1989 Austin Mini 'Designer' special edition project + bonus Mini Cooper content

[Remspoor]

Liking the updates on the work.

I have to admit that I was a little confused as to the location of the strengthening plates until the latest vid.

Nice to have some panels for repairs. My Westminster has hardly any available so I ma making most from sheet metal.

What welder are you using?

[Isaac Hunt]

On 1/18/2021 at 8:19 PM, Blake's Den said:

£600 wouldn't even buy a project now. Fancy a laugh? Look at the prices of Mini pick-ups and vans

Great work.  

The Cooper ‘was it or wasn't it a S’ that sold through Mathewson Auctions, fekkin hell, they had to sweep half of it up with a broom and dustpan, I swear they left about £2k’s worth sitting on the floor.

i’ve never Owned one, but a few mates did back in the day, proper good fun unless it’s five up all the way up to Blackpool, Kinell, alright for the first mile but not the 150 that followed it.

[Blake's Den]

1 hour ago, Remspoor said:

Liking the updates on the work.

I have to admit that I was a little confused as to the location of the strengthening plates until the latest vid.

Nice to have some panels for repairs. My Westminster has hardly any available so I ma making most from sheet metal.

What welder are you using?

Thanks! I haven't even posted the video on any pages or forums yet 😊

 

I'm using a Rtech Mig 180 https://www.r-techwelding.co.uk/mig-welder-r-tech-i-mig180/. I did start the project with my old Snap On mig but I decided to upgrade. The Rtech Mig is night and day better, it's really a massive difference. I did my research and looked at their products at the NEC classic show and decided to take the plunge. I'd recommend them to anyone.

I'm still crap at welding though!

For those who haven't seen here is the latest video. It's a messy repair but I'm happy that it's now solid.

 

 

[Blake's Den]

1 hour ago, Isaac Hunt said:

Great work.  

The Cooper ‘was it or wasn't it a S’ that sold through Mathewson Auctions, fekkin hell, they had to sweep half of it up with a broom and dustpan, I swear they left about £2k’s worth sitting on the floor.

i’ve never Owned one, but a few mates did back in the day, proper good fun unless it’s five up all the way up to Blackpool, Kinell, alright for the first mile but not the 150 that followed it.

I know, it's crazy! Even as a mini enthusiast I think that they are overpriced. But good cars are getting rarer and it's been 21 years since the 'new' mini came out which is a long time when you think about it. I did consider investing in an R50 now in the hope that it would be worth thousands in 20 years time. 

[Mr Laurence]

1 minute ago, Blake's Den said:

I know, it's crazy! Even as a mini enthusiast I think that they are overpriced. But good cars are getting rarer and it's been 21 years since the 'new' mini came out which is a long time when you think about it. I did consider investing in an R50 now in the hope that it would be worth thousands in 20 years time. 

I’ve wondered the same actually. Numbers are starting to noticeably thin out now that they’re worth little enough that one biggish bill is enough to send them to the scrapyard. It’s strange to think that R50s are that old now. It’s still a fairly fresh looking design to me 

[Blake's Den]

Hi all

Hope that lockdown boredom is not getting to you and that you are making progress with your car projects.

I decided to set to and remove the driver’s side wheel arch from Project Designer. It took a bit of getting out but it was worth it as more rust was uncovered. It is all fixable and probably easier to do know anyway with the wheel arch out.  I've got a new heritage arch to go back in, but I reckon that won't be until a couple of videos time.

I am having a bit of a push to get some more subscribers at the moment so if you like what you see then click the subscribe button please! When I set out making videos it was because I was spending a lot of time watching other people's videos and I thought "I could do that". It’s actually quite addictive once you get into it.

 

[Remspoor]

Just watched the latest video. That was a bit of a job. The area seems to be complicated with many layers of metal rust.

There was I thinking a large one piece of metal would make the work so much easier. Still beats forming repair patches, but easy repair it was not.

Well done.

[Blake's Den]

2 hours ago, Remspoor said:

Just watched the latest video. That was a bit of a job. The area seems to be complicated with many layers of metal rust.

There was I thinking a large one piece of metal would make the work so much easier. Still beats forming repair patches, but easy repair it was not.

Well done.

Thanks for watching. I've got no idea why if I did it right, I guess I'll find out when I try to put the new one in!

[Remspoor]

I hardly make comments on YouTube.

Dont worry about it too much. The new one can be hammered in ! Then  epoxied. 🤣

[Blake's Den]

2 hours ago, Remspoor said:

I hardly make comments on YouTube.

Dont worry about it too much. The new one can be hammered in ! Then  epoxied. 🤣

I've heard that filler makes a good structural repair 🤣

[Blake's Den]

I haven't made much progress on Project Designer the last few weeks. I've been feeling a bit under the weather and I've also been busy with hosue DiY.

