115 replies to this topic

[Gilles1000]

New small welding update!

 

I had some hours in the shed this weekend which I spent on improving my welding skills.

 

Last time I fabricated my repairs parts for the front of the door step. Had to modify them a little as I didn't notice the front is going a little narrower as on the whole length of the sill...

Put the last fold flat, folded it again so that is fits the car nicely.

 

 

Then I cut the old door step, put the repair in place, welded and ground it down. Very pleased with the repair!!

 

 

Next place was the front inner wing. Same job here. I exercised a little on welding pitted areas as I was always blowing holes when the metal is too thin due to rust. My solution to this is to put a weld on a "heal" area to have a base weld, and from there go on with small welds all around in order to weld up the rusted area.

 

 

And as this part was badly rusted (much pitting and obvoius big rust area on the bottom) I decided to cut it and replace it with new fresh metal.

Unfortunately I couldn't manage to weld it up, as I still have to work a little on the heel board before finishing that (and I ran out of time...)

 

 

Another job I did last week was to dismantle the center gauge to clean it.

Went from this

 

 

to that point plus removing the chrome trim.

 

 

The speedometer is a little rusted at the bottom in the gauge but I am not sure whether I dismantle it to take care of it. It's not that obvious once assembled in the car I think.

 

Pretty happy this time with the progress!!

 

Cheers

[sonscar]

Looking good,Next time look for any patches required near to each other and try to replace then in one patch,you may find it easier.Steve..

[Gilles1000]

Thank you for your comments sonscar,

 

this is something I will definitely do, on the front valance I have some holes near to other ones, which I will repair using a bigger patch. But also smaller holes where I think I will use this technique.

 

As you can see I cut this test area away which I am replacing by a much bigger patch;)

I am doing here two repairs as on the repair panel I have it seems to be a repair panel you can change without removing the A-panel. I had to change the corner behind its fold which was quite rusty on the lower sid and wanted to keep the lower edge for reference and as the shape is slightly different on the repair.

 

Cheers

Gilles

[Gilles1000]

A bit of progress these days.

 

I had the speedometer which was a little bit rusted in the inside, and much worse, I saw a thin metal flap moving freely in it. Time to disassemble it...

 

 

So I took my screwdrivers, thin pliers, knives and bend the crimpings on the chrome bezel back.

So said, so done. 

 

Sanded the black lampshade, painted it black satin and now it looks much better. 

The part moving around was the small spring avoiding the odometer to run backwards., so put it into its right place again.

The seal between the chrome bezel and the glass was hard and dry and fell into dust by opening the tacho, so I took my first trial by a friend to print it in 3d with some flexible plastic. Think it will do the trick.

It's much harder than the original which i morre like a foam, but as we printed it only partially meshed it's a bit flexible and looks fine.

 

 

Time to clean everything without further dismantling and to rebuild everything

 

 

Unfortunately I do not have any picture of the assembled speedo...

 

 

On the other hand I cleaned some interior plastic parts and gave them a second life with a plastic & trim restorer. No pictures there...

 

 

On the weekend I had some time to work on the body and made further adjustments on the lower inner wing, clamped it into place:

 

 

And tacked it on the original metal:

 

 

Here a view from the inside with the repaired toe board:

 

 

Unfortunately by hammering the weld to put it in shape again, I think I went too strong on the panel and now it is gone soft. May have to try quenching it in a neaby future...

 

Next time I will start the same job on the left side. Remove front wing and A-panel, repair the door step corner behind the A-panel, put the repair panel on the lower wing and clamp it onto the new toe-board repair.

That will likely last more than a weekend...

 

[mercenary62]

looking good your making steady progress there

[Bdshim]

nice job on the repairs

[Gilles1000]

Thank you both for the comments.

 

With this repair I felt much more confident and went (a little) faster.

The penetration was very good on the tack welds, I almost did not need to grind down.

Done that until I had only 2cm slots between the tacks and then I did seam welds, here I need to exercise a bit as the penetration was not that good. But I think I was too fast while welding, I will have to put more attention to that newt time. 

 

But in overall I'm very happy about that and the fact that this side is coming to an end!

[Gilles1000]

Hello all,

hope you are all well.

 

Spent last week doing home office, my company decided to send us all back home and work from there.

So, as I was in front of my desk, I took my gauges and dismantled them.

 

 

 

As you can see on the corners of the gauges the paint has stripped away, so I decided to repaint them. I put some tape for bodywork to protect the writing, this ended up in stripping more paint off. Gutted!! It seems the paint doesn't hold very well on the brass plate!!

 

Took a small brush and painted these areas, but it doesn't look good (the picture shows it worse than it is).

 

 

In the worst case I will have to find another gauge. Or paint the complete surface so that it has only one shade. I also know they can be found new.

 

On the week-end I went further on the bodywork.

Seems that the left wing got some damage as well at some point. Loads of scratches on the outside, and a strange shape of the welding surface on the inside...

