1981 Mini City 1000

[colinf1]

Looks like your making good progress! Inner wings are looking good, have you much to do around door frame?

Have you a company in mind for blasting? The blaster I used said it was pretty hard to get the epoxy off for welding prep, but I see plenty of people using it so can't be that bad?

[ctwomey]

Looks like your making good progress! Inner wings are looking good, have you much to do around door frame?

Have you a company in mind for blasting? The blaster I used said it was pretty hard to get the epoxy off for welding prep, but I see plenty of people using it so can't be that bad?

Driver side door step has rusted through but I have the replacement panel for it.

Thinking of FMK for the vapour blasting and epoxy.

[woody]

Looks better jnside than any sills I ever opened. quite solid. nice.

[ctwomey]

Busy few weeks with work and homeschooling like so many others, so haven't had as much time for the Mini. Managed to get out today and removed the driver side outer sill.

To get the piece of sill that is inside the rear closing panel you need to make this small cut in the corner to free up the weld.

Outer doorstep on the driver's side will need replacing as there are numerous holes in it.

Found the stamp on the outer inner sill indicating an '81

Also to keep the garage warm I purchased a small propane jet heater that is perfect for getting the cold out of the space.

Next is to finish up the areas where the outer sills join the floor and quarter panels, then on to replacing some steel on the inner wings that are damaged from where the front panel joins them.

[colinf1]

General consensus is operator ID, then Week 07, 1981

Looks like your making good progress, and keeping warm...

My heater is a hat and a jacket lol

[ctwomey]

General consensus is operator ID, then Week 07, 1981

That makes sense. The car was registered in early April ‘81

[ctwomey]

Good day in the garage today working on the mini

Removed all the seam sealer off the bottom of the car. Just a small bit in the engine bay and then the interior to do

Cut out a repair patch for the inside front wing on the passenger side.

Sometimes the gap looks big but you get great penetration on the weld.

Tacked up ok but will have to come back to finish it off.

[Dalcash]

Fantastic thread on restoring a classic. I'll being doing my own restoration shortly and a lot of very valuable info in this. Thank you very much for taking the time to document the build.

Quick one regarding the crankshaft endfloat. You said you have it .003" which is what the Haynes manual would suggest. Haynes says .002" to .003" endfloat. However, Cole at Classic Mini Diy had an issue with the crank endfloat and he says that the Haynes manual is wrong. He had .002" on his engine which is also in the Haynes spec but it caused issues, as when the engine was at temperature and he pressed the clutch the engine was binding and stalling. Turns out he had too low a clearance on the crank endfloat. He said that engine builders usually go with .005" - .007" crankshaft endfloat. When he disassembled the engine to fix the issue the endfloat was .0035" but still too tight. He increased the endfloat to .006" and this fixed the issue.

What are your thoughts on this. I'll need to do it myself soon and I have more questions then answers as to what the crank endfloat should be.

Here's a link to the video to better understand the issues he had
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx8HksuAw48

Thanks in advance. Best of luck with the build.

[ctwomey]

Fantastic thread on restoring a classic. I'll being doing my own restoration shortly and a lot of very valuable info in this. Thank you very much for taking the time to document the build.

Quick one regarding the crankshaft endfloat. You said you have it .003" which is what the Haynes manual would suggest. Haynes says .002" to .003" endfloat. However, Cole at Classic Mini Diy had an issue with the crank endfloat and he says that the Haynes manual is wrong. He had .002" on his engine which is also in the Haynes spec but it caused issues, as when the engine was at temperature and he pressed the clutch the engine was binding and stalling. Turns out he had too low a clearance on the crank endfloat. He said that engine builders usually go with .005" - .007" crankshaft endfloat. When he disassembled the engine to fix the issue the endfloat was .0035" but still too tight. He increased the endfloat to .006" and this fixed the issue.

What are your thoughts on this. I'll need to do it myself soon and I have more questions then answers as to what the crank endfloat should be.

Here's a link to the video to better understand the issues he had
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx8HksuAw48

Thanks in advance. Best of luck with the build.

Thanks for the feedback Dalcash. I didn't do videos because I wanted to enjoy my time in the garage away from all technology. At least with my phone in my pocket, I can take a few pictures and post them here along with some descriptions and build up the thread.

Yes, I saw Cole's video after I finished building the engine. I suppose I won't fully know until it is running in the car and I test the clutch. I did actuate the clutch using a metal bar when I had it running out of the car and it was ok, but the real test is when I put it back in the car. I wonder if it affects big bore engines more than small bore.

Hopefully, I can get back to the bodywork on the Mini over the next week or so.

[ctwomey]

Made a complete mess of the previous patch panel.

Decided to cut it out and start again.

I spent a bit of time practicing on some off cuts and I think I have tuned the welder settings for butt welding 20gauge.

Took my time with the welding

Really happy with the final results. Probably took on the hardest form of welding as both sides of the butt weld are visible.

[colinf1]

How does it look on the opposite side? Looks like you got good penetration and no pin holes or blowing through...

Should have the welding nearly finished now

[ctwomey]

How does it look on the opposite side? Looks like you got good penetration and no pin holes or blowing through...

Hi,

These images will show you the penetration for each side.

Frontside

Backside

[ctwomey]

This is the inside of the inner wing finished off

Now to repair the other side

[colinf1]

That looks really good, can't see the join at all...

[woody]

Great work ,pratice makes perfect

[ctwomey]

Fixed the mess on the other side

If you want decent penetration at low temperatures then you need to have a gap of 0.9-1.0 mm

Tacted up

Ground down the previous tacts so I can add the next tact beside it

Grinding down welds is tricky but an outside bend is the easiest. Inside bends or inside 90-degree bends is much harded. Always worth welding from the outside of any curve. The penetrated weld is much smaller.

Put some etch primer on until the shell gets vapour blasted.

[colinf1]

That's looking very neat and tidy indeed! It's amazing how a coat of primer transforms the look of it and makes you feel like it was worth all the hassle!

Keep up the good work...

[The Marcos Graveyard]

Nice job

[ctwomey]

The more you work on these minis the more you realise how bad the manufacturing process was. Amazing how any of these survive.

Bare metal with no protection. Seam sealer plastered everywhere. Big blob under rear slinging brackets.

[ctwomey]

Stripped the outer skin off the boot. Have a heritage replacement but will need to cut out some rust and replace some metal on the inner one before it can be considered usable.

[Johnd101]

Great work really gives me great inspiration for my own one

[colinf1]

Was it hard getting the boot skin off? Did you grind it or unfold it?

[ctwomey]

Was it hard getting the boot skin off? Did you grind it or unfold it?

Just use a 60 or 80 grit flap disk on the edge until you see a hairline crack in the steel, that will indicate that you have ground down through the bend of the fold of steel.

There are four spot welds you will need to remove. Two under the hinges between the two holes and then two more in the lower part of the reg plate area. I just ground them down from the outer skin side and then the internal frame was undamaged.

[ctwomey]

Got the outer skins off both doors.

Just a strip at the bottom that needs replacing on both.

Passenger side is a little worse for wear but very repairable.

Lots of welding to do but just think I will be a dab hand at it when this is all done (note: keep saying that to yourself)

[colinf1]

Great work, planning on attempting mine this weekend, both need the bottom repair panels.

Same process as the bootskin? There's a few spot welds to drill out too?