Nicks Clubby
Turbo Mini Forums

Yeah i think it's just giving me the fear as I've never done much bodywork in the past apart from dropping a few patches on to scrape through MOT's. I do want to keep this shell as it's a proper mk3 one and it's also now tax exempt!

Just have to take my time with it and be patient/careful i guess.

Going to get the wire brush out today and see just how bad it is in places before i go chopping any panels out.

You can get big packs of cutting discs sort cheap on eBay! Work fine too.

I wouldn't be afraid of replacing whole panels, with a spot weld drill bit you can make fast near work of it!

Dave the Cake

My best advice is if possible borrow a spot welder. Makes a lovely neat job of all the seams.

Cheers for the advice chaps :)

Plenty stocked up on 1mm cutting discs and spot weld drills.

Waiting for Kean to finish with his spit, then I'll steal it and bolt my shell to it, get it braced and start replacing panels.

Will keep my eye out for a spot welder!

as above, even a cheap spot welder will make a good job as long as you keep the tips nice and sharp and the metal clean. sooo much easier than plug welding and cleaning up after.

wouldnt be without a spot weld drill either, leaves the pannel you want in much better shape,

those grider flap discs are well worth getting too, i thought they'd be shit till i tried one, you can go from pretty much polishing to grinding depending how hard you push, I even wouldt bother with sanding or grinding discs any more.

oh and as always, chose your replacement panel well,

A little bit of poking tonight...

O/S sill


N/S sill


N/S sill

oh bum, it looked more solid than that.

I think the expanding foam was holding it together...

Make sure u dont hack too much off to quick and loose any good refrence points.

Look forward to see how you proggress with this. always loved the car and its a shame to see the rot

13.95 1/4 mile on a 2.95 fd. Carnt be that hard to beat!

yup, not hacking anymore out of it. That was all just poking with a screwdriver...

Just need to get Kean's spit off him...*cough* hint hint..

You can do this without a spit, just push it on its side to repair the sills and floors.

I don't think it looks too bad.. Most look like this if not worse when you start poking.

Hint all you want lad, that spits going nowhere yet!
Looks exactly like mine was, you better get panel shopping!

yup ,roll it on its side... onto some duvets and tyres, nice and soft .

Medusa + injection = too much torque for the dyno ..https://youtu.be/qg5o0_tJxYM

So finally a delivery from mini-machine today :)

Nice little surprise in the box being the heritage rear quarters, i was expecting pattern panels so pretty chuffed with that!
Inner/outer sill assemblies look well made too.



Knocked up a spit from some unistrut, an old jack handle and an old pair of brace bars..



Then had a bit of a dig at the o/s sill, came off pretty easily surprisingly...

Edited by Nick on 18th May, 2013.

Finally some progress, hadn't touched the car for about 6 months so decided it was time to get things moving.

I'm the first to admit I suck at welding so I got in touch with a local guy from TMF and he's just been and done a weeks work on the shell for me while I've been out at work. I really should have done this sooner!

If anyone local is after any kind of work doing then give me a shout and I'll put you in touch with him, really sound guy and good at what he does!

The drivers side is all pretty much sorted now, he's done:
fixed my hashed in flitch and floor pan
inner/outer sills
door step & A post
rear 1/4
rear arch
heelboard mounts
boot hinge panel and corner
started looking at making my new boot floor


















Got him back in for another week after payday at the end of the month so should see the passenger side all sorted then with any luck.

Edited by Nick on 7th Feb, 2014.

As ive already said nick, looks great and worth its weight in gold.


rick

oh and I like the arty pics lol

Edited by cossierick on 7th Feb, 2014.

Good to see some work getting done mate, keep it up. And great garage pics too!

13.95 1/4 mile on a 2.95 fd. Carnt be that hard to beat!

Glad to see some progress mate.

WWW.TURBO-MINI.COM

Looking good

Cheers guys :)

Anyone would think you just bought a new lens!

😀

Only 2 of those are with me new lens!

looks good tidy work

Done now needs redoing lol

bang tidy

Ive really noticed in recent years how people are really stepping up the quality on repairs like this. Nicely done Nick. looks good

I seriously doubt it!