393 replies to this topic

[Mini Mad Drakeley]

your work is absolutely amazing, makes my work look like a cave mans haha but seeing this makes me tempted to buy a mini i went to view a few days ago with similar rust but i doubt i would do half as good a job

keep up the good work

[minifcd]

Thanks mini mad drakeley. Take your time and think everything through well first before diving in and you'll be fine.
Hi minimuk, to clean the gutter, or whats left of the roof, I've been gently using a 2 mm cutting disc on an angle grinder to grind down through the spot welds and then peel off the old metal with a pair of side cutters. There are too many spot welds to drill out (roller welded). You have to be very carefull not to grind through the lower lip. However, the majority of the lip on both sides of the shell has rotted out on the inside of the rolled edge and so some major surgery is required. The front and rear aren't too bad but still need their share of surgery too.

This was the gutter after the roof was removed.






Here is one of the rotten areas that needs repair. I decided to use this as a test area to see how hard or easy it would be to repair the gutter.


Cut out the rotten area. The amount cut out looks more than required as the rot on the rear of the lip had spead further along.


Made this repair piece by taking a piece of 6mm round bar and gently curving to the shape of the gutter. Then welded the round bar to a piece of 5mm flat bar, to allow a piece of metal to be clamped to it in a vice and knocked over the round edge with a hammer. I'll show this in another post.


Tacked in.


Used a piece of copper to prevent blowing holes through when welding at the top of the lip.


Welded up.


And finished off by grinding down gently with a 40 grit flap disc, but not right down. Then using a fine file to file back level. I found this was the best way to ensure a good flat metal finish that blends together well (don't really want to use any filler on this area if possible as it could easily get chipped off). Then finished blending with 80 grit paper on a DA sander.


Its turned out quite well but there is a lot to do and some are even more curved so will have to figure out how to do those.
I'll get some pictures of the formers I made up soon but they're nothing special.


Thanks for looking.

Edited by minifcd, 15 March 2012 - 08:39 PM.

[grahama]

Is that last pic the same bit you repaired??? Great work as ever !!

[minifcd]

Hi Graham, yes it is the same bit! If you look at the picture above the last picture, you can see the repair comes roughly inline with where there is a big gap between the spot welds in the window lip and where there is a slight kink in the lip. You can see those in the last picture. The repair position is slightly to the left of centre. I took the last picture after I had moved the shell over to the side of the garage, ready to bring my other mini back in and as a result, I have the light reflecting off of it from the strip light above!

[minimuk]

cheers for the lesson, thats just as I thought how you would clean that gutter,delicate operation. I like those detailed piccies and advise, fab repair and patience required for this kind of roof repair.

[ryan22_lgm]

good work will be watching for updates on this!

[grahama]

Hi Scott,

I knew it was the same repair, it's just so bloody good !!!

[hughJ]

Yes - all Scott's repairs are amazing. It's the fabrication that is so skilled. The smooth bending of the steel. Great one Scott. Pictures of the formers would be brilliant but I am aware that once you get fabricating the last thing on your mind is photographing how you do it.

Hugh

[minifcd]

I know you knew it was the same repair Graham, but I thought i'd better bring the evidence to light just in case!!! Hugh, pictures of the formers will be up tomorrow after I get back from work.

[Pepys]

Today I read through your wonderful project. Afterwards I sat down, had a cup of tea and a little weep, after which I felt a bit better. Then I had another weep. Then I prayed, something I am not very good at. Then I went and looked at my mini and nothing had changed. So I had another cup of tea and a weep, and tried to workout where I am going wrong: too much crying and tea.

Cracking job!

[minifcd]

Thanks Pepys, I don't blame you on the tea. Tea breaks every 10 minutes are a must! I've got a few pictures of the formers and some of my weapons of choice for cleaning and grinding metal as requested.

These are the basic formers I made to make the roof gutter. The one at the top is slightly curved. The bottom one is flat and the one on the right is one I made for previous jobs.


The welding is nothing special as I rushed them a bit. The smaller curved one at the top was the one I made for the rear gutter repair in the last update.


Here you can see how the round bar is offset to bring it level with the back of the flat bar.


Forming a gutter repair piece. Metal clamped in vice behind former.


Hammer it over gently going all the way along evenly.


The finished piece.


Some pictures of what I use to clean and grind metal. Top left 40 grit flap disc and right 80 grit flap dicsc. The best I have at the moment. I need to get some new ones but these are what I use to grind down welds. The bottom two are strip and clean discs for removing paint. One new and one used. The used one cleaned the seat back down, the floors inside and parts of the upper and lower dash rails and is still good (very light pressure does the job).


Top left, grinding disc. Top right is a 3mm cutting disc and bottom is a 1mm cutting disc. I don't tend to use the grinding disc much but 1mm cutting discs get a lot of use.


Various wire brushes generally used to clean down paint around gutter, windows etc. The small worn out one is the one I used to clean the grooves in the rear seat back, followed by the strip and clean disc on the larger areas.


Top left, twist knot wire brush for the angle grinder and top right is the same but has seen some action!! I only really use these on heavy rust and on the subframes. Must wear eye protection (preferably a face visor) as bits of wire fly out and can stick in your clothes or arms!! Bottom, from the left, 40 grit flap disc for drill, grinding stone and on the right is a home made grinding disc for use on the drill that makes use of worn out cutting discs, that are too small for the angle grinder. This is what I'm using to grind inside the gutter and in other hard to get to areas and works really well.


Thanks.

[minimuk]

thanks again for this lesson, I do like the idea of the home made grinding disks, and those formers/shapers are ace, will try and make some next few days, could do with one or two, very clever indeed, a lot of common sence there,......thinking outside the box I like

[minifcd]

Thanks minimuk. I found if you need a slight curve then put a small piece of 1mm thick metal in the centre between the round bar and the flat bar and pull the ends of the round bar down to the flat bar. Then weld each end and either side of the 1mm piece. Remove the 1mm piece and then fully weld all along. That give you a slight curve for jobs like the gutter. When forming the gutter pieces, the bit you hammer over is the lip that points up. The bit that's clamped in the vice is the horizontal piece you weld to the original panel.

[minimuk]

Thanks minimuk. I found if you need a slight curve then put a small piece of 1mm thick metal in the centre between the round bar and the flat bar and pull the ends of the round bar down to the flat bar. Then weld each end and either side of the 1mm piece. Remove the 1mm piece and then fully weld all along. That give you a slight curve for jobs like the gutter. When forming the gutter pieces, the bit you hammer over is the lip that points up. The bit that's clamped in the vice is the horizontal piece you weld to the original panel.

cheers I will give it a go, the round bar is 6mm or 10mm?

[minifcd]

Yes 6mm round bar gives just the right radius for the inside of the roof gutter.