That hot pink and rusty Mini

[Fabergé Greggs]

I'm hoping that it won't take too long to get it finished. I might start ordering panels next week.

 

Wanna meet up when it's done and have a drive?

 

10,000% yes, I'd love to!

 

Though it might make smile and cry in equal measure..

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

I had another spare hour today so I got the shell on the spit

I had another spare hour today so I ate four Twixes and fell asleep

[Ben_O]

I had a spare couple of hours this afternoon so I decided to get to work.

 

I'm going to work from the back forwards so the first panel to come out is the boot floor.

I want to retain the stiffeners inside the boot as well as the seat belt stiffener brackets and the heel board needs to remain intact for now so that I can use it to set the height of the new boot floor.

 

This means a painstaking affair to remove the boot floor in one piece (or near as damn it)

 

First, I located and drilled the spot welds from the floor to the bottom of the rear bulkhead. I have done it from underneath so that I don't have any drill holes in the rear bulkhead which is staying.

 

 

 

I had to cut and peel the floor in places to find the spot welds as there was some corrosion obscuring them

 

Next, I had to drill and remove the thick stiffener plates from the floor to get at the last 2 spot welds each side

 

 

 

Next, the spot welds between the seat base and heel board need to be found and drilled

 

 

And once they are drilled, I can split the seam

 

 

 

Then I need to split the floor from the arch to bulkhead stiffeners. They are spot welded but also have a slug of weld inside the boot to complicate things.

It's just a case of making some incisions from beneath to locate the welds and cut and peel the floor away without damaging the stiffeners

 

 

I did the same the other side and then turned my attention to the seat belt anchorages. This is secured from inside the boot by means of some lovely slugs of weld.

The penetration of these is visible from underneath

 

 

So I cut the welds from underneath and peeled the floor away.

 

I cut off the remains of the valance and closer off to reveal the spot welds holding the floor to the trunnion mount which I also want to save

 

 

And also sliced around the arch tub. Ill remove the remains of the floor where it welds to the tub later.

 

The other side was far crustier and would have taken an absolute age to unpick with the floor in the way so I cheated and cut around it and et voila

 

 

It just slid right out.

 

 

 

I had just enough time to remove the remains of the other closing panel and bit of valance

 

 

I next need to clean up all the edges, remove all the snaggy remains from the seams and then whilst the floor is out, ill bare metal the arch tubs, underside of the parcel shelf and back of the rear bulkhead.

 

I suppose I should order some panels....

 

I did get this for a bargain price however

 

 

It's second hand and has been refurbished but it's not wonderful so it may go back up for sale and ill just get a new one.

 

Cheers

 

Ben

[Craig the Princess]

Loving this, that looks like a whole world of work.

 

Please keep the updates coming.

[Dan_ZTT]

Cracking progress, I'm enjoying all the updates on this one.

[lincolndanny]

Never been a fan of mini's but I can't give a reason why if I'm honest! I'm loving the progress however, keen to see more!

[Ben_O]

Tiny bit of progress today but progress is still progress.

 

I began the cleaning up of the seams and edges starting by grinding off the old slugs of weld on the seat belt anchorage plate.

 

 

And also the bottom of the rear bulkhead

 

 

Then I started peeling off the remains of the old boot floor from the arch tub and cleaned back the stiffeners too

 

 

 

 

And then rolled the shell to a better position and started cleaning up the arch tub

 

 

 

 

That's not really scratched the surface but every little helps.

 

Cheers

 

Ben

[Mike D]

Fantastic work!

[Ben_O]

I ordered some panels for this last week so I expect they will be here tomorrow.

I suppose I better get a wiggle on and finish the prep ready for the new boot floor.

 

Last time, I was de-snagging and cleaning up the L/h arch tub. This just left some small repairs to do before I can call it done.

 

I accidentally tore this removing the old floor

 

 

So welded it up

 

 

The same went for this stiffener

 

 

 

And the back edge of the arch tub

 

 

 

 

Then I gave the areas a coat of zinc paint

 

 

 

 

 

Now I've got the other side to do

 

 

 

 

[Ben_O]

I have managed to get a very small amount of cleaning up done between jobs

 

 

 

 

And unpacked the first lot of new panels

 

 

Ben

[bezzabsa]

Oh I wish I had your skill, and workshop

 

could have used you a fair few years back, grabbed a Mini 25 that had been stolen recovered (twice - 2nd time from storage yard after being recovered 1st time)

needed interior and a new roof as they had mullered it somehow and twisted both a pillars..

