186 replies to this topic

[Zeemax Adventure]

Time for another update.  Its amazing what you get done when you don't have to go to work for a week. Well once again lots of piccys :)

 

Started getting the strength back into the drivers side...Inner and outer sills sorted.  Still needs a few more welds in places with the mig, then grinding down and finishing.  Want to get the car solid before dressing the repairs.

 

 

 

 

Then turned my attention to the front screen surround.  It was in a bad way and was an absolute **** to remove but got there in the end.

 

 

 

Notice the resin that had been used to cover the rust.  This was everywhere you see the grey primer

 

 

As this is a later car, unfortunately the roof and pillars are roll welded so not much chance of removing that with ease.  Decided the best way to tackle this was to cut it back and spot weld through the three layers.  Last thing i want is to cause distortion to my perfect roof panel trying to hack the old seam off.

 

Gutter cut off

 

 

Drilled spot welds on the door frame and cut the rest of the screen panel out on the pillar.

 

 

Screen panel removed

 

 

 

Theres something sexual about new Genuine MG Rover Panels  

 

 

Well thats it for today.  Will start bulkhead repairs tomorrow and hopefully get this new screen surround fitting.

 

Oh ive also polished my accelerator pedal :)

 

[hennasxi]

This thread gives me great hope for keeping my CS500's on the road forever!!  Great stuff this - would be great to see your Tahiti Blue car finished off, you'll have to bring it on one of our 2000 mini register club stand displays when its done.

[Zeemax Adventure]

This thread gives me great hope for keeping my CS500's on the road forever!!  Great stuff this - would be great to see your Tahiti Blue car finished off, you'll have to bring it on one of our 2000 mini register club stand displays when its done.

 

I know I was going to do it Tahiti, but after do i dont i moments ive decided to keep it red as it was intended.  Its going to be a very nice standard example of a Mini Cooper sport...with a tasteful exhaust of course :)

[Zeemax Adventure]

A little bit more progress, ok its quite a big step and im glad its done.  Windscreen panel and dash rail are now in and fitted :) Thats the worst bits over with I hope.  

 

Started by cutting out the old rust and fabricating a new upper bulkhead edge.  Nothing pretty but its hidden.  The finished article does look nicer than this but forgot to take pic as was too excited to get the screen panel in place

 

 

New panel in place and fitting reasonably well after lots of fettling

 

 

New dash rail in place too

 

 

 

Next decided to get the car on a trolley and  remove the front and rear subframe.  Only got the front done yesterday but heres some pics.  Looking in great condition, so once ive stripped and used it to align the new front end, it will be getting cleaned and painted ready to be fitted with engine after the respray.  Cant wait....

 

 

[sport2000]

Top work....Keep this updated please,very interesting project..

[Carvell]

Very interesting, jealous of the garage

[olds_kool_lews]

Going for the split screen look? lol looking good though! Bet its nice to work on a clean shell!

[steven]

looks great !

[Wigeon Incognito]

At the start you said it wasn't a 500 but it has the silver roof, silver stripes, half silver leather seats, half silver leather steering wheel, and the turned alloy dash. Is it definitely not a 500?

Matt.

[Wigeon Incognito]

Actually, having read the 500 register site it's not as easy as that so ignore me!

Good luck with the project!

Matt.

[Zeemax Adventure]

Ok, so its been almost two months of very little progress due to work, but i have finally got round to updating you fellow mini fans on progress  

 

Well following on from where we left off, the rear subframe was removed and turned out to be solid.  So this will be cleaned, all the essentials reconditioned and reassembled, but thats another day.

 

 

 

 

 

The new wheels

 

 

 

Started to remove the rear valance.  Was hoping the boot floor in between would be solid however this turned out not to be the case.

 

 

 

 

 

All off and condition of seams is not brilliant

 

 

 

Old rust cut and ground down, and fresh metal spot welded into place 

 

 

 

Hinge panel removed, showing corrosion to the boot floor seam

 

 

 

Corrosion cut out, and a nice fresh piece of metal to replace it.  Ok its part of the old doorskin, but its clean metal 

 

 

 

And started to spotweld into place

 

 

 

New Hinge panel lined up ready for trial fitting of the bootlid

 

 

 

And look at this little beauty i found on the very popular auction site.  I was going to repair my old one but saw this and its solid with no holes drilled for the number plates either so no corrosion at all :)  happy boy

 

 

 

 

Some replacement bootlid trial fitting.  Needs slight adjustment to the centre of the hinge panel once its fully welded up.  Other than that after a lot of tapping, twisting, hinge adjusting and nudging i'm more than happy with the gaps at this stage

 

 

 

 

 

I then started to remove the rust from the corners.  Again a replacement boot floor repair section had to be fabricated and these corner repairs cut down and tapped around to fit.  This is as far as i got today...

 

 

 

Also went to minifair in coventry and came away with a few bits 

 

 

 

And spent a small fortune at minispares on some new rubbers.  Was going to do the poly bush stuff for everything but after reading a lot of reviews I decided to play safe and choose good old rubber as Rover intended.  Its not going to be a track day car or highly tuned so Im sure these will serve me well for a while.

 

 

 

Well thats it for now.  Keep watching as Christmas is coming, and that means time off to make more noise, and get Ollie closer to his respray 

[ClubbyRacer]

Hi there,

 

I must say this is a cracking looking project - I'm of the same school of thought as yourself with regards to the late MPIs - nice to see another one being saved!!

 

I really like the use of the heritage screen surround - all too many people try and get away with repairs as opposed to doing what you have done here which should last significantly longer! Which leads me to my main question - which supplier was it that you got all the panels from at Minifest and that you got a deal on the rest with? Need to get a project of my own started and know how much better heritage can be!!

 

Thanks

 

Sam

[Zeemax Adventure]

I got all of my heritage panels off south lakeland mini centre in cumbria.  They were extremely helpful and provided a great service.  The majority of the panels have been genuine mg rover or heritage but must admit i'm so glad i did.  The car came with some aftermarket panels and the finish of the curves, quality of the steel as well as the fitment was no where near the quality of the genuine.  Ok its cost me a lot more, but its saved me hours of work and the finish is so much better :)

[puggered]

Excellent project thread. Good work buddy :)

[GraemeC]

I'd be cautious about spot welding repair panels - the MOT man probably won't like them.
They'll only accept spot welds where they were originally used by the manufacturer, all other repairs/welds should be continuous.