297 replies to this topic

[The Otter]

Well I've put that on the backburner for now, I've got more important things to sort out first before I go in to it. I was planning on doing it as properly as possible, welding strengthening plates to the inner A-panel and using spreader plates inside the doors. The only thing I haven't thought much about is the shape of the corners at the bottom front of the doors, on Mk1s they're rounded, and Mk2 onwards are right angled, and it would bug me if I left it at a right angle... but like I said, I'm going to leave the hinge conversion for the future - I'd rather spend my time/money on other things first!

Needless to say, I'd never use them as 'fakes'

Sven

[Down&Out]

The entire door of a modern mini is a different shape, its not worth going too over the top, when you've been in the mini game long enough you know when a car is a fake MK1 and when its not, so its almost worth rocking a mk1 rip off daily and not having to worry so much about it being nicked, and saving up for a real one you can use on occasion.

[The Otter]

The entire door of a modern mini is a different shape, its not worth going too over the top, when you've been in the mini game long enough you know when a car is a fake MK1 and when its not, so its almost worth rocking a mk1 rip off daily and not having to worry so much about it being nicked, and saving up for a real one you can use on occasion.

Yeah, I know that I'll never be able to make it look believably like a Mk1, you'd need a Mk1 shell and V5 for that, but it's just some of the little features like the door corner shape that I'd like to put in to my car. I could still do the hinge conversion first though, and go in to stupidly meticulous detail over the corner of the doors some other time. I've seen a '92 car (same age as mine) with the hinge conversion done, but the sharp corners of the doors really stood out to me. It's all a long way off for me at the moment though.

I'll love my rip off at whatever stage of ripped offness it is

[jaydee]

I had an MK1, honestly i dont remeber that corner thing, but the shape is very different (handle, interior part etc) and you cant convert an MK3 door to an Mk1 door, there are too many differencies....

[The Otter]

After an awesome weekend at MITP, several trips to Halfords, Toolstation, Screwfix, etc. I've finally gotten all the panels and bits and pieces I need to replace the front end! Whilst I was at MITP I also picked up a second hand heater unit for a fiver, just to salvage the fan from it for my heater as it was making a loud, horrid, grumbly noise all the time whilst it was on, which is pretty annoying as you couldn't hear the radio in the winter when you had the heater on So I got that switched over and the replacement fan works perfectly, a fiver well spent there.



Also picked up some cheap new floor mats, makes the interior look a bit neater I think.



Tonight I started off the front end replacement, just removing the lights and so on from the front of the car, then when I was mostly done removing stuff I decided to have a poke at the rust and see just how bad it was...

These bits of paint...



...were amazingly all that was covering up this. The flakes of paint just fell off when I got the headlamp bowl off.



A few more amusing photos - no turning back now!









I didn't even poke the rust very hard, most of it was as soft as butter All of these tools are being used in the correct fashion by the way, before any kill joys comment that a hammer or a pry bar should not be hung from a wing.

So I decided to turn my car in to a tool rack and pack it in for the night.



I've set myself a target of one week if all goes well (and two weeks if it doesn't) to replace the scuttle, A-panels, wings, and front panel, along with any little repair patches I might need to put in on the way. This is my first time replacing any panels by the way, but I've had a bit of welding experience with MOT repairs and the Mk1 light conversion, so I'm not too worried. Still throwing myself in at the deep end a bit here. Can't wait to give it a bash

Thanks for reading

Sven

[Noah]

I'm planning on doing the same, any advice would be great! Im also going to have a bash at a MK1 boot lide conversion panel. With a old mk3 boot lid, if it works I'll paint it and put it on the car, if not. I'll stick with the standard Mk5 or whatever my car is.

[The Otter]

Didn't get too much done today, just got on with the rest of the stripping down. Pretty much ready to start the replacement of some of the panels tomorrow hopefully, but I have had a few unwanted surprises today.

First was this:



Then this (same hinge):



Then when I got the door off, I found that the panel around the check strap was completely shot:



I'm pretty sure this should be attached to the car...



