160 replies to this topic

[Stu.]

I had an hour spare at the end of today so I did a little trimming and got the inner wing fairly close. I need to spend a bit more time getting it to the right position but I'm happy so far.



The holes for the hinges are not far off the a post.



and it needs to go in, up and over bit more then it'll be spot on hopefully.

Edited by Stu., 21 February 2015 - 11:42 PM.

[Stu.]

I've been quite concerned about fixing the inner wing without fully mocking up the front end off the sub frame, so I decided to bite the bullet and order all the panels so I can at least get an idea whether things will fit. I'm waiting for the delivery from M Machine, so until the panels arrive I've been de rusting the area around the inner wing and zinc priming with electrox.

Edited by Stu., 28 February 2015 - 10:29 PM.

[Stu.]

I've had quite a productive day today. I received my front end panels a few days ago, so I was able to mock up the front end to see what the fitment was like before I move to welding the inner wing in place.
 
First I had to take the front end of the rollover jig off the shell, because I needed to fix the subframe in place to mount the front panel, and the jig utilises the crossmember bolt holes.
 
The inner wing is already on because I had to rotate the shell on the jig to get it aligned to where it needed to be, then I clamped it all up in the correct place. The bulkhead flexes a little bit when the shell is the right way up due to me cutting out the floor section and inner wing so if I'd fixed it in that position it would be wrong. It'll be fine the way I'm doing it, but I think I'll put a bit of bracing in the other side when I do it to ensure it stays put when I roll the shell on the jig.
 

 
Next I fitted the subframe to allow the front panel to be mounted and to ensure correct alignment.
 

 
Once I'd finally found the teardrops (it took a while ) I fitted them to the front panel ready for mounting onto the subframe.
 

 
It went on ok, and fitted up to the inner wing very snugly.
 

 

 
Next I hung the passenger side door and offered up the a panel as best as I could. I got it more or less in the right position within a few mill. The wing bottoms not lining up with the a panel but I'm not worried about that at the moment.
 

 
Once I had the outer wing clamped on and the bonnet in place I roughly fettled things around a bit to end up with this ....
 

 

 

 
I can't check the drivers side alignment but the inner wing seems to be following the bonnet line pretty well so it should line up ok hopefully.
 

 
So it looked ok from the outside.
 

 
but the wing gutter was not sitting into the inner wing gutter very well at all. It was ok at the top, but at the front panel end it was too high.
 

 

 
Anyway, I had a look at Molly and saw that the position of the inner wing on the front panel was not in the right place, so after a bit of pulling it popped into the right position.
 

 
This didn't make any difference to the gutter, so I clamped the outer wing to the inner wing to make sure it sat properly. This then threw out the fit between the front panel and the wing, but I managed to get it close enough to require just a little bit of fettling when it comes to final fitment, so I'm happy.
 

 

 
So I'm very happy with the fitment and am satisfied I'll get the gaps and alignment spot on with a little bit of minor cutting and dolly work, so all in all a good days work today. I've put the shell back on the jig now so I can move to welding in the inner wing once I've got another coat of electrox zinc primer on.
 
I've scribed the inner wing ready to drill the holes in for plug welding.
 

 
I'm feel like I'm getting somewhere now.

Edited by Stu., 19 April 2015 - 07:24 PM.

[Stu.]

I gave the areas around the inner wing a second coat this morning, then thought I'd do a few test plug welds before I start on the inner wing. They turned out ok, and held firm during my destructive testing so I'm happy to wield the torch on the shell now.

.

.

Edited by Stu., 08 March 2015 - 07:42 PM.

[Minimad100]

Good work!! Starting to look more like a mini again!!! Keep it up!!

[Stu.]

Thanks fella.

Edited by Stu., 19 April 2015 - 07:24 PM.

[Spud21]

Looking good :)  i'm just about to embark on a full front end replacement on my mini so reading this has been very useful, just in the process of stripping things out and tidying bits up while i get the money together for all the front panels i need.

 

Are you using genuine or pattern panels?

[Stu.]

All heritage except for the front panel. All from M Machine.

[Stu.]

Ive been trying out Bilt Hambers epoxy mastic, applying it to the areas I wont get access to once the inner wing is on. The stuff is very good but I found it takes a fair while to cure when its below 10°, so I got a couple of halogen heaters from Poundstretcher.



To be fair they are a bit flimsy but as long as I'm careful with them they should help with drying paint during the resto.

Got one drying some epoxy at the moment ....

Edited by Stu., 10 March 2015 - 08:19 PM.

[Stu.]

Well I finally got the inner wing plug welded in. I've not had any experience with plug welding before, except for some bench tests which turned out good, with good penetration. I had a bit of an ordeal when plug welding the inner wing with the edges of the holes to quite a lot of them blowing holes, and it took me ages to realise why it was happening, and posted a query over in the Body section. I got some very helpful replies, but I think it was mainly due to gapping between the two metal faces which was the major cause.
 
On the bench with new steel sheet offcuts, they were flat back to back with no gaps, and the plug welds were very good, so I couldnt figure out why they were blowing the edges of the holes on the car, and realsed it was because some of them were not dead tight together. I found it hard to get some of them really tight due to the inner wing section being quite stiff and not easy to pull the panel, together with difficult access for welding clamps. I've got long reach ones but not that long !
 
