it on the body and get it smooth, give it a few coats of 2k high build primer. I'll prep underneath, bed, interior for the epoxy mastic and paint it. I'm hoping this will reduce the amount of dust going onto finished parts of the car as it will be rolling for the topcoat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[simpsonsclassics]

This is coming along really well.. nice work

[BudgieCake]

That's a juicy update

[Will16]

Rightttttt, well its been a minute since I've updated  Basically after the lockdown happened last year I lost a lot of motivation for getting it sorted as what I was working towards was cancelled! It sat in my garage for about a year, then I started getting a few bits like the front end done and then it sat until a couple weeks ago when I decided I really must get on with it lol

 

I found a cheap Quaife LSD to replace my Rover Type B, they are a much better unit and I picked it up for the same price as I sold my Type B  Also been messing around with another engine swap project... I started working on it to get the front end to fit together nicely, get the gaps somewhere close, then the engine went back in to make the front fit around it. Few bits had to be notched, the front valance needed bending out slightly and massaging to get to fit around the subframe and engine nicely and also the grille. I had to put a bulge in the grille as I just couldn't get the alternator back anymore. 

 

Then came the painting. Underneath I sprayed epoxy mastic, gravity then topcoat, this was my first bit of spraying so was very pleased. The I did the inside and engine bay, epoxy mastic then topcoat. I had the subframes blasted and powered coated and the suspension bits were all cleaned, painted black and rebuilt. For the exterior I was blessed to have one of my best mates take the week off and we did all the bodywork and sprayed the shell. Was a lot more work than first thought but it has come out spot on, I'm well happy with it, cheers Tom 

 

Next up is to finish getting it built up, probably going to do the brakes first, then the engine, then the fuel system as I'm yet to work out what to do for the pup tank to convert to injection. Heres a load a pics