Brought it for £200...sold parts off it for £500 and someone gave me £200 for shell and ID with V5......

2 weeks later was offered a brand new (off the back of a BL lorry)  shell for £50 ...could have cried!!!

[DSdriver]

Back in the days when I was a yoof, mates used to de-seam the back of their Minis. Is this still a done thing or do you not approve of such modification?

[Ben_O]

Oh I wish I had your skill, and workshop

 

could have used you a fair few years back, grabbed a Mini 25 that had been stolen recovered (twice - 2nd time from storage yard after being recovered 1st time)

needed interior and a new roof as they had mullered it somehow and twisted both a pillars..

Brought it for £200...sold parts off it for £500 and someone gave me £200 for shell and ID with V5......

2 weeks later was offered a brand new (off the back of a BL lorry)  shell for £50 ...could have cried!!!

I own a Mini 25, it's the silver mini in my avatar

Such a shame you weren't offered the shell before hand. Not too many 25's left now. 

 

Back in the days when I was a yoof, mates used to de-seam the back of their Minis. Is this still a done thing or do you not approve of such modification?

one of my mates has a de-seamed Mini which I helped finish off. I'm not a fan of it really as many people don't do it properly and they look terrible and/or are weak as hell.

Quite a few coach builders like W&P and Oyler used to de-seam their coachbuilt mini's but for me, the external seams are part of the car's character.

 

Cheers

 

Ben 

[Ben_O]

After a long time of no progress, I have now had some down time and been able to get some bits done.

This was due to needing the spit for this which I have been restoring

 

 

So the Pink mini has been banished to the corner for the past few months.

 

Now it's back on and I can carry on

 

 

Last time, I was cleaning up the rear arch tubs, rear bulkhead and companion bins ready for the boot floor to be fitted. I was also removing the old closing panels that sit forward of the arch tubs.

 

 

With the remains removed, I started cleaning up the bottom of the rear bulkhead

 

 

 

 

 

With everything de-rusted there, I needed to remove the remains of the old seat base from the companion bin. This meant taking the other door off

 

 

I won't even attempt to un-do those nuts so I just cut into the A panel to access the nuts from there and cut them off

 

 

Then I could step through and access this last bit

 

 

And then removed that and finished cleaning up

 

 

Before giving everything a coat of zinc spray

 

 

 

I also finished cleaning and repairing the other arch tub 

 

 

And then I dug out the new floor.

 

 

Before trail fitting the boot floor, I spot welded on the fuel tank strap bracket

 

 

And then lifted it into position

 

 

 

It all lines up fine

 

 

 

Whilst it was in, I half fitted the new closing panels as I need the floor in place to get the height correct

 

 

 

 

with the floor back out, I made a start fitting the valance closing panels to it

 

First one clamped in

 

 

And then spot welded

 

 

 

And then the other

 

 

 

Then I transferred over the seat base reinforcer from the old floor

 

 

 

I need to make up some wiring loom tabs to weld across the back edge of the floor, transfer over the captive nut and cage for the battery earth cable and drill some additional holes to match the ones in the old floor.

 

Starting with the additional holes

 

 

The large ones are to access the bolts for the SRS box which is located beneath and the smaller holes are for wiring loom clips to secure the SRS loom to the underside of the seat base.

 

I made up a simple template to transfer over their positions

 

 

But only got as far as marking them onto the new floor before I ran out of time.

 

I'm hoping to be able to get back to regular progress now so I should have more next week.

 

Thanks for looking

 

Ben

[Fabergé Greggs]

Skills! Always happy and sad to see progress on this! Mostly happy obvs

[SiC]

That spit makes it look massively easier to work on the car.

[Ben_O]

Skills! Always happy and sad to see progress on this! Mostly happy obvs

Cheers. I really want it done now so progress will be picking up. It just looked really sad sitting in the corner covered in dust for all this time.

 

That spit makes it look massively easier to work on the car.

I wouldn't be without it. It's so nice to be able to quickly change positions of the car to attack both sides of a repair as well as the obvious of having pretty much any bit at working height.

 

The only downside is you can't climb in the shell and working in the engine bay or boot is not much good.

[Ben_O]

Only had 20 mins spare today but managed to get some more prep done on the boot floor

 

Those extra holes I mentioned are now drilled

 

 

 

 

I also welded on the captive nut cage for the battery earth (no pic)

 

And a stud for the fuel line retaining bracket

 

 

I also started making up the loom retaining straps to go across the back edge of the boot floor

 

Ben

[binhoker668]

Outstanding stuff - have just read all of this up to date whilst my bath is sitting going cold downstairs. 

