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Post by Stu on Apr 29, 2015 16:22:11 GMT
15 December 2014. Yesterday I finished digging around the shell to find the extent of corrosion and filler to give me an idea of what panels I'll need. I found more horrors to the rear quarter panels. I knew they had repairs as I can see the welding and patch in the companion bins. ........... but I wasn't counting on quite this much filler covering the repair on the outside. This is the near side. and the offside panel. I think I'll start with replacing the boot floor, so I'll clean up all the edges so I can unstitch and remove it, but I want to get the new panel first before I cut anything out so I might potter about with other bits of the shell until I've got it.
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Post by Stu on Apr 29, 2015 16:24:17 GMT
20 December 2014. Waiting for some panels to come from M Machine so thought I'd do a bit on the floor. Removed the battery cable rail and the brake pipe retainers from the off side to find corrosion and holes to the floor under the rail. Ground it all down a bit to tidy it up. The holes behind the rail will be a bear to repair. I'll have to work on my metal fabrication to get the proper radius. Coated the bare metal in zinc primer for now. Hopefully the new panels will come on Monday so I'll be able to get started proper
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Post by Stu on Apr 29, 2015 16:29:48 GMT
21 December 2014. I had a couple of hours spare today so I tackled the section of the floor behind the battery cable retainer which has holed in a few areas. I had to be careful how much I cut out because It'd be very difficult to put new metal in due to the multiple radiuses. I thought about getting a new tunnel and cutting the required section out, but they are way too much to lay out for what I need so I'll have to compromise a little unfortunately. I think it'll be okay though, its just that the steel will be a little thin where its pitted, but I'll be treating it with Deox-Gel to remove the corrosion and the whole floor will get 2 coats of epoxy mastic, Gravitex and top coats so it should be ok. Area marked out for removal. Cut out. Template. New section cut, bent to the radius and tacked in. and welded up. I had some trouble later trying to grind down the welds at the base of the curve. I kept removing metal from the panel as it was difficult to get the flap wheel in just on the welds so it thinned it quite a bit. I'm not completely happy with it but its not to bad and I think it'll last ok once it's got all its paint coverings on. It finished up like this. Thats all for now. I've got about three more sections like this to do on the tunnel side and I think my new panels should hopefully come tomorrow so I'll have a lot to do.
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Post by Stu on Apr 29, 2015 16:33:06 GMT
24 December 2014. I got my panels from M Machine, so I set about removing the passenger floor pan. It took some getting out due to all the patch plates, but got there in the end. Lots of spot welds in the front lip to drill out. Spot welds ground down to bulkhead lip. I think I'll need to remove the inner wing next to allow me to fit the floor pan and new inner wing which I've not got yet. Removing the inner wing and preparing the metal ready for the new panels will take a while so theres no rush. Once I've got them in I'll move to replace the inner and outer sill.
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Post by Stu on Apr 29, 2015 18:30:58 GMT
27 December 2014. I decided to get in the garage today and do a bit. I started to poke aroud the front passenger inner wing to see what was underneath the cover plates. This is the inner arch repair panel. It's been welded over the top of the original inner wing. I peeled it back at the floor / sill to see whats underrneath. So I decided to dig a bit more and took the entire repair panel off. To be fair the original inner wing in this area is still fairly good. The holes at the base could have been repaired with localised infill, so it seems odd to have slapped a full height panel on. I decided that I'd have to cut out about 70% of the panel to repair it, and thought it'd be easier just to replace the whole inner wing, so I went about cutting it all out which was a good job as there was a lot of corrosion around the shock mount which was covered up by the panel repair plate. I still have a bit to remove at the top and up the a post closing panel but most of it's out. I'll need to spend some time cleaning up the flanges before looking to fit the new floor and inner wing.
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Post by Stu on Apr 29, 2015 18:32:25 GMT
30 December 2014. I've decided on a colour for Felix At first I thought I wouldn't have to decide a colour for ages, but I realised it will influence how the car will look so it's good to get it chosen early. Ive always liked the deep blue colour of the old Austin 7's but it's a little too purple for what I want on Felix so I've chosen Mineral Blue BU9 which I think was used on MG's rather than Mini's. Wonder how long it'll be before putting some through the gun ?