Anyway, I've ground the welds up and just need to get it prepped for priming. I also needed to re-weld in the lower shock mount fixing bar to the rear of the inner wing, so fitted up the shock mount and bar so I could weld it in place.
 

 
I then cleaned the paint etc from around the bar and welded it in place.

 
I've put in more weld than was on the other side, possibly as it came from the factory I guess.
 

 
I decided to order 6 skin pins so I can have more opportunity to pull in the two panels when plug welding where the clamps will not reach. They say they will provide between 50 and 300 lbs of clamping force, so I guess the ones I've ordered will give around 50 - 80 ish. I've gone for 2.5mm to keep the holes I'll need to weld up as small as possible.
 

 
Hopefully they'll help to keep the panels tight together for future plug welds.

Edited by Stu., 19 April 2015 - 07:25 PM.

[Stu.]

I wanted to be sure about the paint system I was going for so thought I'd lay up the paints to see how they stood up to impact, scratches and reactions etc.

 

As I've previously mentioned I'm using the following build up -

 

2 coats Bilt Hamber Electrox zinc rich primer.

2 coats of Bilt Hamber Epoxy Mastic.

2 coats (for build up) of Gravitex stone chip

Cellulose primers

Cellulose tocoats

 

I'm pleased to say I've tried a section of the body with the paint layers up to the Gravitex first coat and it all stands up very well with no reactions, and is very resistant to damage, so I'll be using this system throuought on the undersides. The topsides will have epoxy primer instead of mastic and no Gravitex (obviously).

 

You can see the three layers here. Dark gray is the Electox, light gray is the epoxy mastic and the black is the Gravitex I laid on stippled with a brush.

 

Edited by Stu., 18 March 2015 - 06:46 PM.

[Stu.]

I've not updated my progress for a while because I'd not got much done on Felix. As the weathers warming up I'll be doing work on Mollys paint, but intend to keep things moving along with Felix too if possible.

 

I re-sprayed Mollys nearside wing a couple of weeks ago, and polished it up a few days ago. I'm quite happy with the results really. My spraying wont win any medals but I dont subscribe to that level of perfection anyway.

 

 

I'll be spraying Molly in sections panel by panel, so I'm hoping to have her all done by Autumn.

 

So once Mollys wing was done I turned my attention back to Felix. After welding up the near side inner wing, I removed the scuttle. I did'nt really want to but the ends were full of filler and I needed access to the top of the bulkhead to undertake repairs.

 

 

The corrosion to the passenger side bulkhead top is not too bad, but there must have been a long term leak to the drivers side because the corrosion has completely eaten the bulkhead to the top of the hinge mount. At first I thought I'd have to remove the mount, but realised it was spot welded top and bottom, and the bulkhead is ok at the lower section, so I cut along the middle which allowed me to leave it in place.

 

 

The next issue I had was deciding how to sort a poor repair to the top dash rail. Some angled sections had been welded over the existing corroded windscreen lip and I was not happy to leave it, so it had to come out altogether.

 

 

 

This meant I had to fabricate some new metal to replace it. Not easy due to the rail curviture. So I took the old section and made a couple of templates.

 

 

I tack welded it to the rough angle required, which turned out to be ok after comparing with the old one.

 

 

I thought I'd better offer up the scuttle to make sure I'd got the curve of the section correct, and it seemed to be as close as I needed it to be for now.

 

 

Now I was happy with the shape, I tack welded it along it's length and then completed the whole section.

 

 

 

I dressed the welds down. I didnt take them down all the way as this side will be hidden, so there seemed litle point in risking thinning the metal.

 

 

The inside of the joint would be difficult to dress the welds, so I made sure they did'nt penetrate too far through. This gave a good clean corner all the way along.

 

 

So one I'd dressed it up a bit and cut it back to shape it fitted fairly well. It needs a bit more fettling, and the rail needs cleaning up, but I ran out of time.

 

 

 

So next up will be to clean back the dash rail and weld the new section into the opening. Then I'll dress the windscreen lip to shape. Once I've done this I'll need to form the bulkhead section to fit in the bit I've cut out, which will be fun as its got a relief section to take the bonnet hinge that I'll need to shape.

Edited by Stu., 19 April 2015 - 09:08 PM.

[alchall]

 

 
Hopefully they'll help to keep the panels tight together for future plug welds.

 

Where did you get those from? I have some panel pins that are ok as long as not a great deal of pressure is required to get the panels to pull tightly together....

[Stu.]

Aerospace and Engineering Tools Ltd. Good friendly guys.

[Stu.]

Well it was all going great. I got the top rail section tack welded in, then offered up the scuttle to check the curve to find this



I didnt re check the curve after I'd welded the two peices together, and realised the heat has straightened the curve which I hadn't realised. So I had to take it out and start again

So I decided to extend the rail flat wider on the new section in the hope it wont be able to straighten under heat like the other thin strip did. I also cut the shapes a little different and made it on one section, half of which I can bend, the other half weld instead.



I've not welded it yet, but it follows the scuttle curve ok at the moment.



I'll have to remember to check the curve once I've welded the edge joint this time

Edited by Stu., 21 April 2015 - 10:41 PM.