However, at the risk of hijacking my own thread, I did pull my 'vintage' 1981 Westwood Gazelle W11 ride on mower out of the shed to see if it would run before spring finally lands. It is such a simple machine and despite low compression it seems to run OK.

Also my plan for 400 subscribers before then end of Febraury is still on course. I was on 398 for a while but it hs since dropped to 397! Grrrr!

[Remspoor]

A sit on mower. Something a man dreams about. 😁

[Blake's Den]

More progress this week. I tackled a rather tricky (to me) repair to the rear seat base and boot floor. I fabricated a repair panel out of the 0.8m steel and I was quite happy with the results. I don't think that the video shows it off that well but I know that the new wheelarch should fit a treat when I get around to it.

 

[tooSavvy]

Hey, m8!

If you ever need a spare steering wheel for your MiNi, I have one....

.... Fitted in my Suzuki

 

[Blake's Den]

37 minutes ago, tooSavvy said:

Hey, m8!

If you ever need a spare steering wheel for your MiNi, I have one....

.... Fitted in my Suzuki

 

I'm fine for steering wheels at the moment. One is just about the right amount 😆

[Blake's Den]

I've made a bit more progress at the weekend. I fabricated up a little repair patch for the boot floor and I had a go at fitting the replacement rear wheel arch.  I think that it will need a bit more fettling before I'll have a go at welding it into position.

I'm nearly out of welding gas so I'm not sure when the next update will arrive! 

 

[Blake's Den]

I managed to get some more welding gas last week which meant that I could crack on with some work at the weekend.

After spending a bit of time off camera fettling the wheel arch and getting the fit right I decided to get it welded in. I've heard that people have problems with the arches and I can see why, they are quite fidly and difficult to get aligned.

I don't think that I made too bad of a job of it. Lots of tidying up still to do along with paint and seam sealing but it is a big step forwards.

[AnthonyG]

This thread takes me back to when I worked with a guy who worked for Austin Rover in product planning in the mid-to late 1980s. He was responsible for Metros in the main but had some oversight on the Mini special editions as well.

Often a theme would be done on both models if it fitted, such as the ‘Red Hot’ and ‘Jet Black’, or tried out on one and if successful transferred to the other. 

The ‘Advantage’ cars were a last minute name change for a special edition planned to be ‘Wimbledon’, hence the tennis links.  The designs were all worked up and production scheduled before asking the Wimbledon people if they would agree. When they didn’t any half sensible word with some sort of tennis relevance was required rather quickly, hence ‘Advantage’.  

My colleague said it left some bad feeling as BL/AR had supplied the courtesy cars (for ferrying about the players) to the club for the big tournament for a good decade by this point. 

I can’t help feeling Ford, GM or Volkswagen probably would have started with the permission to use the name and then planned the car spec and trim, rather than the other way around.....

Anyway, nice to see an 1980s Mini getting restored as is, it’s good that these are getting desirable in their own right rather than getting Cooperised.

[Isaac Hunt]

1 hour ago, AnthonyG said:

This thread takes me back to when I worked with a guy who worked for Austin Rover in product planning in the mid-to late 1980s. He was responsible for Metros in the main but had some oversight on the Mini special editions as well.

Often a theme would be done on both models if it fitted, such as the ‘Red Hot’ and ‘Jet Black’, or tried out on one and if successful transferred to the other. 

The ‘Advantage’ cars were a last minute name change for a special edition planned to be ‘Wimbledon’, hence the tennis links.  The designs were all worked up and production scheduled before asking the Wimbledon people if they would agree. When they didn’t any half sensible word with some sort of tennis relevance was required rather quickly, hence ‘Advantage’.  

My colleague said it left some bad feeling as BL/AR had supplied the courtesy cars (for ferrying about the players) to the club for the big tournament for a good decade by this point. 

I can’t help feeling Ford, GM or Volkswagen probably would have started with the permission to use the name and then planned the car spec and trim, rather than the other way around.....

Anyway, nice to see an 1980s Mini getting restored as is, it’s good that these are getting desirable in their own right rather than getting Cooperised.

And I can’t help feeling the poncy officials at Wimbledon  missed a trick really.  I mean, all they really managed was to get the Wombles associated, how common. 

Great progress on the resto.  Good video as well

[Remspoor]

I was about to write that Wimbledon has more that tennis. Then came along the  comment about the Wombles.

[Blake's Den]

Hello all

A bit more progress made this week. Basically I finished off the bits that I could not be bothered doing in the previous video! I got the final welding complete, got it all seam sealed and painted with red oxide. I'm really happy with the fit, not perfect but good enough.

