691 replies to this topic

[MR J]

You've done a great job,

 

I eventually need to do a similar repair to my 94 on the front and rear end, I just can't justify doing it yet though as there's still plenty of life left in the car and I know it'll be a year or two off the road whilst I do it so I'm just enjoying the car as is at the moment.

 

I'll be using your pics as reference though!

Edited by MR J, 08 March 2016 - 02:51 PM.

[alchall]

You've done a great job,

 

I eventually need to do a similar repair to my 94 on the front and rear end, I just can't justify doing it yet though as there's still plenty of life left in the car and I know it'll be a year or two off the road whilst I do it so I'm just enjoying the car as is at the moment.

 

I'll be using your pics as reference though!

Cheers!

 

Probably rely more on my later ones than early ones as I have been learning on the job :-D 

 

You may be surprised by how much needs doing when you start taking her apart, I was shocked at the state of some of it, partly to do with poor previous repairs but partly just to do with poor build quality / QC from the factory. 

 

One tip, take lots of photo's and measurements and document what you take off as you go, I didn't quite do as good a job of this as I should have.

[Notay]

good job mate

[alchall]

So here we have it, that last panel fitted to the shell, still got some tidying up to do around the place and the gutters to finish before I move on to re-skinning the doors but definitely another milestone reached.

 

First up seam sealing around the subframe mounts.

 

 

 

Followed by primer and a couple of coats of top coat to protect the box sections in the corners.

 

 

 

 

Before the painting began I mocked it up and drilled the holes for welding to the closing panels, I managed to get one side wrong so had to fill the holes and drill some new ones, easily fixed though.

 

And then it was welded in place, I didn't take any progress pictures of this but here it is finished.

 

 

There was a little bit of a gap between closing panel and valance on one side so it has ended up slightly indented where I pulled it in for welding so it'll need some filler to tidy up but otherwise this went on pretty easily and looks OK to me.

 

Next job will be fuel and water tank brackets in the boot, filling the drain holes etc. in the floor and removing the slinging brackets.

Edited by alchall, 29 August 2017 - 09:07 AM.

[alchall]

I spent today filling holes in the floor, first job making lots of circular fillers....

 

 

They took some time but they fit nicely in the holes....

 

 

And here's an example of one welded in, I didn't bother photographing them all, it wouldn't be very interesting!

 

 

After grinding it all down there was some pin holes to fill and I had to do a little welding on the inside to fill some small gaps to ensure it was solid, this took some time to complete!

 

I also filled the slinging bracket holes in the sills, this was a little messy but I managed to get it tidy in the end....

 

 

 

Oh and I took some photo's of it while I had it out of the garage now all the panels on the shell are complete, looking like a mini now!

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by alchall, 29 August 2017 - 09:09 AM.

[alchall]

Just a small update this week, fixed the final gutter corner, just needed a small patch either side of the drainage gap welding in, cleaning up and zinc priming....

 

 

I think there's the odd bit of rust on the sides of the gutter that will need tidying up but will do that when I come to stripping the old paint off, hopefully just surface rust!

 

I stripped paint from the inside front of the roof as there was some surface rust here, it was actually much worse and more wide spread than I anticipated so I ended up taking more paint of and have had to get the old wire cup brush on the grinder out. This is how I have left this, it needs some doex gel treatment to clear it all up completely, I think I'll strip all the paint from the inside the roof first though as there could be the odd patch lurking further back too...

 

 

I also removed the slinging brackets from the floor....

 

 

 

Nearly there with the floor now, I also filled the odd pin hole and tidied up a couple of welds in the floor area while I was at this so the floor isn't far off complete now.

 

That is all for this week, doesn't look like much but these small thing will no doubt make the difference in the end.

Edited by alchall, 29 August 2017 - 09:13 AM.

[simpsonsclassics]

Wow this is a sorted shell now! Nice tidy work on the rear valance there. Not long until paint is there?

[alchall]

Wow this is a sorted shell now! Nice tidy work on the rear valance there. Not long until paint is there?

 

Thanks!

 

And yes getting close now, a few bits to tidy up around the shell first and also back to stepping into the unknown as I have doors and boot to re-skin.

[alchall]

Just a small update this week, although it did take a few hours to complete the work!

 

Fitted fuel tank and windscreen washer bottle brackets, this necessitated taking the rear of the car off the jig (including removing the fitting from the boot) and test fitting the tank with the strap a few times as I went along to make sure it all went in place.

 

So after test fitting, and a lot of fettling with reference to the measurements that CBJ805T was good enough to share with me I held it in place with some skin pins, and once again fitted the tank to double check it fit as I wanted....

 

 

 

I didn't manage to garner any measurements from my request on here for the washer bottle bracket position so I used my own judgement for this, I fitted the tail light cluster to to ensure the bottle didn't foul of get obstructed by the cluster once in place, slotted the bottle onto the bracket then shuffled it round to it looked about right. I then marked it out, clamped it in place with skin pins and re-fit the bottle to check that it was how I wanted....

 

 

 

And that little lot was pretty much where all my time went, what came next was pretty straightforward in the main....

 

Brackets welded

 

 

There were a couple of bits needed a second blast to fill a couple of holes, mainly where it was tricky getting the welding torch in but overall not too bad.

 

Then ground down, tidied up and zinc primed with Electrox.

 

 

 

It was a little tricking getting into the far corners to tidy this up but I think it's turned out ok, all that's left to do with the boot now is fit the earth cable nut and seam seal.

 

Edited by alchall, 29 August 2017 - 09:18 AM.

[Cookiez]

Great work blocking all the holes up in the floor

 

Really like what you have done with this one, Good solid Mini.

[simpsonsclassics]

 

Wow this is a sorted shell now! Nice tidy work on the rear valance there. Not long until paint is there?

 

Thanks!

 

And yes getting close now, a few bits to tidy up around the shell first and also back to stepping into the unknown as I have doors and boot to re-skin.

 

I am sure you will be ok you have done wonders with the shell so far..

[alchall]

Done a few bits and bobs over the past couple of weeks....

 

Inside front half of the roof derusted and treated to a coat of Electrox:

 

 

 

The deox gel was left overnight to work it's magic and it didn't need a second go, all rust completely eradicated and only minor pitting left behind.

 

Some seam tiger seal inside the boot and along the join between boot floor and heal board underneath:

 

 

 

 

Made a new piece to hold the negative earth nut next to the battery box, scrapped the first one I made and did a better job this time, primed inside and welded in place with a nice new shiny nut:

 

 

 

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Then on with some more seam sealing, went for some grey stripe brushable seam sealer and got round the underside of the boot floor and all but the very front edge of the main floor pan, I left the front of the floor pan as I'm going to weld some strengthening plates at the subframe mounting points as I am going to solid mount the front subframe, didn't see any point seam sealing until I have done that.

 

 

[url=http://www.alchall.com/albums/Mini/mini-588.jpg]

 

Interestingly I found that grey stripe doesn't like Electrox, particularly if it's fresh, so there's a lesson learned for the next batch of seam sealing.

 

I also painted some sealer on to various places where I'd welded on the boot floor, for example the filled drain holes, just as a belt and braces exercise to be 100% sure it's water tight under there, I thoroughly checked for pin holes and had only 1 that needed filling but better safe than sorry I think.

Edited by alchall, 29 August 2017 - 09:22 AM.

[minimissions]

Everytime I click onto this build its all so clean and tidy, looking great dude love it :)

[alchall]

Everytime I click onto this build its all so clean and tidy, looking great dude love it :)

 

Thanks! I'm trying to get it as good as I possible can despite my lack of experience

[minimissions]

Your defo doing that well :)