1960 Austin Se7en mini. US spec. Ex SCCA car

So since last time I have made some progress, but also had some run ins with some mini nerds who have questioned my build and really put some doubts in my head. 

Anyway when we left it last time, I was ready to install the closing panels at the rear valance. Here they are all zinc primed, and yes I left the Heritage sticker on as I want someone who's restoring this in 50 years to take this panel off and see that I spent some good money on these panels! haha

Clamped up with as many clamps as I could fit in and still allow me to get the spot welder in!

Ended up plug welding onto the boot floor, but spot welding on to the valance and wheel arch.

A couple plug welds on the valance.

And a couple inside the boot.

Then flip the car over and do the same on the other side.

Same process as above so I wont bore with pictures, I then ground down the welds and flicked it over with some etch primer.

I then went around a few other areas and tidied up welds and primed.

I also post in another forum just for minis, and it was spotted by someone else that I have installed the wrong closing panels for this model year, apparently in 1959-early 1960 they should not box the ends of the valance in, but should be open. Then in mid 1960 until 2000, they changed to box them in.

It made me think about my attention to detail in this project, for example I spent a lot of extra money to have a special floor assembly built that is unique to these pre June 1960 models, and I want it to be period correct......up until I install a motorcycle engine. 

But I don't know how pedantic I want to be about some brackets that can be upgraded to a better design.

I'm not building this as a restoration to sell on and make money, as far as I know it's going to stay in my family, so I want to do what I want to do.

March 14th 2018.

I had some more panels arrive from Mini Spares UK. Both Mk1 inner wings, rear companion bins and some end repair panels for the scuttle panel I want to restore later on.

Im hoping that this is the last parts i need to be able to finish the welding of the underside of the mini, get it in paint and take it off the rotisserie. I'm still shooting for May 22nd as my milestone...

I bought a new can of weld primer ($25 from O'Reilly seems to be the best price i can find). But the nozzle immediately clogs up as the zinc is so thick. So i usually pierce the can (PPE worn of course) and let it vent outside then decant into a glass jar. 

Well I forgot to open the back door of the garage before piercing the can and decorated the back wall. Ah well, a job for summer could be to finally paint the walls of my garage!

I thought I'd start with the rear companion bin on the side I just fitted the new quarter panel.  

But I realized I need to fit the inner sills panel in first, which requires me to fit the door step on that side, which means I really need to have the floor properly fitted where the inner wing goes in. Which means I need to fit the inner wing first! Phew... So naturally to finish the back I must first finish the front.

OK then, time to turn the car around and do the inner wings.

First I cleaned up as the casters on the rotisserie wont run over all the crap that is on the floor!

Young Chappers not necessarily helping but admiring, the now smooth, floor is an ideal scootering surface..

And car turned around.

The next challenge. I'm going to keep the left side in tact for now as a nice reference point for rebuilding the right hand side.

Then I thought, actually, Ive been procrastinating putting all these new panels on, I haven't really reinstalled the cantrails that I removed. They got chewed up when I removed them and they were a bit thin in places. If you go back to 2014 when I removed them they were all rusty inside.

So after tediously re welding and grinding I repaired the front and inner A post cantrails, and zinc primed them all.

Clamped up.

Also reinstalled the waist rail that I repaired.

A lot of plug welding and a lot of plug welds to grind down!

I'm glad that I repaired the front cant rail, filling in the holes I'd made when removing it. So I could spot weld that panel back on to the windshield surround.

I had been keeping my eyes peeled for some rear quarter opening windows and this being a MK1 model they are very hard to find.

I spotted an advert on Kijiji, a guy in Hamilton ON had a pair, but they were from a MK3 and they were cheap!

I naively thought in the absence of any MK1 windows that I could make them work. The front hinge could be re-engineered to a piano hinge type and good to go. But it turns out the MK1 windows and openings in the shell are smaller than Mk2 onwards.

Ah well I still traveled 1100 miles to collect them and took the family as we'd never been to Niagara Falls or Canada before.

I can always sell them on or trade them for other parts etc.

I was then contacted by another Canadian Mini owner, who has a 1960 model, and as luck would have it, he has 2 sets of MK1 windows! But one set from 1960 and one set from 1967. Now this is where this whole pedantic things comes into play again. Apparently the 1959-60 had different windows still. The latch mechanism was different. 

Here's the two types, the wider latch in the photo one is the 1960-1969 MK1 one and the skinny one is the 1959-1960.

So not only are the MK1 windrows hard to find, the early type that I should have are even rarer still.

