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I generally use flap disks if i'm buffing welds back.

One other question chaps... I'm almost ready to paint one half of the underside...

I see Por15 has great reviews as it can be painted on surface rust with not too much prep involved.. Had a look on the Frost website and seen cans, small enough 450ml or so, for around £25. Anywhere else to buy big big cans to do the whole underneath?

Was thinking of a funky colour if I could get my hands on one?

That's coming on well. Looks to be a nice tidy repair.

As others have said, I use flap disks to knock the weld right back and then use roloc disks (in the battery drill) of varying grits to smooth it right back. Had some very nice results from doing that. My welding improved a lot when I replaced my old welder with a 160TM.

So been doing a little more over the last few weeks with an hour spare here and there... trying to keep on top of it can be hard, not getting nearly enough time I'd like to be spending on it...

So I thought I'd have a crack at Tubbing the arches, had a search on here and found a guide on how to do it... so off I set...

Forgot to take a few pics before I welded in the new bit of steel...




If you have a look at the top photo you'll see I stupidly cut too much of the rear quarter away around the arch so somehow have to fix it!

I'm gonna wait til the car is righted back up before I attempt it, on its side is too awkward at the mo.... I guess I'll have to cut a piece of steel and weld it in place, looking at it I'm sure its going to be a bitch of a job! I rightly fooked it, the gap is 10mm at one point!!

Anyway, at least my welding is coming along (or so I think)... so when the time comes I shouldn't struggle too much! (I hope)!!!

Also started pulling off the rear valance as its quite shot in places, rust holes and the general usual rot creeping in!

I should concentrate on one job at a time but I get carried away when I start something lol... Anyway, need to get some more mild steel before I finish the Tubbing, used loads of it up practicing my welds.. doh!



Getting these off took up a lot of time, it broke my heart in fairness, did not enjoy it one bit, must have been at it a solid two hours with the grinder! I was covered in shite by the end of it!



I offered up the new panels to see how they'd look, I need to straighten up the lip its to be welded on to as I warped it in quite a few places getting the old one off.. It was near on impossible not to though!!

In the photo below you can see that some of the holes don't line up when its offered in place....



Not really sure what to do here.. if I trim it to match the existing lip it'll go right through the holes of the new panel which I don't really want to do... I'll have to come up with something however.. Anyone replaced one of these?

Well thats it for the moment.. Cheers!!

Well not much of an update but certainly a move in the right direction. Spent most of this afternoon putting the mini up on its other side as most of the left has been done... and in this heat I must have sweated a few buckets at least!





So gonna get stuck in now in the next few weeks and try and complete the underneath so I can get a move on!

The wings and slam panel have been welded on quite poorly before I got my hands on it, looking underneath the wings you can see the gusset closing panel (drivers side is actually missing) is rotten and the flitch around the vent is rotten too.

Now... I was thinking (dangerous I know)... but I don't think I'm gonna be able to remove the front without making shit of the wings and slam panel to repair these bits...
so... maybe go for a fibreglass front?







Now I know it's not favoured by most due so structural integrity, safety and value of the car but it's a re-shell so value does not matter to me. In the long run it will save me a heartache I reckon...

Anyone want to talk me out of it... or in to it maybe?

Just never seen a fiberglass front that fits well. Steel front has a lot more room to make it fit and the finish is much better.

So finally feels like some progress now, been able to get a few half days in the garage recently and made full use of the time I had.

Pretty much at the stage to apply some stone chip to the underneath.. finished all the welding except the right sill to fix in place... here's a few pics to see where I'm at...



Both arches now tubbed and continued the arch all the way down to make a 'closing panel' on the corner valance's.



Plenty of elbow grease to get off all the crap from underneath, didn't enjoy that part at all... still, had to be done...



After removing all the crap and grinding all the surface rust off I treated it and then primed it all, seam sealed then painted all over with hammerite anti rust paint.. thats the brown finish.



So all I have to do now underneath is weld on the remaining sill, weld the centre rear valance in place and then buff down welds and prep for paint. One more coat of the anti rust paint and then stone chip (when it arrives).

I can then lay it back down and start on the rest of the body...



So thats about it for the moment, my welds are not perfect but they are solid and I'm fairly happy for a first time project (also hoping the stone chip will hide some dodgy welds). I'll be attacking the front next, I'll have to remove the front cos it's fairly botched in places. I wanted to repair it in situ but don't think it's possible.

Looking good! Always makes a huge differance when its all in one colour

Cheers Rob, yup... before I painted it it didn't look as good, indeed the brown paint made it look much better. Like I said it's not perfect, but when you compare it to how it was before you can see a massive difference... and most importantly its grot free!!

Great stuff - really good to see the improvements from the welding at the start, too. :)

Thanks Alex, getting rid of the gasless welder made a massive difference tbh..

very good, the stone chip with the Shultz gun will make a real job of it, I personal would apply 2 coats leaving 24hrs between coats then if you wish spray the underside over with the colour of the van its going to be ..... I did mine like that 20 odd years ago and its still perfect!

Ok thanks Steve I shall bear that in mind.. Just need to decide on a colour now!!

Another update, it's been a while again since any work but managed to do a wee bit more. Finally finished all the metal work on the underneath and after prepping it got it ready for stone chipping... got some stuff off ebay and got busy with schultz gun..



This is the stuff I got... made by 'mipa'.... seemed like pretty good stuff...



And let it soak in some hot water for a while to become more runny...



So started spraying it on, it turned out quite well apart from a few places where it didn't seem to adhere so well, it bubbled and peeled in a few places.



Once again the photos didn't come out great, seems ok when I take photos outside in the natural light but inside under the fluorescent tubes and they come out pants! Anyway, I have some more stone chip so I'll see how it dries, if the bubbles settle then great but if not ill have to flatten them. I'll be applying another coat anyway so should turn out ok. This is the general finish, fairly happy with it...



Sorry, crap photos...



It looks much better in the flesh... honestly...



Ok, thats the last of the crap photos, I'm going to make sure all photos are 20/20 from now on. So the next job is to get it back upright without damaging the work I've done underneath (after the last coat of stone chip), not looking forward to that. Might try and lie it down on a wooden pallet with lots of padding between? An old mattress would be handy but I ain't got one so I'll have to figure something out...?

Also done a bit with both subframes, took them both apart completely to start work on them...

Front one was not so bad, just dirty and a few bits of rust here and there..




And the rear one, a lot more rust but thankfully only surface, structurally it was sound.. they both were to be honest..




Anyway, took them both apart and got in touch with a guy locally who sand blasted both of them and all of their associated bits & bobs, he also primered them too for protection which was handy cos that wasn't agreed in the price and I thought I was getting them back bare metal to primer myself... £40 each, thought that was a decent price! And here they are... ta da!!

Started painting up the radius arms, trunnions and other bits... using Por15 sterling silver. Im going to paint the complete subbies in this colour cos I have two full tins of it, might be overkill on the silver but so what! It dries solid and is hard to scratch it so it'll be good for the job!



Been busy on ebay too buying all new bushes, nuts & bolts, handbrake cables, all new copper brake piping and mounts.

Should look the poodles noodles when done!

Daft reply not realising there was still a page to go...

Edited by Alex on 22nd Oct, 2013.

Metric is for people who can't do fractions.

Edited by evad1980 on 23rd Oct, 2013.

looking good!

Went a bit mental with the silver yesterday afternoon....





Think I'll have a go at the front one in a little while, whilst the sun is still out & I'm in the painting mood!

Only problem is the garage is becoming too clogged up with shite, no room to swing a cat should I need to. I'll have to have a good clear out shortly, keep tripping over crap!