Irish Mini Owners Club

Last week my '68 Hornet convertible looked like this:


It had successfully done MTM2007 but the bodywork was always fairly shabby and the basic 1-litre got a bit breathless going up hills.

The plan is to have it ready for the IMM in Holland next May and bring myself, Majella, and the 2 kids.

And so the work began:





Thanks to help from our illustrious President last Saturday morning and my shiny new engine lift, the engine is now out.

Jobs to be done:

- strip down to rolling shell;
- have bodywork sorted;
- have seats re-covered;
- rebuild engine with Mk1 Cooper head (12G295) I bought at Beaulieu autojumble;
- fit RC40.

You can see from the photos that the Hornet has been yellow at some point and closer inspection shows silver, and below that a light green. All the filler will be cut off it and replaced with genuine Heritage panels where available.

Hopefully the bodywork will be ready by the end of February to give 2 months to put it all back together and give it a proper shakedown before we head to Holland.

I'll add more photos as the project progresses.

Billy

Billy wrote:Hopefully the bodywork will be ready by the end of February to give 2 months to put it all back together and give it a proper shakedown .
Billy

I've been saying that about the Marcos for the past 5 years

Good work, Billy, making good progress.

Was it a light silver colour or dark silver? There used to be a convertible Hornet in the club years ago which was dark silver. I will try to dig out a photo

Dave,

This was light silver but it would be interesting to see the other one for comparison.

Billy

TMG if you stopped working on other peoples cars and did a bit of work to your own,you would be finished long ago. And Billy I don,t think there is another car in the known universe to compare to the hornet. :lol:When I could keep up with you going up the Vee with 3 adults in 1000 auto estate,defo more horses for the hornet,though the weight of fillers alone would account for a small elephant.As a last word,good luck with the resto and hope to see you in the rear view mirror on the way to the IMM.

Keep us posted on progress, your enthusiasm is badly needed to encourage me to go to the cold garage and make a start on last year's list ready for the 2008 MTM

Mini Ha Ha

Update on the Hornet restoration:

It's finally about 90% stripped back, engine out, seats out, engine bulkhead cleared out bar the hydrolastic pipes cos I don't want to drain the suspension.

This afternoon the panelbuilder called out to the house so we could agree what new panels needed to be ordered. It's looking like 2 front wings, a-panels, repair sections for the piece between the door and the rear wheelarch. I already have a new rear valence sourced last year on Ebay, a replacement front panel, and a perfect bootlid. Somerford will get the order for the other panels in the morning.

While I had him, I brought him to see the van and DaveC's old 1960 Seven and the Hornet saloon. In his opinion the van is shagged so my plan is to take the sides off it (Malcolm, don't even think of calling yet). The Seven could be next on the list for later in the year. The great thing is that this guy owned a Seven back in the 70s so is very interested in working on it.

Timewise, I sent off the IMM2008 form yesterday and the convertible Hornet is the car I've entered. If all goes well with the bodywork and I have the car back by early/mid-March, I hopefully will still have time to put the car back together.

While it's getting the bodywork sorted, the seats will be recovered by Pat Geary, Westford upholstery, Tallow, Co. Waterford 058-56340. Pat did the seat on my Honda 50 and changed the colour of leather seats on an old Merc for me in the past. He does a lot of car and motorbike seats.

The engine will be given a minor rebuild including the fitting of the reconditioned Mk1 Cooper head I bought in Beaulieu last September.

That's it for now.

Billy

I ordered all the above panels from Somerford Minis on Friday last at 10.30am. Today Monday they arrived by Nightline Couriers at 1.30pm.

I am seriously impressed by that level of service by both companies.

Rang the panelbeater and the parts have arrived so quick, he won't be ready for me for another few days. I'm hoping to be trailering the Hornet by this time next week and then the clock starts ticking.

Billy

Mind that dodgy ramp on the trailer!

This afternoon I removed the exhaust, gear linkages, and petrol tank.
Still a few niggly trim bits and the wind-up windows to take off.

I'll try to get a few updated photos up later on.

Billy

It's now ready to go to the panelbeater. Everything is stripped out and the new panels are waiting to be fitter. I've arranged to drop the seats to the upholsterer next week and the next job then is to sort out the engine.

Here's the latest photos

Great work, do you have a new top for it the last one was quite drafty?