Good job I'm not really bothered about originality when it comes to bolt on parts. So I said I'd have his later MK1 windows if he wants to sell. 

Then I told him what I've got planned to do with my mini and he advises me that it's the wrong thing to do. I should restore the car as it will be worth a lot of money due to its rarity and if I want to do the bike engine mini thing I should sell the restored MK1 shell and with the proceeds buy a later mini. 

I initially said I don't want to do that as I feel like this mini is a keeper to me anyway.

But the more I thought about it, the more I felt guilty for what I intend to do, and I started  thinking about selling the shell to a purist when I get it restored, probably by the end of summer. 

But then I thought, hang on, it's mine! I've put all this work in to it, my kids already said they would love it to stay in the family and it's only ever going to hold on to its value. I'm being sympathetic to its originality as I can always reinstall the stock engine in a weekend if i wanted. 

It's your car. Do with it what you want. The early Mk 1 cars are hard to come by and do command a price premium and I can see that a lot of Mini people would be driven crazy by a bike engined early Mk1. I would just keep going down the road I was on if I were you, unless I was willing to start all over. Financially, it may be better to create a nice restored Mk1 shell and sell it off to fund a later shell for your project plus whatever else you or it needs.

However, that means you would have to find a buyer and I'm guessing most Mini people don't want to spend the money on just a shell. A complete early Mk1 car may sell for silly money, but I just don't know how big the market is for a bare shell that has been restored.

In reply to Chappers :

Hey, I got distracted looking for the discs and forgot to share the link. 

Knockoff Scotchbrite

They're a little more expensive than last time I bought them, but it's apparently been over a year since I bought them too. 

Last time I bought them they had packs of individual grits from the same company that came out to $14 for 30. 

The fine grit pads aren't a whole lot of use for metalworking purposes. I really only use them to clean up aluminum stuffs. 

I suppose I'll stay away from the Transtar weldable primer. LOL 

I just started using the U-POL copper stuff, and have been pretty happy with it, although a respirator is a must IMO. (And is largely why I was interested in a brush on.) 

I'd gleefully put a bike engine in it just to piss off the purists. But I'm a bit of an shiny happy person like that. LOL

While I appreciate an original car, I love tastefully done customs moar. 

Just tell them you are doing your part to make all the early MK1s worth more since there will be one less on the books.

Haha thanks chaps, you made me laugh! 

Sorry for my melodramatic rant, I sound like a real tit especially when there are people in this world way worse off..

Anyhow back on to the build.

After welding on the cantrails I could start on the right side inner wing. 

Using a wire wheel to find the spot welds, I unearthed the cleanest part of the car so far!

Behind the upper shock bracket on most minis this is usually rotten through! 

On this its still got shiny paint!

Almost seemed like sacrilege to remove this panel,

But it needed to be done, as look what was hiding inside the box section behind that shock bracket.

Our favorite furry ferrous friend.

There's a stiffener bracket that is sandwiched between the inner wing and the box section , you can see remnants of it in the photo above.  I cleaned that off.

I tried on the new inner wing, but had a hard time getting it to fit where the flange is on the floor (circled in the above photo). It was like the flange should be bent upward not down.

Here's another Mk1 mini (not mine)

It.s not a biggie as I can bend 18ga sheet metal, but I emailed the company who built my floor to ask them what went wrong. I bent it up now using a combination of square section tubing clamped to the floor and a sheet metal hammer. It doesn't look as pretty as before but it should look OK when all welded up.

Back to the box section area, there is a stiffener bracket that I know is probably hiding some rust behind.

So drilled out spot welds and 

Here ya go. Cleaned up with a wire wheel, its all pitted and thin.

So off it came

Which gives me pretty good access to get inside the box section to sand blast the rust.

Although there is another bracket inside that encloses it even further.

Chopped out the front of it.

Which exposes a little ghost of course

Yeah I'm glad I opened up this area.

There are also some spot welded on threaded plates for the shock bracket, but they have snapped bolts in and have been mullered up at some point, so I removed them to replace later on.

Before I can install the inner wing, even though it a Mk1 panel, its got some differences that I don't want.

My car has these stiffener plates sandwiched between the box section and the inner wing that I mentioned before.

The new panel has got a different design stiffener plate already spot welded on and a impression stamped in for the later wiper motor. 

Spot the difference.

So measurements taken, card template made.

Blanks cut out.

Clamped together.

Shaped.

Some holes.

2 identical plates.

Fit pretty well.

Removing the incorrect plate from the new inner wing.

