691 replies to this topic

[alchall]

Small but important update today, I've now completed the bulkhead repairs inside and out with the exception of half of the plug welds where the new dash tray meets the bulkhead, I need my new skin pins to arrive to complete these but I can do this at my leisure.

 

Firstly the new and final upper bulkhead patches were completed.....

 mini-196.jpg   53.07K   24 downloads

 

I have left the welds very slightly proud both inside and out as I didn't want to go back a step and thin the metal around them, I may go back at some point and tidy up with a little filler but they aren't too visible anyway with the primer in place as you can probably see from the pictures below.

 

Dash tray installed....

 mini-197.jpg   72.3K   36 downloads

 

Just some pesky plug welds in the middle of each side section to complete the job, tricky to get to these things! think I should have tackled them from outside rather than in as I did for those in the centre section, but too late now.

 

Bonnet brackets re-attached, passenger side upright welded back in place and all cleaned up and painted....

 mini-198.jpg   66.62K   26 downloads  mini-199.jpg   62.47K   22 downloads  mini-200.jpg   69.19K   18 downloads

 

Hopefully the bonnet brackets are in the right place and my measuring was up to scratch!

 

All now ready for the inner wing fitment which shall begin next Sunday all being well!

[markyB]

Great work,
Loving your progress, wish I had half your motivation !!

[alchall]

Thanks MarkyB! it's either motivation or obsession, I know what my girlfriend calls it 

[Hendred]

You welders looking nicely used now!

[alchall]

You welders looking nicely used now!

 

You should see my grinder, by which of course I refer to a power tool!

[Hendred]

 

You welders looking nicely used now!

 

You should see my grinder, by which of course I refer to a power tool!

 

ha ha

[alchall]

Well I've used a couple of spare hours over the past couple of evenings followed by a couple of hours this afternoon to get busy clamping up all of the new front end panels, I installed the front subframe to enable me to do this properly with the front panel in the correct position.

 

I'm pretty pleased with how it's come together, there's a bit of an issue which actually is only there I think because I can't get clamps in all the necessary places and all the panels on together (more of that to follow).

 

So here's it is all looking a lot like a car again (more importantly, like a mini!)....

 mini-202.jpg   76.55K   32 downloads

 

The gaps to the front panel look pretty much spot on to me, some minor fettling and they will be perfect, no point doing that now though....

 mini-201.jpg   63.8K   20 downloads  mini-203.jpg   65.6K   15 downloads

 

Alignment of wing to apex panel in the wheel arch looks good too....

 mini-204.jpg   46.4K   24 downloads  mini-207.jpg   52.11K   17 downloads

 

Scuttle gaps not perfect but the inner wing will pull over a few mm and resolve this once welded up, this is part of the problem with clamping all the panels in that I can't pull the inner wing to tight to the bulkhead and clamp up the outer wings at the same time, so I think this will come good (in fact these gaps were poor on the car as it started, so I am expecting this to be better that it was!)....

 mini-205.jpg   50.21K   17 downloads  mini-208.jpg   44.51K   17 downloads

 

From inside (you can't really see it but there is a gap between inner wing and bulkhead as I described above on both sides, passenger side slightly worse)....

 mini-210.jpg   60.63K   18 downloads  mini-211.jpg   60.26K   18 downloads

 

Lastly the only bit of any concern is how the A post is coming together, again I think this is much to do with not being able to clamp everything up perfectly, I can certainly get it better than this by fully clamping the inner wing and not installing the outer wing, I just hope that the outer wing and front panel will come together just as well with the inner wing welded into the "correct" position....

 mini-213.jpg   28.51K   16 downloads  mini-214.jpg   31.65K   17 downloads

 

Unfortunately I did manage to drop the driver side wing and it's now got a minor dent in it to be fixed, bit of a shame but should be easily resolved.

[Hendred]

Are you working on the Mini over the weekend?

[alchall]

Should get a few hours in on Sunday, hope I can make some good progress with the inner wing installations!

[Hendred]

Great look forward to the next update.

[johnR]

Doing well, especially for a first time welder!

The BMW head conversion looks very neat and seems to be a good way to get more power.  Do you know what the cost is?

John

[alchall]

Doing well, especially for a first time welder!

The BMW head conversion looks very neat and seems to be a good way to get more power.  Do you know what the cost is?

John

Thanks!

 

It ain't cheap; SC do a package that includes the head, throttle bodies, ECU, etc. plus machining of the head, block and pistons for about £3K plus VAT for the 16v version. You have to assemble it yourself, which I'm fine with. They also do packages that exclude the machining so you can do it yourself or get somebody local to do it or at the other end of the scale fully built engines.