_____________________________________
10 inch wheels it’s not the size it’s what do with it

Dropped the seats to Pat Geary the upholsterer yesterday along with the two front seats of the Cooper. The Cooper is the back-up for the MTM in case the Hornet isn't ready. The latest from the panelbeater is that he is finally finished a Beetle he was doing for someone and I can bring him down the Hornet next Tuesday. It's all going to be a bit close but either way, the Hornet will be definitely ready for the summer.

Billy

Fair play to you Billy, you are making better progress than me.

Very productive day yesterday on the projects. Having had the Cooper out for the Dungarvan Parade on Monday, I decided to use it more yesterday. First call was to Pat Geary in Tallow to finalise some details on the Hornet and Cooper seats (I'm using sagging Hornet seats in the Cooper at the minute and they would remind you of an old horror film where the victim gets swallowed by the couch!). Great news in that Pat had experimented with different sprays to match the red of the Cooper seats and he can also make up new interior side panels for the Hornet. I had sourced two rubber diaphragms for the seat supports from Somerford and these will both be needed.

On then to Youghal to the panelbeater with a sill which was needed for the passenger side. I had met him at the Dungarvan parade and he had told me that the complete front of the car had now be chopped off. When I arrived yesterday, he had clamped the new inner wings and the replacement front panel in place. These will now be removed so he can prepare the bulkhead and paint the front subframe. Here's a couple of photos:




With the bodywork and upholstery coming along nicely, it's now up to me to get the engine sorted and there'll be more updates on that soon.

Billy

Billy

How is your panel beater getting on.

From experiance I advise regular contact to monitor progress.

If progress ceases remove car from panel beater and seek again.

Good luck with the rebuild

Mini Ha Ha

The Hornet is slowly progressing. Here's some photos I took last week:

The front wings, A-panels, inner wings, and front panel have now been welded in place:



Having a 2-post lift makes it much easier to access the rusty bits. Here you can see where the new rear valence is being clamped in place:



The one panel you can't get for an Elf/Hornet is the piece above the bumper. Here you can see new pieces of metal being added to replace the rotten piece. It's an area that goes on them all:



As I want to put rear seatbelts in the Hornet, we're adding strengthening pieces above and below the rear parcel shelf:



The next stages are the bottoms of the doors and a nearside sill. I'll be taking more photos later this week.

Billy

Coming on well Billy,If ur panelbeter needs a few vice-grips tell him to give us a shout .We've got LOADS up here._l

Got the seats back from the upholsterer yesterday. They were all completely recovered. Also new side panels were made up using new hardboard and the original badly warped ones as templates.




With the IMM next week, I wanted to have the Cooper seats repaired as the foam and the bases were knackered. I sourced 2 new rubber diaphragms from Somerford Mini and Pat Geary (details above) did all the rest including replacing several of the vinyl panels. The design and colours of the Irish-made seats were different from those supplied on UK-built Coopers. Here's how they turned out:



The bodywork is slowly progressing and hopefully the shell will be in primer by next week. If I've time I'll get down to the panelbeater to take some more photos before the IMM.

Billy

Thats a fine job on those seats.Newton commercial don,t do any of the Irish pattern seats and even the plain vinyl ones had a different weld pattern.I ended up getting a kit from Woolies to spray mine as they had faded.I was a bit worried that the spray would rub off but so far so good.

I took more photos on Friday last on the Hornet partially in primer. All the welding is finished but rubbing down all the previous coats of paint are proving time-consuming. It must have looked horrible in yellow in a former life! The 2 doors have been repaired and the curves of the doors are now in line with the rest of the body.








Billy

Found another idea for the hornet Billy

That windscreen is right up there with the front number plate I had on the Honda 50 many years ago when I got stopped by a guard and told to remove it before I castrated someone!

Hopefully I'm collecting the painted Hornet this afternoon. Fingers crossed. This new water paint is causing problems for panelbeaters all over the place.

Photos anon,

Billy

Here's how it looked before the final coats of paint and lacquer went on:





And here's how it looks since I brought it home yesterday:




I just love the new rear valence I found on Ebay:



Now the fun starts. The plan is to do some serious rustproofing to keep Hetty rustfree for another few years. It definitely won't be ready for next Sunday's NMD!!!!!

Billy

Don't let Mickey near it