[Ben_O]

had some more time on this today so I made up the wiring harness straps

 

 

And then welded them to the boot floor

 

 

And then finished up the prep work on the floor ready to fit to the car

 

 

 

 

And then it was ready to fit.

The first point I go to when lining up the floor is the rear trunnion mounts. It's crucial to get these right so that the subframe fits. 

Once they are perfectly aligned, I bolted the skins together

 

 

 

Now I know that is right, I line up the bumper mount holes, They were pretty much spot on before I clamped them which I was happy about.

 

 

 

Everywhere else was fine and just needed some minor dressing to tighten the fit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I didn't really have time to start welding it but I couldn't resist spot welding one of the arch tubs to the boot floor.

 

 

I even placed the spot welds in exactly the same position as they were originally to satisfy my OCD

 

Updates may be a bit light now for a bit as I am going to be too busy to work on this one.

 

Cheers

 

Ben

[Slartibartfast]

This is top notch stuff

[Mike D]

You're doing a fantastic job, full marks!

[Matt]

Excellent work!

[paulplom]

Amazing skillz. 10 out of 10. Would read again.

[Ben_O]

Thanks!

[stephen01]

​Some serious work going into this, let me know when you want to sell it, *

 

​I couldn't afford it but it's nice to dream! 

[Ben_O]

I was working this morning and had a tailboard for a Ram to paint so whilst I was waiting for the primer to bake on that, I took the chance to get some more of the boot floor spot welded.

 

I have now finished the seat base to companion bin welds both sides

 

 

 

And I single side spot welded the bottom of the bulkhead to the seat base too. The primer was still wet when I took the photos so it's quite hard to see the spot welds

 

 

There is still a bit of tidying up to do there once the car comes off the spit but it's only a couple of very tiny holes in the centre of 2 or 3 of the original spot welds where I went just that fraction too far with a cheapo spot weld drill bit - the point at the tip of the drill bit was too long..

I shall just mig those and clean back smooth.

 

The single side spot welder is great for areas like this where you can't double side but you have to get the balance between too much power and not enough power just right.

Too much and you have fireworks and/or a big hole and not enough and it won't penetrate quite enough usually resulting in the welds pinging apart moments later or when you rotate the shell etc.

I don't want that!

 

Here is the penetration on the underside to show that they were just right

 

 

I always try to pry the skins apart after just to make sure they have taken despite the fact that the bulkhead won't go anywhere because it's held firmly by the seat belt anchorages which are seam welded to the floor and bulkhead.

I usually run a series of test welds on steel of the same gauge on the bench whilst I get the power settings set up then you can literally tear the pieces apart to check.

 

So not a huge amount of progress but it's another thing ticked off the list

[Ben_O]

A few more odds and ends done

 

I finished to spot welding on the arch tubs. All that remained was the 3 skins at the back - arch tub, valance closer and boot floor.

Once clamped up tight and reshaped I spot welded them

 

 

 

And then I had a look at these floor stiffener plates from the old floor.

 

 

They sit on the underside of the boot floor close to the edge by the arch tub either side. I'm not convinced they have much of a purpose but as I am going for originality, They better go back.

I think these aren't worth using so I made up some new ones

 

 

And then they spot weld to the floor with a slug of mig weld either end

 

 

 

 

For the next part, the shell needs to come off the spit

 

 

 

And then cut the back panel off

 

 

I quickly clamped the new panel on just to check that everything sits where it should

 

 

 

 

 

All seems fine.

With it back off again, I spot welded the subframe mount stiffeners to the floor

 

 

 

I'm going to strip all of the paint back to bare metal inside the boot including the parcel shelf and then epoxy prime in there and also on the inside of the new back panel before it goes on. This will ensure I get everywhere as it's really tricky painting inside the boot through the boot lid hole!

 

Ben

[Ben_O]

Not too much been going on with this lately. I have been far too busy sadly.

 

I managed 5 minutes here and there today so started the prep in the boot before I fit the back panel.

 

The paint has to go on the rear shelf, arch tubs and bulkhead so out came the paint stripper

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ben

[holbeck]

Just catching up with this thread.

 

Fantastic work there.

 

I know we touched on it before, but maybe we need to talk again about you doing some work on my Rancho.