1981 Mini City 1000

[ctwomey]

I cut out all the rotten floor in the driver's rear corner

Made up a carboard template of the patch panel

Cut a patch panel out using the old outer skin of the door

All Cleco'd up now with just the plug weld holes to create. Should weld it all up this weekend.

This is the finished strip in the background of the previous image

[colinf1]

Would you recommend the Cleco clips or could you get away with plenty of vice grips?

[ctwomey]

Would you recommend the Cleco clips or could you get away with plenty of vice grips?

Great for pinning panels where you can't get a clamp to the back of them. However, the best is that you can align two panels together, drill the 3.5mm Cleco holes and every time you take the panel off for tweaking, painting etc. you can ensure it goes back into the exact same place afterwards.

Mind you Lidl do a 3 x pack of small vice-grips for €7.99 that are great for holding panels together too.

[colinf1]

Any updates on how the restoration is going?

[ctwomey]

Any updates on how the restoration is going?

Hi Colin, I can't believe my last post was in July

I had the greatest of intentions to work on it all through the Summer but alas, other things got in the way. I have been tipping away doing small bits but I need to start block booking time out in the garage again. I didn't really want to spend the Summer evenings out in the garage, weather was too good not to be outside. Now that the Autumn/Winter is upon us time to get stuck into it again.

[ctwomey]

Easing myself back into the welding again over the last couple of weeks.

Finally, have the welder 'tuned in' and have it nice and hot without it blowing through. I think I was trying to get it too cold and that was making life a little difficult.

Rust is hidden in lots of places that needs to be cut out.

Hard to see where I made the welds.

[colinf1]

Thats pretty good blending!

[ctwomey]

Old door skins are great for patch panels

Where does everyone else get their 20 gauge/0.9mm sheets?
Haven’t had much luck locally here in Laois.

[ctwomey]

Drilled a few 6mm holes to plug weld from the other side when the patch is welded in.

Patch panel clamped in place

Tacked the patch in place and trimmed it back

Completed the weld. I used a stainless steel plate pushed between the boot and boot floor lip to take out the heat.

Weld ground down and some sprayed with some weld through primer.

[ctwomey]

Cleaned up the boot floor butt weld. One small pin hole to fix but happy with the results. New valence closing panels arriving in a couple of days. Will start the other side soon and then will be close to finishing the rear end repairs.

[colinf1]

Looking nice and tidy!

Have you set a finish date?

[ctwomey]

Have you set a finish date?

I thought I would get most of the body work done this year with it on the road by Summer ‘22 but I am way behind schedule. Family and work commitments have taken a priority in ‘21. As long as I keep tipping away it will get done. I am enjoying the whole process.

There is the fear too of screwing it up, so slow and steady until I become really proficient at the welding. It’s not cheap restoring any car and the country is littered with half finished and abandoned projects. Don’t want to be in that category.

[ctwomey]

Finally started repairing the passenger side boot floor

Requires a similar patch panel to the driver’s side. Managed to salvage the fuel tank bracket too.

[colinf1]

Are there any other patches required on the boot floor?

Looks like your chipping away at making good progress!

[ctwomey]

Are there any other patches required on the boot floor?

Only small repairs

and then onto the two quarter panel window openings

Driver's side is not too bad, just a small section

Passenger one will require more work. Might need to finally invest or create a steel folding machine.

[ctwomey]

Got the other boot floor patch panel tacked in this evening.

From the other side

[ctwomey]

Blasting the suspension parts to get them ready for powder coating.

Hopefully will get these done along with the subframes. Lead time is 3-4 weeks with Carlow Coating.

[colinf1]

Are you sticking with drums on the front?

I see your using the original tie rods, must be pretty straight! Mine were like banana's!

[ctwomey]

Are you sticking with drums on the front?

I am going to convert to 7.5 inch discs. Brakes on both front and back are shot and I think it’s best to replace with new rather than messing trying to service the old ones.

I have new AP assembled back plates but I haven’t bought the front disc assembly yet. It’s pricey

[colinf1]

Yes, very pricey indeed!

I've already bought drums, wheel cylinders, shoes and braided pipes,so will be sticking with them for now.

My mini in Australia had drums all round and was very juddery until I got the drums machined, then it stopped fantastically!

[ctwomey]

Change of plan, decide to only get the subframes and petrol tank powder coated by a powder coating company.

I am going to do the rest myself. There are 22 items in the box and given an average price of €10-15 per item it could cost up to €330 to get them done. I can buy all the equipment to do the smaller items at home for around the same price. There will be more items to powder coat as I progress through the project too. A cheap oven off adverts.ie will cost less than €100 too.

Those suspension parts require a lot of masking and I simply can't see any company spending the time to mask off all the critical machined faces required.

[colinf1]

Change of plan, decide to only get the subframes and petrol tank powder coated by a powder coating company.

I am going to do the rest myself. There are 22 items in the box and given an average price of €10-15 per item it could cost up to €330 to get them done. I can buy all the equipment to do the smaller items at home for around the same price. There will be more items to powder coat as I progress through the project too. A cheap oven off adverts.ie will cost less than €100 too.

Those suspension parts require a lot of masking and I simply can't see any company spending the time to mask off all the critical machined faces required.

My powder coater said it wouldn't be worth the effort powder coating the parts that need a lot of masking, and painting would be better as the coating really needs to encapsulate the entire part to perform to its maximum.

All the masked areas offer too many water creep points, that will cause the coating to go bubbly when it starts rusting.

[ctwomey]

My powder coater said it wouldn't be worth the effort powder coating the parts that need a lot of masking, and painting would be better as the coating really needs to encapsulate the entire part to perform to its maximum.

All the masked areas offer too many water creep points, that will cause the coating to go bubbly when it starts rusting.

Yep agree with their comments it wouldn’t be worth the effort. I suppose the items that need masking are the large cast iron items and a bit of surface rust here and there over time will be of no impact. Getting mild steel items like brackets fully encapsulated is more important.

[ctwomey]

Successfully morning powder coating for the first time.

[ctwomey]

Steering arms came out great after some masking the machined surfaces prior to powder coating