141 replies to this topic

[stormduck]

Right well i've had this week off work to get a chunk done on the mini. Quite pleased with what i've done but gutted the weather's turned sour so i can't do any more, and tomorrow's gona be much the same. Here's the progress of this week:


Carrying on from where i left off previously, I began by grinding back the nasties in the boot corner, and from underneath where the filler panel for the valance was hiding. Had to grind for quite some time to get it tidy, particularly underneath while laying on me back.


I also spent most of the day with a blow torch, scraping off seam sealer and dirt in an attempt to clean the boot.


Made up and tacked on the plate for the underside - gave up with welding upside down because was getting burnt


Last week i ordered some more paint from Frost. One of which was their Weld Through Primer, which is essentially zinc in a can. Being zinc it's supposed to be good at resisting corrosion, so i coated the whole boot floor in it. Before which i used a product from Dinitrol called RC900 which converts rust into some compound or the other that stops the rust being rust...or something. The pic 3 up shows purple metal which is the effect it has. Seems to work so far. I've got fed up with using POR-15, it takes too long to dry and it goes rock solid inside the tin once opened so i keep wasting it, plus it aint cheap!


Coated the back of the rear seat with grey primer


I managed to tip the min over and finished the plate welding


I had a frenzied attack at the other valance filler panel, and removed a plate that had been welded earlier this year. This time i treated the metal underneath properly, along with all the other metal at the back with RC900 - note the purple tinge.


The whole lot got a coating of zinc


Then the valance and corner pieces turned up courtesy of mini spares and UPS. I realised that the corner pieces have nothing to weld them to the boot floor, so i welded a piece on, and drilled holes for welding to the floor and eventually the valance.


Here it's on the car, i made the drilled holes too small for the weld to work properly so had to tack it on instead. They need to be 6mm in future.


Here are both corner pieces on the car. It took a while to get them in the right place with the valance held in place on the car with grips. The panels aren't a perfect fit but i don't expect them to be, every mini's different after all, but they're pretty darn good. Just going to need a bit of bending a bashing to get right. I just hope there's enough room for subframe mounts/bolts, something i didn't check...but that's where the old one came off from so it's got to be okay


Here's the new valance just held in place with grips

[stormduck]

I knew the weather was going off but it was dry this morning so thought i'd give it a shot. Made up a plate, and welded it on:


Gave the corner pieces a lick of paint as i thought the next job would be to get the valance on


While tacking back some existing paint on the boot floor so i could re-paint hte last pieces, the chassis black started to peel off and then i saw this


Like a dognut i used the blow torch without realising and boiled the paintwork underneath. So i had to take all the paint off.....yay.

And now i'm left with this as the weather turned ridiculous to work in


Not a happy chappy today but every project needs it's set backs i suppose. And it seems like this is how i'm going to have to leave it for 2 weeks until i get the next chance to work on it as tomorrow is supposed to be wetter than today. Still, i'll be in the garage dismantling the new engine me thinks:

[stormduck]

Started stripping the engine, mmm, new rockers *


and dead smooth bores...dribble

[TOMMO0302]

Wow, i've just spent far too long at work reading the whole topic! Incredible work, great dedication to doing everything properly, it's too easy to give up and cut corners so my congratualtions on sticking at it so thoroughly!

Keep up the good work!

[furiousjim]

dude you are working sooo fast! The Mayfair is in excellent nick, starting to think that my rusty cooper wasnt such a good idea!

good luck on the project, not that you need it, everything seems to be going wonderfully

have fun

James

[stormduck]

wooooooo. Fast progress it was, it's certainly not now! Haven't touched the min since october! blimey, but it's the summer now and i have every intention of getting to it. Got 3 days off work after easter and it's mini time!

My sole intention for these 3 days is to finish the boot and make it waterproof.

This is how i came back to it this morning:


The work that i had done had gone rusty obviously, and this part had just got worse:


So it was out with the grinder, and off with the rot!


Fresh metal welded in, needs a bit of shaping to get it less like a banana!


I used wire brushes on a drill to clean the rust off the inside of the boot, then hoovered it, wiped it all down with a marine clean solution, covered it in metal ready for 15mins, toweled it down and left it to dry in the sunshine (beautiful day by the way!), then 2 coats of POR-15. The pic below is after 1 coat. I also removed rust and paint from the valance lip top and underneath, and made sure the corner valance pieces had no rust and were totally covered in POR-15 - apart from where i'll be welding tomorrow, that got coated in weld-thru primer.


