141 replies to this topic

[dave21478]

Not much done today....
Had a good tidy up f the area. The spaghetti of cables from the welder, 3 grinders and a drill was getting on my tits, plus all the rubbish and off-cuts on the floor was making things a little dangerous.
I must have swept up at least a kilo of steel filings, rusty shards and wee off-cuts of steel!

Once done, I flipped the van back the right way up. The front still looks a little sorry - but its only surface rust realy, the wings, front panel and scuttle are pretty solid....

I need to decide what to do about the borted de-seaming effort by a previous owner. The front bumper lip, one a-pillar and half of the other pillar have been roughly done. I need to decide to either smooth it off and finish it properly, or re-weld a lip to take the seam covers. Frankly, Im not a fan o deseamed minis, but I will postpone this decision for a while. It all depends how much work is involved either way.

Anyway, what does make me feel better is it now has a solid floor...


And a solid rear end...



There are a few welds to dress and a little tidying at the rear, but its pretty much done and ready for paint prep.

[ballbag]

this is a great thread, nice to see some one take on a big project but doing there best to keep the build at a respectable cost. your metal working skills are excellent.

i have a van myself i started and you have give me the buzz to get on with it, thanks for that

steve

[vtec_miniestate]

Looking good!

[dave21478]

Again, not much done today. Got a lot to do on the farm just now so the mini isnt getting the time I would like to spend on it.

But....I got a petrol tank today. This is the last van-specific part that I was missing. One cropped up on a local-ish mini forum so I sent a cheque and it arrived today. The post lady was less than impressed though, as despite being an old tank and well wrapped, it reeked of petrol! Its got some surface rust which will clean up, but more worryingly, the float mechanism for the sender is seized, and there is some rust inside the tank. I considered the method of strapping it to a cement mixer with some gravel in it and letting it turn for an hour or two to clean up the inside, but it appears to have a lot of baffles and very small holes between the sections, so this wont be too effective. Im considering cutting the top off the tank to get at the inside to clean it up and re-weld, but I will leave that decision for a while.

Also, I knocked up some high-lift trestles to sit the shell on, to give me a comfortable working height for sorting the floors, door steps, a-panels and front etc....

smile...


I have re-done 75% of the front floor joint that I had been unhappy with, but like a boner, forgot to take photos. Anyway, its just some chunky welding, nothing special.
I also started to cut off one of the a-panels....

I wont go any further till the new ones arrive and I see whats what.


In other news, my lawnmower breeding program seems to be a success. These specimens are almost ready to be released into the wild...

[jackminivan]

love the floor idea! easyier then replacing sills n floors? also any problems keeping the shell good n straight? great work mate

[dave21478]

Its a lot more work to cut up the old shell and end up with a clean useable floor, especially having to extend it for the van, but it saves buying the right panels. In UK thats probably over £100 worth of panels I have saved, but here in France mini panels cost twice as much as UK, so its a significant saving.
Welding the floor in is no different really to replacing panels the conventional way. M-machine sell a brand new assembled floor including inner sills just like what I made up, which is ideal if you have very rotten floors, it saves patching all the usual repair panels together.
The shell stays straight enough. it NEEDS bracing across the door apertures, but when its upside down like mine was, it keeps its shape, and the floor is then placed in which pulls it all square again if it has moved any. A few basic measurements before welding to confirm, and its fine.

[shough]

So Impressive thats all I need to say!!!!!

Keep it up...

[Driftwood]

Top Job mate!
Just about finished the bodywork on my van, engine bay and front subby to go, have taken pix all the way through but maybe I should post the project up here. There's nothing like positive feedback to keep the enthusiasm up. How you get by in such a small workshop is a true wonder.
Keep up the good work.

[MEhinger]

Thanks for the thread and the great pictures. I am doing my van as well and it in a shape like yours was. Although I have cobbled it together from junk a number of times over the last 35 years, I am finally putting nice new parts in place. One place i was in worse shape was that my bed floor was trash. Even the cross supports were almost rotted away. So I even have a new bed floor. But that leads to another fitting concrn. The cobble jobs over the years which included grafting a donor car front on at some point raise some concerns during fitting and I'm just not comfortable with all my measurements yet. I just found your thread and it gives me confidence.

[dave21478]

Thanks for the support everyone!

Just dragging this up from the depths, but have little to report.

Welding progress has stopped due to running out of MIG wire.
If I lived in a proper country, Id go to the motor factors and get another reel, but this is southern france, and things don't work like that. For starters almost NO-ONE uses mig at home for amateur use, its all arc welders here, so welding rods are all thats stocked by diy-shops, motor factors etc etc.
My nearest welding supplies shop is an hour and a halfs drive away, and they only stock stuff for industrial MIG unts - ie 15kg rolls of 1mm wire is the smallest they carry

I have ordered a couple of 5kg rolls of 0.6mm from an online supplier, but French mail order sucks balls universally. I'm not expecting it to arrive any time soon.

Mojo = low, and dropping


On the plus-side, I have the new panels I need, inner and outer a-panels for both sides and a door step section arrived the other day. I ordered them from M-Machine in england, as even with international postage, it worked out almost half the price of buying them here plus I got them quicker than I would have here I also recently went to a mini clubs show and picked up a new chrome front bumper and a set of hi-lo`s for a reasonable price. Note - not a "good" price, but reasonable, which is the best I can expect here.

Modifying or restoring cars and living in southern france just don't mix well at all. Unless you are rich.

[dave21478]

The welding wire still hasnt turned up so I decided to have a proper look at the petrol tank I got a while back.
Yesterday I dumped it into my electrolysis tank (anyone not using electrolysis for rust removal needs to get with the program....its ace ).
I fished it out this morning to find a nice clean surface, but whilst holding the tank with a bit of water in it, I was getting wet feet.....
The bottom of the tank has the water retention properties of a tea-bag. Its perforated to buggery with wee pinholes due to rust.
Seriouslynothappy.
The chap I bought it off reckoned it was in good condition and had been fine until he removed it from a car he broke and stored it. He said it had light surface rust that would come off no problem. Either he is telling porkies or he stored it years back and its rusted through since then.



So...what to do? I considered plugging the holes with the mig (when the wire arrives) but some prodding with a screwdriver showed the whole bottom of the tank to be seriously thin in places, so welding would lead to big holes and lots of frustration. I decided to chop the bottom of the tank off, and will weld in a new section later....


even the dog isn't impressed....


So thats all folks. I have chucked it back in my electrolysis thing to clean out the inside, and I am now sulking.



I hve just put a thread up in General Mini Chat detailing the electrolysis stuff if anyone is interested.

Edited by dave21478, 05 October 2008 - 04:10 PM.

[minivanman]

Bloody hell, thats some serious work! Top marks to that man Wish I'd gone for putting new floors and sills on mine now, but you live and learn I suppose...

[dave21478]

Well, another two months *Drunk or yellow human water* away with no progress This thing was supposed to be finished by Xmas, but thats never going to happen now

Anyway, a few days ago I bagged a pair of new doors. They arent great condition-wise, but they are much much better than the originals which were literally falling to bits. The frames are solid on the new ones, and there is just a little rubbing down and filling to do on the skins, then swap over handles etc etc.

Today, I finished off the left side footwell, then replaced the a-panel. Vans are the same as mkI minis - they have inner and outer panels fitted one ontop of the other. I was a little worried, since the van has had the entire floor chopped out,its been on its roof and sides, and generally pulled about, so I had doubts as to whether I had braced the shell well enough and maybe the doors wouldnt fit. As it happens its all good - took the last brace out of the left hand side and then fitted the a-panel with nuts n bolts. it seemed good, so I welded it in, and hung the door properl, and it fits really well!

2 rubbish phone pics - I wanted to continue, but it was getting dark. I am working by a crappy wee inspection lamp, so need to sort something out if I hope to advance this winter. Dark at 5pm sucks

Looks good from here...



Panel gaps are spot on...


Hopefully more tomorrow.

[rudy1300]

great work you've done!

[dave21478]

Well, I went round this morning with the intention of doing the other side, but its lashing down with snow. By the time I had untangled the cords for the grinders and welder and got ready, I was frozen, so packed up and came home. I'm working on the mini at my sisters farm, where its in a Dutch barn - ie a roof with no side walls, so although I don't get wet, there is no way to keep warm.
The damp is becoming a problem too, and there is no way I'm going to be able to paint the van here, so alternatives need to be found. The rest of the buildings on the farm are either in use or filthy and unsuitable.
I either need to find somewhere else or pack it away till the spring time.