 

I've still not decided if this is the route I want to take or not yet.

[alchall]

Well today I was mostly drilling holes!

 

 mini-216.jpg   58.75K   17 downloads  mini-219.jpg   62.5K   8 downloads

 

All the holes now drilled, cleaned up and covered with weld through zinc primer ready to be installed, I applied some etch prime and a couple of coats of top coat to the A post components that are attached to the panel and the section that will be inside the cross member too to add some protection.

 

I also painted the inside of the A posts on the car and drilled many more holes here too....

 

 mini-215.jpg   35.89K   16 downloads  mini-217.jpg   41.37K   10 downloads

 

I also painted inside the cross member at each end....

 

 mini-220.jpg   51.53K   22 downloads  mini-221.jpg   44.39K   10 downloads

 

So now I'm all ready to install the inner wings and hopefully these layers of paint will help to prevent (or at least postpone as long as possible) future rust!

 

And while I was doing this I also did a couple of extra finishing touches to the gear linkage, firstly I painted the outside of the lid (for want of a better name for this part) with Eastwood golden CAD, it looks much better in real life!...

 

 mini-222.jpg   103.46K   9 downloads

 

And installed what I think is now the correct sleeve bearing held in place with loctite....

 

 mini-223.jpg   27K   12 downloads

 

That's it for today, what a long job all that drilling, de-burring, and painting was!

[Hendred]

It's those jobs that take the time, welding is much less time than people think its the prep, which you are clearly doing properly

[alchall]

I'm still waiting for some skin pins to arrive so haven't welded those inner wings on yet, however, I did use saturday to progress with completing my gear linkage and cleaing up the windscreen surround and A posts....

 

So here's the complete gear linkage, I am trying to source new screws for the under side cover but no luck as yet, two missing as you can see as I've been carting them round with me to try and find some, but otherwise I have the new sleeve bearing installed, all re-assembled, another couple of coats of Aluma Blast paint as I damaged it taking it apart and putting it all back together again (but, it's pretty tough stuff and takes quite a beating before damage takes hold), and the restored and painted bracket and new cotton real bushes are all in place....

 

 mini-235.JPG   52.81K   13 downloads  mini-236.jpg   83.3K   14 downloads

 

Very happy with this now, it all operates very smoothly without lots of slack and play, result, now it's safely tucked away for another day.

 

Next job, I did as much as I could with a long wire brush, deox gel and a power hose to remove as much rust and crud as I could from inside the box sections at each side of the windscreen surrounds, once dry I then gave it 3 coats of internal frame coating paint...

 

 mini-230.jpg   42.91K   45 downloads

 

This looks to be very good, it's very runny and seeps into all the gaps, it's supposed to encapsulate and prevent rust spreading so hopefully this will be just the trick, I ran the paint bottom to top and top to bottom to get good coverage, once the scuttle is in place I'll give it another blast from the top to cover up the insides of the welds. I'll also be using this in other box sections as it comes together for peace of mind. Here's how it looks.....

 

 mini-229.JPG   44.72K   46 downloads

Not sure why that's come out sideways.

 

Next up giving my new filament brushes a really good trial, stripped all the paint from the windscreen surround on the outside and all around the A pillars at either side of the screen left and right (I didn't do along the top on the inside, this is for another day. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised with what I found under here, was expecting a nightmare...

 

 mini-225.jpg   61.99K   13 downloads

 

Right hand side very clean....

 

 mini-227.jpg   32.24K   6 downloads

 

Except the top corner which is going to need a small repair to the gutter, but nothing too horrendous and it doesn't appear to have spread too far....

 

 mini-226.jpg   75.36K   19 downloads

 

Left had side did have some rust, took a couple of doses of Deox gel and some wire brushing to get rid of it, it is pitted but nothing that needs repairing....

 

 mini-228.jpg   39.52K   12 downloads

 

All then cleaned up and given a coat of electrox....

 

 mini-234.jpg   66K   7 downloads

 

Oh I forgot, I did do some in fill sections in the bottom corners, and a small seam section that needed replacing on the passenger side so the welder has had some use, the corners will need a trim to the shape of the screen but I figured I would do that when the scuttle goes on....

 

 mini-232.JPG   45.2K   9 downloads  mini-233.JPG   43.28K   7 downloads

 

Now, for those of you that wonder (like I was) how long a filament brush will last, here's a clue....

 

 mini-231.jpg   63.59K   13 downloads

 

There's two sets of paint on this car as it was sprayed a different colour to the original, and I have had to get into tricky sections here so it probably would last a bit longer on a large panel with only one lot of normal layers of paint.