Made more progress last night removing the boot floor, salvaging the seat brackets from the old crusty floor and tidying up the garage floor from the rust sprinkles.
welded in the toe board, after I plug welded it I dressed the welds down and then etch primed it all.
December 2017.
Spent a few hours in the garage today cleaning up the back panel outside and inside.
It looked like this
To get down to bare metal I bought a couple of the paint stripper discs for most of the surface area.
In the tight areas I used my wire cup which took a lot longer as the original paint was stuck on there!
The surface rust around the lights had pitted the panel quite bad, but its very solid. It polished up with the wire cup and I will just treat it with rust converter.
I spent a lot of time on the back side of the rear panel as I had great access without the boot floor.
Then I just etch-primed inside and out.
The bottom of the panel will require a repair panel at some point. But for now Its enough to offer up the boot floor.
Amazing work. Looking forward to seeing how your Mini progresses.
I've got the MIL over for Xmas, so I naturally spent more time in the garage.
I finally finished taking the underside of the roof to bare metal. What a tedious job that created so much dust, I'm glad its over.
I used Loctite gel rust remover, a pink gel that I just slapped all over and into the edge where the roof skin meets the side panels.
Then washed it all off, dried it, blew compressed air into every nook and cranny, then dried it some more.
I don't know if it worked amazingly, but it definitely looks a lot shinier!
I still wanted to do some more today, so I offered up the boot floor, it went on really nice, a great fit.
I just need to address a few areas before I can fit it properly.
I need to rebuild the rear bulkhead flange area where it meets the boot floor. Not sure how to do that exactly yet.
And I need to repair the lower part of the back panel, I'll get the repair panels from MiniMania or m machine, whichever works out less including the shipping.
Then I offered the new floor up to see how well it all fit.
Not too bad, but will need a little fettling where it meets the toe board.
I then offered up the new A Panel I had previously chopped out to see what is all involved in this area.
Before I do that, I'll fit the floor and then I can remove the door bracing to fit the door and get the A panel right.
To fit the floor in the right position for and aft I will need to fit the rear subframe to ensure the heel board is in the correct position.
December 31st 2017.
Happy New Year to everyone!
What better way to spend NYE than in the garage working on the mini!
I spent 4 hours putting some Cant rails back on.
Here's what they were like when I took them off...
The rust was removed on the back side of the Cant rails, and primed with zinc primer.
Also added a seat belt mount behind the B pillar.
Plug welded the Cant rail back on, ground the welds back and primed.
It was a lot of effort to remove these but I'm glad I did.
Spent a lot of hours over a few days repairing the rear bulkhead where it meets the floor.
I cut 1/2" wide strips and screwed them to boot floor.
Tacked it all in position, then removed the boot floor so I could fully weld. I took my time and then ground the welds down with a combination of angle grinder, die grinder with radius cutter, and then roloc discs.
I then put the boot floor back in, flipped the template over to do the other side.
So I ended up with this.
I then welded up all the random holes the previous owner had drilled into the bulkhead to mount stuff in the boot.
Including the crappy roll cage he had bolted to the bulkhead and parcel shelf.
I wire wheeled the whole panel and once I was happy I primed it.
Its not perfect, you can still see evidence that there was some holes drilled and where he bashed the bulkhead about to fit the roll cage, but to me it looks better.
Next job I will fit the boot floor again to work on repairing the lower section of the rear panel.
Its been very cold here recently, about -15C a few days, so the garage was rather chilly. I just got an indoor use propane heater to take the edge off, it seems to work alright but its still difficult to motivate myself.
But on to the back panel repair.
I put the boot floor back in to check fitment with the seat back repair I did.
Looks OK to me.
I've seen others on here replace the entire back panel of their mk1s. But I decided that it was in good condition apart from the lower edge.
So I bought a couple of Magnum repair panels from mini spares to see if I can have a go.
The central piece looks pretty good when offered up.
So I decided to cut out the entire middle section
Spent a few minutes getting the ends to line up nice.
Ready to tack weld. Ill dig out the rather rusty boot lid and fit it to check the curve of this piece matches alright.
The magnum end repair panels on the other hand are terrible quality, they are curved in only one plane, supposed to be a compound curve right?
I might not use them and just make my own repair panels.
January 19th 2018.
Got an hour in the garage after dinner.
So I tacked the panel on.
Then dug the boot lid out to try it on, just a tad rusty!
Then I realized I wont be able to try it on, haha! I don't know why I didn't think of that...
Oh well, I was happy enough with the fit compared to the boot floor, so I went ahead and welded it on.