Although I did find another rusty part of the boot floor which needs attention. Still, it is a step in the right direction.

 

[Blake's Den]

So...... I've entered the WD40 Fix It challenge with Project Designer. I decided to include the video of the rear subframe removal as it does feature WD40. However as it's a public vote it makes no difference 😆

So Autoshiters assemble! Please can you vote for me? Here is the link:

 

https://thefixitchallenge.wd40.co.uk/voteme/904629/646671516?lc=eng

 

Thanks 😊

[Talbot]

On 4/6/2021 at 8:51 PM, Blake's Den said:

I managed to get some more welding gas last week which meant that I could crack on with some work at the weekend.

When you said you were "perilously low" on welding gas, you had 500psi left in a Y size bottle... that should last for a fair while.  How fast have you got your gas flow set?  I think you might be going through welding gas rather faster than you need to.

[Noel Tidybeard]

21 hours ago, Blake's Den said:

So...... I've entered the WD40 Fix It challenge with Project Designer. I decided to include the video of the rear subframe removal as it does feature WD40. However as it's a public vote it makes no difference 😆

So Autoshiters assemble! Please can you vote for me? Here is the link:

 

https://thefixitchallenge.wd40.co.uk/voteme/904629/646671516?lc=eng

 

Thanks 😊

you have an vote😁

[Blake's Den]

1 hour ago, Talbot said:

When you said you were "perilously low" on welding gas, you had 500psi left in a Y size bottle... that should last for a fair while.  How fast have you got your gas flow set?  I think you might be going through welding gas rather faster than you need to.

It's a 230 bar bottle so with 500 psi left that is 30bar or so left. So maybe it was a bit of an exaggeration. 

 

I have the flow about 12 l/m.

[Blake's Den]

3 minutes ago, Blake's Den said:

It's a 230 bar bottle so with 500 psi left that is 30bar or so left. So maybe it was a bit of an exaggeration. 

 

I have the flow about 12 l/m.

Actually, after a bit of googling, I might have that flow too high. Might turn it down and see how it goes

[Talbot]

Not so bad then, although I would still expect 30bar to last you for quite a lot of welding.  12-15 l/min is what I use when welding outside.  Indoors in a draught-free environment, I'd use 5-8 l/min, so possibly half what you're using.

a Y bottle filled to 230 bar is 5m3 of gas.  At 6l/min, that's most of 14hrs of continuous welding.  30 bars is at least an hour and a half of continuous welding.  Even at 12l/min that would be 45 mins of lit arc.

How are you measuring your flow?  If it's on the gauge on the regulator, that's usually wrong.  Best to use a ball-in-venturi type flow meter, they're very cheap, and well worth it in saved gas.

[Blake's Den]

2 minutes ago, Talbot said:

Not so bad then, although I would still expect 30bar to last you for quite a lot of welding.  12-15 l/min is what I use when welding outside.  Indoors in a draught-free environment, I'd use 5-8 l/min, so possibly half what you're using.

a Y bottle filled to 230 bar is 5m3 of gas.  At 6l/min, that's most of 14hrs of continuous welding.  30 bars is at least an hour and a half of continuous welding.  Even at 12l/min that would be 45 mins of lit arc.

How are you measuring your flow?  If it's on the gauge on the regulator, that's usually wrong.  Best to use a ball-in-venturi type flow meter, they're very cheap, and well worth it in saved gas.

Thanks for the advice.  I'll turn it down and see how it goes.

Yes, measuring it off the dial on the regulator. It sounds like that I could do with one of those floaty ball things. I've actually got two regulators as one came with my Rtech welder and I had one already but there is no easy way to work out which is the most accurate.

To be honest with you, BOC keep sending me free refill vouchers for some reason so it's not costing me much 😁

 

Thanks again for the advice 👍

[Talbot]

Just now, Blake's Den said:

one of those floaty ball things.

There's two types that are useful for welders.  One that goes between the regulator and the welder and measures all the time, and another type you can just shove on the end of the welding tip and get an instant measurement with.  These are much more useful as you can measure any welder without it needing to be plumbed in.

Thusly:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Professional-Tester-Flowmeter-peashooter-Welding/dp/B06XW8H8W1/ref=asc_df_B06XW8H8W1/

£7

[Blake's Den]

20 minutes ago, Talbot said:

There's two types that are useful for welders.  One that goes between the regulator and the welder and measures all the time, and another type you can just shove on the end of the welding tip and get an instant measurement with.  These are much more useful as you can measure any welder without it needing to be plumbed in.

Thusly:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Professional-Tester-Flowmeter-peashooter-Welding/dp/B06XW8H8W1/ref=asc_df_B06XW8H8W1/

£7

Thank you sir!