87 replies to this topic

[Guennie]

Hi,

Has quite a productive day yesterday. A friend from uni came down for the day (Rich), so i made the most of the extra pair of hands and cut the front off the mini! Whilst i had already made the decision to do this, there was still a thought of "what have i done" after i made the first cut and one of the wings was just flapping about!

We started off by removing everything front the wings and front panels. Things like, headlights, indicators, and all the wiring. Once this had been done i decided that the best tool for me to use for a neat cut would be the Nibbler on the Drill. I flattened out the wheel arch lip and started to make the cut. This was surprisingly easy until i got to the windscreen. Basically i couldn't get the right angle to cut, as the drill was quite bit and bumped into the windscreen. After a bit of jiggling though i managed to get the first wing off!

This First Cut


The Wing


Where the wing was!


I let Rich have a go on the other wing and he reluctently tock me up on this offer. He said how he didn't want to mess up my car! Whilst it was nice that he didn't wan to ruin it, i did have to point out that i'd just cut a whole panel off so there wasn't really much he could do to make it worse! Anyway the other wing came off with very little fuss either.

Both Wings


Right Wing off


Not minutes after this wing came off my phone rang. It turned out to be ABS Motorsport that i called and left a message earlier in the morning. Perfect timing! i spoke to the guy and placed my order for a 2 piece fibreglass front end (standard rover style bonnet) and the fitting kit.

Anyway, the front panel was next, so we undid the bolts holding it too the front subframe and removed all the wiring that ran through it. Then we discovered that we couldn't use the nibbler to cut the front panel off, we'd have to use the angle grinder. After finding the grinder i discovered that i didn't have a cutting disc, so off to Halfrauds we went!

When we got back we were starting to lose the light a bit but were determined to get the last panel off. This was simply a case of two cuts. one on each side of the panel. Once we had done this the front panel just dropped to the floor, SUCCESS!

Front Panel Off


Naked front end!


Today i think i going to go and neaten all the cuts up and remove the leftover bits of panel with the grinder. Also have a prod around in search of the dreaded tin worm!

thanks for reading, if you have any questions of suggestions dont hesitate to let me know!

Guennie

Edited by Guennie, 01 February 2009 - 07:33 PM.

[Jordie]

Good progress.

Scuttle corners and scuttler under corner panels i will say, tin worm heaven in those usually.

[Guennie]

Evening,

I went out and did a few bits and pieces today.

First thing i did was to take a few better photos of the front end as i see the one i uploaded from last night was a bit rubbish! So here they are.







After that i got the grinder out and made all of the cuts neater and removed the remaining pieces of wing. I then removed all of the brackets that i'm not going to be using from the inner wings.

Once i'd done that i started to have a prod around with a screwdriver looking for rust and was pleasantly surprised! Yes there was or course rust, but no half as much as i had expected. This maybe because it had been sorted before when the previous owner game it a new fron end 5 years ago. After checking under the scuttle it turned out that the passenger side is fine, but the drivers side needs replacing / repairing. There are a few other places that need sorting but nothing thats going to take months (hopefully).

Drivers side scuttle (this picture has managed to make it look worse than it is!)



I also started to remove the diff casing on the gearbox and sheared a bolt! very annoying but again, nothing that can't be sorted!

Anyway, im expecting the front end to turn up this week and am also going to order a few more bits from minispares, a solid mount subframe kit and a 1/4 scuttle.

thanks for reading

Guennie

[analogue_radio]

Man I can't wait to do this with my front, how are you securing it all?

[Guennie]

Man I can't wait to do this with my front, how are you securing it all?

I've ordered the front end fitting kit from ABS which comes with everything.

It's going to have the brace bars from the front subframe to either side of the engine to the inner wings/subframe.

The front end itself is going to be hinged from the front subframe and sercured with 2 Dzus fasteners on each A-Panel, and maybe one on the top of the wing.

I'm going to put the bonnet on with another 4 Dzus fasteners.

[Guennie]

Hey

Just a quick up date from today.

