Next stage is to start again on the shell repairs - of which there is lots.
Blanking off the fresh air duct into the cabin (since the duct won't fit anymore)




Redoing the crappy de-seaming welds in the A-Pillar


The de-seam welds on the C-pillar were atrocious and a lot of the panel grinded back too much


It was time to add some strength back with some 30mm x 1.6mm steel backing strips, bent to shape, tacked & welded in place








The upper/lower door hinge holes has no even surface on the inside for the washer & nut to tighten against due to how the door skin panel folds over the door edge


I've never like this so I added a small steel plate in and redrilled the hole

_________________
-Alan
I blame my dad for my love of minis. I think I was conceived in the back seat of one
I also blame my Dad for me being 6' 1" - not really the optimum height for driving a Mini.

Body work now started and continuing to fix the crappy repairs previously done by a 3rd party :

Outward bulge at the rear of the drivers door opening :


Huge 7mm indent on passengers side behind the door opening :


To help hang and gap the door, I designed some 3D printed pieces






Fixing door gaps where the lower corners were very tight :
Before


After


Attempted break in damage in door locks


I started this project so many years ago that rust was making it's way through the etch primer so I made the choice to take it all back to bare metal (again) and get some 2K epoxy primer on it. I purchased a cheap party tent and squeezed it in the workshop


So many hours of wire wheeling, grinding and sandblasting in hard-to-reach areas finally got it all back to a surface ready for new primer.










Then doors/bonnet/bootlid






The custom front subframe was also blasted


Unfortunately what was revealed after this sandblasting has added a lot more work to my to-do list

_________________
-Alan
I blame my dad for my love of minis. I think I was conceived in the back seat of one
I also blame my Dad for me being 6' 1" - not really the optimum height for driving a Mini.

top job!!! may you share the file for the door gap "tool" 3d printed?

_________________

What size is the party tent. Looks like a good idea for a spray booth.
Pete

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A recent study found the average Aussie walks about 900 miles a year
Another study found Aussies drink, on average, 22 gallons of alcohol a year
That means, on average, Australians get about 41 miles per gallon

Kind of makes you proud to be an AUSSIE

The two designs are available for free here :
Door clamp : https://www.printables.com/model/250164 ... door-clamp
Panel gap tools : https://www.printables.com/model/244897 ... gauge-tool
The gap tool STL models have panel gap sizes ranging from 3mm to 7mm, and for a couple of sized round magnets that glue into the prints.
I have sold a few sets for those who don't have a 3D printer but I've put them online for anyone who at least has access to one.


6x3m I purchased it from https://www.vidaxl.com.au/ for about $140. I'll be using it for primers but would be a lot of effort to seal it well enough to stop dust getting on base/top coat/clear.

_________________
-Alan
I blame my dad for my love of minis. I think I was conceived in the back seat of one
I also blame my Dad for me being 6' 1" - not really the optimum height for driving a Mini.

thanks!!!! will print it to do door gap on mines!!!

_________________

With the old etch primer and patches of spray can primer now removed from the Mini shell, more defects were exposed...

The curved panel section next to the rear wheel arch seam wasn't repaired well and had some pinholes so the panel was cut away and replaced (painted with black zinc paint before patching)




The drivers side wheel arch had an (attempted) repair which was just a glob of messy welds ... another patch


The passenger wheel arch had a couple of rust holes at the (very hard to reach) top corner of the wheel arch. I cut an access hole next to the door to investigate and found multiple rust holes large enough to stick a 12mm drill bit through (Torch shining through from the wheel arch in this pic)


After removing the outer & inner A-panels it exposed a huge section of rust damage that had never been repaired properly - just a piece of steel welded over it. There is supposed to be a vertical panel here, not a gaping rusty hole


After the couple of gussets in the upper wheel arch had the spot welds drilled out and removed, it revealed a massive rust hole that was hiding behind them. I'm super glad I wanted to go to the effort of fixing this - it would have rusted out again in no time after driving in any wet weather.


More patches...


Some 3D prints which matched the external hinge hole positions exactly were bolted to the door. These hinge prints allowed me to determine the exact position required by the A panels by aligning the holes in the prints with the holes in the new A-pillar panels.


Much trimming, tweaking and panel beating later, the new A-pillar panels were welded in


A repair patch had also been welded in the drivers side front wheel arch and given the low quality of repairs I'd already found, I cut this patch off... and found yet another example of a steel piece just welded over the top of rust damage.


This was fixed after treating the rust behind the wheel arch with zinc paint. I welded in some new steel - correctly this time which includes the way the separate inner A-panel is supposed to wrap under the sill.


So that completes all rust repairs and fixing previous shoddy repairs (Am I jinxing myself here?). Now onto the next stage of bodywork and panel alignment.

