4 replies to this topic

[OllyD]

Dear TMF, I apologise for our one-sided relationship. I know it feels like you give me all this love and generosity and I just use you for my own selfish needs, but I truely do appreciate it. I ask all these questions, yet provide others with no answers. It's not a case of me not wanting to contribute, I just usually don't say anything since i don't know enough to contribute anything useful. One day I'll know enough to speak up.
All my love, Olly


Anyway, onto my latest question! I've been studying both my Haynes manuals's (Repair and Resto) over the past 4/5 months, and as i prepare to tackle my mini next week, I'm still unsure as to what order to tackle things. The haynes resto manual is
A: all out of order and
B: assumes I've got a degree in engineering.
I'm already staggering into this endevour blind and ignorant, so at least knowing what order i should be breaking off bits and shearing bolts etc will be a start!

so for those of you who have done a full stripdown and rebuild, what order did you go from a complete car all the way down to the bare shell? I've been looking through lots of the project pages, but alot of them forgo the blow-by blow accounts of how each task is tackled and just document the end result of a days work. Stormduck's was an excellent help, but he seems to have been eaten by a dinosaurus.

if anyone can help, i'll be very greatful. The more exhaustive list the better!

[pikey7]

To my mind...

1. strip the interior.
2. drain the fuel system, the oil, the water (pull the heater hose inside the car off to get most of it out, and you'll have finished the stripping of the interior then too! have a largeish container handy though. Theres a lot of it!). remove the tank and store it in a well ventilated area for a few days (to let excess evaporate off. NOT somewhere you'll be throwing sparks around though!)
3. Get rid of the excess panels (doors, bonnet etc.
4. Windows out.
(this way, you'll still be able to mve the car around a bit upto this point)
5. Engine and subframe out (in one.)
6. rear subframe out.
7. Steering out
8. pedal system out
9. electrics and body trim out.
That should get you pretty damned close to an empty shell
Then as the HBOL says, refitting is just the reversal! Seriously, Once you've ripped it apart, then you will recall how it came apart.

Make sure you keep lots of small boxes, bags etc etc for fasteners, and keep them well labelled and in a secure place. You don't want to go losing them! OH, and if at any time you're unsure, get a picture of it, and put it in the bag with the small parts that come off! Beware of oil though, it will disolve ink....

I know thats a bit basic, but I dunno how in depth you want to go. I know the HBOL isn't fantastic at explaining every nut and bolt that has to com off, but lets be honest, to write it in a thread is just to re-write the book! I think you've got the right idea by getting as much info and pics as you can from the project section, and don't forget that there are lots of pics and info in the FAQ section too!

And hey, don't worry about not giving answers to tech questions. If you don't know , you don't know (yet). You'll be contributing plenty after you do this job!

[Bungle]

first dissconect the battery

[OllyD]

Thanks pikey7. I'd also forgotten somewhat about the faq, so thanks for reminding me. One other question, I've read that for replacing panels (i'm doing the entire front end), the subframe has to remain on otherwise everything gets misaligned? How does this factor in? I'm still not sure about the correlation between the position of the panels to the presence of the subframe (surely the panels can only fit on one way?) Should i leave it on?

[pikey7]

when you have the engine and sub out, take the engine out of the subframe and strip the suspension off of it. The subby becomes easy to handle then.

Then when fixing body parts, attach the subframe in 4 of the 6 positions and renew the panel on the other 2 positions. (eg, if replacing the front panel, attach the subframe to the crossmember and to the toe board, and you have a pretty good reference of where to locate the front panel.)