34 replies to this topic

[Sod]

Righto...
Lurked in the shadows for almost 2 days before signing up.

Here's the deal, I just purchased(on saturday the 6th) a lovely little 1975 Austin Mini MkIII, in baby blue
So by the time I had driven it home I decided to park it for no more than 1 and a half months to do a complete rebuild of the bodywork and thereafter get a Mini specialist just down the way to overhaul engine, brakes, and rewire it.

So, stripped it all out and found some dodgy-ness. Amazingly it's pretty much rust free save for a couple of smal spots and the rust that is there is only surface(till i put rust remover on to eat it away)

Well anyway, the list of things to do is pretty big and not much time to do it in.
It's got probably the worst paint job i've ever seen.
The guy fiberglassed two wooden boxes into the door panels completely destroying them.
After ripping the carpet out this has got to be the filthiest car i have ever seen.
Needs new interior.
Needs new shiny bits.
Needs new exhaust.
Half the electronics don't work.
It even has a nail in the dash for the choke

So anyway this is what it looked like:

 beforeII.jpg   54.56K   17 downloads

 before.jpg   58.96K   10 downloads

And now, we have this:


I'm still a bit nervous about that fuel tank removal


The idiot decided to manufacture new fenders out of body filler... For no apparent reason. The valance had about 3cm thick putty all the way round.

For today...
Degrease interior and start repairing some dents. (i doubt it, just finished a night shift so i is knackered)

Any comments or suggestions greatly appreciated.

[ZED]

good luck mate, these things always take longer and cost more than you originally thought, but it is worth it.

Zed

[Bungle]

at least you have an advantage over us in that your mini's rust a lot slower than ours

[miniallsort]

nice mini mate

[Sod]

at least you have an advantage over us in that your mini's rust a lot slower than ours

Yeah, it is rather nice being inland

[Sod]

Right, so i've found a bit of a rust hole in the front passanger floor.
It's small and right next to the drainage plug.
So, should i fibreglass it or weld a plate in?
Will be uploading some more progress pictures a little bit later.
Thanks guys

[Sod]

good luck mate, these things always take longer and cost more than you originally thought, but it is worth it.

Zed

I would imagine so... I'm not too worried about the cost, it's the time frame.
I don't want to have it sit around for too long... I'm so excited

[Sod]

Mmmkay, worked pretty hard today with minimal results...

Finally got round to taking the fuel tank out... Really easy and thankfully it spilled all over the boot(couldn't find a hose to drain it) and started lifting off the horribly, sticky, waxy black brushed on paint... So i spent most of the day cleaning the boot out, hours later and i'm still not finished. It is IMPOSSIBLY dirty!
Used the grinder and rust buster on some spots on the back seat.
Knocked out a dent at the right tail light.
Primed some stuff.
Grinded lots more stuff.
Realised that my ingenious masking of the fenders went astray... More rust
So tomorrow i should be ready to fibreglass some tiny rust holes and start the panel work.

Now it's bed time... Work in 8 hours... LAME!!!

Edited by Sod, 27 January 2009 - 05:44 PM.

[buddylove]

I kind of like the blue, maybe do a better quality version of it? Or, do you have something else in mind?

[mk3 Cooper S]

Mmmkay, worked pretty hard today with minimal results...

Finally got round to taking the fuel tank out... Really easy and thankfully it spilled all over the boot(couldn't find a hose to drain it) and started lifting off the horribly, sticky, waxy black brushed on paint... So i spent most of the day cleaning the boot out, hours later and i'm still not finished. It is IMPOSSIBLY dirty!
Used the grinder and rust buster on some spots on the back seat.
Knocked out a dent at the right tail light.
Primed some stuff.
Grinded lots more stuff.
Realised that my ingenious masking of the fenders went astray... More rust
So tomorrow i should be ready to fibreglass some tiny rust holes and start the panel work.
Well here are some photies:


In this pic, if it's black it's that spawn of satan paint.


This is the back bench now... All rust sorted.


The boot now, still got some of lucifer's lung butter on there... But not for long.