New plate offered up.

Need to remove the indentation behind the plate.

Added a slight fold to the front edge of the plate to match the inner wing.

 Most people would never know about these stiffener plates but I know they are correct.

Now I just need to find a good time to wheel the shell outside and sand blast inside the box section. Maybe when people are at work. 

Did I mention I live in a highly governed HOA neighborhood?

In reply to Chappers :

So let me see if I understand.  You bought a rusted hulk and brought it back from the dead - spending thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours doing so. 

Since this is supposed to family friendly, think I would just ask if the critical mini guys are off their meds. 

It's your car.  You saved it. Do what makes you happy.

Carry on with the great work.

In reply to CJ :

Thanks CJ. 

I think I will heed your advice and just ignore the mini pedants. 

I’m a long way away from getting into the Powertrain, but I can’t help looking at YouTube videos of the R1 powered minis. 

There is this one in particular that I love to watch.

https://youtu.be/ErdvEerj60s

March 23rd 2018.

I decided that sandblasting might be a bit overkill for what original rusty metal i have left on the firewall. So i opted to use wire wheels in my die grinder, which was very effective! 

I then used Loctite Naval Jelly to convert the rust. 

I left it on for 1/2hr and washed it off, then used my shop heater and compressed air to fully dry the whole area.

Then i slapped a load of zinc primer inside the box section.

I then welded the internal bracket closed (zinc painted the back side of that piece too) and ground the welds smooth.

The piece i removed from this area was rusted through, so I remade it and that gets a coat of zinc too.

Welded and ground down.

more zinc paint.

The little threaded captive plates that hold the shock mount, seen in the above photo, were remade out of new 1/4" thick bar stock and plug welded on.

The original inner wing stiffener bracket was in OK condition, but the rust had thinned the metal.

So I chopped that out and replaced it.

Predrilled for plug welding and painted the back side with zinc.

Then clamped up with the new stiffener plate I made.

Plug welded and spot welded on.

Then, you guessed it, zinc primed the outside of the stiffener plate.

Ready to accept the new inner wing.

March 25th 2018.

Had Saturday off to spend time with the kids, went to the cinema, liberated of all my money on sugar and popcorn, we then saw a bloody awful film called Sherlock Gnomes.

Then ate out, had pizza, and a couple of beers for me and the Mrs (much needed after the terrible movie). We just had a good laugh together, it's what life is all about.

Sunday i got back into the garage.

The small indent that is incorrect on the new panel got the chop.

Might keep the chopped out piece as  it makes a perfect pirate patch! Arghh

Then I offered up the new inner wing (fender, sorry)

Spent a while getting all the touch points to meet up as best i could without persuasion from a large hammer.

Then mapped out my plan of attack for the welding. Apologies for my appalling handwriting. I'm an Engineer and that, unfortunately, is how well I write. 

Once I'd done that, I drilled a few holes for the plug welding and then just welded it on.

You may probably notice I forgot to do two things. I didn't coat the inside of the wing touch points with zinc primer, and I haven't welded the lower dash tray area to the inner wing yet.

I didn't zinc prime, as once I dry fitted it and aligned really well, I was lazy and didn't want to risk removing it and not getting it on as perfect the second time! So I will have to spread the seams and force zinc into the joints afterwards.

I left the lower dash un-welded as there is another panel that gets sandwiched in between.

I also ran out of weld wire on the last plug weld on the floor area.

So I tried on the A panel and the inner panel to see how it all fits together.

Starting to look like a mini again!

Heres how the inner panel sits, sorry for the bar in the way.

And here's how the A panel fits up to the inner wing, pretty nice.

Now I need to dig out the door and offer it up to make sure the A panel goes in the right place and I get panel gaps that are close to even. 

Thanks for looking.

March 26th 2018.

I dug out the passenger side door from storage.

These are pretty cool, they have a proper rotating door handle, 2 piece sliding glass and like no internal structure to the door. Just a single door skin separating you from imminent death in the even of a side impact.

The internal door opener is just that little stubby handle and to pull the door closed from the inside there is usually a pull string (mine is missing).

Apparently in the original specification issued by the head designer was the size of the door pocket had to be large enough for a bottle of Gin.

The Mk1 also featured external door hinges, which were prone to wearing out and then the doors drooped.

I'm missing a coupe of the hinges, but I found two of the hinges were quite rare brass hinges that were changed to steel after a few months of production due to the wear issues. Although the steel ones tend to rust and the brass still look good!

Here's the brass compared to the steel one I have.