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Post by Stu on Apr 29, 2015 18:35:10 GMT
3 January 2014. I carried on tidying up the areas around the inner wing today. I had to remove a section of panel on the edge of the bulkhead where it attaches to the inner wing as it was holed from drilling out the spot welds and was also badly corroded. New plate in place. Welded up and zinc primed. That's all I got done today. I've been using 0.8mm wig wire but tried out 0.6mm, but I found it difficult to weld with as I've been used to 0.8, so I'll probarbly stick with it for now. I've decided I need a welding trolly as I'm fed up with dragging all the gear around and worrying about the bottle falling over and breaking the regulator gauges. I've got a VAT free day card for Machine Mart for tomorrow, so I'm off there to get one & save 20%.
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Post by Stu on Apr 29, 2015 18:39:28 GMT
4 January 2015. Didn't do anything on Felix today, but I did get this welding trolly So moving the rig around should be much easier now. I was going to order my inner wing so I could get on with finishing the passenger floor, A post, and fitting of the inner wing, but I'm off to the Mini Fair at the end of the month so I'll be picking one up when I'm there. This means I cant really do too much until I have it, but there are lots of small repairs needed around the front bulkhead and floor so I've got plently to keep me occupied. I had to cut out some corrosion to the A post cover panel and weld in a new section. New section ready to weld in with replacement plug welds ready to go in where spot welds were cut out. New section welded in and ground down. My order from Bilt Hamber also arrived this week, and I wanted to try out the Electrox primer which I purchased in a tin to brush on. Judging by the weight of the tin it's got a lot of zinc in the paint. The technical data sheet says the cured film contains in excess of 90% zinc. It says it provides an anti-corrosion coating without the need for a top coat, so I think I'll be ok to leave the completed areas just with 2 coats of Electrox on until I overcoat with their epoxy mastic. I tried it out on a small area of the A post cover panel after I'd linished the repair and after I had got rid of the surface rust and degreased it. It's gone on by brush very nicely and covers well, although it says not to over brush it. The products I have received from Bilt Hamber which I've tried out (Electrox and Deox-Gel) seem to work very well and I'm happy with the results. I'll be putting on 2 coats of Electrox to the areas I complete and will do it in panel stages large enough to be worth opening the tin for, unless it's the fiddly small areas like the A post I'm doing now in which case it'll have to be done in small bits.
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Post by Stu on Apr 29, 2015 18:43:04 GMT
15 February 2015. I've not done any work on Felix for a while as I've been taking apart the AP Auto engine and gearbox among other things, but I've started on him again now. Not got much done but I'll be ordering an inner wing this week. I did get the bulkhead crossmember void surface rust removed and zinc primed. I've also received some goodies from Minispares yesterday. Got my inner wing and a few other bits. The packaging was really good too.
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Post by Stu on Apr 29, 2015 18:47:39 GMT
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Post by Stu on Apr 29, 2015 18:55:41 GMT
7 March 2015. I've had quite a productive day today. I received my front end panels a few days ago, so I was able to mock up the front end to see what the fitment was like before I move to welding the inner wing in place. First I had to take the front end of the rollover jig off the shell, because I needed to fix the subframe in place to mount the front panel, and the jig utilises the crossmember bolt holes. The inner wing is already on because I had to rotate the shell on the jig to get it aligned to where it needed to be, then I clamped it all up in the correct place. The bulkhead flexes a little bit when the shell is the right way up due to me cutting out the floor section and inner wing so if I'd fixed it in that position it would be wrong. It'll be fine the way I'm doing it, but I think I'll put a bit of bracing in the other side when I do it to ensure it stays put when I roll the shell on the jig. Next I fitted the subframe to allow the front panel to be mounted and to ensure correct alignment. Once I'd finally found the teardrops (it took a while) I fitted them to the front panel ready for mounting onto the subframe. It went on ok, and fitted up to the inner wing very snugly. Next I hung the passenger side door and offered up the a panel as best as I could. I got it more or less in the right position within a few mill. The wing bottoms not lining up with the a panel but I'm not worried about that at the moment. Once I had the outer wing clamped on and the bonnet in place I roughly fettled things around a bit to end up with this .... I can't check the drivers side alignment but the inner wing seems to be following the bonnet line pretty well so it should line up ok hopefully. So it looked ok from the outside. but the wing gutter was not sitting into the inner wing gutter very well at all. It was ok at the top, but at the front panel end it was too high. Anyway, I had a look at Molly and saw that the position of the inner wing on the front panel was not in the right place, so after a bit of pulling it popped into the right position. This didn't make any difference to the gutter, so I clamped the outer wing to the inner wing to make sure it sat properly. This then threw out the fit between the front panel and the wing, but I managed to get it close enough to require just a little bit of fettling when it comes to final fitment, so I'm happy. So I'm very happy with the fitment and am satisfied I'll get the gaps and alignment spot on with a little bit of minor cutting and dolly work, so all in all a good days work today. I've put the shell back on the jig now so I can move to welding in the inner wing once I've got another coat of electrox zinc primer on. I've scribed the inner wing ready to drill the holes in for plug welding. I'm feel like I'm getting somewhere now.
