313 replies to this topic

[xrocketengineer]

 

Ahhh pepperoni and dried pee, cant whack it

 

Brilliant job going on there

It was more the smell of burnt pizza base...

 

Made me feel quite hungry 

 

Could be worse!

[panky]

Dunno, I've never attended an Italian night at a high security home for the bewildered

[Haygate]

Great work, it's nice to see this project being bf completed.

[JDImini]

Hi Ben

 

more great work as always!

 

Satin black is the way to go I think

 

I'll have a look at new springs, but I know some of the new ones are made of poor quality steel and I had been advised to have the old ones refurbished 

 

Did we use Newtons for the mini trim kit, I'll have a look?

 

I'll look for seats that are specific for a midget

 

cheers

Darren 

[Ben_O]

 

Hi Ben

 

more great work as always!

 

Satin black is the way to go I think

 

I'll have a look at new springs, but I know some of the new ones are made of poor quality steel and I had been advised to have the old ones refurbished 

 

Did we use Newtons for the mini trim kit, I'll have a look?

 

I'll look for seats that are specific for a midget

 

cheers

Darren 

 

we'll stick to the current springs then.

 

I believe we used Newton for the door trims on the Mini.

 

MGB hive do a 12 piece kit which includes door trims but i'm not sure it has everything to replace brown for black.

 

Ill keep looking.

 

Cheers

 

Ben

[Ben_O]

Perhaps here might be good for inspiration at least

 

http://www.sportseat...ts/cat_439.html

 

Moss do the interior kits too but it's not too clear what is included.

Ill get out all of the autumn leaf trim i removed and make a list of what;s needed.I have also made notes of some other parts like weather seals etc

 

Cheers

 

Ben

[Ben_O]

Well, the job I have been dreading came today.

It's not just this car, I don't enjoy it on any....

The end result is well worth the effort though.

 

Time to remove the remains of the bitumen sound deadening. The way I do it which seems to work well is to soak panel cloths in thinners and stick them to the areas to soften the sticky stuff and then scrub it off with a scotchbrite

So I did that

 

 

 

It worked well but took quite a while. I also went round the seams and joins removing the old seam sealer which was also a tar like substance that just smudges and spreads everywhere when you try to remove it.

 

Eventually, I got one side stripped back and ready

 

 

 

 

I also removed the sound deadening/anti drum pads from the foot wells

 

This car has obviously had soggy carpets at some point as there is quite a bit of rust and rust staining on the drivers side

 

 

The passenger side is fine however

 

 

Anyway, I went back to stripping the rear floor on the drivers side which came up equally as well

 

 

 

 

And then stripped the drivers footwell

 

 

I was going to strip the passenger side footwell back but my back started to go so i thought i'd go back to that tomorrow.

 

Instead, I gave some of the repairs a skim of filler

 

 

 

I did the other side too but no pictures yet.

 

More tomorrow

 

Cheers

 

Ben 

[JXC Mini GT]

Excellent work Ben (as always) yet another great restoration.

[Ben_O]

Excellent work Ben (as always) yet another great restoration.

Cheers John.

 

Not long until yours is back now

[slidehammer]

Great work as always Ben

The bits no one ever sees just as good as the bits on display - the sign of a true craftsman

[JDImini]

Great work as always Ben

The bits no one ever sees just as good as the bits on display - the sign of a true craftsman

 I agree, it'll be better than new

[Ben_O]

 

Great work as always Ben

The bits no one ever sees just as good as the bits on display - the sign of a true craftsman

 I agree, it'll be better than new

 

Cheers gents.

 

Do you think you will want anti drum put back Darren?

I would recommend something on the foot wells at least because they do drum quite a bit.

 

I can't really see a need for it on the transmission tunnel though.

Cheers

 

Ben

[JDImini]

Hi Ben

 

yes please for anti drum in foot well but not on the tunnel

 

Thanks

Darren

[Ben_O]

On with more prep today.

 

Here is the other quarter panel finished

 

 

Next up, I needed to finalize the fit and finish of the doors so I refitted the drivers door but this time, I also fitted the catch and striker plate

 

As well as checking the fit again to tweak where necessary, I needed to adjust the profile of the A post to suit as it was quite uneven.

 

Here is the end result and after sorting the A post and giving it a skim of filler

 

 

Next, I bolted on the wing at all mounting points to make sure that there was no distortion anywhere that might cause problems with the fit after paint.

 

 

 

Everything looks good but I am not completely happy with the way the back of the wheel arch sits to the front upper edge of the sill so I shall make adjustments to the mounting bracket there to let it out slightly.

 

 

I want to mock up the whole front end so that I can make sure everything fits nicely so Ill come back to that shortly.

In the mean time, I refitted the passenger side door to make final adjustments to that.

 

This door was never a nice fit so I wanted to do all I could to make gap it up well once again (If it ever was, we all know what BL quality is like....)

 

Not too bad In the end

 

 

I had to make adjustments to the A post this side too so that had a skim to level things off nicely.

 

I then fitted the wing this side to check alignment

 

 

Like the other side, it all fits nicely except the back of the wheel arch to the top front edge of the sill. It's exactly the same as the other side so may be correct but I don't think it looks right so adjustments will be made.

 

To tie everything together, I fitted the front panel. 

 

 

Partly to look at resolving another past issue which just isn't right

 

This

 

 

And this

 

 

The bumper brackets bolt to the chassis legs behind here and a threaded bar comes through the hole for the bumper to bolt to. 

As you can see, the holes have been "adjusted" to make them fit. I have no reason to believe that this has had a replacement front panel at any point so I don't know how historical this is??

 

Anyway, Ill come back to that...

 

I decided to put the bonnet on just to check it all fitted well. BMH have decided to kit the new bonnet out with metric threads in the hinge mounts instead of the Imperial ones so new bolts had to be fitted

 

 

But at least it fits nicely

 

 

 

I really had forgotten how long the nose actually is on these.

 

It's starting to look like a car again now!

 

 

The prep is pretty much complete now. Just some final flatting and feathering to do in a few places and I can get some primer on it.

 

Cheers

 

Ben

[JDImini]

Well done Ben,

 

It's starting to look like BAPs again