After stripping my '71 Mini K down to a bare shell and proceeding to sand my way back down to bare metal, I've discovered a lot more rust (surprise).

After evaluating the situation, I think that I might have to replace the entire floorpan or at least rip open both bottom door sills to get at rust that is inside the sill. The inner door sills can be poked through at some points and the floor channels where the hydro/brake/fuel lines run are rusted through in certain places (probably due to all the soil and debris that seems to have built up under the full-length shield).

Having said this, I was thinking about replacing the whole floorpan with a rod-change floorpan (Mini Spares part CZH2669) since OZ floorpans with the hydro/brake/fuel channels are not available (this would also be good since I have a rod-change 998 in the car). My understanding is that this would not be too difficult of an adaptation. However, if I were to do this, I would have to figure out where the hydro/brake/fuel lines would go.

My first thought was that I could run all the lines through the central tunnel. But then I actually put my thinking cap on and realized that we have the hot exhaust pipe which would be disturbingly close to all these other pipes. I'm also thinking about using the nylon hydro lines available from Mini Spares and I was wondering if that kind of hose could withstand the temperature of being next to an exhaust pipe.

If any of you could share your thoughts on how you would approach this kind of problem, I'd appreciate it. I need to get the car to my panel beater soon, so I need to figure out what I want before that day. Thanks as always for all your help.

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- Merrick
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3/71 Morris Mini K

The hydro cars in Australia from 65 to 67 had all the pipes hanging under the floorpans with little metal straps to hold them up.(just like the sheet metal straps in the engine bay that hold the wiring loom)
In late 67 they changed the floor pressings to include the channels. The reason was that due to the rough conditions of Australias country roads they were having a lot of pipes damaged from hitting rocks so they came up with the chanels and covers.
All the UK build hydro cars had exposed pipes.

You could just bodge-up some channels like Pete did for me.....

http://www.ausmini.com/forums/viewtopic ... +lookalike

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"Show me the Mini!"

I am not a sheet metal worker so anything I say is only an opinion.
However, the pundits say that the Austrlain hydro cars were built with different pressing to pommie cars and also used different grade steels.

Rather than spend shitloads of money on imported pommie floor pans which you already know are going to be different, talk to a local sheet metal pressing and cutting company first. You may end up doing some cutting and shutting to give the company a sample and some fancy welding at the end - but - I think you would have a better product.

Alternatively, talk to A Grade Panels in Melbourne, maybe they can supply floor panels that will fit.

http://www.agradepanels.com.au/

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Since I'm located in the US and getting any OZ donor panels or inquiring OZ companies about new OZ panels might be difficult, I'm going to see if I can get the panel beater to make a channel in the newer UK pans.

Barring that, I might just run the hydro lines in the central tunnel, but near the bottom edge of each side of the the tunnel. This should allow the lines to stay relatively cool as opposed to having them higher up in the tunnel. The brake and fuel lines I can run in the usual spot like most cars without the OZ channel since they are hard lines and have a smaller profile than the hydro lines.

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- Merrick
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3/71 Morris Mini K

as per the doc's suggestion - try A-grade panels - - I had forgotten about them and they are a switched on savvy company.

Airfrieght to the west coast is not as difficult or as expensive as you may think from here. And you have a considerable exchange rate advantage with US dollars to Aus dollars. You can buy 25% more.