8 replies to this topic

[Rusty Mike]

Hi, ive pretty much finished welding the mini, but I need to re-skin the doors. On chatting with a friend, they recommenced Panel bond rather than welding. I know a lot of new cars use this method, I wondered if anyone  had used it on their Mini.  

[stuart bowes]

there's very little welding required to reskin the door, a tiny bit at the top where it meets the window tracks, the rest is just a folded over edge like fitting an A panel.  you can add a couple of plug welds to the inside of the edges just to stop it shifting over time 

 

there's a bunch of youtube videos doing it I would have a look at those first 

Edited by stuart bowes, 03 June 2023 - 06:26 PM.

[Homersimpson]

My experience of reskining doors (not just on minis), is to avoid using anytjhing in the edges as it can make it hard to get it flat and if your have to weld the edges to make up the gap i've found some products actually seem to start corrosion. 

 

In future for me its nothing in the gaps but weld through primer.

[stuart bowes]

At the bottom edge I'm going to paint on underseal to the inside edges before folding like I did with the a panel, let the waxoyl content help to protect it

 

if folded straight away it'll 'squelch' out of the seam rather than being an dry lumpy obstacle and you can just tidy up later 

Edited by stuart bowes, 11 June 2023 - 04:33 PM.

[Rusty Mike]

thanks for the advise

[sonikk4]

I'll add my tuppence in on this.

 

Mini skins especially where they attach at the window frame and top edge of the carcass are nornally welded. So a big spot weld or plug weld on the window frame then a section of seam welding at each end on the carcass. This area does spring so quite a bit of load. 

 

The rest of the skin has a couple of spot welds after you have folded the lip around to prevent any movement.

 

Now can you just bond this section, why not i cannot see any reason why it cannot be done. Internally on the skin i always paint before hand, so epoxy primer then top coat. The same applies to the carcass as well. Any areas that will need welding i use a splash of weld through zinc rich primer. Yes you will get some localised damage to any paint applied but with the door being off the car you can move it around to force some additional paint into the affected area. The same applies when you come to add in some waxoyl based product of your choice.

 

Now as to the folded edges. Some leave them as they are afterwards with just a coat of paint. My personal preference here is to use Aircraft sealant which is a corriosn resistant type to very carefully seal all of the folded edges before paint. You can see this on Project Paddy in my signature.I spend a lot of time carefully masking to make the sealed edge as small as possible. This can be seen on all of the car.

 

So back to panel bond. For a door skin i dont see any real issues with this at all, but just remember the top of the skin where it meets the window frame is under quite a bit of strain and its a very small area to bond, hence why i would always weld it there.

 

Panel bond anywhere elseon the car is not adviseable due to the fact the car was never designed to be glued together but welded. This could have potential ramifications in the case of any accident. yes i know modern adhesives are incredibly strong, we use them on our composite fleet of Aircraft, however even then there are still rivets and mechanical locking bolts in certain areas to add additional strength where required.

[MikeRotherham]

Don't know if this helps.

 

Below is a video of how BMH construct a door for the classic mini.

 

At approx 1.14 minutes they apply an adhesive before adding the skin to the frame.

 

I would imagine this is a later enhancement from the original.

[68+86auto]

Don't know if this helps.

 

Below is a video of how BMH construct a door for the classic mini.

 

At approx 1.14 minutes they apply an adhesive before adding the skin to the frame.

 

I would imagine this is a later enhancement from the original.

That is how I would do it. It will be seam sealer, some of them (Teroson) specifically state they can be spot welded through. This creates a good seal which stops moisture getting into the seam, 3M also promote doing this but I couldn't find their seam sealer locally.

 

I do not recommend using panel bond especially on a mini, it would also be the most expensive way to replace the door skin.

[Tomm]

I found that door skin video far more interesting than I would have imagined. Thanks for sharing.