The rust holes that are gonna get some fibreglass tomorrow.

Now it's bed time... Work in 8 hours... LAME!!!

Instead of fiberglass you could make the drianhole bigger to remove the rusty bit and fit a larger bung?

[Sod]

I kind of like the blue, maybe do a better quality version of it? Or, do you have something else in mind?

The blue isn't bad... It's just too cute... There were little girls pulling their mom's skirts and pointing when i drove it home... Made me feel like i was riding a my little pony through town

I'm thinking of going red with black roof and black stripes... Spoke to a guy today and got a quote on re-covering the seats in those colours and it's not a bad price... Should all match up... Will do the door panels as well. Only problem... It's vinyl Anyone know if it's worth while?

Will red/black make go well? Was thinking white black is also a possibility

[Sod]

Mmmkay, worked pretty hard today with minimal results...

Finally got round to taking the fuel tank out... Really easy and thankfully it spilled all over the boot(couldn't find a hose to drain it) and started lifting off the horribly, sticky, waxy black brushed on paint... So i spent most of the day cleaning the boot out, hours later and i'm still not finished. It is IMPOSSIBLY dirty!
Used the grinder and rust buster on some spots on the back seat.
Knocked out a dent at the right tail light.
Primed some stuff.
Grinded lots more stuff.
Realised that my ingenious masking of the fenders went astray... More rust
So tomorrow i should be ready to fibreglass some tiny rust holes and start the panel work.
Well here are some photies:


In this pic, if it's black it's that spawn of satan paint.


This is the back bench now... All rust sorted.


The boot now, still got some of lucifer's lung butter on there... But not for long.


The rust holes that are gonna get some fibreglass tomorrow.

Now it's bed time... Work in 8 hours... LAME!!!

Instead of fiberglass you could make the drianhole bigger to remove the rusty bit and fit a larger bung?

If you look closely there are small rust holes to the left of the drain hole... Those are the ones i'm worried about. But they're too small to warrant the hassle of cutting and welding imo, thoughts?
The one on the drainhole will just get fixed with fibreglass so aesthetically it looks good.

[Sod]

Right, onto my third day of working on the mini...
Been doing 12 hour night shifts, so i'm pressed for time to work on her.
I started off today by removing the rear and front windshield and rear windows, then the roof lining.
Was planning on using a flap disk to sort the inside... Then i dropped the extension cord in the pond, tripped the power in the house and now it won't work. No grinder. LAME!
So I beat out some of the dents in the fenders, stripped some more stuff and that was about it. I'm too tired to do much more.
Hopefully tomorrow i'll be able to do 10 hours of work on her. If so, the fenders will be sorted and primed, all rust removed from the interior and primed, and all holes closed. And i'm going to clean that God forsaken boot... Again. It's starting to feel like all i've done is clean, it's getting depressing, but at least once it's done I can get started on the real work. Super excited for that.
Are you supposed to get to a point on the rebuild where you start feeling like no matter what you do it doesn't feel like you're moving forward? First day was huge progress, the next two were just a plateau... It's frustrating.
So yeah, here are some pics... Doesn't look much different but what the hell.


Starting to develop some light surface rust, need to work on them ASAP.


The rear, looking good.


The front, looking dirty.

Was looking in the styling section... Now i'm thinking of shaving and smoothing the bootlid... How would that look? Considering that i'm only going to be adding wheel arches and mags, i want to keep it true to the original... But that smooth boot looks like sex on wheels, 10" wheels. Opinions?

If anyone could email me some cut out plans for the dash, roofliner, rear armrest things, pretty much everything inside that would be great.
Thanks tons.
Sod

[buddylove]

I think the black and red interior would flow well with the black and red exterior. Shoot me your email in an IM and I can get the plans forwarded to you.

[Sod]

Pm'd.
Thanks alot buddy.
I reckon it would look pretty cool. I wonder what colour to cut the roof liner done in... I could go red and black on that too... Or just red... Or just black... Red carpet? Black carpet?
I just don't know anymore!