Testing the new seam strip to show you once again just how much of the old panels were cut away by a previous owner, for 13" wheels:



This is how the car is looking now:



Popping down to the local mini specialist in the morning to see if he's got any spare door hinges lying around, and perhaps a whole drivers door as the frame on mine is pretty past it.

Thanks for reading

Sven

[rob963]

Wow some surprises already!

but better to find them sooner and be able to fix it than to find it at the end and have to undo things...

[The Otter]

So today I got the wings and the scuttle off, and found some of that hidden rot I keep reading about...





I tried to find the spot welds and centre punch them:



Then used a spot weld drill bit on them:



After I drilled out all the spot welds I used a hammer and a chisel, along with some tin snips, to prise off whatever wasn't cut by the drill bit, and hey presto:



I used the same technique for the wings, but using an angle grinder to cut along the seams to the front panel, A-panel and scuttle. I also sprayed any bare metal on the inner wing seams and the top dash rail/bulkhead seam with zinc primer after I'd neatened it up.

I was careful when cutting the windscreen pillars, as the passenger side has some of the wiring loom running through it:



On the drivers side of my car was also the windscreen washer fluid tube, as my washer fluid reservoir is in the boot:



Unfortunately I didn't buy the close out panels for under the scuttle corners, just sort of slipped my mind... the passenger side is salvageable, it's just the front edge that's a bit crusty, but the drivers side, well...



It was nothing but layers of rust held together by underseal, which just peeled off, so I'll have to try and make one myself.

This was what was hiding for me behind the dash:



Seeing as I don't have any repair panels for this, I'm going to have to repair it as best I can by cutting out the old rustyness and welding in a repair plate. One day I will fix this properly, but for now some repair patches is the best I can manage.

Thanks for reading

Sven

Edited by J322OverTheTop, 18 August 2012 - 09:35 PM.

[The Otter]

It kind of feels like I didn't really get anywhere today, but I've spent pretty much the whole day repairing the bad bits on the driver's side. I needed a repair plate on the dash rail, bulkhead, inner wing, flitch, and the door post.

First thing I did was get the A-panel off, so now what were possibly the first ever sticker bombed mini A-panels (no idea if that's true or not) are gone from my car



Here's what it looked like with a bit of poking and prodding



Cutting out old rusty metal



Making a template (mmm, pizza...)



Transfer it to metal



and there you have it



Admittedly I do still need some experience with the welder, but I'm getting better!

Here's some more pics of todays progress

















Because I don't have any sheet steel and I'm being tight with money at the moment after forking out for all the panels and such, I did some skin grafting from the car's old bodywork, which is where all the above repair patches came from...



Still got more repair patches to put in elsewhere tomorrow, this must be the part of the job that sucks most, I really can't wait to have a solid(ish) base to put the new panels on to!

[charie t]

RUST and lots of it

Bloody nora, this looked quite tidy on stand at MITP

[rob963]

RUST and lots of it

Bloody nora, this looked quite tidy on stand at MITP

Apparently, paint can hide rust quite well eh sven? ;)

I am sure every Mini has hidden rust that will surprise the owner when revealed

[The Otter]

RUST and lots of it

Bloody nora, this looked quite tidy on stand at MITP

Yep, you'd be surprised what can be covered up with filler, fibreglass, and paint! I'm glad I'm finally getting this done before the rust ate away any more of the car.

Finished work on the car early today, so not got a huge amount done compared to yesterday.

Repaired the bottom of the flitch lip for the A-panel





Made up a scuttle closing panel for the driver's side, a bit messy but you'll never see it anyway



Test fitting the scuttle



I also welded up the spare wiper holes, as I don't like the way it looks with just a big grommet bolted on when you're never going to need the holes anyway.



Hopefully I can finally fit the scuttle tomorrow!

[charie t]

What scuttle are you using there?
Looks to fit much better than the one i tried to fit today

[Noah]

With scuttles ONLY USE GENUINES. lol. So many people who have used non-gens have not been able to re-fit the windscreen :DOH: