188 replies to this topic

[T.Harper]

...now that's detail!

[mukka]

Hi Mukka,

I think their current price for a small shell dip is £595 +vat. More details about the dip here. It's expensive, but if you're aiming for the absolute best, then I personally believe there is nothing better.

Not finished with the spit yet I'm afraid! Havn't started my work really.. I'm aiming to have the welding done by the end of the summer at the latest (I hope) so I may consider selling it then.

Ed.

just phoned them up quoted me £645 + Vat for the acid dip, and £845 + Vat for the e primer, nearly died reckon im going to try and find someone who can do a zinc phosphate dip without violating my wallet, and if i wanted to take it away and sort out the problems then half again on the acid dip before we could get it primed. really want to get it done but they are taking the absolute ****, reckon i would swallow it and get raped if it was for a cooper but sadly its not.

has your been dipped yet and are you going for the primer as well, nice to see pics if its done, also how do you mount your rottiserie onto the bulkheads.

[mukka]

just seen the link nice

[edi57]

Yeah, it's a pricey process I'm afraid. They're more used to dealing with classic Porsche's and Ferrari's etc.

As I'm planning on keeping my mini for the rest of my life (and really don't fancy restoring it again) I think it's worth it for me.

Edited by edi57, 01 May 2008 - 04:55 PM.

[n_d_fox]

Lovely attention to detail so far on this and cant fault you paying what you have to to make this a first class mini... wish i had the space, money and patience to do somethig similar !

[edi57]

Thanks for the kind words Fox.

There will be pleanty more to come!

[mk1leg]

[quote name='edi57' date='Apr 28 2008, 07:30 PM' post='953396']
Thanks for all the great comments eveyone. It really does help spur me on!


Mk1leg -. I'm interested in taking it to pieces to find out about the cam now! Would you expect it to be identifiable just by looking at it?

The cam might be a 731 a popular choice for mid 60s- early 70s as it had a rev range of 1500- 7000 revs if memory serves me right and the cars comming on a treat............good luck............

[Retro_10s]

All the reviews I've read about the 731 say it's just about the worst cam the BL Special Tuning ever created ... but the proof, they say, is in the pudding

Edited by Retro_10s, 03 May 2008 - 10:55 PM.

[mk1leg]

I used a 731 in a highly tuned 850 in early 80s and it went likt s**t off a shovel and left a RS2000 escort standing at traffic lights.........................

[Retro_10s]

nice! first good thing i've heard about the 731,.. mk1leg i salute you RS2000 eh... yums!

[enneaitch]

Anything else happened on this??

im in a similar state with ym 1962 although i cannot afford to dip the shell so im trying to strip and clean as much as posible...

ill hopefully be spraying the shell myself too.

Nick

Love your welding skills though. think ill get one of those trolleys they look magic.

[Down&Out]

i envy your welding skill....its a lovely mini

[edi57]

Thanks for the comments on my welding!

Nick - Good luck with your Mk1. Do you have a project thread on it?

I've not worked on the Cooper since it came back from it's dip. Mainly because I've been working hard to get our Convertible mini up to scratch for summer. I've now done as much as I want to do this year... and it got it's MOT today (with flying colours) so I'm as proud as punch!

So, as that's done it kind of means I'll have my space back in our working garage... although we will be parting with our Mini Equinox soon, so that will occupy the space for a little while until sold.

When that's sold, I will in fact have all my working space free...then I can get doing some proper cutting and welding on the Cooper! I'm desperate to get going on it!

I'll make sure to post the adverts on TMF first!

/-Ed

[edi57]

Six months since I last posted....yes I know, not good enough.

I've got to admit that in the last 6 months very little work has happened, I've been distracted by too many other things!

Anyway, Christmas is approaching and I've got a few days off so I'll be able to get a good amount of work done. I'm planning to get all the horrible niggley bits sorted and then I'll be free to get doing some major cutting.

In March I did this repair... some of you may have seen it on a separate post.










Project kind of stopped there for the Summer while I was messing about with our open top mini and all the others. Then in November I got a little time to do the inside part of the repair...





Got the spot welder out to finish things off properly...



And chopped off the excess...




Moving on to the other side of the car. I thought everything was fine but I found lots of imperfections in lots of little small repairs that had been made during its previous restoration. Mainly little holes that just needed filling.





Filling the holes...






Looking above the drivers door and below the gutter, I found lots of gaps where previous repairs had been welded. Fairly ok repairs, just not done well enough.



You can see all the pitted/thin areas and by shining a light from the inside of the car you can clearly see all the gaps...





This was all welded up and ground back.

[edi57]

Now inside the shell. There was a tear in the floor where the handbrake mount is fixed...



and at the front the original tack fixing it to the crossmember had broken...



all welded up and ground back...




Now at what is virtually the present day. The parcel shelf has a couple of thin areas that need attention.











I haven't got a picture of that ground back yet.

I know that none of the above are very interesting repairs, but it's all work that needs to be done to get this thing right.

I promise that updates and progress will be much more frequent from now on!

Ed.