 

 

So this went off, and time to investigate how the inner wing looks like:

 

 

Look what I found! Rust!

This will be an interesting repair to do...

 

On the good side, there is minor damage on the closing panel

 

I already started to adapt the door step repair I made as I didn't see at the beginning that the folds are not parallel behind the A-panel. No picture there but will come.

 

I'm staying in Alsace this week (and maybe more, let's see how the pandemia goes on, at the moment there is a chance to go into total confinement), so hopefully I will be able to work a bit on the car...

 

Cheers and stay healthy,

Gilles

 

 

[pete l]

Watch Macron tonight, I reckon we'll be in lock-down. I had a message from someone earlier, they saw army tanks on the road.

[Gilles1000]

I will watch with interest M. Macron tonight.

 

But I'm staying at home, the shed is on the same property (of my father) as the house and not 10m away. They won't forbid to stay and move on your property. If I spend my time knitting or welding the risk is the same (ok I may burn myself and may have to go to the hospital, where they will send me back home as they have other priorities; double gloves will secure that). 

Chatting with neighbours maybe.

 

The goal of this all is to avoid having contact with people (like nearly all people from Paris or Strasbourg did on last sunny Sunday). They should have avoided it.

I read somewhere that at the moment the spreading of the virus is by 2,5. That means that each persons gives the virus to 2,5 others. We have to go to less than 1 to overcome the disease. Avoiding people will help. Avoiding my Mini not.

Ok, maybe the neighbour will come and shout at me because I was too loud...

 

Cheers

Stay healthy ;)

[DeadSquare]

If only, in old cars, corona was fatal to tin worm.

[Gilles1000]

If only, in old cars, corona was fatal to tin worm.

 

Hahaha, that's right!

The issue beeing, once the virus is there, the tin worm has already done its job...

I can say may car is nearly rust-free, but the tin worm has already transformed my car in a swis cheese ;)

 

By the way, I still can do home office and go in the shed, so there is progress to come!

[Gilles1000]

New welding update!

 

as I am working at my dad's home, I can work on my Mini on the evening ;)

 

Last time I was there:

 

Made a repair to fit:

 

Welded in:

 

Yesterday I started another interesting repair (the car is not that much rusted, but then in awkwards corners).

I decided to go on all the repairs to prepare the new floor.

 

Be warned, Rocket Science to come!!

 

This was the repair I focused on, sorry no picture yet after acid bath:

 

The repair panel I ordered, but decided not to use as I only need the corners:

 

First try to do the fold. Strong metal part in the vice, with a small step to build the fold. Then hammered it. Here a picture of a metal sample to exercise and check the height of the step:

 

Here comes the interesting brainstorming ;). Doing the round part... First idea was to do some cut, bend these flaps, weld and dress them. But hey, maybe I can do it in one step? Where can I find a suitable die?

 

Found!! Glad my father has a big shed with loads of parts (and scrap parts)

 

And here is the final repair patch ;)

 

Cutting and welding to come.

 

Cheers

 

 

[Gilles1000]

Had another go on the car over the weekend ;)

Saturday was rainy, I went on adjusting the repair patch from last post on the lower B-pillar, partially welded now. Forgot to do pictures but I will do once done.

 

I went a little bit further preparing the next repair on the front part of the rear wing. For this I removed the closing panel between the rear wheel well and the companion bin:

 

 

And made a new patch. Another rocket science episode. Guess how ;)

 

 

I took other scrap parts I have found laying around, you will recognize them fore sure. Clamped them together with the new metal, and took it into the shape I needed by hammering it, and with a metal saw and two cuts.

 

 

Then I adjusted it in place and clamped it with magnets.

 

 

 

Now I have a welding marathon to do... Will be started as soon as the weather is a little bit better (cold and windy at the time, I will need to talk to my father about the other cars parked in the shed. Sparks and weld projections... blablabla... Put them outside in the morning, weld marathon, and park them inside at the end of the day)

 

Regards,

Gilles

[Gilles1000]

Update time!

 

I have finished the bottom repair of the B-pillar, I still have to do the 2 spot welds to tighten the door step and the rear quarter.

 

 

The inside is not perfect, but it's solid. Could look better, but I do not really feel the need of tidying it up.

 

 

Rear quarter is nearly finished too:

 

 

Yes I am using a gutter bracket for my bodywork ;). Copper one, it can not be welded on steel, very good to close up holes and the thin part is practical to slide in tight places!

 

From the inside:

 

 

 

Now I am coming back to the front inner wing. I have a question there. How does the corner fit on the door step? I have no idea as everything was rotten. I've done the other side, there is a 3mm gap all around.

This side looks like this at the moment (I have some metal to cut, but I prefer to ask before doing it)

 

This is a view from the wheel well, the hole on the top is the lowest door hinge hole.

 

Here I have no gap between the corner and the doorstep:

 

From the top, inside, where the hinges are mounted:

 

Does this shape seem OK for you? I know I have to fold the A-panel later on.

 

Thanks,

Gilles