120 replies to this topic

[vincent300]

I have been attacking the subframe today, and its coming along nicely.







Here are the bad parts.
There are some dents here, I thing from when it was jacked up.







this is some damange from an angle grinder, that I think the previous owner did when he was trying to remove the rotten r/h front floor.



I believe I did this when I was removing a rusty something



hope those damages aren't too bad, and it will be alright to go back on the car.

Edited by vincent300, 25 April 2011 - 07:26 PM.

[MINI-TURBO]

its coming along well mate, it looks like your working quite fast

[Boycie]

None of that damage will affect the subframe, a good de-greasing and a fresh coat of paint will most likely have it back in perfectly useable condition.
I've yet to see an old Mini without dents in the section you have them- as you say, that's where people jack them up.
Good progress- and I don't think it's beyond you to get the engine bay in the condition of the photo on the other page!

[vincent300]

None of that damage will affect the subframe, a good de-greasing and a fresh coat of paint will most likely have it back in perfectly useable condition.
I've yet to see an old Mini without dents in the section you have them- as you say, that's where people jack them up.
Good progress- and I don't think it's beyond you to get the engine bay in the condition of the photo on the other page!

Thanks man, thats good to know. Would like to get it finished off, alas I have to leave tomorrow but when I come back to it I will have two weeks off. I plan to get as much bodywork done as I can.

[Boycie]

Just aim to get as much done over the summer as possible on the body.
All the mechanical bits are easily done indoors/ in the garage in the winter, but you need dry weather while you're working on the shell, especially regarding painting bits etc.
Good luck!

[vincent300]

Alright, so I got some parts in a few days ago.





Got the front subframe mostly degreased, I have still yet to remove the trumpets.



I was wondering if it is worth getting this thing sand blasted

[Boycie]

Nice work, getting some fresh metal is a real confidence booster!
You can by all means get the front subframe blasted and sprayed, would look excellent but if the budget won't stretch- a good clean up and repaint will be fine.

[vincent300]

Nice work, getting some fresh metal is a real confidence booster!
You can by all means get the front subframe blasted and sprayed, would look excellent but if the budget won't stretch- a good clean up and repaint will be fine.

Thanks man. As you said the fresh metal is a big confidence booster, just hope I'm up to the task of welding them on there. Also got a quote form a guy not too far from me and he said he could sandblast and powder coat it for 45 squid, which sounds pretty good to me. Just have to get those trumpets out.

Edited by vincent300, 06 May 2011 - 04:43 PM.

[vincent300]

Today I haven't really made any great progress, I just cleaned up the engine bay some what and the L/H hinge area. At the moment I am waiting on my welding stuff so I am stuck just doing the odd jobs here and there.







As you can see from the pics below there are some mighty great rust holes which the previous owner thought it would be fine to fix them by just banging a couple of tuns of filler in there.





The majority of the panel is goodish, and the door hinge mounting area is intact but will probably need replacing. My idea was to leave it there for the mean time whilst I rebuild the nearside door hinge mounting panel, referring to the old one (ya know location of the holes and stuff) then remove the farside and rebuild that.



Lol still got the wind screen wiper motor in there as I am puzzed at how to remove it and its counterparts.



It aint really lookin too good at the moment, I am hoping pretty soon that I will stand back, look at it, and see that the things I have done have improved it in some way or another...

[Boycie]

Of course you've made progress, you've stripped it and assessed what needs doing. The bulkhead and crossmember look very good for it's age- I've seen cars half it's age with big holes where the master cylinders mount. Only normal stuff needing attention here!
The crossmember itself is worthy of note- the depression where the carb would sit is (correctly) shallower than on later shells, another thing missed/ ignored when people 're-shell' Mk3 cars..
Keep at it

[benjy_18]

to remove the wiper mtoor i just lifted the blades from the screen and pulled the motor out from the tubes. but you can just undo the nut on the top of the wheel boxes and the whole assembly should come out from under the scuttle

[vincent300]

Of course you've made progress, you've stripped it and assessed what needs doing. The bulkhead and crossmember look very good for it's age- I've seen cars half it's age with big holes where the master cylinders mount. Only normal stuff needing attention here!
The crossmember itself is worthy of note- the depression where the carb would sit is (correctly) shallower than on later shells, another thing missed/ ignored when people 're-shell' Mk3 cars..
Keep at it

Thanks man

to remove the wiper mtoor i just lifted the blades from the screen and pulled the motor out from the tubes. but you can just undo the nut on the top of the wheel boxes and the whole assembly should come out from under the scuttle

Cheers for the advice, I shall try and do that tomorrow.

[tedmcedd]

shot blasting and powder coating is the best thing you can do for a subframe, but if you're on a budget, then an angle grinder with a wire brush attatchment and a tin of hammerite will do well too!!

keep at the shell! ive seen much much worse restored, and the early ones are always worth it!!

the nuts on the wiper boxes should allow the wiper assembly to drop out...

Ed

[blacktulip]

good stuff so far mate. that heel panel looks nice

[vincent300]

Finally managed to get the windscreen wiper stuff off. I had already tried to undo the two bolts at the top and they just wouldnt budge so after removing the wiper boxes (lets say I wont be able to use them again) I found that they had totally seized and pratically welded themselves on, so after some shenanigans I manged to get them out of there. Anyways thanks for the advice and tips