Hey guys - just joined the community after reading a few pages of the forums. Looks like a great place to talk minis!

I've just bought myself a 77 clubman S (I think. History of the car is foggy at best) as a 'learn to restore a car' project. I'm up to fixing up the exterior so I was wondering if I could get some advice. In the most part, the paint is pretty good, but there are some parts where it's either going to develop into something bigger, or is just annoying, so while I have the enthusiasm, I thought I might just repair it since all of it is acrylic and is pretty small, but I need a bit of help just confirming what I need to do.

By the way, does anyone know where I can get spray packs of Yellow Devil (dulon 17422) reasonably cheap road freighted? I think I can go to autobarn can do it, but just wondering if there is a cheaper alternative

Cracked paint

IMG_1107_resize by Jackolow, on Flickr

Is it as simple as just sanding it down to wherever it needs to be, then feathering/repainting everything back to standard?


Cracks and chipped paint


IMG_1113_resize by Jackolow, on Flickr

Is this a simple case of sand back, feather and reapply spray putty/primer/acrylic?


Broken weld

IMG_1110_resize by Jackolow, on Flickr

Not really sure what I can do about this guy. Failing anything to actually fix it (like rewelding), I was going sand it to get rid of the rust, fill it with body filler (maybe force bog inside?) and sand it back to normal. Should I do something like try the rust converter stuff before I body fill it up?

Actual rust

IMG_1111_resize by Jackolow, on Flickr

I'm thinking of sanding this back to the metal then painting/priming back to the original condition. But should I worry about putting rust converter in it? Are there any dangers with getting stuff inside the hinge?


[b]Chrome

IMG_1118_resize by Jackolow, on Flickr

The previous owner painted the chrome bumper and scruffed it up before painting/priming. Is there much I can do with it to get it back to the original state? I was thinking of lightly sanding with 2000 and hopefully not hit any nickel, then doing a heavy polish to buff it up with something designed for chrome. I hear the chrome stuff doesn't really cut/polish, but just brightens the chrome. Not quite sure what's the best thing without buying new bumpers.

Welcome to the forum Jackolow , you will find plenty of knowledgable people on here who are more than willing to point you in the right direction .

As for the pictures that you have put up , looking at the nasties that are beneath the paint, i would say that the prep work that was done previously was pretty ordinary .

If it were my car , i would get stuck into the bad areas with a sander and take it back to bare metal to expose the bad areas , then treat them with a rust convertor , then undercoat .Depending on how bad they are will determine how much work you will have to do .

There will be others here that will help you out with things that you will need too , i'm sure.

Knowing your location will help , as others might be close to you that could help you out .

The chrome bar looks like itll need to be rechromed. Too far gone for polish. I'd just look around for some replacement good 2nd hand ones.
The broken weld doesnt look too serious. Its only spot welds holding those two bits together. It just looks like its bent away slightly, and because there is so much paint build up on there it looks worse than it is.
Which coincidentally is the cause of most of your other problems too. Around the seam/mirror area, it crack like that when there is too much paint on there . Plus it looks like it wasnt prepped properly. Its going to be messy to get it looking ok by patch fixing it. If you have no experience with body work, I would find someone with some experience to give you a hand. Otherwise you are going to make a big mess.

The hinge looks not too bad. Just take it off, strip it back , and re prime and paint it.

The first cracked bit looks like an old repair. You will need to have a dig, and see what the cause is.

I Hope this helps

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Tim
Dusk Blue
1964 850

What type of bad prep are we talking about? I've had experience in painting fibreglass and plastics/wood with automotive paint, but they've always been models that had to last 1 week indoors. I guess I've got a bit of youtube watching and googling to do, but I'm hoping to do it once, do it right here. If I'm sticking to standard pressure packs (acrylic), is there much I need to keep in mind for painting and prepping? I'm assuming that the paint could've been messed up by putting too much thinners or something.




I thought that might be the case - I don't think it's high on the agenda yet so I might just leave it unpainted for the time being. Out of curiosity, how much does a good set cost? Are there a reputable wrecker that post? (Not really located in a place where there are spares)



So with the broken weld, would I be okay with sanding it back where I can and filling it up with body filler, then reworking it all again?

I was looking at the mirror area yesterday - the mirror area looks like someone has pushed the mirror in somehow and it's bent the door panel up there. Really peculiar. Not sure how it happened because it looks pretty healthy. Maybe it was in a prior accident or something, which I'm not quite sure how it got there in the first place.

Haven't had experience with cars, but I might as well give it a shot, and if I ever move back to a major city I might just get it all redone. It is a project car for learning after all : )

Cheers guys for the help so far

This should have pretty much all the answers you need Re prep work etc..
http://www.ausmini.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=63720

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So what's the last thing you remember...

I'm pretty sure you were..

WRONG ANSWER!!!