I called a mini specialist in the UK, who normally has everything, but even he said he doesn't have any brass hinges, he recommended some aluminum ones.

I took the windows out of the door and offered it up. First I had to take the support structure out of the shell, which felt like a big milestone.

I shimmed the door to the opening 1/8", so a nice even door gap all the way around.

I can position the A panel until I get the even panel gap at the front of the door.

Then positioned the door hinge brackets to the A panels and fixed them to the inner wing with screws, so i could remove the A panel. 

I wanted to spot weld these on, but my spot welder tips weren't long enough, so they got plug welded on.

The A panel then went back on, door fitted again to make sure it goes on in the same place. Then it gets spot welded on the inner wing, the floor seam and a couple spots to the door hinge brackets.

Tomorrow I think I'll rebuild the Inner A panel and door step area.

This is so awesome!  I love it!

You could learn some backyard foundry, and using your existing hinges and patterns and cast your own replacement brass hinges.  Could be a lucrative side business that I'm sure your HOA would love.

I hear you on deviating from original in the build.  I can't handle "stock," but recently bought a 61 C10 that I want to fully molest.  I -know- that it will be worth FAR more if I restore it, but that's not what I want to own.  And since I intend to keep it until I hang up the keys at some ferociously old age, why NOT build it for me?  While torn, I support you!

In reply to SkinnyG :

Thanks SkinnyG! 

I like your idea! 

A friend of mine in the HOA neighborhood actually does his own casting! (he spent a year off on a tangent from his V8 twin turbo Ford Focus to cast his own aluminium plenum) and funnily enough we have talked about it. 

The problem is each hinge is unique due to the curve of the door and A panel, so the lower hinge won’t work on the top. 

Maybe I’ll buy the aluminium versions and make brass ones from those.

Thanks for the words of advice, we should build things for us to enjoy. It’s only metal.

Sorry to everyone for the seemingly very slow progress, right now it’s all the fiddly jobs that require spending a lot of time working on, and at the end of the day it looks like nothing’s changed! 

I’d love to be swinging engines around, fabricating engine mounts etc. But I don’t want to rush the important stuff like getting rid of rust and getting a solid foundation that will last. 

"seemingly slow"?

It is obvious to me that you are progressing quite well, one only need look at the amount of time and effort that is chronicled here to appreciate that fact.

I'm in awe. 

In reply to Floating Doc :

Thanks man that means a lot! 

From my perspective, I'm not frustrated,I'm actually enjoying myself! It's my therapy.
From a reader perspective I didn't think welding all these brackets in is really exciting!

March 29th 2018;

I bought some Dunlop "Reverse Rims" from the UK. (just shipped to my parents house in the UK for now, until the next time we get over there or they come over here)

These were a period modification when the Cooper S came out, as the Cooper S were fitted with similar wheels, but with less offset and disc brakes. These 'reverse rims' were made with 1" negative offset to alow customers to fit the Cooper S look wheels over their drum brakes and the wheels not foul the suspension.

So they have a deeper dish, which look cool IMO. This is what they will eventually look like.

So back to reality though, I'm still welding.

I don't have a sheet metal brake, so I just improvise.

This inner A panel I bought is great, but seems to be too short, so i had to make my own extension piece.

Was difficult to fit i had to kinda force it in.

I then spot welded the panel to the outer A panel and to the floor. But had to plug weld inside the arch area.

There should then be a support bracket fitted to the lower dash rail where it meets the inner A panel. My panel was such a mess you couldn't tell what was what, but luckily the other side is still noticeable to be able to take measurements from.

Flat pattern looks like a whale? If you squint...

Bent, welded in.and ground smooth.

I then seam welded the Upper part of the A panel to the original A post. and ground it all smooth.

I then trimmed the seam of the inner a panel to match the outer and generally tidied up the welds.

Then gave it coat of etch primer just to protect the bare metal areas.

Next I'm going to start working rearwards on this side to the quarter panel.

Thanks for the updates. When you are finished with this project and find yourself bored and without direction, I could let you get rid of all the dodgy panels on my mini. 

In reply to T.J. :

Yeah I’d love to, if I’m spending someone else’s money too that’s even better! 

What mini do you have?

Great progress!

BTW - I have a few Mk I Mini parts left over from my car.  I have a few of the sliding window catches if you need them, for example.

1st April 2018

While the kids gorged themselves silly on chocolate I snook away for a bit of work on the inner sill and the door step.

