99 replies to this topic

[bartman]

top job there mate nice welds and good finish with corrosion prevention

[n1tr0_9]

Took the drivers side sill off this evening. I cut just below teh door step seam then folded it down. As expected its pretty grotty, and the inner sill/floor is much worse than it looks from inside the car. I didnt need to do anymore cutting or chiselling, i just flexed it up and down a few times and it fell off! Where it had been welded the water had collected and rotted it out. Annoyingly it looks like the little support brackets at various places have had it, so i need to replace these too. Had a look at the back side of the doorstep. Its just the lower edge thats gone, apart from the rear edge where its pretty crusty. Seat belt mount look OK. Rear end where the subframe is doesnt look so good. Crap.









Also refitted the damper mount. Gave it more zinc, then red oxide, then random gloss black that i had just so its waterproofed till it all gets painted.



Found the scuttle was more rusty than i thought. Originally it looked like it was just the inner dashboard part that was gone. Wrong its the whole thing, but it was hidden by 1-2mm thick filler. If i had found this earlier i would have cut out and replaced the whole panel. But as ive already replaced the closing panels at the ends i dont want to do that. So im stuffed. Ill have to do it in sections or just rust treat it and use it as is.

[RayBoogs]

Good old Rover and their salt water primer.

I've got a 95 cooper and it had gone in all the same places as yours. Good luck mate, looks like you know what your're doing and handy with a welder!!

[n1tr0_9]

I wouldnt say i know what im doing with minis, im just reading loads of posts on here! But i do like welding so that helps. Been playing with my new spot welder today.

[MyZeemaxMiniTurbo]

just wondering how a 96 mini is in this much of a state, how has it been stored? did the previous owners wash it with sea water??

my 88 has non, had non when i bought it apart from a tiny patch about the size of a 10p in the passengers foot well, had it sorted about 2 days after i got it, iv had it 8 years now and still nothing really, a bit scabby on the rear bumper lip, but im going to cut it off and run it smooth (the carbon front doesnt have a lip anyway)

just picked up an 87, been sat with no windows outside rain or shine since 05, its a bit rusty but not as bad as this, mostly can be taken back to good metal and treated, just a hole in rear arch...looks like water had been sat in the drivers side rear seat bin for some time, and finally gone through.... just been cutting some sheet ready to shape and weld in. but still no where near as bad as this 1.....and its 1 of those silver mayfairs that seemed to rust worse/quicker than any other

[MyZeemaxMiniTurbo]

i mean iv seen lots of minis any other colour with no rust.....but who has honestly seen a silver 1 with no rust?

[n1tr0_9]

Started on teh drivers inner sill. I wanted to do this in one big panel so it looked good, but its not really practical as its a bit complicated to do it all in one. I was supplied with a repair panel, but it is just a plaster type repair and its really flimsy so ive made this out of 1mm steel.

Made a template



The flimsy magnum bodge panel



All the rusty metal was cut out and then i began welding the new part in.



Plug welded at the front flanges



Good penetration with the plugs



Then finally zinc'ed again. Ive not welded the rear most edge as that bit of original sill may have tyo come out as its also more rotten than it looks!



Then i cut out some of the rear inner sill; to check out the subframe mounts. Lokks pretty good. Surface rust only. So ill treat this.

[n1tr0_9]

I was wrong! I cut a bit more off that luip that curls under the floor so i could get all the rust out. Thats wasnt too bad. But then i tried to remove what looked like surface rust from the heel board inside the rear pocket and the scraper went straight through. Its rotted from the outside in where raod dirt has got trapped between the subframe and the panel. To fix this i think ill have to take the subframe out

[mini_in_progress]

making good progress mate... looks rotten in the same places as mine..... wait till you take the subby off......

good luck mate

dave

[grahama]

Nice progress, always more rust to be found on a mini lol. Lots of crud to shift off the subframe when it comes out, will be much nicer to work on a cleam subframe too. Keep it up.

Graham

Nice repair to the front floor section aswell, made my inner sills myself too but they didn't come out as neat as yours, well done.

[n1tr0_9]

Took the rear subframe out. I had to remove the fuel tank, exhaust, and disconnect the hand brake and rear brake lines. Then it came out. Only 1 bolt sheared off so i was quite pleased.



And here is what it was hiding. Holes both sides between the subframe and heel board.





Also found that where it has been repaired in the past it wasnt resealed so its rusting again.



Once the fuel tank was out i spotted a bit more rust at the rear of the boot floor.



Last thing i gave the subframe a quick wire brushing. Its solid but has lots of surface rust and a couple of bits look to have blown apart so ill have to get the welder out again.

[tiger99]

Nice work! Just looking back at your inner wing cracks, these are typical of what happens when solid and rubber or poly subframe mounts are mixed, or the rear rubber mounts have debonded, which often goes unnoticed until the cracks show.

The permanent cure is a full solid mount kit, with reinforcement round the toeboard mounts, after fixing the cracks of course. They just need the inner wing pulled back into shape so they close up, then they can be seam welded. A bit of reinforcement by adding a doubler at the botton edge does no harm.

Edited by tiger99, 10 September 2012 - 11:38 PM.

[Jasonc]

This is going to be one very solid Mini when you have finished :)

[n1tr0_9]

With the subframe off i gave it a check over. Found 3 places where the rust had started too blow the seams apart. So i cut off the top surface and used the angle grinder with twisted knot disc to get the rust off then made some patches. These had holes drilled in them to get a good plug weld onto the metal underneath. I did this all with 1.5mm steel. Didnt get photos of all three, but you get the idea. Then zinc'd.









While the subframe was off i thought i better treat as much rust as possible, as a new subframe is about £180. So i got busy with the wire brush and petrol. Then i got the Bilt hammer on the job. I gave it a liberal coat and worked it in with a brush.





Whilst doing this i saw some surface rust on the brake lines. So befroe they rot away and cause an mot fail, i gave them a quick sand back,, then Acid Etch primer then a top coat of Alloy Wheel silver paint, as its pretty thick with lots of gloss in it and should keep the corrosion off for a while. The rubber hoses still looked good with no signs of perishing. Ive also ordered a new handbrake cable as the old one is fraying where the loop meets the cable from the front.



While i was waiting for the bilthamber to dry i took another look at the underside of the rear. It would appear that the car has had either a rear end bump or had the rear valance AND boot floor repaired, as there is a new boot floor panel welded in partially over the old one. This has been left open on the underside of the car and trapped water and dirt, so im not sure what to do here!

[AVV IT]

just wondering how a 96 mini is in this much of a state, how has it been stored? did the previous owners wash it with sea water??

my 88 has non, had non when i bought it apart from a tiny patch about the size of a 10p in the passengers foot well, had it sorted about 2 days after i got it, iv had it 8 years now and still nothing really, a bit scabby on the rear bumper lip, but im going to cut it off and run it smooth (the carbon front doesnt have a lip anyway)

just picked up an 87, been sat with no windows outside rain or shine since 05, its a bit rusty but not as bad as this

The later models (MPi models in particular) were much more prone to corrosion than earlier models, so much so they are often referred to as "Rot boxes". Rover had to make cost savings to offset the cost of all the upgrades on the later models (the airbags, side impact bars, fuel injection etc) and this happened at the expense of sacrificing paint coverage and rust proofing amongst other things. In the latter days at Longbridge there were even reports of shells being stored outside the factory and exposed to the elements before they were even put on the production line, meaning that some models were actually rusty before they even left the factory!!