41 replies to this topic

[kyle9832]

Not updated this in a while due to school and lots of revision!!

this weekend had nice weather and was the perfect time to do the car

I have finally managed to fabricate the rear seat and have fitted one of the quarter panels today,

a couple of weeks ago I went to collect a safety devices roll cage from a member of the forum! so will be ready to fit as soon as I have replaced the sills.

 

There are still a few rough edges to tidy up on the back seat area but will do that when I fit the lip to the seat and the new side boxes, I have also brought the rear floor so I can cut it off and weld it to the subframe mount as a continuous piece.

 

after cutting the rest of the old panel off ready for fitting.

after doing this I ground down all the surfaces I would be welding to, like below the window and lip on the wheel arch then painted anything that wasn't going to be welded for protection against the rust! so I don't have to do it all again in a few years! haha

 

A test fit clamped in to place, I was surprised how easy it went into position!

 

after welding in, I welded it to the car by lots of plug welds( as I do not have a spot welder) and I seam welded sown the inside of the door frame so it is nice and strong, after this I ground all the welds flat and applied a skim of filler to all the joins and to the seam weld after I had primed it, I will sand the filler flat tomorrow, but for my first ever panel fitting I think it went well!!!

I still have the rear end, other quarter panel and half boot floor and sills to do yet but the holidays are coming up soon so should get a lot done then!

please leave any feedback! and any help or pointers are much appreciated!

[kyle9832]

** posted twice **

Edited by kyle9832, 22 March 2015 - 05:03 PM.

[kyle9832]

after a lot of careful thought and after realising that the "new floor" I had fitted was not good and the welder had just put the new floor on top of the old floor I thought I may aswell put a new one in myself, after reading online I found a rollover jig for the car and thought it would make life a lot easier, as I would need to replace floors, replace boot floor, strip paint and paint the underside so I brought one!

it came flat packed from handling solutions yesterday evening

 

 

as I was replacing the rear floor I thought it best to brace all of it to keep everything square, I picked some metal up yesterday too from local metal merchants and used a old handrail for the cross beam. since the photograph I have also welded box  section between the two parallel pieces and welded to the tunnel.

 

 

car on its jig, very pleased with it!!!!

 

car on its side and nicely balanced and ready to have the floors in!

as always any feedback is GREATLY appreciated and should have some more updates tomorrow as I will finish putting the other side panel on:)

[kyle9832]

been a while since ive updated this but I have got quite a bit done!

so far I have

-fitted left hand quarter panel

-cut out old rear floor on left

-fitted new rear left floor

-repaired floor box section

-fitted half boot floor

 

I started by cutting the rear section of the boot floor out to fit the new half floor repair panel.

 

once the floor was clamped in place, I turned the car over and put in a few tack welds to hold it.

 

as it is not a genuine panel it took a bit of fettling to get it to fit 100% but fits well now!

 

Next on the list was to take the rotten oversills off and replace the front and rear floor along with it, I started by cutting the sill off to see what was underneath...

 

Then I started to cut the floor out...

 

Just to show how many times the car has been incorrectly repaired I took a picture of the inner sill that I took off, which has FOUR layers to it!

 

after cutting all the metal out I put the floor in for a test fit and it fit perfectly!

 

but before I could weld the floor in the rotten box section needed replacing and a new end putting on it.

 

 

 

captive nut in place for seat.

 

then I had to make a paper template for the end of the box section and then transfer that pattern to sheet metal.

 

 

Then once it was hit to shape it could be welded to the end of the box section.

 

 

And a lick of paint....

 

then I tack welded the floor into place with it clamped and then seam welded underneath.

 

 

 

all that is left to do now it to put in a new rear right wheel arch and the other three floor panels to go on, then it will be ready for paint!

Please ask any questions and leave any feedback!!!!

[kyle9832]

Havnt updated this in a while due to lots of revision as I am in the middle of my final exams at school, I have mostly been welding which I have found is a very Long process!, I have also been held up as some of the panels I arrived got delayed so havnt been able to do as much as I would have liked!.

After I had put the rear floor in place, I cut out the old front floor and lined the floors up and welded them together.

 

After welding them up, I cut my sills down to size (because I brought oversills by accident  ) but they seem ok now I have cut them down, and then welded the sill on to the floor and doorstep and rear quarter lip.

I just used several plug welds and then sanded down the weld after and it looks brilliant!

I also installed a new jacking point as the old one was rotten.

 

 

Once the sill was on I could start joining the floors to the centre tunnel which I had to cut quite far back as it had three layers of floor joined to it which brought the height of the floors quite far up the tunnel. to join them I just cut a long strip of metal and seam welded it to both the tunnel and floor so it is very strong.

 

 

I will not sand down the seam weld as it will be covered by carpet anyway and will be a lot stronger if I leave the weld how it is.

 

I then did the same with the front floor and rebuilt the toe-board by hand from sheet metal and turned out very well, I also reinforced it so It will be stronger when I install the solid subframe mounts.

 

 

 

Then I started to hack away at the other side! (doing one side was bad enough! I had forgot about the other side! haha)

 

Then I positioned the rear floor into place and welded that in.

 

And like the other side I had to make another box section repair end which took longer than I would have liked it to! (4 attempts!!)

