118 replies to this topic

[Tupers]

For the past 20 odd years my Dad had been hearing on and off about an early Caryford Mini convertible that was being stored in the rafters of a bar somewhere near by but was never able to track down where it actually was.

To our surprise the owner came in to the workshop a few months back asking about what sort of work we did and told us about the car and what it needed. Naturally we were very keen to take a look at it as we enjoy a nice involved restoration.

We arranged to go and see the car by which point it had come down for the rafters and was waiting for us to the a peak.
For it's age it didn't look to be in bad nick and all of the original Crayford boxing along the sills, heel board and A-pillars was still in place.







Once we had got it back to the workshop we removed the boxing prior to blasting to ensure every nook and cranny could be gotten to. Due to the rust we could see creeping in below the boxing and around the sills it was decided that replacing both floor pans front to rear + the cross member was the way to go so these section were left alone.














Despite our pre blasting thoughts the boot floor/seat base has lots of pin holes and some rather larger ones on both sides of the seat back so this may well be replaced with a heritage item modified to '60s spec.




The front panel was the first section to come off post blasting this will most likely donate its round corners and other early features to a new panel.




As could be seen on the picture of the bulkhead from inside both flitches were rather well holed as well so I began the somewhat long process of drilling out all of the spot welds to make way for new items in the new year.

[steven]

what a gem !

[Tupers]

This is the O/S sill/A-pillar boxing section that we had blasted along with the shell of other pieces. It was held in with a rather interesting selection of blots, self tapping screws and stitch welds. This made taking them out rather entertaining and my current task of tidying up and repairing them less so.







Most of the old pieces of cross member came without too much fuss bar the self tapping screw which were quite resilient.







There was a bit of grot on one corner revealed by the blasting so I marked it out and set off cutting.








As with most things the further you dig the more grot you find so I paired it back and treated it before tig welding the repair sections in.







Keep your eyes peeled for more.

[stretch tech]

Wow what a find good luck

Rhys

[MaxAndPaddy]

That is lovely whats he planning on doing with it?

[sonikk4]

Nice project to get your teeth into there Tupers. Nice bit of tin worm but nothing that cannot be sorted out.

[Artful Dodger]

Awsome original little mini!

Are you using he proper red oxide paint? By the looks of things you get few a bit, so where do you get it from? Our pair suppliers
Say they don't do it anymore and do some new crapy stuff... Nowhere near as good, but nowhere near as toxic XD thank god for extraction systems!

[Teapot]

This is v interesting. Where will the new soft top come from? How specialised is it?
I'd better get some choc biscuits and come and have a look when Huey is back on the road

Edited by Teapot, 18 December 2012 - 11:27 PM.

[Petrol]

I am also interested in the primer you are using. Surely things have moved on from red oxide?

[surfblue63]

It's great to see something rare and unusual being restored, keep up the excellent work.

Here's a Crayford that was at Brooklands in 2012 to give you inspiration.

Edited by surfblue63, 19 December 2012 - 02:11 PM.

[Tupers]

Thanks for the interest guys. Feel free to pop down once Huey's heart is back in Dave, I'll keep the kettle on standby.

The red oxide primer is just sprayed post blasting to protect the metal while the repair work is under way. Once all the welding is finished the shell will be lightly blasted again and the spayed with an etch primer and then a zinc primer before body work begins.

We are working with a local auto upholsterers who are going to take patterns from the original hood and make a new one to complement the cars restored bodywork. Once it's all done it should look like it's just rolled out of the Crayford garages.

[Tupers]

So now back after Christmas and I stared out by doing as little exploratory cutting into the scuttle ends. It's not bad considering the closing panels where none existent but I'll remove the rest of the corner to properly fit the new flitches.




Seen as the remainder if the inner sills weren't doing anything I drilled through all of the spots and popped them off. There's something quite therapeutic about drilling that many holes.









Now to the boot floor, there are too many pin holes to be worth saving so the whole lot's coming out.




It just fell honest.


The bulk of it came out quite quickly then it was onto the trickier parts.




I used a blow torch to burn the seam sealer out of each corner in order to find the spot welds then it was just more drilling and wiggling.









We'll be off up to Mini Spare soon so we can pick up a van load of panels for this and several other cars then we can get some new metal in.

Edited by Tupers, 08 January 2013 - 11:10 PM.

[leadly]

Wow, what an awesome project to get stuck into. Never thought of using a blow torch to get rid of the remnants of seam sealer. Cheers.

[bcjames]

Wow, amazing! A really interesting project, and coupled with your standard of work this should be great!

[Tupers]

Wow, what an awesome project to get stuck into. Never thought of using a blow torch to get rid of the remnants of seam sealer. Cheers.

It works really well in confined spaces although you want to make sure you wear a mask as it's terribly toxic.
Also best to keep away from large flat panels that could warp with the heat, I tend to use a wire wheel on a grinder for more open areas.

Wow, amazing! A really interesting project, and coupled with your standard of work this should be great!

Thanks James, it should be a lovely car once completed and I think the owner's very keen to get out an about in it.


I thought it was probably about time that I did a bit of repair work to the old girl so this afternoon I set about repairing the rather rotten bumper lip. Both corners and the centre were in a rather sorry state but nothing that couldn't be fixed with a little fabrication and welding.






After taking some measurements and folding some steel I used the shrinker/stretcher to curve 3 new pieces that would become the new bumper lip.








With the new section clamped into place I traced the old lip from underneath and then trimmed them down.


Once I was happy with everything I marked and cut out the old sections then butt welded the new steel in.