These are the end repair panels that I don't like, the single curve doesn't match the compound curve of the back panel.
Also I don't know how they managed to cut such an odd shaped hole in this panel.
I'm probably just going to use the bottom 1/2" of these panels, which is tomorrow's job
**At this point I'm working on the car pretty much daily, doing something each day to stay motivated**
I managed another few hours in the garage today.
Decided to have a go at using the Magnum end repair panels.
On the right side the original panel wasn't too bad so I was able to trim the repair panel to about 10mm tall and let that in, while maintaining the compound curve of the original panel.
Clamped up to draw a cut line onto original panel.
I used some butt clamps to get into place, then tacked.
Seam welded 1-2 inches at a time, jumping around to avoid too much heat in one area.
Then ground the weld back with a 1mm cutting disc and a carbide burr in the die grinder. Then roloc disc in the die grinder.
Just need to do the other side tomorrow.
I finished the repairs on the seat back and got that in primer, I put zinc primer along the bottom edge where it touches the boot floor.
Then I drilled a bunch of 1/4 inch holes for plug welding and slapped some zinc primer on the areas where its going to be welded.
The boot floor could finally go in for the last time and become one with the car.
Look, its floating!
I was tired of all the grinding of the plug welds, so I decided I needed a spot welder.
I had to install a 240v outlet in my garage, which wasn't too hard after understanding how they do it here in the US.
Then I got a Harbor Freight welder and tried it out.
Seems like it will do the job pretty nicely, I'm going to practice a little more as there is some technique to getting the right pressure, timing, angle of the tips on the metal.
I dug out my rear subframe, I was quite surprised at the condition, its not too bad, maybe after a sand blast it may be salvageable.
I bolted it on the boot floor.
Then heaved the floor into position and bolted the subframe to the heel board.
The front lines up OK with the toe board
At first the subframe mounting holes in the toe board don't line up with the floor.
So I bolted them together through the holes
Which seemed to do the trick and conformed the floor to the toe board. It will need a little more persuasion when it comes to welding them together.
Then I scribed a line where the heel board edge contacts the boot floor/seat base, flipped the car over, removed the rear subframe and then separated the two panels.
Sanded to bare metal and got some zinc primer on both surfaces.
I measured how much overhang there is from the seat base and its around 7-8 inches and my spot welder only came with 6 inch arms. So tomorrow I need to drill some holes in the seat base and plug weld it instead.
Thanks for posting this. Looks like a lot of work done well so far. How far behind are we at this point?
Feel like Im making some progress finally, now Ive got the floor in.
After careful measurements I drilled a series of 1/4 inch holes in the boot floor, deburred the holes, then I put the rear subframe back on to the boot floor, and bolted it to the heel board.
Clamped the floor to the rear quarters seams, flipped the car back over again. (Which is getting harder on the rotisserie due to the extra weight)
Then stood through the drivers door, and using 2 long reach clamps squeezed the panels together to be able to get a couple plug welds in then moved around in that fashion until all the plug welds were done.
I found I got some really nice plug welds this time vs the boot floor panel. As I used a wire brush attachment in a drill to clean away the zinc primer in each 1/4 inch hole.
Tomorrow I'll remove the rear subframe and add a few stitch welds at the heel board to boot floor joint.
In reply to T.J. :
No problem, I'm enjoying the sheet metal work much more now I've got clean stuff to work with.
One thing about this build I haven't mentioned is the fact that it's a very early production model and has some variances from all minis produced post March 1960 up to 2000. Mine has an early type floor without outer sills, only one company in the UK still make the floors for these early models and the leadtime was 6 weeks as they made it to order for me.
I didn't see a lot of published detail information on how to restore the early models so I thought I'd make my own thread, and get critical feedback from the mini community on what is right and wrong.
They like what I'm doing with the restoration, up until they point out that I should fit the period correct engine, which I don't particularly want to do for a couple of reasons:
Hopefully at some point the thread on here will go from body restoration into full on GRM mode (engine conversions, suspension etc). So bear with me and don't get too bored, I expect to have the body work done by summertime and get to mechanical bits.
Toe board to floor is now welded.
Someone supplied me with the magic wand hole dimensions. So I made a template and marked it up on the toe board, then cut it out with my angle grinder and carbide burr in the die grinder, then deburred it with a flapper wheel bit in the die grinder.
I used the spot welder through the magic wand hole but could only get at the tunnel area, so I plug welded the rest.
Then I decided to seam weld a few sections of the heel board to boot floor.
Then stood back and Its got a solid floor!
I just placed a Minispares order for a few panels.
