18 replies to this topic

[sonscar]

I an glad to hear you are recovering,take your time and enjoy your rebuild.Steve..

[Johnmar]

I've been busy with the boot floor working my way back to the front.

I'll post my antics on the boot floor and rear panel bodywork later (as I've misplaced the photo's at this moment), but last weekend I spent dealing with the RH heelboard/inner sill/floor/rear subframe assembly.

 

The starting situation was like this:

 

 

A lot of rot and air.


Cutted out the rot:



Started to build up the inner sill / floor section:

 

 

 

After welding there was a goo starting point for the heelboard to attach to:

 

Formed a new heelboard:

Created a new floor section to between heelboard and wheelarch:


Might be redoing the heelboard though as I trimmed it back a bit to much, leaving a 2mm gap. Yes I can bridge that while welding, but do I want this?

Edited by Johnmar, 31 October 2021 - 06:43 PM.

[Johnmar]

Disclaimer:
(I'm doing a write up for myself and also for others so they can see what I'm doing, how I try to resolve things, see my progress. it is not meant over serious so if you see me doing stupid, do not hesitate to tell me. I'm new to this. This is my first restoration and real panel forming. It just shows what a newbie can do (wrong).
So any feedback or comments  (serious or with the tongue in the cheek) are more than welcome but please keep in mind: I'm just starting so be gentle   )

 

This weekend I continued with welding up the panels that I made up last weekend.

After that I reinstalled the frame, scribed the holes where the rear subframe bolts on to the heel board and drilled the holes. What followed was bolting the bracket that goes from the inner sill to the heelboard with the welded nuts through the holes in the heelboard. I previously drilled holes in this new 1.2mm bracket so it could be plug welded to the inner sill and also received some seam welds along the bracket.

After that I was contemplating on strengthening the sills. The current plans for the body include ditching the parcel shelf rear panel and altering the rear bulkhead panel. That in combination with a webasto style full length folding roof could do with beefed up sills.

I had measured the space in in the sills before and I was still in limbo what size to use. 40x30 mm did fit at most of the sill, but it was a squeeze and to be honest I had my doubts. This Saturday I just happen to look at a corner of my garage en saw a box section 50 x 25. Hmm, I had not tried that kind of dimensions.
The plan was to weld this box section to the inner sill in two stages: one from the inner wing to the crossmember/jack bracket and the second one after the cross member all the way along the sill, ending 3 cm before the heelboard. The piece of box section I had lying around had enough length in it, so after one cut I could offer it to the sill parts. 

As the inner sill has a curve, I had to bend the tube. So after raising one end of the box section, it was bended in the right curve by jumping and bouncing up and down on it for  3 minutes as a maniac with the energy of a kid with a sugar rush from eating a pound of sweets. After these gymnastics I took a cup of tea and after this deserved break I drilled a hole in the box section where the seat belt retaining nut (in the sill) and its plate al located. That allowed them to slot into the hole and to offer the box section up to the inner sill:


 

 Not the best photo, but is lines up perfectly with the inner sill. But before this can be welded up, the inner sill needs to be ready.

This inner sill is still original and aside from a few smal places in good nick. The only real problems where at the heelboard (al ready addressed and sorted) and the end of the sill near the inner wing at the front. Where the inner wing once was joined with the floor one can now find hardly any metal. As here there are seams of three layers of metal (front bulkhead, floor and inner wing) coming together here and I had a leaking doorrubber (that I did not notice (1st error) when I stored it in the rear garden for a few years between some bushes years (2nd and biggest error as these kept the humidity after rain ad the mini had no decent airflow around it)) there was a lot of water intrusion and is soaked in all the seams where the seam sealer was not 100% and it rotted out. So the this section looked like this:



What to do: repair by exchanging full panels here, or keep as much original as possible and cut out bad and fabricate end weld in new sections? I favour the last option as I want to keep as much of the original car as possible.

Out came the trusted angle grinder and after wielding it forth and back this was my clean canvas:



First section was where the inner wing meets up with the end of the sill. This was formed and welded in. After that the section of the front bulk head that the covers the floor was made and and welded in. The cut out  floor section was ignored at this panel section will be fabricated later and it will run up the bulk head. But for that to fabricate, one first have to have a complete bulk head with floor flange don't we?
 

Having constructed the bulkhead with its flange to cover the floor, I could now build up the next layer: the egde of the inner wing, that covers the bulkhead en extends all the way to the sill. It took some measuring, metal snipping and hammering for this to take shape and fit how it needed to fit. To be honest I'm quite happy with it as it looks better than the factory original inner wing flange that looks like it what hammered in place by a mountain gorilla with a sledge hammer and wit spot weld dimples as deep as a canyon (as the panels did not meet up thigh). Don't mind loosing that piece of "character" from the original shell. 

A big thank you for all you guys that share their knowledge on body work. My welding and the way to grind down the welds without thinning the metal too much have greatly improved using all the tips from Ben_O and others. I'm very grateful for that!  

There is now an inner wing flange, the next step is to close the section between inner sill (and partial floor section)  and the inner wing:
 

As I'll fabricate the remaining floor section later, I focussed on the inner sill and inner wing.
The section I made was fitted with a flange inside up to the inner wing and not butt welded to the inner wing.
After welding it in I called it a day:
 

 

With the outer sill aligned it all comes together nicely:

Applied a flash of Zinc Primer to prevent rusting while I'm doing the rest of the body work. Placed the old cut out part of the inner wing flange on top for comparison. I find it an improvement, but I might be bias here   .
 

(Next weekend will be family oriented due to birthdays and visiting inlaws but I hope I might be able to elope to the garage at some stage)

Edited by Johnmar, 31 October 2021 - 08:28 PM.

[Maccmike8]

Nice work.