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I have used vinegar for rusty parts before works a treat!

What does it do? Same thing as kurust?

No really it takes it back to clean metal



The one on the left had a couple of days in vinegar and a light wire brush.

Sorry for the hijack.

Now that is interesting....

Impressive!!! Any type of vineger?

The cheaper the better . That was tescos cheapest malt vinegar, paid about 15p a bottle

Much nicer with the front welded on.

Class D Winner 1997 - 1998 - 2003
Class D 2nd 1999 - 2001

Ya thats just asda's cheepo vinegar.. a pitance a bottle lol, diluted with water three parts to one. Had it upstairs in the bath and washed it all off with the shower head, Jesus the missus would go mental if she knew haha! Its now on a chair over the radiator, its come out a treat, smooth as a babies bum (so they say)! Got some 'rust encapsulator' primer from frost so once degreased I'll spray that on.. should come out fairly tidy!

Edited by evad1980 on 10th Nov, 2014.

What do u have to do after the vinegar treatment? Sand it? Does the water not rust it out again?

I just washed off the vinegar water and dried it down straight away. Yeah I thought that too but just followed what some other bloke on youtube did.. the bonnet has gone a goldy/rusty colour (ironic I know) but its supposed to. Because it's acetic acid, the vinegar has reacted with the steel leaving the pitted areas black (rust has been killed apparently) and turned the bare steel into it's new colour. It does feel very clean to touch, very smooth too. I'll just degrease it to get rid of all the last bits of crud and then primer with the rust encapsulator.

That master cylinder was rinsed with water and thoroughly dried out, its been like that for about 2 months now and the rust hasn't returned, that picture was taken tonight. I was going to paint it straight away but never got round to it

Hmmm interesting, look forward to the pics of your progress and ill have to do a youtube search n watch em

It's all about the vinegar!

Wowzas!

So spent today trying to flip the steel panels, bloody nightmare to be honest! It turns out that welding the panels together may not have been the brightest idea as it made it very awkward to work with.. so I dismantled it and decided to do one wing at a time... luckily it was only put together with a few spot welds..

Started by knocking up some brackets together so the wings could be bolted on, then tacked it to the underside of the wing...



And bolted on...



Lined up nicely, just a wee bit of 'persuading' required...



One side completed.. took most of the day just to do this side, took a few runs to get it right, I'll attack the drivers side tomorrow..



Should be easier tomorrow now I know what I'm doing..

Ok... so it turns out taking it apart made it a lot more awkward to work with and getting the gaps to all look the same near on impossible.. so, all welded back together and finally got it lifting up and down on the boot lifters..

Had to drill through the wings from above and welded a stud from the top, need to put a bead of weld around the inside of each stud before grinding from above and flattening down..



So finally its flipping but its quite heavy and the gas struts are struggling on the way down to hold the weight... its slamming down when it gets over half way down.. not ideal!



Gonna have to sort that somehow...

Loose the slam panel and ribs from the bonnet?

You can get adjustable gas struts you set yourself. You do only get on chance tho mind!

The struts work as a leaver. The straighter the force go's on them the harder they get it to hold the weight. Maybe changing the angle a bit will help? When i did the lid on my trailer i clamped them on with molegrips and looked for the best angle.

you can do anything if you set your mind to it...
i rather blow it up winning than keep it together losing.

finish date set for project 1... march 2018

Other than buying some steel, not touched mine.

Yeah thanks lads... I'll have to do a wee bit of fiddling!

I know one thing... I won't be flipping a front on any other mini I acquire.. Pain in the hoop!

Once again its been a while since I done any work on the mini but heres a bit of an update... Had some serious structural strength issues with the flip front mechanism I had created so done a fairly big change to it... Started by creating a platform for the hinge mechanism to be bolted to underneath the wing...



Also the box steel brackets I made up have been transformed, absolutely solid now.. the car can be lifted up by these....





The car is now in the garage where it's going to be painted... Just the final prep to be done including plenty of rubbing down..









Starting to get somewhere now.. just need to source some arches. Next time you see me folks I should be sporting my new colour!

Edited by evad1980 on 27th Jan, 2015.

what colour are you going for?