So after clearing out the shed and buying some shelves and stuff ive made some room for the mini project

Its now indoors - to my relief, and subframe and engine is out of the car, the engine bay is all back to bare metal and the little rusty bits have been coated with the good old rust converter too.

While ive been at school this week, dads been helping me out by cutting out the 4 rust spots on the car and making replacement metal bits (out of some mini boots) and matt (aka sswanab) is coming saturday helping out with some welding for these spots cheers mate. its the common under the rear bumper on the pass. side, and drivers side the floor join under the pedals. the other 2 spots were cut out of the shell when i bought it, on the dirvers front quarter panel thingo

Helpfully, my neighbour used to spray cars (hes only young, been donig it for 7 or so years, now just had enough though) and is real keen to help me with the mini and he's got enough primer and clear coat left over from previous jobs (real good quality stuff of course). He has suggested to me what i should do now:

He recons i should get the engine bay all good, perfect- as i want it first. painted the colour i want the car etc. then get the engine in - wheels etc. get it rolling, do all that sorta stuff - then i can continue prepping the rest of the car ready for the whole paint job. does this sound stupid doing this way? I think it sounds pretty good to me, but some of my mates were like wtf are you going to do it like that for.

Hes got all the expensive spray guns..and we've got the compressor - he recons it will be fine doing it in the shed - putting up drop sheets up etc.

So thats the plan. what does everyone think

Only do it his suggested way if you are going to drive the car in between the sections being painted.
If not, get it all done at the same time.

We painted beanie's blue car in the backyard...
Wasn't the best paintjob, but hey, what do you expect for no practice/ no experience...

I'd paint the whole body in one shot, then you can do all the assembly whenever you like. Also, you don't wanna ruin your engine bay whilst trying to do the gaurds/valance panels or anything like that.

Good to see its all going ahead!

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Cheap, Fast, Reliable. Choose two.

EH?! I thought that was an expensive shop job.

This time it was....



About 4 or 5 years ago Grandpa painted it.

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Cheap, Fast, Reliable. Choose two.

i'll chat to my neighbour and see what he recons but yea, its just what he mentioned about it. (maybe he just wants it 'on wheels' . i think that is really what he wants) so i should just put in the subframe from the white mini before spraying it..right?

the paint job shouldnt be too bad - he's got the experience and the rigth equipment and ive seen the car's he's done before (but they were of course in a propper booth)

in the process of getting the engine in and stuff - might need a bit of help from you ausmini guys with a bit of experience im sure you'll be happy to help out

update:

engine bay has been primed - and now = all smooth. Matt is coming around today to finish off the welding, then we will be spraying deadner to the inside + boot, and whodat is also coming around and hopefully we can get the engine out of the white mini.

good to see you have plenty of help .

as for my opinion on the painting-





good luck with it all

yer it will all work out in the end

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Current Ride : Toyota Trueno AE86

mini parts for sale http://www.ausmini.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=42247

it must just be painters, my painter (brotherinlaw) is doing mad-mk1 that way, painting the interior, inside boot, engine bay first, then any scratches you make putting the motor in can be brush touched with leftovers!!

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-jamie-
1963morris 850
1965 solid side van
1994 rover racecar

When I was talking to a panel beater about my car he said the way to do it is prep it all, pain the interior, boot and engine bay, then assemble the car. Once that is done the outside can be painted.
The main reason is the car is more likely to be scratched on the outside while you're assembling it and having it in a more confined space with all the tools and stuff around.

well it seamed real sensible to me - so i went with it.