Mothers mini....

Avtovaz · Post by **Avtovaz** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 9:22 pm

I dont know if anyone is interested, but im doing a bit of work on my mothers mini as its a bit rotten, and its mot time. She has had it from new, and SHE!!! is on holiday now. Little welding turned out to be a bit more than that... I ususly post on the rally forum, but i thought i would copy/paste the posts here!

Avtovaz · Post by **Avtovaz** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 9:22 pm

i dont know if anyone is really interested but my bmw has come to a hault atm because of my mothers mini amungst other reasons.

My mother bought this can new in 1989, and she loves it, why i dont know!!!

So, i thought i would post about that while it could be of use to someone reading...

Firstly its had 2 sills, 1/2 a o/s floor pan, 1/2 inner sill both sides...

Now it needs and is getting;

Thats the front shocker mount, rotten behind the mount, that should be solid plate there! So ill have to do something about that.

With the wing cut off, it was easier to get to, but my mate wanted to get the wing on and sort the front pannel out.

We put the new scuttle pannel ontop of the old one, tried the wing on, and made a desision on the front pannel, we have 1/4 peice for the o/s it was do we put it all in or just the bit at the top where it was rotten. We went for it all in the end!

Everything almost lined up so the scuttle piece, it was tek screwed into place, then we used an air saw to cut the two pannels as the same time so they fitted perfectly as a but joint. This was then welded in and belt sanded off.

The wing was then put on, we drilled it and plug welded it down the inner wing. We tried the bonnet first though!

There is 1/4 front pannel in, instead of cutting all teh old one off and but jointing it on, we vut it just over 1" too bit, knocked int he old pannel, and put the new one on top. Seam welded the outside, and then stitched the overlap on the inside. That should make it stronger, not neater. If we were to do it properly, we would have put a full front pannel in, but they are £60+vat, and we have limited time to do it also.

Side View.

So just need to tidy it up a bit, and seal the bits under the front.

THe other side wants a wing and an A pannel, and where the heater vent is in the dash, there is a big hole also!

Int hat pic, you see the n/s, the ick plate is the part that is shiny on the right with the door off, then you see the pillar with two holes in it where the door bolts on, and that hole is where the vent goes, the cut edge is where i roughly cut off the scuttle pannel so i can get into weld the vent hole easier...

So, that is why i havnt been doing much with the bmw [;)]

Oh, and one mroe thing, this is a transit tipper my mate is painting for a local lad now...

READ TEH REG !!!

Avtovaz · Post by **Avtovaz** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 9:23 pm

Well, did a bit more today, i was meant to be in work, but i had a bit of metal in my eye last week, and i got conjunctiveitus, i went in today [im on a 3 day week] and foreman was on holiday, and charge hand and company owner said that i must go home until i have been to the hospital to get it rechecked... Anyway, it must have been that bad that i did this today

DOnt know why that is side on pic, but anyway, i had to get a hinge pannel repair piece as there was more and more holes appearing. You can see also, that this does not cover all the holes, and also in the middle of the rot goes an air vent [:[]

So, lined the door up, tacked the hinge pannel in, then made that other plate that goes right upto the inner wing! Then welded it in, and used a belt sander to make the hole for the vent. The vent was then tiger sealed in. I recon this is why the rot is there in the first place.

New scuttle end plate tacked into place. Fortunatly when removing this side i didnt slip with the drill and put a hole in the dash!!! We had positioned the pannel when we put the door on, and tried fitting the wing.

Everything cleaned up!

New wing, A pannel, and scuttle welded in!

For some reason in that pic it looks rusty but it isnt!

So more to do tomorrow with my bad eyes!

GadgetBoy · Post by **GadgetBoy** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 9:29 pm

Cracking little motors.

Avtovaz · Post by **Avtovaz** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 9:32 pm

thats actually a mg metro 1300 motor in there! 2bhp less that a cooper s!!!

