202 replies to this topic

[Camshaft1982]

I hear what you guys a saying about fitting up panels.

I don't seem to have any luck with fitting panels. The only panel that was easy to fit was the trunk floor. But as for heritage vs non gen panels, I've had a harder time fitting heritage panels that the non gen panels.

However, I have not yet tried to fit my non gen inner and outer A panels, but I know I am going to need a fair bit of trimming to get the looking right.

On another note, MiniMike, you car is coming along nicely. It shouldn't be too long before you have the front end fitted as well. Good luck and keep up the good work.

[minimikej]

Thanks for the words of encouragement folks. Hope to get the front end sorted in the next week or two... Then it will be time to roll the shell onto its side and finish off the joins on the underside and fit the rear subframe support panels. I have decided to seam weld along the joins from inner wing to floor panel for extra strength and to minimise any moisture ingress. Won't be fun for the next poor sod to do repairs in the future but with enough seam sealer and waxoyl I'll be pushing up the daisies long before that :)

[minimikej]

Not much of an update as I was busy doing all the other maintenance jobs round the house and garden that have been stacking up.

 

However, I measured my door frames as per Ollie's dimensions and mine are 5mm narrower. The passenger side I could blame on myself but the drivers side has largely remained original. So, I had a think about it and bought a porta-power jack thing from Machine Mart. I put this across the door gap at the latch height with some suitable footings and gave it a go. I then repeated the exercise but pushing against the edge of the A panel. The door now fits perfectly and I wish I'd bought one earlier - tight wad that I am. The rest of the afternoon I spent stripping down my new genny to refit the manifold gasket which some numpty had installed on the p1ss.

 

Lessons learned...

 

Cheers

[sixtyeight]

'lo, awesome build. I also had major problems with the inner a-panel. I bought mine from minispares.com. It was a magnum panel. Ended up hacking one out of a donor car and cut the rot out of it. PITA of a job! Never again.

[minimikej]

Finally got some more time on the mini. Been having a nightmare with the front end panels. Ended up with everything fitting apart from the bonnet gap which was a good inch too wide at the front!!

 

Did some thinking, got some threaded bar and some cable tensioners:

 

 

The rear is under compression, the front under tension!

 

I got the wings more or less lined up using self-tappers. Think that when I tack the front wings to the front panel it will stop the front from spreading.

 

Gaps still not right but getting better:

 

 

The one thing I can't do anything about though is the curvature of the windscreen scuttle. It does not match the curve of the rear of the bonnet - the curve is too gentle on the scuttle. Think I will have to slice and fill the bonnet trailing edge...

 

Cheers

[olds_kool_lews]

Dont pull the inner wings in too much, as it will make fitting the radiator difficult!

[okc78]

Hi Mike, its good to see an update, its really getting there now. Good thinking on the threaded bar there, I'll have to bear that in mind if I ever get that far.

Just out of interest are the wings heritage or pattern? I see the front panel is pattern. Sorry I know the whole pattern/heritage thing has been covered with the A panels I'm just curious with reference to my mkII project.

Thanks for posting

Cheers, Ollie  

[minimikej]

Dont pull the inner wings in too much, as it will make fitting the radiator difficult!

 

Err - good point! Hadn't thought of that, will bear in mind - cheers.

[minimikej]

Hi Mike, its good to see an update, its really getting there now. Good thinking on the threaded bar there, I'll have to bear that in mind if I ever get that far.

Just out of interest are the wings heritage or pattern? I see the front panel is pattern. Sorry I know the whole pattern/heritage thing has been covered with the A panels I'm just curious with reference to my mkII project.

Thanks for posting

Cheers, Ollie  

Ollie, yeah the front panels are non gen. I spoke to a guy I know who works at a bodyshop/restorers nearby and in his opinion 'you end up knocking the genuine panels around to fit almost as much as the non-genuine' and the (nearly double) price isn't worth it if you have the patience and time.

 

I bought the front end (outer As, wings, front panel) as a new job lot from a supplier on ebay, forget who but can probably find out. Not that there's anything particularly wrong or unexpected, they're what they are - patterns. I would say that the big issues I have are

a) the wings don't meet the A panels along the curve of the wheelarch. If you force them, the scuttle gap goes all wrong and I think that's more important; I can reshape the wheelarch line to fit.

b) on the front panel, the corners (around the indicator holes) are too tightly radiused and will poke out slightly beyond the profile of the wing. Again, nothing too serious, a bit of cutting or shrinking would do it, but a bit of a pain because you need to do this with the wing in place to get the profile right and it'll prob go all pear shaped again when you reassemble to weld... Mind you, as it is now it's still ten times better than before.

 

I had thought about genuine panels but decided to stick with what I've got and learn whatever I need to learn before I start the next one..

 

Cheers

[okc78]

Thanks for your thoughts and advice on the panels Mike. Like you say its got to be better than the rust that was there before on these cars, there definetly is alot more to learn when problems arise.

The next one? Another mkI?

[minimikej]

This one... just has to be as perfect as I can get it...

 

[jagman.2003]

Well done on the front panels. I used heritage wings & pattern front panel. The pattern panel wasn't worth it. It caused me alot of problems I wouldn't want to repeat.  Agreed that heritage take some fettling as well but at least they are in the ball park. Good looking traveller. I've got one lined up to do in the future.

[ToM 2012]

stunning project this is i dont suppose you live near me mike? fancy doing another one? lol cheers tom 

[minimikej]

Hey Tom. Thanks for the compliment! Truth be told this project has been an expensive learning exercise! But I think it's been worth it, not sure if the early pictures survived of the resto on this site but it was a ramshackle bag of patches. Can't say I'm too proud of some of the welding either but my skills are improving at an impressive rate now. I've done some more work recently and have solved the problems with the front panels and tacked them into position. I've a few more bits and bobs to weld up and then it will be time to roll the shell onto its side to seam weld the toe board to the floor pan.

 

I've not taken any pictures though, not sure why, but I did get a bit paranoid as someone had been snooping round and fiddled with the locks.

 

P.s, I'm up in rainy north Derbyshire :/

[ToM 2012]

tell me about it mate mines rotten to and i am also learning to weld as i go along for my first time. but you no what you are doing tho and what panel to put on next i am kind of guessing what to do next.  your from north derbyshire dam! looks like ile be ploding along on my own lol 

Edited by ToM 2012, 03 August 2013 - 08:59 PM.