 

then I could join the rear floor to the boxsection and finally install the front floor! which I did today!

 

 

All I have left to do now is to join the drivers side floors to the centre tunnel and replace the rear drivers wheel arch, then it can come off the rollover jig ready for that to be sold on and I can put the new rear panel on! after that shes ready to be prepped for paint! Not long now!

As always any feedback and comments are all good!:) thanks for viewing!

[StefanPieter]

Moving forward!!

 

Well Done!

[kyle9832]

After many delays and lots of work I have finally got enough done to give a decent update on this thread.

 

The first thing I did was to weld the other sill on, this sill fitted perfectly and required no adjustment. unlike the other one!

 

After welding the sill I cut away the old wheel arch which was more trouble to repair than getting a new one...

 

 

then positioning the new wheel arch and welding in.

 

once all the floor was complete I was able to start painting it, I used por-15 to paint the metal and then hammerite underseal to finish it off.

 

The floor after it was painted, I saved the boot floor until I had drilled the holes for the subframe.

 

 

I then test fitted the new subframe and measured it to make sure it all lined up correctly to the floor and body.

 

 

the floor all painted and undersealed, shame I wont be able to see it when its on the ground!

 

 

after painting I started to repair the rust behind the shock towers at the front then undersealed the wheel arch like the rest of the floor.

 

 

once all the welding was done that I could on the jig, me with the help of both my granddads we put the subframe together on the jig then unbolted it from the stand and put it on the ground,

 

 

then it was time for the front subframe and steering rack, even had my nan involved haha!

 

 

once it was on the ground I put new shocks on all round, it also has new cones all round and hi-los

 

once it was on its wheels it looks brilliant! even with the old paintwork, I will be changine the wheels for some 12x6 wheels so will be doing a disc conversion sometime this month...

 

 

now it is off the jig I will weld on the new rear panel tomorrow along with the rear valance, then it can be prepared for paint!

Edited by kyle9832, 02 August 2015 - 10:00 PM.

[mini stephen]

Lookin good lad

[kyle9832]

Lookin good lad

ahh cheers mate:) took a while! as you know!:)

[kyle9832]

this is the first update to this thread for a while as a lot has happened since the last update, i now have a full time apprenticeship training to be a level 3 light and heavy vehicle mechanic, and am learning to drive, the plan was to have the mini to learn to drive and as a first car but not all went to plan as i found money doesnt grow on trees! haha , for the time being i picked up a small vw polo for 250 quid to get some experience on the road and until the mini is done!, i have this week off work so expect lots of updates this week but for the time being i will update you on the changes since last time!

 

so once the mini was back on its wheels i began sanding it down and primered it all and got it mostly prepared for the spray shop, i did everything to try and keep costs down so priming and prepping it myself got me a decent 2k respray for 400 quid! 

Mini in primer on night before its trip to the spray shop with its new wheels as i had to put them on as i had installed my disc conversion.... (eeeek) , ( around 10th december)-

 

Then the waiting began! it spent the whole of christmas at the spray shop..... AND THE WHOLE OF JANUARY!!! it turns out cheap resprays do have their drawbacks! but it was worth it in the end because it is absolutly stunning, the pictures dont do it justice but are the only ones i have at the moment!

 

 

 

 

I got the car back on febuary the 6th and have been trying to get as much done on a very limited budget as i could, i have had the wheel arches sprayed the same gloss black as the roof( pictures to come) and have brought lots of parts to be put on...

 

last week i made a short start on the brake lines and have today completed them.( pictures tomorrow)-

 

i fitted the headlining, again not a brilliant quality picture and makes the headlining look distorted but is acctually a very nice fit! -

 

and also last week have installed all of the windows ( only have a pic of the windscreen at the moment)

 

 

so after a long break it is really starting to go together nicely, i start building my engine tomorrow or later this week and will try and get more pics up on the thread as soon as i can! 

please leave feedback and any comments!

cheers:)

[kyle9832]

After a full on week of work on the 'ol mini , its starting to go together great, after my week off work i managed to build the engine an gearbox, clean up and paint a few parts, finish the brake system and fit discs and pads and bleed, then i fitted the engine by the end of the week (today)!

 

at the start of the week i finished off the start i made on the brake lines, i have now just got to straighten the copper pipe and install some brake line clips...

 

next is just a picture of the back of the car with the windows installed, didnt upload one last time...

 

then i got the pedal box in so i was able to bleed the system.

 

I didnt take many pictures of building the engine as honestly i forgot all about taking pictures whilst i was building the engine but i remebered to take a few! 

Engine all timed up with the vernier timimg chain...

 

Oil pump on and valve clearences set...

 

Gearbox and diff installed, diff now has a minispares x pin diff installed.

 

 

And the rest of the bits on!

 

 

then today was the day the engine finally went back in the car! a whole 16 months later!

Before!

 

 

after!

 

 

and a few more! think it looks brilliant!

 

 

Then i got the intake and exhaust bolted on

 

Then i finally got the selector in and made sure it selected all the gears!

 

thats it for now just waiting on parts to carry on now, will keep thread updated as often as i can!

[kyle9832]

edit** deleate ***

Edited by kyle9832, 13 March 2016 - 08:47 PM.