5 replies to this topic

[jimllshiftit]

I'm trying to get the lower hinges of a very rusty mk1, sadly the A panel isn't bad enough to just pull them out. 

 

Ive got the top two hinges off so no problem there and ive got the nuts off the lower hinge bolts nearer the front wheels. The two bolts nearer the bulkhead just wont move. I can't see if the heads have been rounded off or if they are just dowel holes.

 

Can some one here point out how to get the off? 

[Tamworthbay]

If the nuts have rounded a set of these might do it:

http://www.irwin.com...bolt-extractors

They are very useful and will pay for themselves in no time for anyone owning pretty much any old car.

[mk3 Cooper S]

Chiesel the A panel if it is rotton

[jimllshiftit]

Cheers lads, but I think ive just found out why im having so much trouble. 

 

The A panel does not look at all rotten, largely because it has been sculpted out of fibreglass and p38. The hinge studs have been welded to angle iron which has then been bolted onto the inner wings behind the dash and foot well. 

 

I reckon a little gentle persuasion with a Stihl saw is in order. 

[surfblue]

A little of the bodgers art of mini "restoration". Never ceases to amaze the way some people "repair" minis 

[Tamworthbay]

It was just the way all cheap cars were repaired. It's not that many years ago when a mini could be had with MOT for £50 and free if it was a project. The cost of replacing an a panel would have been more than a lot of minis were worth at the time. Being a MK1 then the repair could be decades old. Its a bodge, but I suppose a benefit in a way as it stops the car being scrapped. I had a sierra that i used for a kit car, when we stripped it there were plastic milk cartons behind the filler- I could date the repair from the label! What really annoys me is when its bodged in such a way that would have taken longer than doing it right.