1983 Mini City

[ctwomey]

Great work Colin! Nice to see the improvising for the spot weld arms.

[colinf1]

Small tear on the rear panel seam repaired this morning, tricky piece to shape with curves both ways and lip curved too.



Cut as little as possible out and welded in patch, took it real slow with the grinding to get it to blend as much as possible.



Zinc primed to protect it...

[colinf1]

A bit more done today, mainly prepping for the inner wing.

Finished off welding the drivers side rear quarter panel, this now just needs a skim of filler to blend in the joint.

Cut out a small section of rust on the bulkhead seam, new piece welded in.



Also made a small section for the inner A-post panel with the hole for the door strap that was chopped out by accident.



Prepped all the mating surfaces for the inner wing, all cleaned and weld-thru primer on.

Should be able to get most of the inner wing done with longer arms on spot welder, just around the dash shelf and along the toe-board/floor will need plug welding!

[ctwomey]

Nice work Colin, seems like you are mastering that welder of yours.

[colinf1]

Cheers, its getting better but definetly not perfect yet! My plug welds still need some refinement, but think my biggest issue at the moment is light, or lack of...need to get a portable spotlamp.

The spot welder certainly makes a big difference to the time it takes per panel, I'm hoping this doesnt backfire on me when I go to do the inner wing!

Are you making any progress on yours ctwomey??

[ctwomey]

Yea plug welding can be tricky. I was plug welding the drivers side valence closing panel to the boot floor and that is hard because you have to turn the heat right up because the steel in the closing bracket panel is about 1.65mm but the boot floor is only 0.9mm. If the heat is too low then the plug weld doesn’t penetrate. If you miss place the weld or if the two metals are not touching tightly it just melts the boot floor.

[ctwomey]

I use a Draper 7W rechargeable LED. You need good light to setup the weld accurately through the mask.

[colinf1]

Inner wing is now fully attached to the car, apart from along toe board and floor which I'll do when new floor pan goes in.

Longer arms in spot welder didnt have enough clamping force to pull panels together in parts, so had to revert to mostly plug welds with spot welds done on A-post, cross-member end and the seam along the toe-board.



Welds ground back and plenty of zinc primer forced into all joins. Now I should be able to get front end and scuttle panel sorted!

[colinf1]

Prep'd the bulkhead this morning, getting in where the sandblaster couldnt with the scuttle in place. Some pitting along the crossmember which I addressed by adding some welds, also added some extra weld to the engine steady bracket.



Gave it a coat of rust convertor, just waiting for that to react then get it zinc primed ready for welding on the scuttle.

[colinf1]

Bulkhead now zinc primed and some top coat applied, just to seal it from any corrosion until its painted properly...

[colinf1]

Midweek welding! Got my scuttle panel on, fully welded! Bit of filler needed on passenger side as the piece that I welded back in (that I accidently cut off many,many months ago) was a shade too low. Drivers side looks fine, minimal filler needed this side.



Spot welder worked good, bit tricky around vents in top dash rail, and very heavy to be holding for a long time but worked quite well. Next up will be wings and front panel and it should start looking like a mini again!

[colinf1]

Starting to look like a mini again...



A really frustrating hour at it last night, couldnt get the wings to sit anywhere near to being close with inner wing and front panel, came really close to calling it quits on it...

But went back to it this evening, armed with several hammers, self tappers and lots of reading on here about having to get rather physical with magnum wings. Some bashing and snipping later I had it on in an ok position, took it back off to prep the edges, back on and spot welded along the inner wing edge first, then managed to get a few spots along the return fold to scuttle to keep it in place, then onto front panel edge. It involved lots of lifting the spot welder while sat awkwardly in the wheel arch, lots of vice grips and lots of swearing!

Have roughly a 5mm gap along bonnet edge hopefully I can get similar on passenger side...

[colinf1]

Front end is on!



Scuttle needed to be pulled outwards slighly on drivers side to make the A-panel line up. Passenger side was a right pig to get on. The lip where it meets A-panel was tiny, like 6mm, so hard to get it spot welded. Every panel needed brute force to get it to fit, and lots ansd lots of vice grips to hold it in place.

Its on now and gaps dont look too bad, both bonnets I have are a bit out of shape, so might try pick up a better one.