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Post by Stu on Apr 29, 2015 18:59:53 GMT
8 March 2015. I gave the areas around the inner wing a second coat this morning, then thought I'd do a few test plug welds before I start on the inner wing. They turned out ok, and held firm during my destructive testing so I'm happy to wield the torch on the shell now. I finally got the inner wing plug welded in. I've not had any experience with plug welding before, except for some bench tests which turned out good, with good penetration. I had a bit of an ordeal when plug welding the inner wing with the edges of the holes to quite a lot of them blowing holes, and it took me ages to realise why it was happening, and posted a query over in the Body section. I got some very helpful replies, but I think it was mainly due to gapping between the two metal faces which was the major cause. On the bench with new steel sheet offcuts, they were flat back to back with no gaps, and the plug welds were very good, so I couldnt figure out why they were blowing the edges of the holes on the car, and realsed it was because some of them were not dead tight together. I found it hard to get some of them really tight due to the inner wing section being quite stiff and not easy to pull the panel, together with difficult access for welding clamps. I've got long reach ones but not that long ! Anyway, I've ground the welds up and just need to get it prepped for priming. I also needed to re-weld in the lower shock mount fixing bar to the rear of the inner wing, so fitted up the shock mount and bar so I could weld it in place. I then cleaned the paint etc from around the bar and welded it in place. I decided to order 6 skin pins so I can have more opportunity to pull in the two panels when plug welding where the clamps will not reach. They say they will provide between 50 and 300 lbs of clamping force, so I guess the ones I've ordered will give around 50 - 80 ish. I've gone for 2.5mm to keep the holes I'll need to weld up as small as possible. Hopefully they'll help to keep the panels tight together for future plug welds.
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Post by Stu on Apr 29, 2015 19:01:52 GMT
18 March 2015. I wanted to be sure about the paint system I was going for so thought I'd lay up the paints to see how they stood up to impact, scratches and reactions etc. As I've previously mentioned I'm using the following build up - 2 coats Bilt Hamber Electrox zinc rich primer. 2 coats of Bilt Hamber Epoxy Mastic. 2 coats (for build up) of Gravitex stone chip Cellulose primers Cellulose tocoats I'm pleased to say I've tried a section of the body with the paint layers up to the Gravitex first coat and it all stands up very well with no reactions, and is very resistant to damage, so I'll be using this system throuought on the undersides. The topsides will have epoxy primer instead of mastic and no Gravitex (obviously). You can see the three layers here. Dark gray is the Electox, light gray is the epoxy mastic and the black is the Gravitex I laid on stippled with a brush.