Both rear wheel arches.
The floor to arch brackets
Rear valance closing panels.
Heel board to wheel arch closing panels.
Both rear quarter panels.
I need to call M machine and get the mk1 door bins and both inner wings.
February 22nd 2018.
Not called M machine yet, but Mini Spares did email me to say my shipping would treble from their initial quote! That's what you get when you move thousands of miles away from any mini specialist I guess!
I got a new 60 gallon compressor as my 26 gallon was constantly running when using die grinders and had overheated a few times. Here's my 3 compressors for size comparison.
I had read about aftercoolers for removing water from the air for sand blasting and painting. So I thought Id have a go at building one.
It has a few ball valves for water vents and then a filter/regulator.
Positioned behind the compressor like so, I can still get at the ball valves and see the gauge.
Also waiting on some rubber isolator pads for the feet, and I can take it off its pallet.
So far its passed the soapy water test and is currently holding 150psi!
Time will tell if it works I guess.
I've tried out a die grinder on this compressor and it's a beast!
Speaking of die grinding, that's tomorrow's job..
Februaury 26th 2018.
I received some nice panels from MiniSpares UK today, only shipped on 22nd!
I couldn't resist chopping out one of the rear arches tonight. So the first thing I did was make some bracing from the existing cross brace in the boot.
I drilled out the spot welds for the rear bulkhead to arch, but I couldn't even see any spot welds for the arch to rear quarter panel seam. I assume they are roll welded?
But as I'm replacing the rear quarter panel anyway I just cut the entire seam off the quarter panel as close as I could so I have some edge to align the new panel to.
Got to clean up this seam, look at that hidden rust.
Offered the new arch in place. This is exciting.
got some weld primer on the arch mating surfaces.
I could bolt it into the frame in the boot and clamp up the edge to be welded.
Then used the spot welder to go along the boot seam.
ts flippin awesome, took me seconds and no grinding to do afterwards!
I do still have to do some plug welding though unfortunately, on the rear bulkhead to arch where I drilled out the original spot welds. But only a couple of them to grind down.
Hey neighbor, welcome to GRM! You are making great progress, even since I saw it last weekend!
That looks really good. But for the love of bob costas get the shell soda blasted, then primer sprayed it will be cheaper and the welds will be better in the long run.
maschinenbau said:Hey neighbor, welcome to GRM! You are making great progress, even since I saw it last weekend!
Thanks!
Yeah I like having a hobby. I just can’t sit on the couch.
In reply to wearymicrobe :
Thanks man. Yes, a soda blaster is on my list of tools to buy next. Hence the aftercooler drier for the compressor.
I don’t have much rusty stuff left to treat on the back end, it’s all new panels now. It will get used for the firewall though.
Although I have a question: How would I have got the soda blast media inside the A posts or the cant rails in the roof?
Or painted inside them after getting acid dipped?
My method was laborious, but I now know there is no rust behind there.
The next job will be the rear quarter panel, which Im not looking forward to, Im worried about making a right mess of it. But this is my starting point
So cant get any worse I hope..
And here is the new quarter panel just offered up on top to see what its going to look like
I had to buy mk3 onwards quarter panels so I will be trimming the B post lip off and seam welding it to the old panel.
This for some reason was a nervous moment for me, cutting the new quarter panel.
As this wasn't a mk1 panel, I had to cut the front lip off.
So that I had a jogged edge that matched the mk1 panel.
Spent a long time making sure the new panel overlaid the old one very well, lining up the swage line and the window aperture and the seams.
Then I transferred the new panel cut edge profile to the old panel.
Then chopped it out!
Now at this point I have great access to the front arch closing panel area to get in there and spot weld.
I don't have new companion bins yet, and I'm hoping I can still spot weld those in later after doing the quarter panel.
Clamped up the new panel.
I'm quite happy with the fit, I had to remove it a few times to trim the butt seam here and there, I'm aiming for a gap to allow for thermal growth when welding.
Then I removed the whole thing, sanded all the contact areas to remove the e coat, painted some weld thru primer on the surfaces.
**Now we're all caught up as per March 3rd 2018**
So you'll have to bear with my build pace over the next few months while I get this shell repaired and off the rotisserie. I'd like to aim for May 22nd, so lets see how I do. (I'm also very busy on my project at work, with a big milestone coming up in June)
That means all underbody repair needs to be done and the underside painted. The front wings/fenders can be attached later.
Would you rather me update the thread step by step like I've been doing, or just the big milestones? (I don't know how interesting it's been so far)
Would you rather me update the thread real-time, or save up a bunch of content and update in one go?
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