Only managed to get a couple of hours in as there was rugby on t.v. and i HAD to watch it! lol

I popped out and bought some new wire brush tools for the drill which made things a lot easier when it came to cleaning back the paint and checking for rust. I cleaned up the scuttle and was pleased that i didn't find as much rust as i had expected. I've bought a 1/4 scuttle repair panel and the panel that goes under the scuttle, so these should do the job. I just need to get myself some more metal to do a few small patches!

The rust on the panel


Under the scuttle (not much rust )


The repair panels


Another place i need to do some welding is around the damper mounts. Both sides are in a similar way


Also my solid subframe mounts came from minispares with the repair panels, very quick service.


Hope fully i can do a bit more work tomorrow (only one rugby match!) and should have another update for you


Guennie

[Guennie]

evening

My flip front got delivered to me at work this week. Fortunatily i managed to get it into the back of the pug so i could get it home. For some reason i thought the best place to put on a temporary basis would be in my room!





Well after 30mins or so in there my room stunk of fibreglass! so off it went downstairs to the utility area where it currently stands.

Today i decided to put the solid front subframe mounts on. This took a few hours but with no real problems. However when i came to remove the lower mount it pretty much fell to pieces! I guess this means that i've been driving round with a front subframe that wasn't completely secure!!! The picture below shows the old mounts.



The new mounts went on with a bit of persuasion and the subframe is now solidly mounted.





I also had my confirmation for the L2B so as of now i have 90d 1h 23m 32s to have the mini back on the road with an MOT!!!

[richardsoniscool]

hey mate, very intereted in this project as i am doing the same - i see you are part of the bury mini club, i wil be joining when i get my mini done but that wont be til the end of the year , mikey

p.s why have you opted for solid subframe mounts, does it just stiffen the car up?

[Guennie]

Hey,

I decided to use the solid mounts as i was recommended to do so due to the power increase and potential for rocking/movement. Also it is not my daily drive anymore so the added road noise isn't an issure and there should be a small handling benifit.

Don't worry about not having your mini done to come to bury mini club. There are quite a few of us with our mini's off the road at the moment. We meet on the last thurday of the month so i guess the next meet will be 26th feb. Let me know if you fancy coming along.

Simon

[Saxo-Fiesta-Mini]

beautiful work the inner wing looks fairly foobared but nothing tooo bad my subframe mounts are just as bad if not worse as my front ones werent even bolted in place meaning i can now corner at *cough* 50 sorry the speedo says 40 mr officers hehehe

[miRon]

Hey,

I decided to use the solid mounts as i was recommended to do so due to the power increase and potential for rocking/movement. Also it is not my daily drive anymore so the added road noise isn't an issure and there should be a small handling benifit.

Don't worry about not having your mini done to come to bury mini club. There are quite a few of us with our mini's off the road at the moment. We meet on the last thurday of the month so i guess the next meet will be 26th feb. Let me know if you fancy coming along.

Simon

solid mounts are good but i suggest that you reinforce the floor area aronund the mount as over time the floor will crack/pull away from the bulkhead,
to do this you'd need to plug weld a plate over the top,
you may as well do this now while its all out etc....

[Saxo-Fiesta-Mini]

plug weld ???? you mean a patch over the area but thicker sheet metal area of say 15cm ?? curious for when i do mine

[Guennie]

solid mounts are good but i suggest that you reinforce the floor area aronund the mount as over time the floor will crack/pull away from the bulkhead,
to do this you'd need to plug weld a plate over the top,
you may as well do this now while its all out etc....

Thanks for the advice. just to clarify, do you mean weld a plate in on the floor on the inside of the car on top of where the mounts are?

[miRon]

plug weld ???? you mean a patch over the area but thicker sheet metal area of say 15cm ?? curious for when i do mine

or stich weld,weld an inch then miss an inch
i seam welded it the first time and it started pulling the whole plate thru,
so just place a plate over the area drill a series of holes then plug weld it up...
il find some pics.....

[miRon]

solid mounts are good but i suggest that you reinforce the floor area aronund the mount as over time the floor will crack/pull away from the bulkhead,
to do this you'd need to plug weld a plate over the top,
you may as well do this now while its all out etc....

Thanks for the advice. just to clarify, do you mean weld a plate in on the floor on the inside of the car on top of where the mounts are?

in the floor inside the car