The door step panel came with both curved A and B post ends, but the A post end is redundant when I just put a new A panel in. I also previosuly messed up and used the R/H side door step to repair the L/H side, not realising the panels were sided. So for the L/H side B post I previously repaired I actually welded in the A post curve. Kind of a mess, but recoverable.

That is why the panel is in 3 pieces when offered up below.

Heres how the inner sill piece fits up.

As I plan to drive this thing at a speed above 5mph and I also value my facial features, I plan to install seatbelts. At least in the front for now.

So I need to add some setabelt anchor points. The later minis have a bracket between the inner and outer sills.

Heres my pattern.

Made out of 16ga.

Will fit inside here.

Gets attached to the inner sill panel.

Before I welded on the B post curve I have great access to spot weld this panel and bracket on to the floor.

Spot welded the inner sill to the floor. For some reason I really struggled to get my spot welds in a nice neat row. My arm was tired from helping my friend dig trenches at his property the day before. Good job these spot welds will be covered by paint and carpet.

I then welded the B post curve to the original B post. Ensuring that the other end still lines up really nice with the door step.

The two parts of the inner sill are seperate and are supposed to join int he middle over the cross brace on the floor. But you can see on mine they are 1/4" apart. 

So i just welded in a 1/4 wide section ad ground it smooth. 

Inside the cavity and underneath the door step I painted with 2 coats of primer and zinc weld thru primer on the seams.

Then clamped up the panel for the final time.

And spot welded the outer seam and the inner seam. Luckily i can rotate the entire shell to hold the spot welded horizontal, as my arms would be dead if i had to hold it vertically pointing downward!

I then ground down the B post weld.

And here's where I'm up to.

I need to fully weld the door step to A and B post butt joints and grind them down.

I'm not 100% happy with the alignement of the inner A post panel above. As it is an L shape it was a pain to get it to align on both the veritcal edge and the horizontal edge. One edge had to give. I may try to fix that, or as the seam is covered up with a rubber door seal anyway, it may be OK.

The rear quarter panel is the next big one.

Oh and the door still fits in the hole, so that's good.

In reply to Chappers :

I’m in awe of the scope of your project and the swiftness you’re proceeding through it! When finished what do you think the ratio of new/original sheet metal will be?

In reply to Pete Gossett :

Thanks! I have an understanding wife and no social life! 

Ah, now that is a tricky question. 

The original parts of the shell are the roof, front firewall, rear firewall, rear panel, A B and C posts (inside and out), the cantrails, upper and lower dash rails. Trying to save the original scuttle panel.

The original doors, and trunk lid will need re-skinning. 

I’d say 40% original. 

This topic seems to be a bone of contention in the tedium that is the mini scene. 

The purists seem to have an unrealistic expectation that a mk1 is all original 60 year old sheet metal, a survivor, never been restored. 

Then at the other end of the spectrum there are people buying brand new Heritage body shells and titles to unsalvageable mk1 minis. The purists say these are ‘clones’..

As a bystander in all this, I just asked the question about the threshold of when original becomes a ‘clone’. 

As mine is tipping towards the clone end of the scale! I’ve essentially nearly got a Heritage body shell except I built it from a ‘kit’

They could not give me a number, just spouting a load of bull about being able to weld ‘fog’ back together. Which to me is terrifying! I wouldn’t want to buy his car after he’d welded wafer thin sheet metal back together. If the panel is too far gone, it’s too far gone! 

In reply to Chappers :

You’re actually retaining more original parts than I realized. I’m about as far from a purist as it gets - it’s your car, build it your way!

If you’d know at the start how much metalwork you’d be doing, would you have passed on this car? Or was that one of the underlying reasons for choosing it?

In reply to Pete Gossett :

I didn’t think I’d take it this far, I guess I’m getting carried away. 

I wasn’t really looking for a mini I just happened on it on Craigslist and thought it looked cool, not far away and cheap. 

The more I learned about it, the more I felt I wanted to save it. It deserved better than what happened to it. 

I’m not really into originality either, I have ideas and projects on the side from this one that I can use to express creativity.

This is almost therapeutic, there’s no stress or frustration working on it. It’s pretty simple technology.

I have had to work on some awfully designed stuff, those difficult jobs that can and do go wrong and you want to kick things around and question why on earth did you even start the job in the first place! 

Not on this build, it’s like zen, I’m learning new things and if I get something wrong I can just undo it. 

I love threads like this one - partly because it gives me hope my own "one wheel in the crusher" rust project is not unrealistic.  Compared to what you're going through, my 1800ES is practically rust-free! :