Lada & Korean Parts · Post by **Lada & Korean Parts** » Wed Aug 19, 2009 4:18 am

top job......

certainly wish i had that much patience........

Neil Chowney · Post by **Neil Chowney** » Wed Aug 19, 2009 6:21 pm

We have a MINI.... and i'll just wait for the flaming from Gadget..........

GadgetBoy · Post by **GadgetBoy** » Wed Aug 19, 2009 6:42 pm

You have a BMW Zero Series. IT IS NOT A MINI!

Neil Chowney · Post by **Neil Chowney** » Wed Aug 19, 2009 7:28 pm

22 minutes...... waaaaay too slow!

Neil Chowney · Post by **Neil Chowney** » Wed Aug 19, 2009 7:30 pm

We like old minis. There's a chopped convertible at work, really nice, looks like you want one on each foot.

Zelandeth · Post by **Zelandeth** » Wed Aug 19, 2009 8:31 pm

Those Zcars things sound interesting...don't really see the point to be honest though...60 in a normal Mini is terrifying enough and feels like about 100...and doing away with the lovely noises the gearbox makes just seems criminal.

Haven't owned a Mini (yet), though I have owned an Mk I Metro, which still holds without a doubt the record as the best handling car I've ever owned. Huge laugh in the wet or dry, and could even in the wet generate enough G-force if you were being silly to rearrange your internal organs going around corners.

Still curse myself for selling it, though it seemed sensible at the time.

Lovely little car...miss it.

This is the gearbox noise I mentioned earlier in case you've never been in a Metro or Mini

Was never the same after they gave it the first facelift in the mid 80s.

Avtovaz · Post by **Avtovaz** » Wed Aug 19, 2009 8:53 pm

gearbox whine is because first gear is straight cut...

Anyway, i cant say that i now share your good feelings for minis...

More more more more more more more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Been poking...

Fuel tank out

Car in 2 post ramp

car lifted up and some bolts removed.

Subframe off, only took 20 mins to get it off!!!

N/s subframe mount... WHERE????? [:[]

O/s subframe mount, just about there...

O/s rear closing plate on rear valance, or whats left of it..

n/s closing plate...

[:^(]

Got stuck into the n/s subframe mount though...

Cut all the rot out, and started to clean it up. I had to stop early and goto the hospital to get my eye checked out again, fortunatly its ok, much better than my mothers mini anyway!

Back in work tomorrow so no progress tomorrow i expect..

Avtovaz · Post by **Avtovaz** » Thu Aug 20, 2009 7:42 pm

Right was at work today so i didnt have much time to do anything, was only there for an hour...

Stripped the paint on the quarter pannel and it revieled a plate someone has welded in there before, a few years agot he car went to a local garage to have all this work done, looks like they jsut toom my mothers money and ran, as this plate is rotten, it was not painted on the back...

So..

Air haksaw that bit out too!

Now looking at it with the clean edges it dosnt look that big of a problem does it? The main thing i have to do now is get everything near to where i want it to be, and then put the rear subframe back on to make sure the bolt holes line up...

There is one other little problem, inside of the car at the bottom left on that last pic, there is a little pannel inside of the car, im not sure how to repair this yet, maybe from inside of the car threw the rear bin....

hmm... Oh well...

daniel.b · Post by **daniel.b** » Fri Aug 21, 2009 11:18 am

Looks like your going to be busy

.
does any one know if you can get the "scuttle Pannel" in the 4th picture for the Rivas?
thanks daniel.b

Zelandeth · Post by **Zelandeth** » Fri Aug 21, 2009 5:06 pm

Daniel,

Looks like that's part of the windscreen surround on the Riva - not shown separately on my diagram anyway. Though the arrow pointing at that does list three parts...

2105-5201012 (01)
2105-5201012-10(13)
21056-5201012 (02)

Being the part numbers in question.

Hadrian don't seem to list it either.