_________________
-Alan
I blame my dad for my love of minis. I think I was conceived in the back seat of one
I also blame my Dad for me being 6' 1" - not really the optimum height for driving a Mini.

Looking great & some awesome 3d printed ideas , my mate has just purchased a rusty traveler & im sure some of these ideas will help him out

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live life to the full as yesterdays gone, & tommorow never comes.

1974 LEYLAND P/VAN

I'm glad you're discovering all this now Alan. Well done.

Well done on the investigative panel repairs. That 3D printed stuff is awesome too, such a good use of modern technology!

_________________
1963 850 - laid up
1970 Morris mini K van - eating up the kms!

I made a new route for the wiring into the doors since my previous idea of routing the wiring over the door check strap resulted in the wires being bent too tight once the door was closed. The old design :


There were a few iterations of ideas to mount the cable/conduit however I ended up with a design with a 90degree bend for the wiring contained within a length of conduit, where it clears the door rubber seal when the door is opened and closed. This design is much better to mitigate long-term wire damage as the wires move far less in this layout with no tight bends/kinks and everything will be hidden once it's painted black




Each two-piece bracket is bolted behind the check strap mounts and clamps onto the conduit


Now onto painting
To prep the shell for epoxy primer (with anti-corrosion additives in the primer), the following steps were taken for every panel area prior to paint :
Sand with heavier grit sandpaper
Wipe over with wax & grease remover
Apply rust converter (30% Phosphoric acid) and manually scuff with red Scotch-Brite pad
Leave for ~20 minutes
Wipe over with damp rags (water with small quantity of bicarbonate soda to neutralise the acid)
Wipe over with damp then clean dry rags to remove residue, until rags are clean
Wipe over again with wax & grease remover

The results of a couple of coats of 2K epoxy primer, with each section left for a day to cure before moving onto the next :

_________________
-Alan
I blame my dad for my love of minis. I think I was conceived in the back seat of one
I also blame my Dad for me being 6' 1" - not really the optimum height for driving a Mini.

So nice to see it all in one colour!

_________________

All other panels have now finally been rust treated, sanded and painted in 2K epoxy primer - bonnet, doors, bootlid.


I sorted all factory and custom made parts, then spent a substantial amount of time sand blasting and painting (2K epoxy primer) each and every part. Some will be painted in the final body colour however most will eventually be painted black.

Underbody fuel line / battery cable covers & door card trim tops


Misc factory & (mostly) custom brackets/parts :








The engine cam cover had previously been painted with 1K enamel however it was less durable than I'd hoped so it was re-blasted and rinsed/cleaned thoroughly to remove all blasting grit. I stuffed some rags in the openings so the spark plug tube seals and baffle did not get covered in overspray, and 3D printed a simple cap to block the oil fill opening. It will be sanded and painted in the body colour at a later date.


The (sandblasted) front subframe was also painted with a coat of KBS Coatings RustSeal (rust preventive coating/sealer), and 2 coats of satin black enamel - RustSeal is not UV stable and requires a topcoat.


So I no longer have to deal with any rust on shell, panels or parts but the next step is the huge number of hours of filler and sanding. The body and panels aren't *bad* but it's still a 45yr old car with 45 years of minor panel damage, wavy panels, dings & dents and rust repairs to be fixed and filled.

_________________
-Alan
I blame my dad for my love of minis. I think I was conceived in the back seat of one
I also blame my Dad for me being 6' 1" - not really the optimum height for driving a Mini.

The next stage is the significant amount of time required for body filler applications, sanding, blocking etc.
The shell underbody was dealt with first. Really minor imperfections were not dealt on the underbody - this is obviously not a concours car.


The boot floor has been repaired using a second-hand boot section and required a few mm of filler in a couple of small areas that were a bit rough, and a skim in others. I had previously forgotten to fit a spare wheel clamp boss on the boot floor (this did not exist on the original car) so this was also welded on before repainting.


Some body filler was applied underneath the roof gutter to fix the visible wavy-ness after removing the drip rail from under the gutter.


The modified rear storage bins in the cabin needed a few small areas of filler applied.




For localised deeper imperfections associated with the de-seaming that was done, I applied some short strand fibreglass filler and sanded it back with 40 grit sandpaper

_________________
-Alan
I blame my dad for my love of minis. I think I was conceived in the back seat of one
I also blame my Dad for me being 6' 1" - not really the optimum height for driving a Mini.

I'm really enjoying watching the progression of your project, and having pictures of the various stages is helpful.

Out of interest, the spare wheel retention boss was deleted from Australian built Minis early on. It just relied on gravity to keep the wheel in position, with a boot board over the top in the case of the Cooper, Cooper S and Clubman GT. Of course a mechanism like yours is a bonus.

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ex-NSW Police 1970 MK II Cooper S
VMCI #43