285 replies to this topic

[Marco1972]

Ok back to it ........


Outer sill time drilled all the holes and gave it the usual several coats of primer and paint and trial fitted it to the car



Think Jay was bored stiff at this point







Happy with that and many plug welds later you end up with this





Just got to do the bottom plug welds and a few seam welds then grind back and that's the sill sorted
Feels good to be approaching the end of the metal work feels like I've been doing this for a life time

So now my thread is up to date 12 months work captured in a few pics

[Marco1972]

Hi all

Well I was meant to have a meaty update on this today but once again life's big size 12 boot has generously kicked me in the gentlemans spuds

The daily drive(toy) our MG TF decided it wanted to pee its coolant out of the cheese fondly called a head gasket
So I've spent my whole weekend and today sorting the dam thing out
Anyone who knows K series engines knows they go through head gaskets like Jonny Vegas goes through pies
Funnily enough mine had an uprated one which were meant to be better so much for that theory as I replaced it with another so called uprated head gasket and it leaked out just the same !!!!
I've now spent all my day off stripping it back down only to replace it with an original style gasket so fingers crossed that will cure it
If this fails I shall do a basil fawlty and thrash it to death with a large branch

Rant over lol

[domdee]

Love the repairs your carryin gout on the mini!

[Marco1972]

Love the repairs your carryin gout on the mini!

Thanks domdee

Nice to know folks are looking in at my thread

Mark

[johnR]

As has been said - a nice tidy job you're doing there - great pics too - I'm sure they'll be really useful to others.

JohnR

[Marco1972]

Thanks johnR

I found the detailed pics in other TMF members threads a really valuable resource so I've tried to put as detailed pics as I can on my thread
This forum is excellent for sharing information it's certainly made my life easier

Mark

[lawrence]

Great restoration bud. What's the lower scuttle closing panels like as you said the previous owner has replace the front?

[Marco1972]

Hi Lawrence

Scuttle closers are in very good condition all the front end was replaced with genuine panels same can't be said for the rest of the car !

Think the previous owner had a budget and made it look nice to sell on unfortunately my knowledge of theses cars was not as comprehensive as it is now and I got caught out a bit by all things shiny

You live and learn I guess ....... Still gives me something to do at the weekend lol

Mark

[lawrence]

Cheers for the reply to satisfy my curiosity :) well best of luck for the resto, I'll be keeping an eye on it!

[Marco1972]

Ok back to it

Daily drive now sorted I grabbed a few hours on the mini today

Firstly welded up each end of the sill





With both ends done it was onto plug welding
Improvised with this panel hammer so that the sill was tight





decent penetration



All done and ground down



With all that done it was onto the closing segment



Bloody awkward bit to fit

Got a few pin holes to fill but I'd had enough at this point not much fun lying on your back on a cold garage floor

Mark

[James_eaton_thewholething]

I hate welding on my back it sucks. Sill looks good though

[Marco1972]

I hate welding on my back it sucks. Sill looks good though

Cheers James

I'm convincing myself it will all be worth it in the end
Nice to get the sill on its starting to look like a mini again

Mark

[James_eaton_thewholething]

I felt like that once I had put the passenger outer sill on as it was the last big panel. Got one last bit of welding to finish tomorrow and then I can start to think about getting it ready for painting. Only bits of welding I've got left is for roll cage spreader plates but other than that my shell will be complete.

Will look out for seeing this finished

[minimissions]

Looks great cant wait to get my next sill on my car... Top work pal!

[Marco1972]

I felt like that once I had put the passenger outer sill on as it was the last big panel. Got one last bit of welding to finish tomorrow and then I can start to think about getting it ready for painting. Only bits of welding I've got left is for roll cage spreader plates but other than that my shell will be complete.
Will look out for seeing this finished

Cheers mate

Off to mini fair this weekend good place to get some inspiration
Not to much left to do now just 2 door skins 2 A panels and a couple of small repairs
Don't sound a lot but it will still probably take weeks lol