[colinf1]

Getting a few hours at the mini in the evenings this week, got the tabs on front panel spot welded to the inner wings, all thats needed on the front now is the scuttle closing panels and dressing back any plug welds.

Got the shell emptied, hoovered out as much grinding dust and sand blasting grit as I could, then got it on the rotisserie and on its side ready to get the floors and inner wings finished.

Made some sill reinforcing panels from some of the good pieces of the old panels, crossmember extension piece was tricky to fold but looks like it will do the job. Not intending on putting the jacking reinforcement in it as I have already welded the opening in the sill for it.

Pieces need to be wire brushed down and zinc primed, offer up the rear subframe to determine the location of the captive nuts then I can get driver side sill on!

[colinf1]

Remade the body tag thats on the slam panel, 3d printed mould that I sandwiched a light 0.5mm aluminium sheet between and squashed it in a hydraulic press. No identical but not too bad either..



Next to the remains of the original one..

[colinf1]

Good run at it today, got all the small brackets inside the sill and sill offered up to make sure everything was in correct position. All parts primed and some top coat applied to inside of sill panel and in the cavity of the inner sill.



Then got sill welded in place and front section of the floor finished. The shape of the flutes were different, so had to resort to a lot of fettling to get them close enough to weld.



Made a start in the inner wing to toe board, but that will have to wait for another day!

[colinf1]

Cut out the passenger front floor and the outer sill, actually found some good metal along the heelboard/subframe mounting bracket, so can get this wire brushed down and rust cured.



Hopefully get it all prep'd for welding in new floor on Saturday...

[colinf1]

Finished off the prep for welding passenger side floor pan in, last bit of the old floor was so corroded I couldn't make out the spotwelds so had to go at it with hammer and chisel. Eventually got it off, then cleaned up and rust treatment applied.

While waiting for that to work I made a start on the parcel shelf repair using a cut from the old drivers side inner wing...




Cut some metal to do the same the opposite side, just need to cut the hole and I'm going to try 3d print a form to roll the edge of the hole to match..



Then finally the welding marathon could begin on floor, about 90% done, small piece to be added each side of the tunnel, then get it plug weld to heel board...



Also got the drivers side floor welded to inner wing and toe board, so that side is pretty much finished apart from a few plug welds on crossmember and linishing it back...

[colinf1]

A few small jobs done this week, made a matching hole in the opposite side of the parcel shelf.



These are purely for strength, was easier to add stiffness this way than trying to form the groves..

Made a small section to go in the inner sill at the end of the front floor pan repair panel.



Ground back the welded to the 1st flute so I can get the outer sill welded in place then have a grind down all the underside Welds..

Got some 60mm pipe turned down to 58mm on the lathe today, then bored out the inside to 55ish for the fuel tank filler neck repair, need to add some positioning guides to the tank before cutting off the old neck to make sure it's in the right place.

Bit the bullet and ordered a full boot floor panel, battery box and quarter panel waist rails today...

[colinf1]

Got the passenger sill and brackets all welded on today,



Spot welded to the door step, then removed the bracing to allow the spot welder to get in to do step to inner sill..

Was hoping to finish up the inner wing to toe board but ran out of time.

[colinf1]

Got inner sill to door step spot welded, then a few patches that needed addressing on the passenger floor pan that the repair panel doesn't quite reach, crossmember plug welded and inner wing to toe board all welded and dressed back...not the prettiest of welding, but its not going to be seen..



Boot floor is en-route, hopefully the end of the welding is in sight too...

[colinf1]

Small repairs needed on rear seat panel, along the bottom fold to boot floor..



Cardboard template and cut from old quarter panel...



And offered up roughly in place...



Kept it below the seat belt mounts to avoid having to cut out the brackets.

Boot floor got delivered today

[colinf1]

Lovely fresh metal...

[colinf1]

A few hours spent preparing the boot floor panel for welding, removing the e-coat, cleaning the earth strap captive nut and holder and painting the back of the quarter waist rails/liner retainer.



And nut spot welded into place while I had access



Next up is to cut out old waist rails and get the new ones in, then get some bracing for the boot floor removal.

[colinf1]

Fuel tank neck repaired over my lunch break...new piece of pipe, then the top pressing cut off and welded onto it, all grinded back ready for paint.