1979 Mk4 Mini 1000 Full Rebuild

Making good progress. Can I ask what you used to clean up the inner wing?

Making good progress. Can I ask what you used to clean up the inner wing?

Normally I use a mixture of a DA sander, knotted wire wheels on the grinder, 2" sanding discs for those hard to reach bits and those silicone carbide paint removal discs you see in Halfords.

 

Before all that though, I had to scrape off all the old underseal which was not a pleasant job.

Well didn't get anymore done on the mini today but did manage to get my garage ceiling plaster boarded, which not only used up some old plaster board I had taking up space but also makes the garage much lighter.

 

 

I have a 10k run to do in two months so the mini might have to fit in around runs, but to be honest I'd rather be welding than running  

_{So with the scuttle corner repair done I decided to attack one area I really wasn't looking forward to, the front bulkhead.}

 

_{First I  scraped off the what sealant I could get to with a scraper.}

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

_{not pretty, so I dug a little deeper with the wire wheel}

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

_{More excavation later}

Edited by nicnoo, 12 February 2017 - 10:19 PM.

Those what know me will know that i'm a firm beleiver in the ying and yang theory, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction etc etc.

 

Today my wife rang me to tell me a large package had arrived

 

 

I'm always jealous when people post photo's of large minispares orders. If you ever need a better reason for subscribing to the mini forum. £5 for the subscription, £20 saved off my order ........

 

 

And Then this happened...............................................

 

 

A trailer is never a good sign... 😐
What happened?

Driving home and it just cut out on me, tried what I could at the side of the road (leads, cap, coil etc.) but no good. RAC man made me laugh he had no idea how an "old" engine like mine actually worked, except to diagnose there was no spark. anyway did a little investigation myself and found a fault with the 12v feed to the coil. so for the time being I have bypassed this feed with a piece of scrap wire until I can make a more permanent fix.

Lot of pitting on that crossmember, time to change bits of it.

Lot of pitting on that crossmember, time to change bits of it.

This is one area I didn't think would be too bad given the natural rust prevention coating (oil) that was all over it. I think I'll have to dig out the grit blaster and get right in to the corners.

Decided to have a go at tidying the workshop up a bit but got completely side tracked and instead decided to strip down my swing arms ready to mount on my new rear subframe (that I don't know about because it's a birthday present for next week)

 

 

And this is what I was left with ...........................

 

 

 

 

Also got the last bit of welding done on the A-post to inner wing so I was able to splash a bit of primer on for protection whilst I attack the crusty cross member.

 

 

Edited by nicnoo, 22 February 2017 - 08:53 PM.

More cleaning up of the front cross member today, also had a blast in the corners to try and see if there's any hidden nastys

 

 

And so I'm left with this.

 

Quick update, so after a few days/weeks of scraping, sanding, grinding, blasting, swearing I finally have the bulk head in a state I was happy with so everything was cleaned up and given a coat of etch primer.

 

 

Also spent some of my birthday money and received this in the post today

 

 

Hoping to get some more done at the weekend

nice repairs! And love the hand made parts.

Thanks Dom

So my intention was to work on only the body shell and not get distracted by mechanical bits and bobs, However........................................ A shiny new rear subframe has been begging for some attention.

 

first job was to start refurbing the swing arms, backplates, hubs, etc. which I will photograph later.

 

I also stripped the black E-coat off the new subframe ready for a coat of etch primer.

 

 

 

 

and this happened....................

 

 

I know it's never a good idea to leave bare metal exposed but this was literally overnight, compare this with the scuttle panel that I stripped about six weeks ago

 

 

is this an indication of the quality of steel they're using for the pattern subframes ? who knows, Ill scrub it all back before I give it a blow over with the primer.