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Post by Stu on Apr 29, 2015 19:09:46 GMT
19 April 2015. I've not updated my progress for a while because I'd not got much done on Felix. As the weathers warming up I'll be doing work on Mollys paint, but intend to keep things moving along with Felix too if possible. I re-sprayed Mollys nearside wing a couple of weeks ago, and polished it up a few days ago. I'm quite happy with the results really. My spraying wont win any medals but I dont subscribe to that level of perfection anyway. I'll be spraying Molly in sections panel by panel, so I'm hoping to have her all done by Autumn. So once Mollys wing was done I turned my attention back to Felix. After welding up the near side inner wing, I removed the scuttle. I did'nt really want to but the ends were full of filler and I needed access to the top of the bulkhead to undertake repairs. The corrosion to the passenger side bulkhead top is not too bad, but there must have been a long term leak to the drivers side because the corrosion has completely eaten the bulkhead to the top of the hinge mount. At first I thought I'd have to remove the mount, but realised it was spot welded top and bottom, and the bulkhead is ok at the lower section, so I cut along the middle which allowed me to leave it in place. The next issue I had was deciding how to sort a poor repair to the top dash rail. Some angled sections had been welded over the existing corroded windscreen lip and I was not happy to leave it, so it had to come out altogether. This meant I had to fabricate some new metal to replace it. Not easy due to the rail curviture. So I took the old section and made a couple of templates. I tack welded it to the rough angle required, which turned out to be ok after comparing with the old one. I thought I'd better offer up the scuttle to make sure I'd got the curve of the section correct, and it seemed to be as close as I needed it to be for now. Now I was happy with the shape, I tack welded it along it's length and then completed the whole section. I dressed the welds down. I didnt take them down all the way as this side will be hidden, so there seemed litle point in risking thinning the metal. The inside of the joint would be difficult to dress the welds, so I made sure they did'nt penetrate too far through. This gave a good clean corner all the way along. So one I'd dressed it up a bit and cut it back to shape it fitted fairly well. It needs a bit more fettling, and the rail needs cleaning up, but I ran out of time. So next up will be to clean back the dash rail and weld the new section into the opening. Then I'll dress the windscreen lip to shape. Once I've done this I'll need to form the bulkhead section to fit in the bit I've cut out, which will be fun as its got a relief section to take the bonnet hinge that I'll need to shape.
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Post by Stu on Apr 29, 2015 19:13:28 GMT
21 April 2015. Well it was all going great. I got the top rail section tack welded in, then offered up the scuttle to check the curve to find this... I didnt re check the curve after I'd welded the two peices together, and realised the heat has straightened the curve which I hadn't realised. So I had to take it out and start again! So I decided to extend the rail flat wider on the new section in the hope it wont be able to straighten under heat like the other thin strip did. I also cut the shapes a little different and made it on one section, half of which I can bend, the other half weld instead. I've not welded it yet, but it follows the scuttle curve ok at the moment. I'll have to remember to check the curve once I've welded the edge joint this time.
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Post by Stu on Apr 29, 2015 19:20:29 GMT
24 April 2015. Last night I re-welded the second attempt repair section. Due to telling myself to be patient with the welding - cooling, welding, cooling, welding, it turned out great and kept it's proper curve, so I'll be trimming it and welding it in hopefully tonight. It looks correct against the scuttle curve so I'm hoping it'll be ok. Once I'd ground the welds down a bit I offered up the scuttle to make sure it was ok this time, which it was. So I got the new section cut to size and welded it in place. To be fair it went in better than the first, so I guess the practice did me good. It needed a good few clamps to get it in place but it all fits well. I thought it'd be a good idea to fit the windscreen and top shelf too just to make sure everything fitted before I went any further. Turns out the screen wouldn't fit because I needed to trim the upstand of the new section. Trimmed this bit to get it to fit properly. So I finally got the screen to fit in nicely. The corner radius margin has worked out well. and I'm happy with the alignment between the screen, seal and new section. I need to finish some welding to the edge and finish grinding the welds down but I'm glad I tried again as it's worked out good this time. Next up will be to make a bulkhead section to go around the hinge bracket. Thanks for looking, and please feel free to leave me a comment so I know you've been here.
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Post by Stu on Apr 29, 2015 19:22:08 GMT
26 April 2015. I cut some 1.2mm sheet from my stock today and started to fabricate the top bulkhead corner section. It was, well, difficult. It needed a double bend in it to form the windscreen lip to go over the top rail lip section I did earlier, but also has to curve to follow the screen. Jeez that was a pain. If you've ever tried to put a curve in a section of sheet steel with two bends in it you'll know what I mean. On top of that I needed to put reliefs in the section to follow the original pressing. Anyways, after lots of bashing and bending and cutting I ended up with this... I need to sort out the hinge relief in the panel and might need to make this up seperately and weld it to this one, but I'll see how it goes. Thanks for looking & please feel free to leave a post.
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Post by Stu on Apr 29, 2015 19:25:42 GMT
28 April 2015. I finished fabricating the bulkhead section today. I still need to seam weld it and weld in some small closing peices but happy with how it turned out. Well worth the effort I think. Not many straight edges on this section. Next will be to weld it into the builkhead and grind down the welds to give a reasonable finish.
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Post by Stu on May 6, 2015 10:09:17 GMT
So last night I got the panel I made welded in place and ground down. I'm very pleased with the result and glad I was patient and took my time.