I took all the black primer off the inside of the new valance, put it up to the car and marked it up. I drilled all the holes that i'll be using to weld it to the car, then sprayed weld-thru primer where the welding will be taking place. After drying i masked those areas up, and gave it two coats of plain old primer, follwed by two coats of Chassis Black that i'll take a photo of in the morning:

[miniboo]

good work i was just thinking about this roject the other day.

can you read minds??

[ed4ran]

Yay your back to it!!!

[stormduck]

cheers fellas. I'm currently absolutely gutted! I'll put the pics up when i can, but i spent this morning welding the valance to the car and it looks superb. Then i noticed a spot of rust coming through the paint in the rear wheel arch, both of them in the same spot, and thought 'well i might as well do that while i'm here' Took the grinder to it and oh my gosh!

When i done the boot floor, prepping and patching, i didn't think that it was that bad. I mean, i had sound metal where i was welding to. But appears the rust had dug deeper. Where the rear arch meets the boot floor, around where the subframe mounting point is, the rust is coming through, and when grinding back it's just rotten underneath the arch - there's quite a few skins in that area. So i'm going to replace the entire boot floor. There's not much point in using repair panels, it's going to be easier and have a better finish if the whole lot is replaced, then i'll do both rear arches, as they are not perfect, and i can also cut the rear door bins out and sort the rust that's inside them while i'm there. blimey.

But firstly i'm going to devise a plan to move the shell from my parents house into the garage at my house, now it's emtpy. I'm thinking of making some boards with casters that will enable me to move the min around inside the garage, yet be high enough to work underneath the car.

[stormduck]

Here was the valance this morning after removing the tape - just how i wanted it


Here was the boot floor


Rear valance welding


Here it is on


and here's the barstard that spoiled my day


hidden down the side, in between boot floor and wheel arch. It's the same story the other side. So the whole min's going to get garaged now, then the nicely fitted valance will be removed, along with both arches, boot floor and rear seat back. Then i can sort the issues inside the door bins, possibly removing the sills at the same time, and then put all new panels in. Should be a lot more enjoyable to do once it's inside the garage. Ho hum!

[stormduck]

Weeell i've started the plan to move the mini from parents drive to my house now my garage is empty. I've been sorting out the garage and finding ways of storing things, putting up shelves and brackets and what not. I've also bought some lengths of 2x2 and based on minisproket's construction (Big big thanks, i had the idea but no experience on how to put one together!) i built a frame on which to sit the mini shell inside the garage so that i can move it around to work on it. My garage is just a single so i really need this.



I've ordered castors on ebay so they should arrive this week, fit them, then i'm ready to do the move!

[Mincento]

Remember reading this project when you started it and thinking "thats in pretty good condition whats he stripping it fior" but its amazing how much rot can hide itself, its still good progress though and i bet its tauhght you a fair amount so good luck with the future work im just praying my project isnt worse than it looks (it looks bad) or im stuffed

and love the shell standing frame looks quite sturdy

wayne

[stormduck]

cheers mate, yeah the rust gets EVERYWHERE! And i certainly have learnt a HELL of a lot doing this. The most important at the moment is to make sure all the rust is cut out prior to putting anything back on the car.

The frame is most definately working! It moves the shell around easily without complaint. Admittedly it's not heavy at the moment, two of us carried it around today to get it onto and off of the van, probably around the 100kg mark. The move went really really well, and i also fitted the engine, the stand, both subframes and a tool chest onto the van aswell.

There's a mini in my garage!


She's a good'un, rollin on phat rims


Now i need to do a bit more sorting of the garage and move all the tools round to mine aswell so that i can get working on the old girl. I'm really happy with how much room i've got in the garage, and the min is also up real high for working underneath, lovely jubbly.

[stormduck]

I can't believe that it's been a month since my last post! Haven't done much on the mini really - i've spent a lot of spare time getting the garage ready - folding table against the wall, storage across the ceiling, shelves etc, and then clearing out the shed and repairing the rotten thing to take more mini parts! Subframes etc. The conservatory now has the engine and new parts in boxes so my home is now looking like it should!



This beauty turned up:



And i started removing the valance that i'd fitted and drilling out the spot welds all over the boot floor



The only way i can get to the spot welds on the door bins is to cut out the back seat and bend the metal down to get the drill in there. I want to make a neat job of it because i don't want to ruin the door bins.



I decided to continue the cut right to the back of the car so i can get to removing the rear arches while i'm sitting down with my head in the boot - hopefully the only time i'm going to be in this position.



I've spent 5 hours so far getting to this point, it's welded in so many places. All that's holding it is a few stray joins at the back seat vertical. Once that's off it's more drilling and cutting to remove the arches.



I'm glad that i'm doing this as the lip at the very back of the car is riddled with rust where the two panels are sandwiched - something else i would never have known.

[ed4ran]

Looks like some progress at least!!