188 replies to this topic

[beaubrad]

ouch ! ! ! but you need to keep telling yourself that it will all be worth it at the end. i totaly agree with you moss is well over-priced ,what elce you got done ?? brad

[edi57]

I haven't really got anything else done since I last posted. Combination of work and a bad cold! Plus cold weather and no heating in the garage. I'll have lots to post when this order arrives though!

Ed

[edi57]

Finally a worthwhile update! My panels arrived on Friday is the biggest cardboard box I've ever seen. I found that it was actually too big to get into the garage so I've unpacked all of the panels. Annoyingly I've only been sent one wheel arch. According to the invoice it looks like the RH wheel arch was out of stock. So I'll have to call Moss and find out what is going to happen about that.

All of the panels arrived in good order with exception of the complete boot floor/rear seat panel. It looks like the rear seat has got bent to an angle greater than it should be during delivery. I'll just have to straighten it out a bit. All of the panels I ordered were Heritage pressings. This is the first time I've bought genuine panels and overall I'm reasonably happy with them... but there are imperfections in the panels that I wasn't expecting to see. I hope I find that the fit of the panels justifies the cost.

I didn't get any work done on Saturday as I had a friend visiting. But I've spent a good few hours getting some chopping done today.



My big box!



Trying the new panel for size



Rough markings of what I'm going to be cutting out. You can see why I needed the complete rear panel with the rust having gone up as high as it did.



This pic shows a large area of heavy pitting. If I had a light behind it would have shown just how bad it was. This isn't something I would have been able to repair with sheet!



More dodgy areas. The darker area is where lead had previously been used. Underneath it it's just heavily pitted and full of holes.



It looks like a boot hinge panel had gone on in the past.



Other side



More heavy pitting



More holes



After a bit of cutting and drilling I ended up with this. I've now got a bottomless Mini!



The old panel. I'm going to keep it as it could come in handy for a Mk1 Rear Light conversion for future projects. I'll get some cheap paint on it soon to stop it deteriorating.



My next job is to repair this little panel on each side while access is good. I got a couple of little repair panels from M-Machine to sort out the area. These are the first panels that I've ordered from M-Machine and I'm very impressed with them. The fit is first class and the steel is nice and thick.

Today I also marked, measured and cut the new rear panel roughly to size, ready for fitting.

Edited by edi57, 01 February 2009 - 09:02 PM.

[emalee]

that is scary progress, it all looks brilliant tho, your doing such a good job at saving this mini!!!!

[mighty mini jack]

Brilliant work fella !
I remember this sight too well..

[GreaseMonkey]

That is one big box

Great effort so far, look forward to updates

[tomkidd]

Great stuff, keep up the good work. I am very jealous of your garage/work space.

[beaubrad]

well cut on the rear panel , i can't wait to get my mk1

have you any more pic? brad

[Brisa]

Looks like a great project with some first class attention to detail and fabrication skills. Will look forward to your updates.

[edi57]

Thanks for all the kind comments everyone.

have you any more pic? brad

Brad I haven't got any more pics yet. I'm probably going to be busy most evenings this week so I won't have much of a chance to work on the Mini until the weekend. I do wish I had more free time... especially when I get to stages like this!

Ed

[tedmcedd]

looking scary in a good way!!

can't wait to see more progress!!

Ed

[edi57]

This is barely worth an update on it's own but I thought I'd post as I've got the pics.

Somehow this work took me two hours (yes, I do know I'm slow!). It was a matter of cutting out the holey area and tidying up the wheel arch seam so that the new panel can sit neatly. Then some accurate marking for final cutting... followed by some trimming to get the repair panel lined up perfectly. Following that, clamping the panel in place and tacking in. I didn't get time to weld it in properly. I hope to get the time to finish it off properly tomorrow evening.

[mighty mini jack]

Lovely stuff as usual fella.
What steel you using?

[edi57]

Lovely stuff as usual fella.
What steel you using?

Cheers Jack. That panel was made by M-Machine and the thickness looks to be about 1.5mm-ish. It's certainly thick stuff. I'll measure it next time I'm in the garage.

[jack_marshall]

Your abit of a dab hand at nicely made, nicely fitting and nicely finished repairs!

Well done to you.