I just need to plug weld the bonnet hinge bracket to the repair panel and finish up some seam welds then it'll be good for some primer.
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Post by Stu on May 8, 2015 13:58:12 GMT
I got the remaining welding completed and dressed down and finished it with a coat of zinc primer. Next up will be to deal with some minor repair sections to other areas of the bulkhead, then I'll be moving onto the drivers side inner wing replacement.
I need to get going with re-spraying Molly's panels while the weather is staying warm so I'll be switching work between the two of them for the next few months. Should be interesting.
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Post by jockduck on May 9, 2015 0:51:44 GMT
A great story so far should turn it into a book, brought back nightmares when I was cutting and welding mainly mini body shells, my motto is there is always twice as much rust in the body than you can see on the outside. Have you tried to get bits of body from donor cars at the wreckers? I was always surprised that no two cars rusted the same way. Jock
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Post by Stu on May 9, 2015 21:37:23 GMT
Thanks Jock. Unfortunately there are no more classic mini shells in my regions car wreckers so I have to either buy new panels or fabricate my own like the bulkhead bit I did.
You're right about the rust too. Tip of the iceberg when you see it on the outside isn't it.
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Post by (minisniper) on May 18, 2015 19:15:34 GMT
Keep it coming Stu loving it.
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Post by Stu on May 19, 2015 17:52:22 GMT
Thanks Lea
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Post by Stu on May 19, 2015 18:05:55 GMT
I decided to re-spray Mollys bonnet, but found a small rust hole ......
Which is the result of this ....
And ended up stripping the front end to find this .....
I thought about a little filler, then thought I'd need to do it properly as I would never be happy, so out came the grinder again .....
And started to fabricate some sections to weld back in .....
Ground down the welds to the front section, so just need to weld in the outer two which I've made up ready, but I need to deal with the surface rust to the ends of the bonnet braces first.
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Post by Stu on Jun 1, 2015 18:32:45 GMT
I've made a bit more progress with the bonnet. Got the welding finished, plug welded a new trim carrier on and rubbed it down ready for epoxy primer.
I re-fitted it to the car to make sure it all lines up. Ill post up some more pics once I've got it painted.
Please feel free to leave a comment. If your a guest, sign up and post some stuff. We're all friends here
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Post by jockduck on Jun 2, 2015 0:51:10 GMT
Hi, love your work! I presume you are using a MIG, I do. I get very frustrated after welding and grinding to find pin holes in the weld, if the back of the weld was unseen or inaccessable then I left it unground but less likely to have pin holes or is a wipe of filler OK? Jock
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Post by Stu on Jun 2, 2015 13:17:33 GMT
Thanks Jock. Yes I use a Mig too. I also get pin holes too, I think we all do.
As long as they are pin and no larger I'll normally seal them with a little filler. Once the primer and topcoats are on they will be well sealed up anyway.
I'll be using epoxy primer on this bonnet and not used it before so I'll have to see how it turns out. Photos to follow .....
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Post by Stu on Jun 3, 2015 21:56:40 GMT
Last night it was really windy here. I was planning to prime the bonnet but thought better of it at first, then temptation got the better of me and I decided to throw caution to the wind, and quite a bit of primer too as it turned out
Anyway I did manage to get three coats of epoxy primer laid on without too much grief and can report that its really great stuff, and goes on extremely well from the gun. I had to turn up the pressure a bit due to the paint being a little cold, but I've learned now to keep the paint inside so it keeps warm and more runny. Better for the gun and makes life much easier.
This evening the wind was gone and was much warmer, so I sanded the primer ready for the celly topcoats.
The celly went on extremely well over the epoxy primer. I'm used to getting at least a little reaction somewhere when I put celly on due to the aggressive nature of the solvent, but over the epoxy it was very stable with no reactions at all so I'm really happy
I'll be re-spraying the front end of Molly next, so lots of rubbing down and prep work to come.
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Post by Stu on Jun 12, 2015 15:19:38 GMT
I've been fairly busy over the last week. I've re-sprayed Mollys front end
I started by flatting back the original paint with the DA sander.
Then sprayed on three coats of epoxy primer.
Once I'd flatted it all back I finished it with 6 coats of Cellulose.
I just need to get some new parts from MiniSpares tomorrow and I can get it back together and start on the door frames and A panels
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